"I can totally understand why Zeke is so angry," Michael snarled quietly as the disdain and anger within him continued to rise.
"I don't think you completely understand," Lincoln replied carefully. He stared at Michael in discomfort. The pressure Michael released was quite different from Zeke's. It was far more intense – eerie and ominous.
"The Supreme Human Alliance is an issue everyone will have to deal with in the future once Hyumans found a way to traverse the entire universe. They have yet to pinpoint our exact location and are merely connected to the traitor organizations through the Origin Expanse," Lincoln explained, "Zeke's issue is the traitor organization that attacked Piloq. It was Dark Heavens…"
Michael calmed down a little. It was a good thing that the Supreme Human Alliance had yet to create a portal to directly reach them. Nonetheless, it was already a nuisance that some humans came in contact with the alliance and Hyumans. The result was bad enough already.
He recalled some things about Dark Heavens, and he looked over to Quinn, who'd lost his entire family in one of the incidents caused by Dark Heavens' members. Zeke lost his sister in the same incident. But whereas Zeke was overflowing in anger, ready to obliterate Dark Heavens, Quinn was eerily calm.
Michael felt that this was even more terrifying as he got to know Quinn to be a quite energetic youth. His calmness was horrifying.
"It was Dark Heavens? That's bad." Michael responded.
He knew that Dark Heavens had been hunted for almost two decades by now, yet nobody found them. Members of Dark Heavens were rarely caught, and in such a case, they usually killed themselves before any information about the dark organization could be leaked. The only good thing about Dark Heavens was that they rarely attacked civilians. They didn't hate the ordinary folk, but they loathed those who actively sought help from other races – races deemed as inferior by the Supreme Human Alliance.
Dark Heavens was one of the few dark organizations that targeted the High Society. They didn't attack the weak but did terrible things to the High Society and its members.
But this time was different. Civilians were killed.
Of course, Dark Heavens didn't really care about this kind of civilians. The dead civilians were all Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs. No human civilian died in the attack.
"It is bad, yeah. But it can get even worse. Do you want to know what's even worse?" Kaleb asked, joining the conversation. He found Michael's shimmering bald head amid the crowd of prodigies quickly and hurried over to his friends to join their conversation.
"Worse is that it seems like Tritaenus located a stellar system with six inhabitable planets. The captain of the Tritaenus survived long enough against the forces of the Dark Heavens to send a voice message to the Tritan Alliance's messenger center. From the looks of it, Dark Heavens hoped for this type of information when they decided to hijack Tritaenus. They hit the jackpot by hijacking Tritaenus before bombarding Piloq and disappearing into thin air."
"Do you think Dark Heavens want to relocate to the stellar system found by Tritaenus? Or maybe they want to colonize the stellar system with people with the same mindset as the Hyumans?" Michael asked, but the others didn't really have an answer.
"That might be the case…but we have to find them first to interrogate one of them…" Lincoln mumbled, to which Kaleb replied,
"Actually, a member of the Dark Heavens was caught in the act. The Traitor belonged to the Ascending Phoenix Academy. He is a Tier-4 Awakened whose Soultrait allowed him to transform into other people. He could even use his Soultrait to insert their DNA inside his own temporarily. It's pretty scary given that this Soultrait can even trick the Lord ID, which means that he can temporarily steal the identity of someone else. Even his energy fluctuations can be altered!"
It was a good thing that they caught a member of Dark Heavens, but Michael pondered if they could interrogate him properly. A Tier-4 Awakened would have many ways to kill himself, and it was unlikely that Dark Heavens sent him out without thinking of various ways to eliminate all unknown variables. They definitely had some plans up their sleeves.
"So they want to interrogate him but are not certain how to do it without him blowing up?" Zeke asked, pinpointing the exact problem.
"That's basically it. We need information not only to find out what Dark Heavens will do, but also to retrieve Tritaenus before it's too late. The exploration spaceship they hijacked was quite important. It might only be an exploration spaceship in the eyes of most, but it is also considered a military ship with various vital pieces of information about the Tritan Alliance's military power, and their future development plans…"
"Well, shit…" Michael cursed, while both Lincoln and Zeke said the same in unison as realization dawned upon them.
"Shit"
"Shit"
Kaleb nodded, "Shit, indeed."
He then turned to Michael, "My sister wanted to talk to us about the Battle Exchange and some other stuff. Since Piloq cannot be used as the perfect training ground anymore she wants to do something else. She mentioned something about the Sacred City of Training being destroyed and the combined efforts of the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs being for naught. I didn't listen to everything. Alice was speaking too much…"
Michael raised an eyebrow and agreed to follow Kaleb. Meanwhile, Lincoln bid them farewell before turning to Zeke to calm down his friend.
