[thud]

“The room is sealed again.” a black woman with deep purple eyes says. She stands high, close to two meters, and her purple hair is long, almost reaching the floor.

“Dinna, sorry to burden you like that. We are so late.” Yukk says.

At Yukk Green’s side is Manuella Track and Max Bluebear, both doctors. They are the last three to arrive for the meeting today.

“No worries,” she says, smiling slightly. “I can’t practice with the artifact that often, so how could I be disappointed in having to use it twice on the same day? Worth the sleep loss tonight.”

“The last three finally arrived!” Matt yells.

“Manu, was there some problem with the wounded?” a very tanned young man asks. His shoulder wide, his hair short, his face muscular, and his body that of someone quite strong. While one of his eyes is green, the other is white, as light scar passes through it.

“They are alright. The wait was because the department is too busy. Eloise moved rooms. But anyway, I am sure they are more than happy for being able to avoid the famous Deniz’s Hellish training.” Manu answers. A white overcoat in her shoulders, and her black hair in a knot.

“Ha, your infamy is spreading far and wide,” at Deniz side, a pale white young man, looking to be in his middle 20, says in a mocking tone. His hair is dark red and very short, and in his face, a line of freckles is around the height of his eyes.

“Shut up, Doug!”

The room is quite lively. Despite the meeting that has been going for more than two hours, no one seems bored or tired.

The newcomers join a group of nine people in a large round table, bringing the number of members missing down even more.

“Only three people missing. It has been a long time since so many of us met together. It has been what? Fiver years? For us, the last five years have been quite busy.” Ginn comments after seeing the cheerful group.

They all find a place to sit, chit-chatting in the process.

[clap clap] he claps once they all sit down.

The room becomes silent, as everyone looks towards Ginn.

“Let’s continue our discussion. Anne, you begin. Inform us about Brian and the others,” Ginn says, as he looks to a black haired young woman. Her face round, her eyes black, and her skin white-pale.

“My brother reported that his journey with Silver has come to a successful end, and, in their way back, they joined Emma. They should arrive in around three weeks.”

“Since they succeed… Mirana, how about the new material?”

“It may have taken a full year, but, while you were at Aurora, the fucking synthesis has been successful. On my side, everything is ready for the upgrades.” She says after raising her head from a resting position. Her green eyes look very tired, and her wavy green hair is a mess, but she doesn’t seem to care.

“Talking about Aurora, Matt, you should inform everyone of your last achievement.”

“I made a breakthrough! My high energy level technique is a success. It can level down a whole small city! The new brat even pissed his pants after the layered arrays almost failed to suppress my power. “ [laughs laudly]

The one sold out opens his eyes widely, stretching the big birthmark on his left eye, and he throws the pen in his hand towards Matt.

[swish] despite it flying like a dart, Matt grabs the pen effortlessly.

“Hey!” the teenage boy yells as he lowers his head and uses his hand to hide in shame. He is the same teenager who got Ben the isolation room’s key earlier.

“Are you going to yell it to everyone in the city next? Shut up, Matt, no one cares about the extra info.” Yuri intervenes.

Although he says nothing else, a big smile is in Matt’s face, as he keeps an expression full of pride.

“This is a wake-up call. From now on, we need to keep our attention higher when dealing with anything too dangerous. Bigger measures must be taken due to our increase in power, as we got to the point of causing serious damage to people and things around us. Matt was the first to almost blow half a city, but who says one of us wouldn’t succeed next? In this accident, the rebound crippled two array overseers, and they were only connected partially to it. Another eight of our people got seriously hurt. And Matt now is doing his best to traumatize our youngest one.” Ginn says.

He then raises his hand and massages the side of his head like he has some headache.

“Matt may need full-time babysitting.”

“Hey! I am not the…”

“You are the kid playing with fire! I am serious here, Matt. You need to be careful! Your breakthrough may make our plans much easier. You may hold the most destructive sequence between us. However, we need to be responsible. We aren’t kids anymore. We are killing machines!”

