Clare sat watching several images on a huge hologram showing various people running towards Clypeus territory, and only when they had all disappeared from the range of her drones did she get up and stretch. - Hmm... Ahh... If you had at least helped a little from afar I would have ignored you, but now... - Clare smiled as she looked at the sign of some drones entering her territory. - Gustav, Gustav... Well, instead of getting rid of them, I'm going to control the information... It's no good leaving that fearful lunatic against the wall... - Clare stared at the sign for a while longer before getting up.
- TMN - 2, monitor the drones in real time and always direct them to irrelevant places when I'm not around.
[Order received... Marking targets... Establishing guidelines... Control function obtained... Starting operation... Control successfully installed... Operation in progress]
- Well done! - Clare exclaimed with a satisfied smile on her face.
'With that settled, I just have to take care of security, I said I'd train guards and everything... Well, it doesn't matter where I train them, does it? I'll fire a few from the army and hire them as security guards, I just need to replace them...' - Clare contemplated her options for a while, and after establishing a simple plan of action she stood up and spoke to her AI as she headed for the door. - TMN - 2, in parallel with your task start a recruitment program, and establish a training plan based on the previous ones as usual.
[Order received... Creating subtasks... allocating processing... existing guidelines... Applying... Recruitment started... Training plan sent]
- Great! - Clare nodded in satisfaction as she left the premises.
'Now I just need to fire the most competent people...' Clare thought as she left the grounds of her house humming.
- You failed... - In a dimly lit hall, a man sitting on a throne of some sort said as he looked at the man a few meters away from him. The man looked to be in a very bad state, he was sweating so much that his hair, which should have been brown, was approaching black and looked as if he had forgotten to dry it, his dark eyes were squinted, and his expression showed deep agony. Looking at the situation of the man on his knees in front of him, the seated man simply nodded in disappointment before speaking again. - Sigh... Go rest until the next mission Carlos, putting out Apollo's fire takes time... - The man said with the same tone that showed no feeling except disappointment.
- Yes, Mr. Cupiditas... I will leave now. - Carlos, who had been called Coyote by Maria the night before, stood up and looked at the figure sitting on the throne, the man wore a simple mask that covered from the tip of his nose to his jaw, on this mask was the drawing of a mouth with a faint smile that contradicted the obvious feeling of disappointment in his eyes; his eyes that were not covered had an extremely strong shade of green, they even seemed to glow in the dimly lit room, and matched the curls of wavy green hair that flowed down to his shoulders. After recording the blatant disappointment in the man's gaze, Carlos clenched both fists tightly, turned and left without saying another word.
- It looks like my friend is going to have to live in prison for a while longer... Sigh - Cupiditas looked at the watch on his wrist, seeing that it was already 1 p.m. and the time he had set for reports was up, he got up from the throne and started walking towards a door behind the throne he had been sitting on earlier.
'Let's leave that for another time, I have to take care of priorities... First, let's see what seedlings will sprout today. The cloth of the mask covering the lower part of his face sagged so that it looked as if Cupiditas was smiling.
- Tina... - As soon as he arrived at the door, the man called out a name, then paused, waiting.
- Raauuu, ao, au. - Suddenly, a Beagle puppy came running towards him, its high-pitched yelp resembling a loud, excited bark.
Tina's body shape was simple and ordinary, like that of any Beagle, but that was the only thing that was ordinary about her body. Unlike other dogs of her kind, Tina didn't have a mixture of white, black, and brown colors in her coat, her hair was completely black, and her eyes had a green glow similar to Cupiditas eyes.
When the puppy approached, Cupiditas bent down and rubbed its head and after a few seconds he got up and opened the door and began to descend, with Tina accompanying him on his way. When he reached the bottom of the stairs there was a huge metal door, and the only source of light in the whole area was that which escaped from under the door; with his green eyes glowing in the darkness, he approached the door and knocked on it nine times in a specific rhythm and waited a few seconds before the door suddenly opened.
When the door opened, the figure of a man with white hair and a thick gray beard was staring at Cupiditas with his amber eyes. After seeing the identity of the person who had knocked on the door, he looked away from the man at the little dog accompanying him, and a smile appeared on his apathetic face. After smiling, he quickly returned to his apathetic expression and turned his eyes back to Cupiditas.
- The ritual is ready; we have fifty people this time... - The man said calmly and with a certain indifference.
- Mn... How many do you think will convert? - Cupiditas asked without changing his expression as he looked at the room from behind the man's shoulders.
Behind the man's shoulders was a large space with a circle formed by a combination of letters and symbols. To anyone looking at these symbols and letters, they wouldn't have the slightest meaning, but when Cupiditas saw the symbols, a smile formed on his lips, and after nodding in approval, he looked around the room. The room was dimly lit by torches and apart from the fifty people kneeling and blindfolded there was nothing else in the room, Cupiditas focused his eyes on the people and asked with interest - How many do you think will form the contract this time?
- Didn't you come here to separate those who accept the contract from the sacrifices? – The man who had already turned horizontally so as not to obstruct the passage said with the same indifferent tone.
