In the conference room, other than Arima’s group, there were ten people scattered on the different seats.

 

"Since everyone is here, I will briefly introduce them. I think you already know them, but it's still better to put details under the name," Ambrogio said. He pointed to himself and smiled.

 

"As I told you already, I am the First Guardian; a vampire and the one ruling the city of Melumnia. You already know Shiva and Shakti; they are the Second and Third Guardians. They are particularly proficient with life and water magic. Shakti is especially talented with her control. Shiva was titled 'The Destroyer' while Shakti is often referred to as 'The Mother'."

 

"Ganesha, who you already met, is the Fourth Guardian. Titled 'The Elephant'. He's one of the most knowledgeable among us and is… extremely lucky," Ambrogio uttered and Ganesha chuckled. It was true that in the legends, Ganesha was the god of wisdom, success, and good luck.

 

"Also, he is said to be Shiva's son in the legends. It is evidently not factual here," he added and Shiva grunted.

 

"The Fifth Guardian is the lady over there," Ambrogio pointed at a beautiful woman with green hair and purple eyes. Her appearance was stunning and her presence was extremely sensual.

 

"Her name is Evangeline, titled 'The Rose'. She's a succubus and is exceptionally good at spirit magic."

 

"Pleased to meet you," Evangeline said with a gentle voice and bowed. Arima smiled and nodded.

 

The succubus' pupils dilated right after. She saw Arima's eyes looking at her but they did not even dither. She had met people who were senseless to her beauty before but her racial trait would arouse someone passively and it was quite rare for it to fail. She was certainly surprised. Unfortunately for her, she was unaware that Arima couldn't even see her appearance, much less react to it.

 

‘Not that it would have made a difference,’ Layla thought with a smile.

 

"The Sixth Guardian is her," Ambrogio glanced at the girl who was nonchalantly lying down on one of the couches. Her eyes were half-closed as if she was about to fall asleep at any moment. She was quite pretty too with her amber eyes and black hair, but it was obvious that she didn't care about her appearance based on how messy her hair was and the unassuming clothes she wore.

 

"She is Aergia, an indolent individual as you can see," Ambrogio told and Aergia lazily waved her hand at Arima without even looking at him.

 

"Well, she may not look like it, but her power is on par with mine. Just that because of her own personality, it is really rare for her to even have the occasion to go all out. She does not use any magic and solely fights with her body."

 

"Well, as for the Seventh Guardian, it is still supposed to be Raylein, technically. So, I will skip him as you are already acquainted," Ambrogio said and Raylein smiled wryly.

 

"The Eighth Guardian is over there."

 

This time, Ambrogio pointed at a gloomy man with dark skin. His entire body seemed to be only black and only his eyes would shine white from time to time. If it wasn't for that, most people would lose sight of him as long as there was some shade.

 

"'The Assassin', Victor. He's the only one among us who started as a simple, mortal human. He's the inheritor of the extinct Rakshasas. He gained his name by accomplishing every elimination mission he accepted."

 

Arima was a bit impressed by that. He squinted his blank eyes and raised his hand. He started drawing a strange rune in mid-air. Ambrogio scowled but didn't say anything as it didn't seem to carry any ill intent.

 

Arima finished drawing the rune and flicked it. Then, a strange wave spread around the room. The Guardians just felt as if a small breeze had just infiltrated the room. But amongst them, Shakti was the only one who knew what had just happened.

 

‘This… How? How can he conduct this kind of scan so easily? He just pried into most of our secrets as if they had always been exposed...’

 

"You're different from Yeion," Arima commented while looking at Victor. "You didn't modify your body; you radically changed your energy so it can produce darkness and shadows only. That's notable," he said and Victor's expression twitched. Everyone felt a shiver climbing their spines and Aergia even opened one of her eyes to stare at Arima.

 

Ambrogio looked at both Arima and Victor before smiling. "Let's continue," his voice was neutral as usual. "The Ninth Guardian is that gentleman over there," he gestured toward a young-looking man standing in the corner of the room. He was wearing a white coat, virtually full of medical instruments.

 

"Nice to meet you, I’m Flavio. They call me 'The Surgeon'," the young man presented himself.

 

"He is obviously the best when it comes to healing injuries or any kind of illness. He is capable of swapping the entirety of your organs and change your race if he wanted to," Ambrogio said.

 

"The last one, but not the least; the Tenth Guardian is the boy who you already met earlier, Gilgamesh. Titled 'Brilliant King'."

 

The gold-haired boy raised his head slowly and peeked at Arima for a second.

