Ash and the gang were in a meeting right now; they were deciding who will be sent to Laterano with them. "So? Who will we be adding to our retinue? It should be a power move. We need to bring as many powerful people as possible." Texas suggested.
She was a Mafioso, it's only natural that she would know about strong arming other groups into submission. She was even thinking of assassinating people left and right while they were there. But she held her tongue until she knew what their real purpose was there.
"Big sis Cellinia is right, you're a smart cookie ain't cha?" Ash teased her and she blushed a bit, she was used to being called Texas.
"Ehhh? Why are you alright being called by your first name by Ash!?" Sora was complaining, her idol wasn't even trying to complain about it.
"Are ya jealous? Hehehehe~ Ash is close to Texas after all, he's even got her first kiss!" Lappland revealed and everybody went deathly quiet.
Texas face palmed, even Emperor was gobsmacked. His sunglasses almost fell off from his beak. It was just simply too surprising. Texas has a reputation as an ice queen that doesn't let anyone get close to her.
"What!?" Sora and Croissant shouted in disbelief. They were losing their minds. "Ahhh, I shouldn't have said that, should I?" Lappland put out her tongue like a ditz.
"You shouldn't…" Texas sighed and Sora looked like she was going to cry while having an expression like she was betrayed.
"Wait, why aren't you surprised Exusiai?" Croissant got suspicious at the Sankta that was eating her apple pie calmly, making herself as small as possible so she won't get caught in the crossfire.
"Uhhh, you see… Yeah! Lappland told me about it!" Exusiai pointed at Lappland and Ash whistled, he thought that Exusiai was one brave girl to try and capitalize on Lappland's mistake.
"Hoh? Did I now?" Lappland licked her lips and Exusiai shuddered. She was already regretting it, doubting if it was worth trying to implicate Lappland as the mastermind of it all.
"Enough about this, it was just a silly party game Sora, Croissant." Texas glared at them. "Yeah, it's just a kiss. It's not like we were getting down and dirty." Ash shrugged, Cellinia is a grown ass woman. Fans really were ridiculous.
"Anyways, participants to the meeting?" Ash made them concentrate on the meeting once again. "Yeah… Whatever this meeting's for." Emperor gave a tired sigh. Thinking of giving Texas a raise so she won't go to him or something.
"If we're going for a power play, shouldn't we bring all the important people you guys have?" Exusiai tried to recollect who those were.
"Hmm, Luna, Soleil, and Mlynar are a given. So, Margaret, Degenbrecher, Enciades, Enya, and the dragons." Ash's eyes lit up. The first two were grand knights, the next ones were a warlord and a head of state, while the rest were deities.
He can already imagine their special arrival on Laterano. Ash was chuckling in his seat with an evil smirk on his face. It would make Laterano shit their pants when they arrive.
Emperor silently texted Kal'tsit, because he was having a bad feeling about this. And the old hag would definitely talk to him so they won't do anything too dangerous.
"Ooh! The Sankta actually have incredible hatred against the Sarkaz." Lappland remembered that tidbit of information, because the angels with guns would almost always get into death battles against the quintessential demons.
"Bring tons of Sarkaz, okay. Ahhh, how about making the last Wendigo our guard? That would really make them fuming. I don't know if they know you there Shining, but the white horns of the Confessarius is really noticeable as well." Ash looked at her.
"That is true, the Confessarius are actually known as the white horned demons. We are identifiable by that trait. Why not bring Alastor and Astaroth too? Especially Alastor, that girl's horns are quite intimidating." Shining suggested.
"Well, I am raising them to be my right and left hands to fight in my stead. I'm going to give them a nice little costume as well so they would be mysterious." Their plans in going to Laterano was shaping up quite nicely.
"What's going to be the goal there anyway?" Emperor stayed calm, fishing for more information. He trusted them to not make any international incidents, but he didn't live for thousands of years by being an idiot.
"Have you read the Gelato Accords?" Emperor nodded. "Don't see anything wrong with it?" Ash smiled at him and Emperor quickly took out the treaty, double checking it for loopholes, but he found nothing.
"Then good, if you can't find it. Who is an established businessman that handles operations all over the world, then they can't." Ash grinned at him and Emperor shuddered.
'Is this a contract to the devil? Is there a hidden clause in which Laterano would sell their country to Ash?' Emperor squinted his eyes and checked it multiple times. But he came up with nothing, it was clean.
"Alright then, how about we get this show on the road ladies and gentlebird?" Ash stood up and left with his entourage. With Lappland pestering Texas one more time to try and have a fight with the Lupo.
After they left, Texas noticed that Emperor was getting paranoid. "What's wrong boss? I think they're really going there to talk nice, this is a peace treaty that will benefit Terra." Texas raised a brow at him.
"I don't know; my gizzards are tingling. I can feel it, that crafty bastard is going to give Laterano a surprise that they won't forget." Emperor hoped that it really would be for the better.
"Eh? You can feel it in your gizzards? Then aren't you just constipated or something? Just go to the bathroom boss." Croissant looked at him weirdly.
"You little shit! You know what I mean!" Emperor fired his hand gun at her shield and Croissant ran around while laughing.
Texas then remembered the stunt he pulled back in Kjerag. She sighed, Ash is an opportunist. He would surely milk this treaty with everything he can. But she thought it would be for the betterment of Terra.
Deaths due to starvation is at an all-time low. Millions of people also got free health care from Paradiso. Texas remembered the unfortunate folks that were dealt a bad hand. But he's already made a positive impact on the world, something that nobody could claim. So she trusted him with his plans.