Kaleb led him inside the building which acted as the source of everyone's bad mood. He led Michael to a large room where Alice Zenovia, Oliver Zeus, Olivia Blaze, and many other higher-ups of the Battle Exchange sat. However, there were also more. Kraft Viton and many elderly Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs were also seated around a large round table.
The heavy mood seemed to emanate from there.
'Wouldn't it have been better for us to wait until their meeting is over?' Michael wondered, but he didn't ask it out loud. The entire hall was silent even though there were dozens of powerhouses present to solve the given problem. He didn't dare to speak up to avoid attracting unnecessary attention.
Unfortunately, Alice Zenovia didn't even think of doing the same. She jumped up from her chair upon seeing Michael and rushed up to him. She grasped Michael's right hand and inspected his War Rune intently. Alice's eyes widened and she stared at him in shock. "The rumors were…true?"
Michael could only smile at her warily. He noticed that dozens of heads flicked in his direction and suppressed a heavy sigh.
"Some rumors are true. But let's just say that it was not by choice."
Since his talk with Tiara, Michael didn't feel too bad in the new environment. He understood that he had to adjust to the new changes to survive and get something out of them. Therefore, he lifted his head and didn't avoid the dozens of pairs of eyes that stared intently at him.
"We…should talk about that later…" Alice muttered upon realizing how she'd just reacted. She straightened her back and lifted her head high before letting go of his arm. She turned around on her heels and returned to the round table, with her usual ice-cold expression.
"We were just talking about bringing an Inspector with an Interrogation Soultrait over, right? Can we ensure that the Inspector can crack the Traitor's mind without triggering the suicide mechanism installed inside him?" Alice inquired in a neutral tone, trying to divert the others' attention from Michael to her.
"I know someone who can do it, but he is in the Origin Expanse and I don't think he will arrive in Piloq within the next five weeks. By that time, a lot of things can go wrong. Dark Heavens will have hacked the secret channel of Tritaenus by then. Once that happens, we will have to change the development of everything we've planned in the last three years. Our plans would be exposed and Dark Heavens could strike us anywhere they want," Oliver Zeus said, giving Alice a helping hand while continuing the conversation from before, "We cannot afford that."
"Our current plans will be exposed as well. They will know that the Tritan Alliance's relations are stronger than before and that we planned to take down the Dimensional Portal of the Tekur race after capturing some of them to find out the secrets of their immense power. They might as well interrupt the Interdimensional Flag War…and that is something we can definitely not afford to let happen!!" Silvana Zentur, the War Priestess of the Warlock Centaurs said, while her eyes continued to linger on Michael and Kaleb.
"How about we dissect him while continuously healing him? Maria Seraph and the healers can tend to the criminal's wounds while we remove all possible mechanisms that could allow him to kill himself. As for possible Soul Pacts and Soul Contracts with suicide clauses, we have two Awakened with high-ranked Seal-type Soultraits. They can temporarily Seal Soul Pacts. If the Soul Pacts are of a low level they can be sealed permanently as well." Chieftain Palika Mavenham asked, his attention lingering on the Dean of the Ascending Phoenix Academy.
The dean was in a tricky situation. He couldn't force Maria Seraph to do anything if she wasn't willing to do it. Torturing someone while she cast her healing Soultrait on the tortured individual was something she wouldn't do. In fact, she couldn't do it because it broke one of her family's sacred rules. They had to abide by these rules, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to unleash the full power of Heaven's Descent.
Therefore, participating in the torture of another individual was not allowed.
Unbeknownst to them, the dean's right hand was the criminal they were talking about. His right hand was the member of Dark Heavens, who damaged the security system all over Piloq right before the bombardment of Perses Missiles started.
The dean cleared his throat and glanced over to Michael. His eyes glimmered and he thanked his quick thinking and fortune silently.
"I…am not sure if Maria Seraph would help. We would have to ask her Primal Amplifier to find out more," He said while gesturing to Michael, the Primal Amplifier in question.
Michael didn't expect the dean of the Ascending Phoenix Academy to drag him into the conversation all of a sudden. However, it seemed to work very well. Everyone turned to Michael, who decided to hide his right hand behind his back.
"How am I supposed to tell whether she will help or not?" Michael inquired the dean while trying to ignore the stares upon him.
"Aren't you her Primal Amplifier, MR. MICHAEL FANG?" The dean asked, shouting the last few words aloud.
'Bastard. Am I supposed to fix the problems you caused? Fat bi–...' Michael was about to continue cursing in his mind when he got an idea.
"How about we don't bother Maria Seraph?" Michael asked, causing the dean to scowl at him. Some of the higher authorities were just about to say something to disregard his comment when Michael added,
"How about I help you instead? As Michael Fang, not some Primal Amplifier!"