 

"He is a master of all elements and a Silver Emperor like you and Raylein. But his main strength relies on the infinite number of artifacts he owns. The legends say that Babylon held every treasure of the universe within its vault."

 

"I know, I already used the same kind of magic," Arima stated and Gilgamesh's eyes widened.

 

"Of course, I can't take something out of Babylon but I can send treasures inside. Since our theories should be similar, you should have gotten a Gold Dragon Puppet not long ago," he added and Gilgamesh hesitatingly extended his palm. A miniature version of the giant statue Fafnir had used appeared.

 

Arima smiled and even Ambrogio was amazed. "As expected, you seem to have your hands on any kind of theory and element when it concerns magic," he was full of praises.

 

In fact, Arima was starting to be bothered by this fact. Ambrogio was not being dishonest but his overly polite attitude kept putting him off.

 

The vampire clapped. "Anyhow, now that the presentations are over, let's discuss more important matters. Afriose is one of them," he finally brought up that topic and the Guardians tensed. "I will not be asking you about details since I am aware that you got that information from Yeion's memories. But I would want to hear everything you know about him."

 

Arima shrugged. "Even if you say that; I don't have much more to say. Even after I looked into those memories a little more seriously, I couldn't learn a lot. Yeion only knew about the big names. The only thing I know is that Afriose is the Fourth Pillar and is definitely alive. Also, I can't be sure since it was vague for Yeion too, but apparently, Afriose is rumored to be immortal right now."

 

"Immortal?" Shiva frowned. "He wasn't the last time I fought him. I made sure that his body had been destroyed too back then."

 

"That's why I think Afriose has been reborn by his curses," Arima assumed. "I stumbled upon Fafnir who had the same kind of constitution. It's not impossible for the curses he received to have mutated and then transformed him into a true immortal."

 

Ambrogio hummed and mused for a moment.

 

"What he's saying is pretty reasonable," Flavio spoke up. "Curses can indeed mutate as much as illnesses can. And both always are unpredictable and sometimes even defy our logic. If it's true, I think I would be the best candidate to take care of Afriose. If I can dispel the curses and heal every illness ravaging his body, I may be able to kill him quite easily," he affirmed and Ambrogio nodded.

 

"I believe in you two. In any case, we have to prepare for the Stavrós Astéri. Shiva, Shakti, I hope you can take care of it in the best way possible," he said and the concerned duo nodded without hesitation.

 

"Next is about the rest of the Pillars, from what Arimane learned; there's Baba Yaga, as the Eight Pillar, who is someone we have to watch out for. She is rumored to use true sorcery. She is not a mage but a pure sorceress who was born with the power to enchant, cast spells, practice voodoo, and use necromancy."

 

"Then we have Ambor. I have heard of him. He is quite famous. People call him the 'Equation Solver'. He can analyze magic formations, copy them, alter them, and even break them. The fact that he is the Second Pillar shows how dangerous he can be. You must avoid fighting him alone because your magic can be copied and used against you."

 

"There is also a really special individual among them; Harion. He is also called the 'Conqueror' or the 'Ultimate General'. That man managed to subdue almost an entire Plane just by himself. He then invaded others with his army and continued until his entire territory touched almost every Plane of this Reality."

 

"He is not that strong individually, but his army is the biggest that ever existed and the information he gets is surreal. For instance, Yeion was under Harion and the fact that he learned about you is proof of that," Ambrogio said to Arima.

 

"These were the ones you got from Yeion's memories but we also made our own research," he added. "We identified the Fifth Pillar and the Tenth Pillar. The former is called 'The Gardener'. His abilities are unknown but it is rumored that he is the creator of many sacred trees and plants, as well as the one who stole Yggdrasil."

 

"The Tenth Pillar is quite special," Ambrogio smiled bitterly. "'Vlad the Impaler'; Dracula. A vampire, like me. Truthfully, there are not many pureblood vampires in this Reality. Even those we convert are not true vampires. You could say that Dracula and I are the only remaining vampires. His power should be fairly threatening but I know he can't produce servants as strong as mine."

 

"That is all I have to say. We also have to go through every helper such as Odin and Thanatos but it will be for another time."

 

Ambrogio sighed. "All of you, keep this information in mind and try to find out more in your own ways while coming up with countermeasures. If you have an idea, inform me," he instructed and everyone nodded.

 

"Good. Now that this is settled, before we split up again, we have to go through the procedure to welcome the new Guardian. First of all, everyone votes…" he paused and stood up. "Whether Arimane should join our ranks or not."