Chapter 51 - In The Shadows

In a dark wide hall, the silhouettes of five individuals could be seen, of which three were men and the other two were women.

They all sat down around a wide 108"-sized round table while sitting on the evenly spaced ornately designed chairs.

From the looks of it, it wasn't the first time they were doing this and it seemed as if they had all gathered today to discuss something important.

Suddenly, rays of light spilled into the room as a blue-haired woman stood up from her chair, went towards the windows and pulled the curtains asides.

"Damn it Evie! I was setting the mood!" a brown haired man who seemed to be in his late 30's said in annoyance, his black eyes carrying his resentment towards the blue-haired woman who had seemingly destroyed his ambience.

"Set your mood at your damn house Magnus!" Evie replied, her deep blue eyes carrying a hint of mischief in them as she continued.

"This is our meeting room, not your personal studio"

"It's for the theatrics… Sigh… brats like you just don't ge-"

"Stop with the bickering Magnus" a man with black hair which was tied into a man bun and obsidian black eyes immediately interjected.

He was tired of Evie and Magnus's usual banters and he was having none of it today, especially considering the fact that he was in a very sour mood.

"See Magnus, even Rigurd is tired of your bullshit" Evie uttered in a mocking tone, her voice barely above a whisper as she settled down into her chair.

The large hall however still carried her voice in an echo, causing Magnus's face to contort into that of a deep frown while glaring at Evie who now had a genuinely mischievous smile on her face.

"What's got your panties in a bunch Rigurd?" another man with black hair who had also been sitting at the round table suddenly asked in a fake questioning tone, his red eyes clearly carrying a bit of amusement in them.

"Ah yes… Your plan to plunge the royal nobles annual banquet into chaos failed, didn't it?" he added, almost as if he was just finding out about the news.

"Quinn. Watch that tongue of yours. I just might snap your neck if you keep up with that charade" Rigurd let out his words in a low and deep growling tone, his obsidian eyes carrying an unsettling amount of malice in them.

"Please. Do strangle me! I would very much love for you to attack me and try to kill me with all of your might!" Quinn responded in an overly gleeful tone that instead made his response feel very eerie and disturbing.

"Tch!" Rigurd muttered under his breath.

Given the opportunity, he would have killed off the black-haired man sitting a few meters away from him a long time ago but he was an important arm of Obelisk so there wasn't really anything he could do.

Sometimes he even wondered why their leader kept him in their ranks but who was he to question her whims.

Quinn's eyes however clearly showed a lot of interest in Rigurd's word, indicating just how much of a battle manic he was.

"Creep!" Evie said in a disdainful tone, the mischievous look on her face gone and replaced with a clearly disgusted one.

"Would you like to try and kill me too Evie? I would definitely love it if you could attack me too!" Quinn turned his attention towards Evie, soliciting an even more disdainful and disgusted expression from the blue-haired lady.

"Hahaha… I so much love it when he gets under your skin Evie!" Magnus said with a contented laughter after witnessing Evie's change in expression.

"Yuck! Ashildr… Can you kindly request for Quinn to fuck off?! He's creeping me the fuck out!" Evie suddenly asked, her gaze turning towards the one woman who had stayed silent from and throughout the entire moment they had all assembled here.

"Quinn…" the red-haired woman who Evie had requested help from quietly said, her auburn-colored eyes sending a warning to the man before her as she placed her cup of black tea on the table before her.

"Tch… Fine…" Quinn responded, his eyes and facial expression returning back to normality.

He knew that after their leader, who was yet to arrive, the woman before him would actually kill him without a care in the world. Rigurd probably would have also done the same but he definitely wouldn't come out unscathed from their battle.

Adding to that was also how Asildr was the only person whom he couldn't rile up, no matter what he did. He was genuinely scared of what she would do to him if he rubbed off on her the wrong way.

"Ashildr!!! Thank you so much!" Evie got up from her chair and went to hug Ashildr, something the latter clearly didn't mind considering how she was lightly stroking and patting her blue hair.

"I wonder why our Leader decided to add a kid to our ranks" Magnus scoffed after which he then continued inwardly.

'Speaking of her, when will she arrive…'

"I am here Magnus" a cool female voice that sounded almost celestial suddenly responded out of nowhere.

