Lord Shadow

Azief keep looking down, his gaze seems to be so powerful and suffocating that those people did not dare to have any dark thoughts.

It was a divine aura that is emanating out of him. His hand is on his chin, propped by his hand as he lazily looks at them

The room was silent. One could even hear a needle falling down with this silence. Azief could even hear their hear beat, loudly and nervously.

Then he ask

‘So, what is it you came to me for?’ He asks to those five people rising up from their kneeling position.

They all looked at each other in anxiety and nervousness and gulped. There was an awkward silence while Azief is sitting lazily on his throne.

He is just looking at them without interest. And then one of them comes out to the front and bows a little.

The man has a mature face, with a reddish face and curly hair. He seems to be nervous but also at the same time there is a determination in his eyes.

‘Your Excellency Death Monarch. My name is Theonius and I come here representing the Seven Warlords of Delphi’ He was about to say more but Azief help up his finger and he halted.

Azief then said, looking at the Keeper of his Palace

‘I need information for the Seven Warlords of Delphi.’ The Keeper of the Palace was shocked.

Suddenly he remembers that the Death Monarch ask them to be prepared for tomorrow last night.

They didn’t compile the information because they forgot. It was like someone just poured cold water onto the Keeper of Palace. His face is pale and he is trembling.

Azief is looking at the Keeper of the Palace standing beside his throne and his eyes furrowed.

The keeper started feeling afraid and his hand could not stop trembling because of the fear and anxiousness.

He was about to kneel and admit his fault but when all hope seems lost, the Keeper of the Palace that is standing outside the Throne Room announces

‘The Shadow Guard requests an audience.’

Before the Keeper of the Palace even has time to finish his word, a Shadow Guard enters the room.

The Shadow guard covers his face and dressed in black with purple clouds patterns on his black attire.

And the Shadow Guards have no shadows. Even as the light illuminated him slightly, there is no shadow.

The Shadow Guard did not say anything. He only kneeled in front of the Throne and presented a scroll.

The Keepers of the palace that is sitting beside the throne immediately broken off from his fear and immediately accept the scroll on behalf of the Death Monarch.

The Shadow Guard then nodded toward the Death Monarch and Death Monarch nodded back. The Shadow Guard then without saying anything disappeared into a puff of dark smoke.

The people in the room all looked at each other.

They finally saw the mysterious Shadow Guards.

They are the most mysterious organization in the structure of power of the Death Monarch faction.

They are led entirely by Sasha the Nightingale and they are rarely seen. All people knew is that the Shadow Guards seems to have many sphere of activities.

They seem to engage in assassination, information gathering, intelligence extraction and many more.

In a way many people regarded the Shadow Guards of the Death Monarch faction is like the CIA, or KGB.

But because of the mysterious nature of this organization, no one really knows what is their primary task.

Even for the people in the Death Monarch faction other than Sasha the Nightingale no one really knows what the Shadow Guards does.

But one thing is clear

They are the eyes and ears of the Death Monarch. In the Massacre ion the Island of Peace, the Shadow Guards revealed themselves.

It was them that give the Three Army intelligence that the World government has no Battlestar in their reserve.

Then they also directed the battle into the weak points of the barrier thus causing the barrier could not withstand their bombardment for too long before breaking down.

Azief look at the scroll given to him. Touching it, information streamed into his mind.

It has all the information about the five people in front of him.

The Seven Warlords of Delphi was formed when seven warlords in Greece signs a treaty under the eyes of the Oracle to stop fighting each other and form an alliance with each other.

They then proceeded to unite Greece and with seven of the most powerful warlords uniting, they easily done this.

Even after the Oracle left the World Government and joins the Republic, the Seven Warlords alliance stays strong and then even after getting out of the Fake World and returning back to the real world, they continued their alliance and now this Seven Warlord controls all of Greece.

Now, that Azief got the information, he could now speak. He then looks at Theonius.

He nodded and then asks

‘Theonius, what does your leaders want to express by sending you here? They should know I would talk about this a year later. Is your leader wanted to reject my will?’ Azief ask, his voice tone was calm yet there is an inviolable majesty in his question right now.

Right now, in the world other than if the whole world heroes united to fight against him, the Death Monarch is invincible.

But to unite all heroes against him would not be feasible. Heroes and even villains alike, have their own aspirations.

Even though they might defeated the Death Monarch that way, who wanted to be the first to die under Death Monarch hand.

Forcing this colossal figure into a death end would surely be catastrophic matter for humanity future.

Theonius mustering his courage then said

‘Your Excellency Death Monarch. My leaders only have one request. In the distribution of the world, my leaders have no desire to reject Your Excellency will. They only desire that if Your Excellency really divided the world between the World Government and the Republic, they don’t want Greece to be under the World Government. That is all.’

Azief nodded and then he closes his eyes. The other four representatives and ambassadors from other faction heard this and their eyes are all narrowed.

This is juicy news. It seems that Greece is intending to break off from the World Government

Then Azief open his eyes and ask

‘What’s in it for me?’ Theonius smiles. The Death Monarch didn’t beat around the bush which makes his job easier.

‘We have some scrolls that would surely pique Your Excellency interest’ Azief smirk and then laughed a little

‘I have seen many treasures in this world. What makes you so sure that I would be interested in your scroll?’

Theonius smile with confidence and then said

‘Permission to approach’ Theonius ask. Azief nodded. Theonius approach the throne chair and look at the other four representatives. Azief understand so he waved his hand and the sound around him and Theonius is sealed.

And then Theonius said quietly

‘Our scroll spoke of a location of a certain temple.’ And then Azief heart quickly beats. Theonius then retreated back to his position below the throne.

Azief then shows a trace of a smile as he said

‘You have been investigating me.’

