Day 1: 11:15AM

Silence had permeated the room and no one dared to break it. All eight of them sat inside a gray circular space with its flat ceiling held up by eight thick metallic pillars that surrounded a huge nine-sided table that sat in the middle of it all. They just left themselves on their own devices on their respective spots as they enjoyed the sweet scent of flowers that were accompanied by the soothing sound of jazz that had its melody calming their hearts as it ever so slowly played its tune.

Then, as though he's bored, one man raised his head with a wide smile that came along with his outstretched eyes. "So, decapitation via playing 'hide the pickle' with sleeping little boys in their rooms, huh?"

What came next was a torrent of groans that left Mabel giggling, Clarissa heaving a disappointed sigh, and Arnel looking away while scratching the bottom of his chin. As though the magic that entranced them had been broken, they all looked at each other and turned their gazes at Walter at that same time.

"Goddammit, way to ruin the nice mood, old man," a woman protested, giving him a sharp defiant gaze with her brown eyes before she placed both her feet on top of the table. This made Dimitri, who sat on her side, steal a glance on her shorts that poorly covered her thick muscled thighs. He couldn't help but move his gaze along her baggy sky-blue jacket that failed to catch her short brown hair while it gave a vague definition of her shoulders and chest.

"Hey, I'm helping you guys out of this 'Quiet Game' thing for Miss Valencia's panties that I started, yes, it's just not safe to let you guys wander in your own thoughts… it's not safe, Miss Eleanor, I'm telling you!" Walter shouted back, clicking his tongue a second after before using the part of his black suit that covered his forearm to wipe his side of the table. He offered an odd minute of him brushing the table's surface clean to his disapproving audience before adding, "Also, I made sure that this table, that would be used by everyone else, along with the boss, would be safe from germs, take off your feet out of there, woman!"

"T-that's gross but well, it's not her fault that she-she went out-outside of the net and got killed…" One long-haired woman added as though her words were trembling as she played with her fingers. It made Walter smile at her tall slender figure over at her seat as she boasted her toned arms that matched her broad shoulders and supple chest that was accentuated by her black long-sleeved shirt. She just followed her actions with a sharp breath through her pale thin lips and then, as she pushed a part of her bangs at the back of her ear, she whispered shyly, "I-I don't want the panties of that d-dumb fucking bitch."

"Now, we are in a meeting room, please observe your language, everyone. I think we all could agree that Miss Eleanor here is just mad that Walter decided to fuck up the game that he started that apparently every one of us liked at this very moment," a man then intervened as he leaned forward, showing his brown clean-cut hair and thin-shaven beard as a twisted smile crept up his face. He fell silent a moment after, giving everyone else a silent nod as he fixed his collar before he looked at Walter at his side and the tall woman sitting on his right. "Remember to not blurt out your thoughts next time, so try a little harder, Lucille."

"Sure," Lucille muttered with a soft tone before her gaze fell onto the table. "You fucking panty-loving self-righteous asshole."

"Yeah, what she said to you, Masaoka," Clarissa added to the woman who sat next to her, covering the bottom half of her face as she chuckled.

"Yeeeeeep, fuck you too, old man Walter," Eleanor shouted as though she was celebrating. Dimitri looked at her once more but to his surprise, he met her gaze that forced him to face the ceiling as he whistled.

"Ugh, the tongue of children nowadays and all those whoring outfits!" Mabel scoffed in disgust as she looked away while brushing her gray hair that was neatly tied into a ponytail. She then looked at Dimitri at her side where she shook her head and followed, "I'm still wondering how and where everything went wrong, oh have mercy on us and our future generations, lord god."

"Well no matter, I…" Masaoka answered Mabel, taking a brief pause as soon as he noticed Walter still taking his time to wipe his side of the table with both of his arms as though he was swimming. "Well, the introductions did get derailed, but since we were all so busy doing our own things—"

"Busy? Oh gosh, please do tell me what keeps you guys here while I, with the help of Mr. Arnel here, fend off for ourselves on the front lines!" Clarissa ranted as she slammed her fist onto the table with Arnel giving them all a slow nod.