- Tsk... Sociable as ever Stein... Well, whatever. - Cupiditas walked inside and as Tina followed him, he soon stopped his steps and looked at his "guests" with a smile and spoke. - Some of you, the more intelligent ones, will probably be my employees in the future, and let me welcome you! - A black thundercloud with amethyst tones came out of his body and hovered over the gagged people, frightening them, some of them even urinated, there were even three people who fainted directly; Seeing the dread in everyone's eyes, the mask that hid Cupiditas' lower body showed the outline of a smile, and looking into his eyes it was easy to see the sadistic joy he was feeling. He watched the scene for several seconds, and only when almost a minute had passed did, he shift his gaze to the circle of words and direct the lightning at it. The letters and symbols lit up with Cupiditas' thunder-colored table and the thunder began to fade as the circle became brighter and more intense, after the lightning disappeared Cupiditas looked at the circle and nodded with a satisfied expression, then he looked at everyone and said with the same smile. - Tina, see which of these humans is the most intelligent.
- Raauuu! - After barking as if she had agreed to her owner's request, Tina walked on all fours towards the people who were panicking at the moment. As soon as she approached the crowd of people she sat down and watched everyone for several seconds, then she got up and walked on her paws over to a blonde woman who looked to be in her twenties and dragged her into the circle, then she walked over to a fat man who looked to be in his thirties and dragged him into the circle, then she dragged a teenager, followed by a little black-haired girl who looked to be between seven and ten years old. Tina continued choosing random people and taking them to the center of the circle until exactly twenty-five people were occupying the space. - Raauuu, au... - As soon as she had finished, Tina barked vigorously for a while and returned to Cupiditas' side.
- So, these are the twenty-five most likely to be corrupted... - Cupiditas murmured as he stared at all the humans inside the circle. After looking at each individual for a few seconds, he turned to Stein and spoke.
- Proceed with the sacrifice. - After he said this pillar of earth began to rise from the ground until a kind of stone throne, after forming a seat to watch the process Cupiditas sat down and leaned his left cheek on his left palm and faced Stein.
- Mn... - Stein nodded and walked over to everyone outside the circle. As soon as he approached, he spoke in a low voice, but to everyone in the room he seemed to be shouting with amplifiers in his ears. - I sacrifice the lives of these inferiors so that their brothers can embrace a new species and give it a purpose, sanguis key... - After Stein's voice resounded strangely, everyone in the room, with the exception of Cupiditas and Tina, began to turn into blood. Just a few seconds later the room was silent, the sounds of crying muffled by the gags completely gone, the people inside the circle who had been crying until a moment ago stopped crying and their eyes widened as they looked in the same direction. The place where there had once been several people was now empty, no, it wasn't empty, but instead of twenty-five human beings there were twenty-five bright red spheres levitating in the exact place where each body had previously been, after a few seconds the spheres moved slowly towards the people inside the circle.
'W-what's that?' A woman who appeared to be in her thirties and had red hair looked at the approaching spheres with both eyes wide, fear and desperation could be seen in her brown eyes as she shook her head and tried to crawl backwards, the closer the spheres got to the circle the more she tried to get away; it wasn't just the red-haired woman who acted desperate, everyone inside the circle moved to the other end of the circle as they struggled and watched the blood spheres slowly approach, not that they just wanted to watch, but unfortunately for them it became impossible to retreat any further once they reached the words and symbols that delimited the area of the circle.
Regardless of the horrified looks on the faces of the people inside the circle, the balls of blood continued to approach slowly, and after a few seconds of tormenting the people inside the circle, the spheres finally reached the edge of the circle. Everyone was looking at the spheres intently in order to keep away from them, but unfortunately this was useless, as soon as the spheres reached the edge they disappeared and in the next instant they appeared above people's heads; the moment the spheres of blood disappeared from the line of sight of the people in the circle they all despaired, each individual within the circle looked around in despair, but no matter how much they looked around they were unable to glimpse any sign of the red spheres, and only after they noticed a boy staring up did they all slowly raise their heads with obvious fear and apprehension in their eyes, and as soon as everyone fixed their gaze on the spheres they disappeared again, scaring everyone, they quickly lowered their heads to look for them again, but this time it wasn't necessary, because as soon as they lowered their heads they were greeted with a red sphere right in front of their faces and before they could take any action the sphere completely enveloped their heads. As soon as their heads were enveloped everyone inside the circle began to glow red as they fell to the ground writhing in pain.
- It began... - Cupiditas looked at the people writhing in agony on the floor with a smile beneath his mask.
- Are you going to watch the process this time? - Stein asked with the same indifferent tone as before.
- I think so... We still have three years to arm an army, so for now I'm not too busy... - Cupiditas replied without looking away from the people writhing on the ground.
- Mn... - Stein nodded at Cupiditas' answer and remained silent for a few seconds before asking about another subject. - Sir, I've been in charge of the possession organization, and I've been busy the last few days... How is the operation going? Is it over or are they still discussing it? - Stein asked without looking away from the people who were now squirming a little less, among whom there were some who were completely immobile at the moment.
- No, we're not negotiating anything... The mission has failed... - Cupiditas replied with obvious disappointment in his tone.
- Did it fail? How is that possible? Didn't they manage to delay Clare? - Stein asked as he looked away from the circle with the people in it and stared at Cupiditas' profile, his voice no longer containing the usual indifference when he asked in surprise and this, together with his perplexed expression, demonstrated how unreal the failure of this plan was for him.
- Yes, they did, for a few minutes... But they failed... - Cupiditas replied as he turned his eyes away from the circle and looked at Stein's face.
- Why didn't you intervene? You could bargain now... - Stein said while looking at Cupiditas with a suspicious expression.
- Sigh... You know, I was going to interfere, but... - Cupiditas closed his eyes and remained silent for a few seconds before continuing. - I was afraid to interfere Stein...
Note: I didn't post yesterday due to the size of today's and tomorrow's chapters, which I thought was best not to cut; Hope you like it ;)