[sign]

“I felt the need to talk about this before the main topic, as I have caught before a few of you taking a similar risk. Trying anything is a mistake if success will cause more damage than failure!”

He pauses for a moment.

“I don’t want to hear the same excuse again: oh, I didn’t think it would work. More than half of you are guilty of using such an excuse before. Carefulness is essential. The last thing I would want is to attend the funeral of our people because of such avoidable accidents.”

He then pauses again.

“The babysitting wasn’t a joke. A system must be implemented, so we can avoid trivial mistakes. Matt is only our biggest priority right now. I give this assignment to Dinna, Emma, and Doug. The three of you can draft a plan, then request a meeting so we can all revise it.”

“Alright/Ok” Dinna and Doug respond.

“Having taken that out of the way, let’s approach our main topic. Is it time to reveal our fangs? The volcano sect factions are pressuring us from all sides, forcing us to choose which ranks we will join. Because we hid too well, they are all too sure we are only a simple bunch of talented country bumpkins. We planned to stay low for a few more years, but, unfortunately, after Eloise’s poisoning, the pressure from them became suffocating. It is no secret between us that joining them was never an option, but they don’t know it. We need to decide how we shall reveal our conviction. Considering that such a choice may bring our end, we shall aim to achieve a consensus. First, Yuri will report the actual situation.”

With a small stone in his hand, Yuri begins to report:

“Since Ginn’s marriage, the stress due to Volcano Sect has been growing. Everything was within control until the accident with Eloise. After that attack, the direct repression has been increasing, but it is the indirect pressure that became a big problem. Accidents, fires, assaults, robberies, and others became a common occurrence.

There are three big annoyances right now: the new horizons idiots, the unknown group of assassins, and the self-centered volcano people. They crushed our public business. The only transactions we kept was the one we have with the Clearsky Auction House. The enemy destroyed the whole facade we put up, and they all talk like it’s due to regular competition or bad luck.

The Green and Highpeak department has put together a full report on all cases. In a few of them, we found trails, but we had to stop the further investigation, due to considering Eloise’s state and that we, the < Dragons >, weren’t together.

Investors have retreated, shops closed, factories stopped, and personnel moved. We did everything to minimize our loses. Yet, rumors were spread around. Every random dog inside New Horizons is calling Ginn a useless leader.

Every single faction contact from volcano became colder, and their offers, cheaper. We killed more than fifty assassins only in the last month, from which more than a dozen were from the unknown group.

In the last year, from our people, 235 died, most of them from low pay jobs. Around one thousand asked to be fired. From the deaths, 23 people were from our direct ranks and four were direct subordinates from one of us.

Money isn’t an issue since our core business is hidden, but in the public eyes, we should be in the red. Doing anything using our faction name directly has never been so difficult, not even when we were starting from nothing.

The only good news is that Leo Moon removed Eloise’s poisoning, and we have a new trail that may lead to confirm the unknown group involvement with someone from Volcano.”

Yuri stops and motions towards Anne.

“From inside Eloise’s room, we retrieved a dead woman that the old master killed. After the initial autopsy, we found that she suffers from some of the common characteristics encountered in the assassins from the unknown group. However, she is from Volcano Sect and had contacts with quite a few elders. Her death has been kept a secret, as everyone inside vowed to keep their mouth shut, and by side effect, we got the best chance so far to catch a rat.” Anne Highpeak says.

“Who are the suspects?” Doug asks.

“Our suspicion points towards that the traitor is one of the Elders sent here by the sect.”

“Do her family wants to kill her?” Matt asks.

“If the traitor came here, it was by luck, since Eloise’s relationship with her close family members is great, and her father is the sect master. Deniz, you are next.” Ginn comments.

