"What?"

Rychard frowned for the first time in as long as he could remember. He couldn't remember having ever had a fluctuation in his emotions in recent years, at least not one that was large enough to show so prominently. He had gone through too much in the last several years. The destruction of his family, countless humiliations in the Void Palace, being swallowed up by that zone, the death of his last remaining family member and brother…

There wasn't enough to make him frown these days. But this was a bit much.

The news seemed to come one after another, but the most frustrating part was that it wasn't coming through the channels it should have. Rather than their own people reporting back saying that they had been attacked, they had been wiped out so fast that they couldn't even do that. Instead, Rychard was reaching reports from miscellaneous businesses of his and the Viola family that had been in the general area who were only contacting him to let him know that business would likely be slow for the next coming weeks due to the commotion. After all, tourists wouldn't be in a happy, buying mood if their tourist destination had suddenly become a warzone.

And yet, even after several such businesses contacted Rychard and the Viola family about this matter, likely all afraid that they would be accused of embezzling funds if they didn't do so, there was still not a word from the actual alliances of this coming war.

And then it came.

The first to contact him was Aleck Skies. The Patriarch of the Thrusting Skies Sector was absolutely furious, Rychard could hear the thunder booming in the background and the strikes of lightning spilling about. He had immediately accused one of them of setting him up, Rychard could hardly get a word in, not because Aleck was so overwhelming to him, but because he was absolutely shocked to find out that half of Aleck's fleet had been wiped out.

After Rychard regained his bearings, smoothed out his frown and took a breath, his aura changed.

"That's enough."

The ice cold of his voice cut the Skies family Patriarch off completely, stifling all of his momentum. Even the sounds of thunder and lightning on the other side seem to have been quelled.

"What reasons do you have for suspecting us?"

"Isn't the result enough?" Aleck said coldly. "Do you think I just imagined half of my fleet being wiped out? My Skies family location was in the most covert region there was, but it was also in the region most susceptible to an ambush. How could we even maneuver in those asteroid fields? We relied entirely on this information being airtight, and yet somehow we were the ones to suffer?

"I also can't help but tell by your tone and surprise that obviously you weren't attacked. Am I supposed to take that as a coincidence?"

Rychard didn't seem to take this accusation very seriously at all. Instead, he flipped over a palm.

"According to my information, the only Seventh Dimensional existence who followed the fleet was you and you alone. By all rights, the one with the most odd actions was yourself. This was supposed to be an all out assault, did you expect to deal Earth a blow with nothing but a hoard of Sixth Dimensional existences? Or maybe you didn't plan on dealing them a blow at all? What, did you want to play both sides? Exposing our allies and pretending to have been hurt yourself as well to get off scot-free?"

After saying all of this, Rychard expected something very different from the other side than what he actually expected. He wanted to hear a flustered response, a disorganized rambling, a man on his back foot, but instead all he got was a laugh and a sneer.

"Aren't my actions perfectly justified judging by what actually happened? If I had brought out my full team, wouldn't I be finished? You mighty Viola and warriors of the Chaotic Water Sector might be able to afford the loss of "nothing but a hoard of Sixth Dimensional existences", but my Skies family cannot!  They were our future! And many of them had potential to reach greater heights! copyrighted © content.

"I'm not going to sit here and try to justify myself to a person who didn't suffer even a single loss!"

Rychard fell into silence, his expression unreadable.

"What reason would I have to betray you?" Rychard finally asked. "Do you have any idea how much I loathe the Ascension Empire? What they've done to me? If you want to make up a story, at least make it make sense."

Unexpectedly, Aleck only continued to sneer.

"I've known from the beginning that you were in this for nothing more than a personal vendetta, you are the most untrustworthy kind of ally because you move with your heart instead of your head. Even if I had told you the information I had previously, you would have still gone ahead and did this."

Rychard paused before biting. "What are you talking about?"

"The goals of the Chaotic Water Sector are not the same as ours. In fact, I suspect that they're being pulled along by the Cloud Race, using them to dictate their actions. Their ultimate goal isn't to defeat Earth in this round, what they want is Earth to become public enemy number one so that the rest of the Human Domain attacks them at once."

"You certainly have quite the overactive imagination," Rychard replied blandly.

"And that's exactly the response I would expect to hear," Aleck said coldly.

"Does it make sense for me to simply take your words at face value? If you knew this, why did you still agree to act?"

"Why did I still agree? The Zoltene Faith was wiped out, the Imperial Prince made a personal visit to you, who do you think was next?! I had no choice but to try and deal a blow to the Ascension Empire in hopes they wouldn't have time to deal with me, but who would have thought that I would be backstabbed by my own allies first?!"