'Ah fuck! Not my mind this time Leader…'

Suddenly, the air around the hall suddenly began to churn and twist, not violently but almost as if it was being controlled in a certain manner on the last empty chair that looked like a throne built for an empress.

The color of the air then suddenly began to change from one of nothingness into a bright golden color and after a while, a feminine figure of a woman who seemed to be in her early thirties stepped out of the swirling golden air, leaving behind particles as she settled on her seat, one of her hands resting on the arm of the throne-like chair while the other was curled into an incomplete fist on which she used to prop her face gently.

The leader of Obelisk was here and she commanded an undeniable sense of reverence just from the way she carried herself.

If, however, she was to have been seen outside, she would never be mistaken for the leader of the most destructive dark organization in the world considering just how beautiful she was.

Waist long obsidian black hair, piercing golden eyes with long eyelashes, thinly shaped eyebrows, small but perfectly shaped nose and small lips, fair skin and even an indescribable aura and presence that made it hard to tear one's eyes away from her.

"Well then…" she started, her words commanding instant attention.

Every single arm of Obelisk sat upright from the moment she spoke, all of them completely serious without even a single trace of their previous selves to be found.

"Let's begin" she continued authoritatively.

"Rigurd… Your plan seems to have failed… What will you do now?" she asked first.

"I have failed and I shall take full responsibility for that. I'll make sure to come up with ways to rectify it and come up with a much better plan to turn the citizens of Arcadia against their monarchy…" Rigurd answered respectfully.

"Hmmm… Keep doing as you've been Rigurd" she answered without so much as a single change in her emotionless expression.

"Yes Leader" Rigurd answered.

"I know what you're about to ask for Quinn. You have my permission. Go as crazy as you'd like but keep the citizen casualties to a bare minimum. Rankers are an exception though. Put them through hell…" she said to Quinn.

"Thank you Leader" Quinn gave a polite nod.

His red eyes however had a maniacal glint to them and his polite smile was almost threatening to break apart into a sinister grin.

"Magnus… How's that project on Flenor Islands coming around?" she continued after reading through Quinn's mind and granting him his request.

She had commanded him a year ago to stop his continued rampage through Arcadia to allow for Rigurd's plan to go smoothly without any interference, something Quinn had been quite upset about but knowing just how monstrously and supremely powerful the mysterious woman before him was, he had listened to her without any resistance.

"It's been going smoothly… The weapon should be completed by the latter half of next year" Magnus replied almost immediately.

"Hmmm… that's to be expected…" she responded after which she then turned her golden eyes over to Ashildr and Evie.

Ashildr seemed quite relaxed even after their leader had turned her gaze over to her and even took a sip out of her tea while Evie sat completely upright, her eyes looking at obsidian black-haired woman before her with immense awe and reverence.

"Ashildr?"

"Yes Leader?" Ashildr responded calmly.

"I presume everything is going as expected in Qilos Republic? Nothing out of the ordinary?" she asked.

'Morrigan… I think you know the answer to that' Ashildr directly replied into her leader's mind.

'I see… No changes this time too…' she responded inwardly back to her.

Ashildr gave a slight nod to her while taking another sip of her tea while the others looked onwards without any changes in their expressions.

They all knew that Ashildr was the only one among them who was unaffected by the Leader's imposing yet almost celestial aura but even till date, none of them knew exactly why.

The Obelisk leader then closed her eyes, indicating that she was thinking about something.

'That being said, this is the first time in all the iterations that Rigurd's plan didn't work out… how odd…'

After a while, she opened her eyes once again and this time, she stared directly at Evie.

Evie who had been anticipating her turn suddenly had her blue eyes spark in anticipation the moment the Leader's golden eyes had landed on her.

"Evie, I have a task for you later this year. It has something to do with Arcana Academy…" she spoke once again.

"I await your orders!" Evie resolutely answered, although she was still quite intrigued and curious by what the enigmatic woman before her had in store for her and the Academy.

"Good. Now, with all that being said, this meeting will now come to an end" the Obelisk leader declared.

The moment she said that, the air around her began to swirl and convert into golden particles and eventually, they completely surrounded her as she also slowly began to dissipate while still holding the very same position she had sat in from the moment she had first appeared.

As she did, Morrigan thought to herself while slowly closing her eyes and fading away into little golden particles.

'Say Amael, Chrono… How much longer do I need to keep doing this for?'