“Total war?” I gasped, shocked that Melkior could possibly suggest such a thing. “You’re suggesting mass murder!”
“I’m suggesting that we keep the option open!” Melkior shouted back at me. “I don’t know what will happen. Perhaps, negotiation will work. Perhaps, limited warfare will work. If the Revenants prove to be a much greater threat than we are prepared for, then our hand may be forced. It is better to plan for the possibility now than to not be prepared when the time comes.”
“I like the sound of that,” Talwar said. “The Revenants are at their weakest right now. This might be our only chance to wipe them out.”
“That seems a bit… extreme,” Kojiro grimaced. “Sure, I’m totally on board fighting them, but mass murder. I mean, surely most of them aren’t a threat to us.”
“But all of them are a potential threat to us,” Talwar said as if finishing Kojiro’s sentence. “A level 10 office worker can become a level 100 Apostle Hunter in a year if he’s pushed hard enough. We won’t be safe until every single Revenant is dead.”
“Hold on,” Melkior held up a hand. “I’m not advocating we resort to Plan C immediately. I’ll try to make Plan A and Plan B work before I even think about going to Plan C.”
“Araki, what do you think?” Svenheim said as he turned to the Third Dark Apostle.
Araki cringed at his username being used. He said, “Plan A seems pointless, and Plan C is way too much. If it were up to me, I’d start waging a limited war on the Revenants immediately.”
“I agree,” Kojiro raised one of his hands in the air.
“Half-measures…” Talwar mumbled under his breath.
“Only about half of us are here,” Melkior said, cutting the discussion short. “We should hold off on further discussion until everyone’s here.”
“Who isn’t here, anyway?” Svenheim wondered aloud.
“Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten aren’t here,” Kojiro said as he looked around the Great Hall.
“The middle Apostles don’t really stand out, now do they? I wonder if that's by design,” Talwar said thoughtfully.
“Doubt it,” Kojiro said.
“So that’s Null, Crow, Katya, Kamil, and Fatima who aren’t here,” Melkior rattled off the names of the middle Apostles.
“I see you’re good with names, Mr. CEO.” Kojiro smirked as he sent that subtle jab.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
We waited for about forty minutes, talking about nothing in particular. I ended up talking about anime with Svenheim, Araki, Kojiro, and Talwar for most of the wait. While our group talked about the nature of shonen and whether Demon Slayer was better than Fullmetal Alchemist, Melkior, Poldra, and Dendrite talked about something else. Sports, probably.
“Was Dragon Ball Z ever really that good?” Kojiro said almost an hour into our anime debate.
The other four of us turned on him with pointed fingers and mouths open in anger.
“How dare…!?” Svenheim began to shout, but he stopped himself. He turned to look at the entrance to the Great Hall, and I turned to look as well.
At the entrance stood a woman dressed in a green turtleneck and a beige pair of khaki pants. Her long brunette hair was tied up in a ponytail. She had pale skin that was a similar shade to my own, and she was pretty tall for a woman. Based on the sorcerers that stood near her, I would say that she was only slightly less than six feet tall.
“Who the Hell are you?” Kojiro said as he got to his feet.
Wordlessly, the woman pulled the neck of her sweater down to reveal her upper chest. There, tattooed just below her collarbone, was a dark VII. She did not stop walking as she showed her chest. She was holding several sheathed swords in her hands, and she put them down on the ground near the door. A few moments later, the sorcerers with her added various swords and guns to the pile.
“Seven… You’re Crow?” Kojiro realized.
“Weren’t you a dude yesterday?” Talwar squinted.
“I changed my avatar,” Crow stated tersely.
“Why?” Kojiro asked.
“I’m a woman, and I’d rather not get stuck using a male avatar for ten years,” Crow answered as she checked the chamber of one of the assault rifles she had brought. “Does that answer your question?”
Hearing Crow speak was a strange experience for me. Crow had the same way of speaking as the man I had met yesterday, yet her voice was clearly feminine. My enhanced hearing was shouting at me that this was the same person as yesterday.
“How did you change your avatar, Crow?” Melkior asked.
“GM sent a ‘gift’ to all players through the BloodNet: a small vial that takes you back to character creation when drunk,” Crow answered.
Melkior, Kojiro, and Svenheim closed their eyes in order to check their Menu. I kept my own eyes open in order to keep an eye on the woman who was probably Crow. She unsheathed one of the swords she brought, and it was made of the same black metal as my knife. She moved with the same easy grace as the man I had met the night before. Even at a distance, her casual body language unnerved me.
Melkior’s eyes opened, and he produced a small vial filled with a dark blue liquid in his hand. Moments later, Kojiro and Svenheim did the same. The liquid was opaque, and it reminded me of stomach medicine that would be given to children.
“I see that just about everyone is already here,” Crow said. “I figured I was early, but it turns out I was late.”
“Well, Talwar and Kojiro wanted to test Battle Aura out in a fight,” Svenheim said. “If they fought anywhere else in the Castle, they might go flying off the edge.”
“Thanks for showing us how it’s done,” Kojiro said to Crow as he threw a few jabs at the air.
“I haven’t shown you anything yet,” Crow chuckled. “I have a bit more to show. Who wants to assist me with my next trick? Svenheim? Enzo?”