“The whole faction structure has changed drastically in the last few months. Now, our public image finally resembles a faction. The members who stayed are going through a harsher training regime, and the daily rules became very strict. It was under my insistence that we closed all the vulnerable locations, limiting our area of influence. This was our only option since the enemies aimed at everyone connected to us.

We need to fight back, or the shadow in our subordinate’s heart will never disappear. We have been preyed upon, and because of that, our unity is crumbling. If we must lose, then we must do it while fighting for something!” by the end, Deniz’s emotion goes uncontrollable.

[silence]

“Manu, you also had something to inform us, right?” Ginn asks.

“There were two types of attack. Some that kill, and some that cripple. Most of our monetary loss is due to giving support to those who aren’t able to work anymore. Treatment was always our choice in the past, but that changed. By the time the number of victims reached thousands, giving treatment to all became impossible. Our department can’t give everyone the miracle they want. We even received some dissatisfaction due to treating some with cultivation. Not everyone understands that treating a cultivator is much cheaper. Our department is stressed due to overwork, but I also know that ours isn’t the only one.” she says while re-knotting her black hair.

“The last one, Dinna,” Ginn says.

“I need more money, a lot of it. Making arrays is a hole that has no end. What a surprise! If this continues, those groups will suppress us into inexistence. Many have come to me to propose to open more points with arrays and such. I swore every single time. I want to throw the next dumbass, that proposes that, inside a truly special array. [sign] Our faction may be rich, but we don’t have an infinite amount of resources. If this continues, I see no future but to hide forever.”

[silence]

“It is pretty bad…” Matt whispers.

In the middle of the silence, Ginn and Doug look towards Louis. The boy then starts speaking about the strategic job he has been doing with Doug.

“Three choices…” Louis says, he then speaks louder.

“Master Ginn assigned me to oversee the whole issue together with Sir Doug.

We concluded that we need to be less passive.

There are three choices we need to make: one, how to disconnect from New Horizons; two, how to deal with the relationship with Volcano; and, three, how hard we fight back the pressure right now.

Our passivity is mostly due to inertia. We built the faction in a passive and decentralized foundation. The top commanders were far apart, and we also hid our power. Every choice made in the past had its benefits, but now such decisions became a hindrance.

Our suggestion is to focus on ceasing the dilution of our main power, but further details must be iterated with each department if the change in direction is approved.

For today, we need to decide how to proceed with the independence of our faction.”

Noticing that the teenager stopped talk, Ginn then adds, “It has never been a question of IF. All our actions until today aligned with going independent eventually. Although we planned to go independent later, since lying low is bringing us more trouble than benefits, we must bring our next step forward.”

“But does this mean that we must abandon our current endeavors?” Mirana asks.

Doug responds, “Yes. Since to be independent, we must move somewhere else. We must avoid a direct conflict, and the best way is to get farther away from their cutches. They can’t be sending us trouble if we are not in their area.”

“Volcano can.” Deniz comments.

[bang] Matt fists hit the table. “They take for granted that they will absorb us for their benefits. What a bunch of dumb people.”

“Say whatever we will, but would they take a bunch of kids seriously? The pests would keep following us. How to avoid that is the main problem!” Max says.

“We beat the damned dumb brothers!” Matt says.

[sign] Deniz looks towards his excited friends and shakes his head, “The optimal answer is around showing our force. However, not indiscriminately, or they will only fight harder. If we can catch the culprits, then we can do whatever we want, making them out to be examples.”

Deniz then looks towards Anne. He understands that, if the investigation achieves no success, it will be hard to retaliate against someone important.

“I can’t guarantee it. We need enough proof to show justified hostility towards the culprit. Throwing speculation around will serve us no good.” Anne says, commenting about their difficulties in investigating the mater.

After showing some hesitation, Louis finally comes around to talk about his last idea.

“I thought of something else today. How about choosing to defend Dyn Mayer at all costs? Ah, wait, it should be Leo Moon now. Since we brought him here, if we can make him one of us, we could draw a clear line between us.”

