Chapter 121: Chapter 117: A Prelude to War

Marcus, the Sapphire Emperor, sat nervously at the table, watching the time. He still didn’t think that this meeting was a good idea; technically speaking, there was no binding Oath or anything that would stop the swarm from attacking everyone there, just the knowledge that the gods would smite them for it, and he doubted the swarm would change their minds.

Still, the consensus among the group had been that they must attempt diplomacy before going to war. Everyone had seen their announcement, but no one actually meant that they would accept no compromise. There was always something that would get someone to stop what they were doing, though that was often overwhelming force. And…Marcus wasn’t so sure they could properly show overwhelming force, not when their opponents were two Heroes.

So, they would have to play confident, pretend they felt that things were under control when they weren’t. If they could feign confidence, they might be able to shake the confidence of their opponents, though, once again, the fact that their opponents had two Heroes made shaking their confidence a little harder. They’d just…have to convince them that two Heroes couldn’t beat the rest of the world’s highest leveled people, regardless of how true that was.

All of a sudden, the air shifted, the hushed conversation that had filled the room stilling. Marcus looked away from the clock and towards where the Glens’ portal entrance was, then did a double take. He had initially passed over it, but there were five new people standing at the far end of the table, away from both the doors to the Glens and Aura.

He recognized Amelia and Alisha as a matter of course, and had seen Lia and Rose in their broadcasts, but the last member of their group was a mystery. She was a blue-haired wolfkin in a simple but well-tailored dress, and the more he looked at her, the more familiar she seemed.

“Right, so, this whole thing.” Amelia said. “Let me preemptively answer some questions for you; yes, we teleported in here, no, your wards aren’t good enough to keep me out. The only things keeping me from simply teleporting into each of your chambers and converting you are that I don’t know your exact location at any given time, and that I know your conversions wouldn’t change too much yet. Of course, that will change once the war is underway and you have more valuable information on troop movements and the like, but that’ll be later.

“The wolfkin is Nailah, formerly known as Brom. She still remembers everything, and aside from the fact that she is now loyal to us, she is otherwise unchanged in personality. And, finally, please feel free to look at any of our statuses at any given time; we’ve made some big claims, and we would like you to realize that we are, in fact, completely serious with what we say.”

Marcus debated that for a moment, then opened up Nailah’s stats.

---