"Consider this meeting adjourned."
As Arias said those final words, his screen flashed off, leaving the remaining members of the light to digest his words.
A brief silence prevailed for a moment as each of the members let Arias's words settle in their minds.
There was a shared feeling of disbelief among all of them, they just couldn't bring themselves to believe what they had just witnessed.
Queen Bee, whose anger reflected on the vein now popping on her head, was the first to break the silence.
"The audacity! Who does he think he is! Who does he think we are!?" Her smooth jewel decorated hands slammed against the table she was seated in front of, her eyes trembling with an anger she hadn't felt since encountering Wonder Woman face to face.
Even the usually calm Ra's couldn't help but frown deeply. No matter how highly he thought of Arias, as the Demon Head, he couldn't overlook such a blatant show of disrespect.
Klarion's anger had been apparent from the start, but even now, the reason for it was quite misplaced. "Grr! He ignored me!"
The only member of the light who was neither moved by emotion or pointless things like honor, The Brain, felt ready to surrender to whatever demands Arias had.
Looking at the bigger picture, working for Arias didn't present any disadvantages to him.
For one, Arias's Ark Academies Science Division was among the most prestigious in the world, now boasting one of highest gatherings of academic minds in the world.
The freedom Arias allowed to many of its scientists to explore their many fields on near limitless budgets was something even he found alluring, after all, in his current state, his funding had come in small parts and its use was often directed toward research related to the light.
Despite having these thoughts, The Brain could see the other members were all clearly displeased so he didn't dare to make his true feelings known.
Instead saying, "absolutely preposterous! This cannot stand! *angry French noises*"
Ra's looked to be in deep thought for a moment before reaching his own conclusion on the matter.
"Preposterous as it may be, it's not completely baseless. If the light is to continue, it's new biggest threat, Arias Markovic, must be dealt with."
Queen Bee, still visibly angry, was curious over Ra's words. "And how do you suppose we do that?"
Ra's showed a cunning smile toward Queen Bee. "The league has its ways as I'm sure you do too. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend making an enemy of someone you're not even a little confident in defeating."
Without saying anything more, Ra's feed cut, leaving Queen Bee feeling even more angry, as if Ra's was also looking down on her.
"So be it!" She angrily remarked before cutting her feed as well, leaving Klarion with a deep frown.
"Fine! I'll deal with this Arias and show you all not to ignore me again! Come Teekl, we're outta here!" He mumbled to his familiar, which simply let out a meow in response as his feed also cut.
As for the Brain who was now left alone, he turned to his loyal sidekick and spoke, "Monsieur Mallah, please try and contact Monsieur Markovic, it is best we make it clear we do not share the other's opinions no?"
Meanwhile, back at Markov Castle, Arias, who had just cut the feed quickly shut the lid of the blood stained laptop he was using.
"You can drop the background now." He casually said to the trembling Fredrick Delamb who had made to hold a curtain for him as a backdrop throughout the call.
Upon dropping the curtain, one could see nothing but carnage scattered across the once lavish castle.
Items and infrastructure that had stood for centuries was now blood stained rubble.
Arias however didn't even register such a pointless factor and stood from his seat, turning his attention toward Fredrick while shaking his head.
"*Tsk* *tsk* what a mess, wouldn't you say Fredrick? You've been in charge of the country for less than a year and you've already destroyed such a vital piece of Markovian history. A shame really."
As Arias spoke in a smooth and casual tone, Fredrick's entire body was trembling in fear.
After seeing the brutal beating that Vandal Savage was put through before his head was torn off his body with barehands, he simply couldn't look at Arias the same.
Monster, an absolute monster is what he saw.
His mouth hang open but no words came out, making him look a lot like a bumbling fool.
Seeing this, Arias could only sigh.
"After all that rambling of how grand your goals are, your mind breaks over something like this? Useless."
As Arias said this, he turned away from the quaking Fredrick and took out his phone, just the sound of sirens could be heard not far from the castle.
*beep*
The phone quickly buzzed to life as a connection was made and a familiar voice resounded from it.
[ What do you want?]
"You don't have to act like you don't miss me Mercy. But I like that you're business focused, there's been a little accident…"
…
Later that day, news stations were abuzz with a new piece of news that took the spotlight away from the U.S government and the justice league in a headline that read,
[ HS group attempts to assassinate reagent Fredrick Delamb and Arias Markovic in the largest ever terrorist attack on Markov. ]
A carefully crafted story by a country that had now fully fallen under the grasp of Arias.
Using the HS group as a cover and even victimizing himself, stating that both he and Fredrick Delamb suffered heavy injuries with numerous imperial guards dead.
The public was quick to eat this up, and Arias's cult like following was explosive on various media platforms.
This was especially true for the young minded ones who felt Arias saved them from a terrible life and was a heroic life figure unlike anything they'd seen before.
To completely sell this story, aside from the group Arias was moving with and the light, only Slade, Mercy and Terra knew of the actual reality.
That is because because just a few hours after that headline was released,
[ Fredrick Delamb, 58, dies at Markov Royal Teaching Hospital due to heavy injuries. Princess Tara Markov to ascend the throne as the world's youngest Monarch.]