Theonius smile slightly. It doesn’t seem that the Death Monarch is angry. Both of them understand.

Theonius needs to investigate the Death Monarch to know what the Death Monarch wants. If he couldn’t even know what the Death Monarch want, how can they negotiate?

To the Death Monarch it is easy to determine the fate of a nation, but suffering the consequence is the people living in that nation.

There is an internal dispute in the World Government long before Pandikar executed his coup. The Greece leaders felt that their influence is diminished in the World Government with Japan, America and England having the most vocal voice in the Quorum.

The Seven Warlords didn’t like this as the policy of the World Government is mainly controlled on the hands of this power.

A few Senators of the Republic reached out to the Seven Warlords before the return of the Death Monarch and the Ice Queen and promise them a voice in the Senate.

At the time, they did not think too much about the offer. But now the situation is different. The Death Monarch has return and the Ice Queen has risen again in Moscow.

They will lost some of their power and authority but they are still rulers since the Chancellor promise them that they will be given the post as Senators.

But they need to break it off with the World Government. And the distribution of the world event is a good chance for Greece to break off from the World Government.

Azief then answer

‘Tell your leaders, I accept the proposition. When the meeting started you will bring it to me. If I found out that you are lying, you should know what I would do’ Theonius nodded as he retreated back to the other side of the throne room, respectfully standing.

Then Azief look at the other four.

A person walks to the front and then bowed a little.

This person is tall, lanky and is wearing a monocle. He is wearing a white lab coat, but the lab coat has patterns of runic enchantments and some hieroglyphs Azief couldn’t understand.

‘Your Excellency Death Monarch, my name is Eric Strauss. I am from the Order of Thinkers and I come here to request something of you on behalf of our Order’ Azief nodded.

He read about this Order of Thinkers before and even heard their names a few times. They are as mysterious as his Shadow Guards.

Even though Sasha has once sent a few spies to infiltrate this Order none succeed. And no one knows where their headquarters is.

‘What is your request?’ Azief immediately ask. He knew organization like the Order of Thinkers does not want land or regions of the world.

It is not their specialty in governing or administrating. They only wanted to research things.

‘Our Grand Researcher hope that Your Excellency would give permission for our Order to enter Pandemonium to research the life forms, plants and the ecosystems of this continent.’ Azief smirk.

He knew that while Sasha could not infiltrate this order, the Order of Thinker also could not enter Pandemonium.

Before this continent is a continent of monsters but now the Death Monarch laid claim upon this cursed land.

In the report Sasha seems to note a few of the Order members tries to enter under the guise of immigration but Sasha intercepted and capture this Order member.

Since the Order member and Pandemonium had no bad blood Sasha releases them under the stern warning that they never come back unless they are given permission.

Sasha fear this Order have no good intention.

Azief also think the same way. He heard all about this Order before. No one knew what they are planning and no one took their public objective seriously.

Azief understand one thing. Knowledge gives one power. The next question that should be asked is what will the power be used for?

Azief could not easily trust this Order that seems to hold more knowledge than he does.

And before Azief even had the chance to ask what he would get out of this Eric has already talked

‘We will surely give your Excellency an equal transaction that wills satisfy Your Excellency desire’ Azief then nodded but his next words shocked Eric

‘After the Meeting. We will talk about this again after the Meeting’ Azief could not the order enter his dominion when he is attempting to break through.

This Order of Thinkers fills Azief with unease.

‘But Your Excellency-‘ Before he even finished his word Azief squints his eyes and Eric was thrown back by an invisible pressure.

‘Enough. This is not something you could change. Tell Your Grand Researcher if he is really interested in learning about Pandemonium he would wait. Don’t send people here before the meeting. If my people caught one….then I will declare war against your people.’

Eric gritted his teeth but he did not talk back. He nodded.

There is three more. Azief look at them and he smiles. All of these three representatives would surely have controversial request.

The one wearing golden necklace and with big belly that is a person from the Syndicate. From the report that was handed to him this man is from the Golden Syndicate.

The Syndicate is divided into two. The Golden Syndicate and the Dark Syndicate.

The Golden Syndicate is mostly interested in business, constructing hotels and safe houses all a around the world for criminals and the undesirables.

They also supply weapons, buying and selling dangerous new technologies.

The other one is a tall Asian man, with long flowing black hair reaching his shoulders blade and have a clear hazel eyes. He is wearing a white robe with a sewing of lotus in his back

This is a man from The Lotus Order.

From the reports he reads, they seem to be clashing with the Dangun Army of Han Ji Woo. But they are all under the same World Government.

Whatever they are about to request it would be sensitive.

And the other one is a young man, wearing a thick eyeglass and seems to slouch a bit. However Azief felt bitter looking at this young man.

He is wearing a beret and that beret had the sewing of a White Owl.

The Golden Syndicate, the Lotus Order and the White Owl. These three people would surely have some shocking thing to say.

Something nobody should hear publicly

Then he looks at the Keeper of the palace and then he said

‘Other than these three, all people exit the throne room.’

Eric and Theonius were shocked but they quickly understand and went outside the throne room waiting for the other three.

After about almost an hour, the three representatives went out from the room.

Their face expression is unreadable so Theonius and Eric did not know whether their request was granted or not.

They talked a few empty talks as they walked out from the palace

The Throne Room is closed afterwards and sealed.

A day after that the Palace issued an announcement that crushes the hopes of the other ambassadors and representatives.

Until the meeting for the distribution of the world convenes no one is to come to the Palace without summons since the Death Monarch is attempting to form his Disk.

But the news that only five person was granted audience spread through the world. All the factions is calm….but everyone could felt it.

It is the calm before the storm.

***