Sitting in the war room, Jacob looked at his personal Suicide Squad.
Frederick, Juliet, Joseph, Aunt Linda, Geneva, Marina, Marcus, Lucius, and Helena.
He had asked Luis Albert to stay, even though Jacob had made something very clear from the start: "If we fail, Principal, we are all going to die. These monsters cannot be fought on our turf unless we want a massacre to happen. So we have to bring the battle to them and do it fast and hard. If the mission doesn't succeed, no one among you will be able to fight the horde. So your only hope will be to run as far as you possibly can."
Jacob had a cigarette in his hand and got fiery gazes from his aunt. Then, with an unapologetic attitude, he took another puff. If he had to die soon, he might as well die while doing what he loved.
It was surprising that no one smoked among these people, save for Marcus.
"Marcus, Lucius, have you been practicing?"
Jacob had given them two different Cultivation Techniques the day before, both in the mid-70s.
"Hell yeah, I feel stronger than a bull!" Marcus said, pumping a fist in the air.
"I have reached the 5th level," Lucius commented with a more reserved attitude. However, they were quite the opposite in terms of personality, even if they seemed to get along.
"Can't wait to punch those fu**ng politicians in their throats and make them cry for having caused all of this," Marcus said with anger.
Many, Lucius included, looked at him weirdly, but no one said anything for the sake of the pantomime that Jacob had built.
"So, Jake, what's the plan?" Helena said with poison in her voice.
She had not been happy to find out about Cultivation Technique since Jacob had not handed her one from the start. He had wondered whether making her too strong would be a considerable risk, but he did need someone to spearhead the future fights. Therefore, he had given her one of the greatest Cultivation Techniques he owned. It was on the same level as Juliet's.
The Heavenly Warrior Cultivation Technique
It was one of the strongest and most neutral Cultivation Techniques he knew of. Helena had not one particular affinity. She was just pure raw power. It meant that her future could potentially be boundless, and that was why Jacob had given her a Cultivation Technique that did not target affinity but only talent.
With her 10th level talent and this Cultivation Technique, she would soon live a meteoritic rise in power, leaving everyone behind. If she turned evil, even Jacob would not be able to stop her… not without risking his own life. He had told her so and told her that the future of humanity should be their only worry.
If Jacob had had more time, he would have tested her more, but he was working with a deadline approaching.
Frederick had passed the test he had given him. Jacob knew that the guy was much colder and ambitious than Joseph, but he still showed great potential in this new life. It seemed that Jacob's intrusion in this timeline greatly changed the future of many people.
"Ok, I have given everyone instructions on how to practice, including the principal. Now, what we are going to do is pretty simple. There is no sure way to kill a Charybdis. This is not an American movie where we plant the bomb and evacuate. We are the bomb. We will need to kill every single Charybdis and then hunt the rest. I will do most of the hunting on my own since I know how to track them down."
Jacob started sketching out a perimeter around the map of Fort Mountain.
"The Charybdes are not normal Demonic Beasts. Dragons and Hydras are the strongest monsters you will ever face, but the Charybdes are the nastiest pieces of sh*t hell ever spawned. They have no weaknesses. They are relentless. If you let one get away, then you could have an entire new horde in a matter of months. They are harder to kill than undead, more resistant to Magic than Young Dragons, and tougher than Juvenile Hydras."
"Man, these monsters do sound awful like Cre—" his Aunt Linda started murmuring something but then stopped. But, of course, no one knew about her little guilty pleasure.
"How are these monsters not conquering the world?" Joseph picked up the conversation.
"Oh," Jacob mused, "that's easy to answer. Every single creature-in-existence hates them. Demonic Beasts rarely clash with each other. When they do, it's only if there's a matter of territory or if the two races are mortal enemies. Well, Charybdes are everyone's mortal enemies."
"Well, one good news, I guess?" Joseph mumbled.
"Not really. We are in a very low-level zone. We cannot hope for any help from Demonic Beasts. If this had been the territory of some intelligent lifeform, we could have brokered a temporary alliance. Instead, we are on our own against the most terrifying creatures."
Jacob saw Luis Albert fidget with a stick that was usually used to point at slides.
"Can't we just move? I mean, if they are this terrible, isn't it better to just run away?"
Oh man, I was surprised you were showing any spine at all.
"We could. But there is no guarantee that they wouldn't catch up. They can sense life, and they will follow the largest settlements, from the smallest to largest. So even if we started migrating – and that's a big if with hundreds of people to take care of – it would be almost impossible to evade them completely. If they did catch up, every single one of you would most likely die. If they did not catch up, they would massacre another city, then another one, and so on until they would cross some powerful Demonic Beast capable of ending them at once."
Jacob let the silence hang in the air for a minute.
"There is only one city with enough warriors qualified to kill the Charybdes. And that's us. Even if I were sure we could make a run for it, I would never do it. We can't let people die because of our cowardice. We live now in a world of terror where we have nothing left but strength. And if we lose our dignity and honor, we are no different to the same monsters we are trying to fight."
"So," Jacob continued, "if someone wants to make a run now, I won't judge them. But they won't be welcome in St. Peter. When the tough times come calling, we will be ready to answer. But be careful because I will not allow cowardice to kill mankind's future."
Again, he thought to himself.