Chapter 186: He Has a Point
[Back To Leonardo.]
The chilling sight of the winged terrors, the flying Wendigos, ripped a yell of pure terror from Arthur. "Those!! Those are flying Wendigos!! You are right!"
Casey muttered, her gaze fixed on the distant creatures. "I don’t know such Wendigos existed."
The air felt thick, heavy with the dense, unknown energy radiating from the horde, which was still hundreds of miles away. A cold knot of dread tightened in her stomach.
"We need to go now!" Leonardo yelled, bringing out a high stage teleportation crystal.
"Wait!" Arthur rushed to the chest, grabbing it and clutching it to his chest as if it were a shield, before nodding sharply at Leonardo.
Leonardo paused, his eyes flicking from Arthur’s desperate grip on the chest to Casey. He was waiting for her, the leader, to make the final call. Casey’s fists clenched. She had come for a mission, and failure was a bitter taste she wasn’t ready to swallow. But looking at the remaining members of her team, their strained faces and exhausted forms, she couldn’t gamble their lives for a failed objective.
"Fine," she relented, the word a heavy sigh.
Leonardo didn’t hesitate. He activated the crystal, and a swirling gateway to the Star Nation tore open in the air. Arthur, ever the pragmatist focused on self-preservation, lunged through without a backward glance.
"Is he always like this?" Leonardo asked with a deep frown, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
The group just sighed in weary agreement, and followed Arthur through the gateway, abandoning the hostile planet.
A guttural roar of fury echoed across the abandoned camp. "Stop them!!!"
The leading Wendigo channeled his immense, dark energy into a volatile ball of fire.
"DIE!!!" With a colossal throw, he hurled the fireball at the closing gateway.
"This?!" Leonardo saw the deadly projectile closing fast. In a flash of speed, he grabbed Casey and propelled them both through the portal, which snapped shut an instant before the fireball struck.
BOOOOOOOM!!!
The explosion tore through the camp, consuming it in flames. The Wendigos hovered above, their monstrous faces contorted with rage and chilling killing intent.
"Head back." The leader’s voice was a low, dangerous rumble. He turned, flying away, the three hundred monstrous creatures following in a dark, silent procession.
__
[Star Nation.]
WHOOSH!!
The sudden appearance of a gateway in the throne hall stunned everyone.
Gabriel, and the attending senators, including Andras, were momentarily frozen. They watched as Arthur, clutching the chest, stumbled out, followed by a procession of weary, battle-scarred young warriors.
".....?!"
Gabriel, his face filled with disbelief, stepped toward the closing portal. Just then, Leonardo and his daughter, practically tumbled out onto the floor.
"Casey?" Gabriel muttered, his shock giving way to paternal relief.
Hearing her father’s voice, Casey scrambled up from the ground, running straight into his arms and hugging him tightly.
"I miss you dad," she whispered into his shoulder, the fatigue and stress of the mission finally breaking through her professional facade.
Arthur, meanwhile, moved with swift, silent purpose. He scanned the hall, noting the numerous onlookers, and quickly stored the chest in his personal storage space.
’Shit!’ Andras’s mind screamed. He recognized Leonardo. The Elder wouldn’t fail to recognize him as one of Death. Seizing the moment while everyone was distracted by the emotional reunion, Andras vanished from the throne hall. His part in his mission was complete.
Leonardo, sensing a disturbance, was surveying the hall with a deep frown. ’I thought I sense a death’s presence... Did I miss it or just imagining it?’
Gabriel separated from Casey, looking up at the Elder. "What happened?" he asked.
"They encountered a strong enemy, so I took them away," Leonardo stated, his voice calm but authoritative.
"Don’t worry, these enemies won’t live to see the next day." With that cryptic promise, he vanished from the throne hall as suddenly as he had arrived.
"Dad, who is that?" Casey asked, a slight frown crossing her face.
"Oh, that is Elder Leonardo. He is the first elder and owner of the Immortal Council, the strongest council in this world," Gabriel explained with a proud smile.
’Strongest? Is God Wolf among this council? If he isn’t, how did he have the power to order the first council? Casey’s mind raced, connecting the dots. She looked back up at her father.
"Do you know God wolf?"
Gabriel’s smile vanished, replaced by a deep frown. "Why? Did you meet him in your mission?"
"Actually, Arthur ran into him... And he was also the one who asked that old man to help us," she explained.
’What?! God wolf have relations with the Immortal Council? Are they now working together? Gabriel’s frown deepened with worry.
"Whenever you see him, keep your guard up. At the moment, our nations are in neutral agreement; we aren’t friends and also not enemies."
Casey nodded, absorbing the warning.
"Thank you all, meeting reschedule," Gabriel announced to the confused senators. He then turned back to his daughter.
"Come on, dear, tell me everything that happens during these five years."
"Em... Dad, where is Mum?" she asked, suddenly realizing a major absence.
"On a busy trip," he said quickly, his eyes momentarily flicking to the senators who were still seated, a clear signal he wasn’t comfortable discussing the Queen’s whereabouts openly.
"I will tell you everything when we are alone," he added.
Casey glanced back at her team. "Ok Dad, I need to speak to my teammates, we will talk later."
"Go Ahead," Gabriel nodded, his smile returning.
"Let’s go." Casey turned, walking past her members toward the exit. Arthur and the other ten quickly followed.
___
[Castle Gate.]
They stopped at the relative privacy of the Castle gate. The air was thick with unspoken tension.
"Tell me, why did you hide the chest?" Casey demanded, her voice cutting through the silence, addressing Arthur directly.
Arthur, for once, didn’t recoil. He held his ground. "Sorry if what I did was wrong, but I think we all here deserve something in this mission. At best, we will gain some resources and money from the nation. But compared to the things here—"
"—I thought you are only a coward, I should have known you are one greedy pig!" Casey hissed, her face burning with rage. His actions were a betrayal of the team’s mandate and her trust.
Arthur’s face hardened. He was no longer the trembling recruit, who joined five years ago:
"I don’t care what you say, Princess... You know it yourself, if not for me, we all won’t be standing here."
He wasn’t backing down from the fact that his actions, though selfishly motivated by survival, had saved them more than once.
"Look." He checked their surroundings to ensure complete privacy, then brought the chest out and placed it on the ground.
"I am a coward, I accept that, but I am not greedy." He swept his gaze across the faces of their teammates, allowing his genuine conviction to show.
"There are enough Mercenaries’ chips here for everyone! Including galaxy crystals and celestial energy stones," he explained, his voice low and urgent.
"You saw how powerful his Mercenaries are; even mines can’t blow them into pieces... Meaning only a MEB can take them down. Having such Mercenaries as guards will be beneficial to all of us, don’t you think?"
He continued, turning back to a conflicted Casey:
"Princess, among us, you are the one with the most enemies, not only that, your mother also have enemies. If you get stronger, it will be the best for everyone! And the Queen can try to copy these Mercenaries and make more, but giving everything to the nation... I am sorry, but I won’t allow that."
The teammates considered his words. Everything he said, especially the value of the mercenary chips for their future safety, made a frightening amount of sense. They began to nod their heads, a collective realization that Arthur’s pragmatism, while born of fear, was also a path to power and security.
"Guys," a young man called out, his gaze fixed on his cosmic brain holographic screen.
The eleven turned to him, and what flashed on the holographic screen stunned them all into silence.
[Royal families’ strength ranking: [1st]: God Wolf.]
[Wealth Ranking: [1st]: God Wolf.]
[Nation Prosperity ranking: [1st]: Eldoria. Ruler: God Wolf.]
[Other rankings are still being calculated.]