Chapter 82: The Conference Of Shock And Poison (Part 1)

Ignis: "Blasphemous!"

-is his reaction when he hears about a particular order that was given to the Vampires by their strategist some time ago.

Aquarius: "Were you out of your mind?!"

Asks Aquarius with a shocked face.

Gaiz: "Is that even a question, Aquarius? Obviously our strategist has lost his ability to think, the only reason he has been kept alive till now."

A storm is indeed bursting out of the Vampire General of Storm's words.

Achlyz: "..."

And the Vampire General of Silence is silent as silent can be.

And so, the Four Generals stare at Bronzer with differing looks of shock and denial. However, in response,

Bronzer: "Well, that is true."

The strategist says casually with a smile.

The incident that has shocked all of them happened just a day before the Four Generals arrived at the main base of the Vampire Kingdom and held the currently ongoing conference.

Bronzer had told some of his low-ranked Vampires to attack three Hellfires. To add insult to the injury, the three are considered to be the three strongest Hellfires, excluding Walter whose identity as a Hellfire is known only by a few people.

Considering that, not only was this the most fruitless order which caused the deaths of valuable soldiers but could also lead to a major retaliation that would cause the deaths of many more valuable soldiers.

It could even lead the Vampire Kingdom into a state where they are paralyzed for the rest of the war.

And the strategist himself had ordered them to do such a thing.

Reid: "Well, there's something else you should know by the way."

He says with a deadpan face,

Reid: "Quite a while ago, even before that whole speech and all, our great strategist went to the house of the in-laws of another Hellfire, manipulated that guy's fiancee into killing her relatives and left her there to drive her mad."

Aquarius: "What the hell we-"

Reid: "Don't be asking that yet. Because you see, after doing all that, he left there a note basically naming himself the culprit for that whole incident."

And just like that, Reid finishes giving them something else to be shocked about other than attacking three Hellfires.

Aquarius: "What the hell!"

Ignis: "W-w-wh-wh-what in t-the w-world is wrong with you!!!"

Gaiz: "We are done for, aren't we? We lost the war, didn't we?"

Achlyz: "..."

Their shock amplified to the nth degree, Aquarius and Achlyz sink in their seats while Ignis and Gaiz stand up with rage consuming their faces.

Bronzer: "Well, that is also true."

And once again, the strategist says casually with a smile.

Ignis: "You are DEAD!"

He blasts at Bronzer with speed half that of a bullet and intention to break at least 20 bones with one blow but is somehow able to stop when an unexpected person steps in to stop the incoming blow.

Ignis: "Get out of the way, Reid!"

He yells at Reid who had stepped between Ignis and Bronzer, but he gets a response with a blank expression,

Reid: "Yeah, well, if you really wanna kill him, there's one more thing he has done that you should know about first."

Ignis: "There's more?!"

Reid: "Yes, he ..."

Looking back at Bronzer's casually smiling face and keeping all his emotions in check, Reid continues,

Reid: "He kinda sorta challenged Walter Schmidt and told him that he'd kill him."

Ignis: "..."

Even Ignis, the most hotheaded of all the Vampire Kingdom's upper echelons, is stunned to silence with that.

And then, as if to mock him,

Bronzer: "Well, I believe that is also true."

The strategist says inadvertently again.

Gaiz: "Y-you ... the fuck!?"

Aquarius: "Reid, you just let him do all this?"

Reid: "Yeah, the thing about that is,"

He bites his lip and swallows his breath,

Reid: "I didn't exactly let him do all this ... but I kinda didn't stop him either."

Aquarius: "You ... you ... what the heck could you possibly think any of this would gain?!"

While Aquarius' expression has become as despaired and shocked as it can be, Reid still continues with his poker face,

Reid: "The expression on you four's faces."

Aquarius, who is shocked and unable to say anything.

Ignis, who is holding back his anger and looking like an idiot while doing so.

Gaiz, who is also holding back his anger but is doing so by excruciating incredible physical pain upon himself.