__Laterano__
It was a good day for a summit. There were no clouds looming in the skies, no threats of catastrophes happening. The sun was shining and the warmth of sunlight encompassed the small nation of the Sankta.
"Hey, what's that?" A guard patrolling the walls of Laterano squinted his eyes, shielding it from the rays of the sun. Spotting something over the horizon coming towards them.
"Isn't it just a cloud? Why are you overreacting?" The other guard with him patrolling who was just enjoying the sun and touching some grass rolled his eyes.
"No dude, it's moving way too fast… Pass me some binoculars, that's not natural." He took a pair of binoculars from his partner and took a look with it.
"Oh my law…" The guy went limp and put down the binoculars while gaping. "What? Is it a pretty nice set of clouds? Maybe it would be a good day for cloud watching. Patrolling is troublesome, why can't I be a nice cloud in the sky?"
He glared at his lazy partner and he ran towards the alarms. Sirens immediately sounded out and Laterano was in full alert.
Their apostolic knights who were lugging around gatling guns went into action immediately. The spec ops of Laterano rendezvoused at the gates because of the highest level alarm. (pic)
"Report! Are the Sarkaz invading!? Damned Theresis, we always knew he would be trying to destroy Laterano someday! That mad man!" A captain of the knights demanded of the guard.
"S-sir, that's not the case…" He panted, trying to take a breather. "Then what!?" The knight was getting impatient.
"There are dragons coming, four of them to be exact. And a mobile city that is floating is quickly making its way to Laterano too." The guard managed to squeak out before he kneeled down, breathing heavily.
The apostolic knights were gobsmacked and they looked at the skies. After waiting for a few moments, Laterano was overshadowed by the four Feranmuts that arrived at the country.
They were easily the size of the capital and the dragons surrounded the four cardinal directions. "Humans, we have arrived. This is Laterano is it not?" Ling was the spokesperson because Nian's shrill voice didn't sound majestic enough.
"It is time for great change, we will be the arbiters of this historical meeting. Call for your leader, tell him that Asmodeus Naumann has arrived." Kjera ordered and the guards of Laterano just froze in place.
Narcissa then carefully put down Paradiso's mobile city and his entourage flew towards the gates of the capital.
They landed right in front of the apostolic knights and they were releasing their arts for theatrics. Ash was leaking his violet energy on his horns and right arm.
Margaret created wings of light and a halo behind her head was formed. Degenbrecher planted her sword on the ground, posing as a ruler.
Mlynar grumbled a bit and created pegasi made of his arts to ride with the twin empresses. "This is too much; I'm using my arts so we can put up a show."
"Oh shush, it's cool and you know it. You shouldn't be a killjoy, just because you're an old man. It doesn't mean that you should ruin things for the rest of us." Soleil rolled her eyes at him.
"A-an old man? T-that's true… But I'm not that old!" Mlynar grumbled again and he decided to read his newspaper, Kazimierz was celebrating like no tomorrow with their victory against Ursus.
And he was eternally grateful to Ash for giving him glory that far surpassed his father's. It is his dream to bring glory to Kazimierz and they dealt a huge blow to their nemesis.
Alastor and Astaroth were dressed in robes that hid their faces. They were to be his proteges, and it isn't time to release them to the world. (pics)
The former's thick horns were jutting out of her head, making the apostolic knights tense up immediately. She was conjuring crimson wings of fire behind her, looking like a very dangerous nun.
Astaroth was the same, her violet electricity arcing all over her body. Wings and a halo of plasma around her, upping her intimidation factor.
"Yo, we're a little early. But the early bird catches the worm as they say." Ash greeted the apostolic knights with a nonchalant wave.
"B-bring his holiness here immediately…" The captain ordered one of the guards and they entered a tense standoff. They were outgunned and outmatched at every single way.
They didn't even dare to move, with four looming dragons staring at them with slitted eyes. Waiting for them to slip up even once, they were sweating bullets inside of their armor.
"Hey, you have any tourist spots here?" Ash asked the captain and his brain didn't load for a good few seconds. "Pardon?" He couldn't believe his ears.
"A tourist spot? You know? A place where people can sightsee and have some fun? Maybe try the sweets here in Laterano that is famous? See if the sugar we export here are being used well?" Ash rolled his eyes.
"Uhhhh…" He was put on the spot and he looked towards his comrades, they avoided his gaze and he cursed them inside of his mind, letting them know with their empathy sensing that he was going to run them ragged later.
"Ooh! I know, I know! There's some good apple pie right at the corner where I live! You guys fancy some nice tea and sweets? Exusiai is your gal." She had a smug look on her face.
"Then let's go, inform the pope we'll be waiting at…" Ash looked at Exusiai. "At sweet apple orchards! Good work sir knights, I'll take it from here yeah? It's because I'm the most awesome marksman of the penguin empire."
They went through the knights and entered the city after writing their names in their ledger for visitors. The poor gate guard was shivering while presenting the logbook to VVIPs.
"C-captain, is that fine?" One of the captain's men walked up to him and asked nervously. He went quiet for a second and inspected the logbook.
"T-they entered through legal means, even left some ID's." He sighed in exasperation, he wasn't paid enough for this kind of crap. "I'll need to demand more chocolates from his holiness later, this is wild."
__
Thanks for reading everyone. This here's the link to my Patreon if you're interested in supporting me. I'm in a doozy, so I only managed to stockpile a bit. But it will increase in a few days. Maybe about ten or around that ball park. Anyways, ciao.
First ten pulls and I got a walking artillery barrage and the boom boom bakudan harmacist! Maybe RNGesus is replacing my lifespan with gacha luck, lmao.
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