Masaoka looked at Walter once more and ended up shaking his head and disappointment. "Well again, I was just going to ask how all of you have been doing—"

Just then, Arnel flicked his arm like a whip and sent a dagger towards him. Masaoka did nothing but widen his eyes as the projectile ripped through the air towards him but even before the blade's point could touch his skin, it disappeared. What followed was a gust of wind that made them close their eyes. They took a moment of silence to look around and process what happened and soon, they were able to see Eleanor standing at the corner of the room with the dagger caught in her hands.

"Not cool, Uncle Arnel, I still need him with me," Eleanor chuckled and looked at Masaoka. "Can't let you die, right?"

Masaoka shrugged. "Oh please, you know that that couldn't hurt me, stop showing off…"

Arnel clicked his tongue and laid his hands onto the table with a gaze full of intent. "Tell me what happened."

"Fine, fine… Walter would you like to—" Masaoka's words were then cut when Walter took off his suit and proceeded to wipe his table with it. He let out a heavy sigh. After he tightened his jaws and pursed his lips, he looked at Clarissa and Arnel and followed, "We've been having it hard since our portal-user died over two years ago when they decided to go commando and rescue a group of people being harassed by that MC on that hospital complex. Everything turned for the worse too when the captain that made all of our forms of long-distance and instant communication possible was killed too in an encounter with the same squad while on a rescue mission. Needless to say, we do consider your convent to be one of our strongest outposts within the outer nets of our security network, Mother Clarissa, and we are sorry for your loss."

"Yes, more than half of my men were demolished by six reapers, Masaoka, demolished!" Clarissa tilted her head and once again, the air inside the room grew heavy. "Flattery won't get you nowhere, this would've never happened if you didn't suggest to the boss that I should stay away from the frontlines. 'It won't be a problem for us to help you with backup in the future' my ass."

"Again," Masaoka rubbed his palms together and drew a sharp breath as soon as he felt the other's gaze pinned on him. "I'm not sure if you know, but we're expanding our territory."

"No, we don't, because you're not telling us anything," Clarissa answered with a condescending tone.

"I'm sorry, Mother Clarissa," Eleanor intervened as she walked around the room to get to her seat. She tilted her head and smiled as she looked at the white-robed figure across her. "Before Mister Masaoka cries, I'd like to apologize, again," she added with a smug tone. "Just like she said, we're expanding our territory and we needed those extra hands for us to do so. I am strong, I can kill every single one of you, but I need some fodder. We're taking the fight to them slowly but surely coz if not, well, our supply of humans would run short and you could already guess what would happen… and we're not going to let ourselves go hungry and berserk because yeah, there's nothing that we could do once Ankou got a word of it and rip our asses open."

"Yeah, take that… you-you fu-fucking bitch," Lucille added with her words still sounding shy and rushed as she looked down and played with her fingers. "All of us are fighting too…"

"You're making giant teddy bears." Clarissa scowled at Lucille and looked like she was going to say more but then, the bell of the castle rang and the huge dark double doors of the meeting room had been opened. All of them fell silent and looked alive. This was the same case for Walter as well, who flipped his suit over to his back and put it on in panic as the huge shadow shaped like a newborn infant crawled into their space.

It displayed its bare pale skin to the eight of them, who then straightened their backs and looked at each other as they held their breaths. It pushed itself with its thick veiny legs that carried a swollen belly that was so big that it covered its genitals from their view as its seemingly rotting umbilical cord dangled and drew a white stain on the floor. They all waited for the baby to reach its side of the table. Then, when its humongous face, defined by its fat blood vessels bulging through its skin, was raised when it took its seat, it sank its dirty fat fingers into its abdomen.

It let out a soft laugh as it opened its eyelids that carried a pair of blackened eyes before it proceeded to rip its stomach open. Its blood then flowed and soon, it ripped its body in half and pressed its palms into the floor to turn itself into a makeshift chair as a huge muscled man revealed himself in front of the others. He was wearing a black skin-tight shirt that covered his well-defined biceps and broad shoulders that carried a bald menacing face with the help of his thick neck.

The man, after bathing in silence as he took his time to gaze upon the others leaned forward and brought his fingers together with his elbows resting on his green military jeans. Now with the half of his face covered and with his voice sounding ominous and deep, he muttered, "War, what is it good for, really?" He continued with a laugh. "Nah, I'm just kidding with you, let's talk about peace."