Chapter 1063: Negotiation With Royals |
Having returned to the royal hall, Alice swept her gaze across the room and watched as the strands of energy settled around her.
The contracts had been broken. She would no longer command nor take commands from the Zenia family.
All that bound them was the fact that they shared the same bloodline. But it lacked any capability of exerting control over her.
Taking a deep breath, she set aside what had just happened with the Will for now. Instead, her focus returned to the Queen.
"There, I believe I have proven myself with this little stunt. Or do you need someone to verify this?" Alice asked as the Queen furrowed her brows.
She wanted to say something but... what could she possibly say?
She wasn’t a Lord, so she couldn’t verify whether or not Alice had actually erased the contract.
But even then... none of them had ever heard of resolving a contract in such a one sided manner.
"Ahem." The King cleared his throat, taking control of the situation.
"If you can destroy a contract so easily, what’s stopping you from not holding up your side of the bargain?" he asked as Alice folded her arms.
Indeed. If she was capable of simply breaking off an agreement, the contract meant nothing to them.
And with nothing binding her, it was hard for the Royals to simply accept that kind of outcome.
"You know, before the Law of Agreement was a thing, we built trust between two parties before agreeing to such... alliances.
"With the Law now ineffective, why don’t we fulfil one request from one another as a show of sincerity?" the King suggested.
Nalem narrowed his eyes.
He wasn’t expecting the conversation to continue in this direction.
Originally, all that was supposed to happen was the group coming here and simply agreeing to the contract. Then they could delegate tasks and start making progress in stopping Nyer.
However... with this new variable, sorting out an alliance had become much more difficult.
If one side asked too big of a favour, the other side would naturally disagree. This would repeat back and forth until nothing was done and all they had accomplished was sitting around doing nothing.
If neither side was willing to back down...
Nalem clenched his teeth.
"If we keep walking around in circles, we’ll never get anything done. And I don’t think either side has time for that kind of luxury, don’t you agree?" The Prince was the one to speak up, surprising both groups.
Both sides had half expected Alice to make the suggestion considering her boldness when it came to dissolving her contract.
But contrary to their beliefs, it was the Prince speaking up first.
"We believe that the Zenias seem to be staging a large scale invasion of some kind. An unknown force is giving them confidence that they’ll be able to pull it off, even with the difference in quality between our two sides.
"Not only that, but reports suggest that a large amount of materials of an unknown origin is being transported through their network. Some are suggesting it may be necromancy that gives them the confidence to pull off this invasion. We’ve been trying to make contact with the Moon to sort this out, but communication has been difficult." He admitted casually with a shrug of his shoulders.
The Queen creased her brows. This was information they had planned to share once they had become allies, yet he was so willing to reveal it.
"The Zenia family cannot be allowed to continue gathering their forces at such speeds." He concluded, gesturing for Alice and the group to share some information from their side.
Alice folded her arms and tapped her chin.
She could tell that neither the King nor Queen had expected this as they were entirely planning on discussing the issues further without care for time.
But the Prince? He wanted this issue to be resolved as soon as possible.
Since that was the case... they couldn’t blame her for showing a bit of rudeness.
Clasping her hands together, Alice stomped her foot down as Abyssal energy stirred. Both Lords prepared to move while Karya and Gin did the same.
Yet the only thing that happened was...
The construction of a table.
Flicking her finger, Cayla was summoned as files were spread across the surface.
Detailed findings she had on both the Zenia family and Nyer.
"I’ve been travelling around quite a bit and there are two cases where I’ve been involved in fighting against the Zenia family.
"When it comes to these unknown materials, I believe there are two possibilities. Outer Gods or the Hybrids." Alice smirked, picking out two stacks of files.
"I doubt it’s the Outer Gods as I have a certain... ally, I suppose. Instead of the Zenia family, they’re more involved with an ally of theirs. The two are connected, but I doubt the Zenia family would put all their eggs into one basket. Especially since this isn’t directly controlled by them.
"Which then brings us to candidate two. Hybrids. These are monstrosities created by a special blood. It allows these people to look human and act human, but wield the power of beasts without the need for Sigils. A merge between the two species. Their powers are limited to six Sigils, but that’s only from what I’ve witnessed." Alice explained, spreading out the documents she had created during her time in the North.
"It is entirely possible that in the time between then and now, the family has found a way to break through the boundary that separates average Hunters and Lordship. The same goes for the materials they require for the construction of said Hybrids. And with these facts, I believe that they’re more likely to be amassing an army of Hybrids rather than Outer Gods."
One of the Lords flicked down to the table and grabbed a stack of reports. Alice naturally gestured with a smug smile, letting her take as many as she wished and whether or not she wanted extra copies for the other Royals.
A frown sat on the guard’s face, but she accepted the extra copies without a word.
Bringing them back to the Royals, the King, Queen and Prince read through the reports carefully while the Princess seemed bored by everything.
She wanted to leave but... thinking about the potential issues of leaving a meeting like this, she’d rather stay put.
The more the King read, the deeper his frown became. They had some wild guesses regarding what the Zenia family was preparing, but they hadn’t expected something like this.
Not only that, but this seemed to be just a small portion of the information the girl had gathered about the Zenia family. Their archive of data might just be far larger than what any of them had expected.
Exhaling softly, the King gave the Queen a side glance while the Queen hid her face behind her fan.
A silent communication between the two of them while the Prince crossed his legs.
His eyes scanned the reports. His fingers tapped against the armrest.
"I’m guessing you have information on the Nightmare Realm as well?" he suddenly spoke as Alice raised an eyebrow before nodding.
"I know what he’s planning to do with it, a slight idea of how he’s trying to do it. And I have a friend who’s observing the issues with the realm. There are... a few methods I can use to resolve the issue of the Nightmare, but many of them aren’t verified yet and mostly remain guesses and assumptions." Alice shrugged.
She wasn’t going to provide more information than this. If anything, she wanted to say she was already being too generous considering the details of her findings. They only told her that the Zenias were preparing for something big, but she told them what they were preparing.
However, there was another issue at hand.
One that Alice had recently been reminded of thanks to the Will of the Abyss.
The royal family was still trying to get into contact with the Church of the Moon.
If Lumiria involved herself in this as well... things could take a turn for the worse very easily and very quickly.
Ideally, Alice would prefer working with the Sun thanks to Gwen’s presence, but she doubted that would be possible.
There was also the looming issue of her friends still being stuck in Terminus.
The last she checked, they were preparing a way out, but she hadn’t heard anything since.
Monika was also missing, along with Plume.
Both were occupied with a plan that they hadn’t shared with her, so now there were two extra unknown factors at play.
But regardless of everything, the plan hadn’t changed. There were still two main goals that she had to accomplish.
End the Zenia family and put a stop to whatever Nyer was planning.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Unfortunately for her, the deeper she dug, the more she realised things weren’t as simple as she had initially thought.
The Will’s intervention, Monika, the Outer Gods.
So many things converging at once. Stopping one would lead to a domino effect that created a greater issue if not handled properly.
"Why don’t we take a break. I’m sure both sides have plenty to consider with the new information that’s been shared between us." The King suggested as Nalem nodded his head.
Just as the group was about to leave, every Lord in the hall sensed a disturbance in the Kingdom’s barrier.
A powerful invader had just collided with the outer ring.
Alice furrowed her brows.
They weren’t just strong... but this energy was also familiar. One that—
"Oh f*ck." Alice widened her eyes.
She spun around and both Gin and Allura had the same look on their faces.
Slayer!