And Achlyz, who has been speechless for a while but is still not able to hide at all his feelings of massive anxiety and irritation.

Reid: "I'd say it was worth it to not stop him."

If they were psychics, the anger being excruciated by the Four Great Generals would have probably reduced the surroundings to dust. And, even so,

Bronzer: "See, that's why I always liked you, Reid. I knew you could be an asshole when faced with stupider people than you."

Reid: "Did you just indirectly call me stupid?"

Bronzer: "Well, that wasn't the part I wanted you to focus on, but I guess I did."

The sardonic banter continues.

In the conference room with six people in it, two of them keep mocking the other four and getting a kick out of it while the other four start losing all hopes of winning in the war.

However, that comes to an end right there as,

Darcy: "We are finally here."

The female Vampire steps in the conference room with another following behind.

Valdis: "It seems like you all started the discussion without us."

Saying so with a mild smile, the queen of the Vampire Kingdom steps in. As soon as she enters the room, the Four Great Generals, Reid and Bronzer, all bow to her.

Aquarius: "We wouldn't dare do that, your highness. We were just-"

Bronzer: "No, actually, we were totally discussing stuff without you."

Bronzer continues in a casual tone.

Reid: "Be serious or shut up!"

In contrast, however, Reid adopts the strict, no-nonsense attitude he is known for having.

Bronzer: "Seriously? And I was starting to think you were fun!"

He whines with a smile, an act befitting a man like him. And seeing that, the queen says while laughing,

Valdis: "Whatever the case, at least you two seem to be getting along well."

Reid: "Pardon me, your highness, but I must correct you about one thing. We were not getting along well. Till now, we were merely cooperating in order to mock our common enemies."

The Four Great Generals all click their tongues with Ignis turning towards Reid with a fist ready to break through steel.

In response, Bronzer chuckles and says,

Bronzer: "While this never gets boring and I'd love to continue the chatter, now that the queen is here, I think we should start talking business."

And just as he says it, Valdis breathes a sigh and says,

Valdis: "Yes, indeed. Everyone, take your seats!"

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Having settled negotiations with the Aural group, Heise, the third faction and its temporary allies teleport Trisha to their base. The reason for not bringing her along with them from the start was that Seers and Aural groups have a rather unfriendly history.

However, with everything settled, Heise was convinced to shelter her for the time being.

While that may be good news to the third faction and Abgere, Gabriel's mind is occupied with thoughts of merely one thing.

The fact that a ridiculously big reward was put on Abgere's head by the Phoenix and now all the remaining Hellfires are coming after him.

Gabriel obviously would care less about Abgere than he would do about a stranger he passes by on a street and never sees again. However, the four members of the third faction might not be willing to back down that easily.

If that happens, they would end up in a direct confrontation with the other Hellfires. It's obvious that the Hellfires would win but the damage that would cause is massive and the third faction that Gabriel has a mission to 'keep safe' and also has a use for his personal vendetta may end up destroyed.

So, should he tell all of them about this so they could make their decision right away and Gabriel could start thinking of what he should do based on their decision? Granted, with Ethan in the picture it's no guarantee if what he hears will even be the truth.

Then, should he keep it to himself? That would at least give him the chance to surprise those four when the situation comes down to it and use that surprise to drag them out of the fight, maybe by making them unconscious or something. But once again, with Ethan's wackiness and Kais and Sneha's genuinely impressive arsenal, if he fails at using surprise to finish the job, he would probably lose all trust and would be able to do nothing to stop all of them.

So, what on earth can he do to solve this problem?

Gabriel can think of no way to solve the dilemma, neither can he find a legitimate third option.

And while Kais, Ethan and Sona might be preoccupied with the negotiations and related issues, Gabriel's anxiety does not escape Sneha and Abgere's attention.

Despite realizing that something has been bothering him though, neither of them asks what it is, keeping the knowledge that there's something going on with him to themselves - decisions that would lead all of them into direct battles with some rather powerful opponents in the near future.

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