162 Chapter 84: Before The Battle 1 (Part 2)

"And so, Vermillion's Hellfires are busy dealing with Abgere. The Phoenix sent an envoy just to assure you that he will help you in the war but as it was decided before, the Ghost Nation will be the ones fighting."

Says the Volcano as he bows to The Reaper, delivering him the Phoenix's envoy.

Grisham: "That man never ceases to intrigue me with his actions. Regardless, for the time being, I will have to keep my curiosity to myself and focus on the war."

He says as he asks the envoy to leave the parliamentary room and turns towards his board of ministers, a body made up of 8 highly skilled Ghosts who assist The Reaper in any way he would need assistance. He asks them,

Grisham: "How are the masses taking the fact that the war is approaching?"

One of his ministers steps forward and answers him,

Minister: "They are taking it fairly well. There is certain anxiety growing within the masses but they seem to have built a good amount of faith in the Spectres and most do believe wholeheartedly that we would easily win in the war."

As he hears, The Reaper clicks his tongue.

Grisham: "That still sounds like the situation is worse than what we expected it to be."

Minister: "Yes, I am afraid the name of Bronzer, the strategist of the Vampire Kingdom, has reached a few ears and some Ghosts are starting to feel intimidated by all the hype surrounding his name."

Grisham: "Tsk! That guy again! Did Walter go around telling people about his 'meeting' with Bronzer or something?"

Irritatedly, Grisham asks so.

Minister: "Pardon me, sire, but if that would have happened, the situation would have been much worse. The reason his name has reached so many people seems to be because of the fact that the upper echelon of the Vampire Kingdom has given him full reins to do anything he wants, placing all their trust in him. People are starting to take that as a sign of how terrifying that man can be."

Grisham: "Hah!"

Sighing, Grisham says,

Grisham: "If only they knew how much of a difference there really is when it comes to the Spectres' fighting ability and the Vampire Kingdom's fighting ability, they would realize that placing all the trust in that one man is not a sign of that man's ability but that of the Vampire Kingdom's desperation."

Minister: "Yes, sire, that may be so but you had chosen to not disclose too much information about these matters as thoughts related to war may corrupt their hue and decrease their chances of becoming Angels."

Grisham: "Yes, yes, I know."

Still troubled but realizing that there is no way around that problem, he says,

Grisham: "Do what you can to lessen their anxiety."

The minister bows and backs off to where he was originally standing. Grisham then calls forth not another one of his ministers but a different Ghost.

Grisham: "Spectre Dyne, please step forward!"

Dyne, who had only been listening from the sidelines up until then, steps forward and bows down to The Reaper.

Grisham: "I have a mission for the Spectres."

Dyne stays quiet with his head bowed, asking Grisham to continue.

Grisham: "You will need to take all the Spectres aside from the ones assigned to guarding our nation on this mission."

Dyne still stays quiet.

Grisham: "Half of you will go to Kesley and meet with the Phoenix. There, you are to confront him about the few soldiers he promised he'd send us. The other half will go to whatever holes the Dragons have holed themselves in and ask them to come to the Ghost Nation as well."

And the Spectre still stays quiet.

Grisham: "The objective of your mission basically is to bring all the direct help we were promised so that the Ghosts who are getting anxious right now can ease their minds upon seeing an even stronger force than what we have now."

And still, Spectre Dyne does not speak. Slightly troubled by this, Grisham asks,

Grisham: "Is there a reason you are so quiet, Dyne?"

Hearing the question directed at him, the Spectre pulls up his head to look directly at The Reaper as he answers.

Dyne: "If you send us there right now, you realize what could happen, don't you?"

Grisham sighs,

Grisham: "Things could go awry and the Vampire Kingdom could use the chance to strike."

Dyne: "It will basically be the first big battle in the war that everyone's going so crazy about."

Grisham: "Hah! Certainly a large possibility, but why else do you think I am asking you to take all the Spectres that you can."

Dyne: "So, knowing that it might be a trap, you are sending your men down there regardless?"

Grisham: "Ha!"

With a mocking gesture, Grisham corrects Dyne's words,

Grisham: "Knowing that it might be a trap, I am sending my men who are capable enough to break through the trap and finish this all right then and there."

Dyne, merely sighing with no emotions, says,

Dyne: "I see. We will set off as soon as we can."

Grisham nods with a smirk.

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Having searched the entire house, the three Hellfires meet back up at the entrance.

Vaika: "Did anyone find anything useful?"

Akio: "If useful means a bunch of things that show that Ethan knew we will be here and him flexing on us because of that, then yeah."

Vaika: "Hah! I see. What about you, Halogen?"

Halogen just shakes his head in denial with a pained smile on his face.

The three Hellfires had only found books with markings on them, directions written on walls that led to nowhere, paintings hung on walls that meant nothing and kept confusing them, and such things. In other words, they had only found things that mocked them. There was not a single clue as to where Ethan and the rest had gone or any shred of information on Abgere.

Akio: "If this keeps on, Laurie, Chang and Ross are gonna find him before we do."

Vaika: "If this man keeps mocking us as he has through everything in this house, those three reaching there before us will be the least of our worries."

Knowing that the three of them are more powerful than the other three Hellfires who are on the job, losing to them and having to acknowledge those three as the Phoenix would be humiliating enough. But, if things continue to go on as they have, even if they win this little race and become Phoenix themselves, Ethan would have mocked them enough to turn them into jokes that no one in Vermillion would actually respect.

It's safe to say that things aren't going well for the three of them.

Halogen: "So, what do you two think we should do now?"

Akio: "I don't know, find a Seer or something?"

Vaika: "I wish I knew a Seer too but that's too unrealistic. Finding seers is basically equivalent to scouring the entire Earth. If you don't know a Seer, never rely on luck or something else hoping to find one when you need to."

Akio: "Yeah, yeah, I know."

Tired from dealing with constant mocking by a man who isn't even there, Akio stretched his arms and legs and asks Halogen,

Akio: "You are good at asshole-y stuff, right? What do you think we should do?"

Halogen awkwardly smiles and answers,

Halogen: "Well, if nothing else works, use the very fact that we are Psychics."

Akio: "...?"

Vaika: "...?"

Halogen: "Our intuition is superior to any other species. We could just follow the path that we feel is right and it could definitely lead us to the place we want to go."

The other two sigh.

Akio: "Sure, that's an option. But we are competing with other Psychics with the same level of intuition as us. You really think we can win if we let our intuitions fight it out?"

Halogen: "That will be dependent on our luck."

With a smile, the priest says so. And while the uncertainty with this method is obvious, left without any leads, this does seem to be the best thing to rely on for the three of them.

As such, they all collectively and at the same time, sigh in exasperation.

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