“That is a clear idea. Even if we can’t take the last step of hunting the culprit, we can force at least some Elders from Volcano back, and clearly show our disagreement with New Horizons’ main faction.” Yukk adds.

Shaking his head, Yuri disagrees, “I don’t think he will join us. At best, we can achieve a partnering relationship. The good thing is that it wouldn’t be surprising to others if we give him a position of honor, due to what he has done and the skills he showed.”

“He didn’t seem interested when I asked,” Ginn adds.

Anne, with an uncertain expression, asks, “Hey, Yuri, do you think it is worth to partner with him? We aren’t talking about a one-time business here. We know nothing about him. And we seem more than one of the unnatural attraction some have to whatever he is. What guarantees that this wouldn’t keep happening?”

Yuri responds with conviction, “It is worth it. Where will we find someone like him? And unchained? Even if the relationship doesn’t succeed, we may at least try it. And we know enough about him to consider such bet to be worth it.

First, we know he can survive extreme cases of assassination and freezing without external help. Second, he can treat people of one of a kind poison. Third, he is a man of multiple faces with uncanny shape-shifting abilities. And last but not least, Ginn is connected to him in some weird way, and I bet he wouldn’t have followed us if that wasn’t the case.

A connection with him may bring us trouble, but it can also bring us benefits if our relationship gets to the point of allowing that.”

“Is he worth that much trouble tho?” Matt asks, still not convinced.

To that, Ginn says, “He is worth more. He lived long enough to be an ocean of experience. How long would it take to hone someone to his level of mastery in arrays only? One or two hundred years of focused resources? Even Dinna would take only a bit less than one hundred, and she is very talented in the field. However, even when one of us succeeds, then we need to talk about the difference between experience gained by someone that learned inside a well-closed environment and someone that learned in the wild. There are things one can only learn after a long time and some luck. We shouldn’t worry about his worth, and more if we will be getting our worth back, as he may not play with us much, even if we show interest.”

“Can’t we make a contract?” Mirana asks.

Ginn shakes his head, “I wouldn’t expect him to sign it. But even if he did, we don’t have the time, as we don’t know how long he will be in seclusion for, and we need to decide how to deal with the hostility soon.”

“He can be a good fallback. If we can’t find the culprit, we can use protecting the so hidden master as the first example of our independent action. In the case we find the culprit, we fight against them, and the issue with Leo Moon becomes secondary.” Deniz comments.

Looking around, Yukk then asks, “Is anyone against fighting an Elder from Volcano?”

Ginn turns around and seems to agree on making this clear, he says, “Everyone needs to agree with it since it is a dangerous endeavor. We will be putting our lives in the line. Independence will come, but so will more troubles.”

“So we fighting for ourselves and the old man may be an excuse?” Matt asks.

“He is part of the problem.” Yuri comments.

Taking into consideration what was discussed so far, and how no one seems against the idea of fighting an Elder, Ginn summarize the decision so far.

“Since everyone so far agrees with more drastic actions, we will follow Doug and Louis’s plans. We will be waiting for the last trail, and if it succeeds, then we have our target. Even if it fails, we can ask Volcano to recall the Elders involved in the hostility, and we deal with New Horizons with a stronger attitude.

For the next few days, we keep working on all our options, still lying low, but once our last three friends arrive, we can make the final decision.

Whatever happens tho, we’ll become independent. We will each be working a lot in the next few months, from liquifying most of our assets around the continent, to choosing our new central hub and moving over. Unfortunately, such a situation has happened much sooner than we wanted, but we can’t avoid what must be done. This moment is the essential construction of the foundation of our faction < Dragons >.”

—

Two weeks later, in the same room, a video call is happening between Ginn Aravyz and Volcano Sect Master.

“So, you called me, not to inform of my daughter’s progress, but to request some Elder recall?” says a middle-aged man projected on a marble wall.