Hunter of the Evernight
Chapter 402: Distraction, Troublemaking and Extraction

Chapter 402: Distraction, Troublemaking and Extraction

"The plan will be divided into three layers." Alex began, with all those present paying rapt attention to his words.

Raising a hand, he counted with his fingers. "Distraction, Troublemaking and Extraction."

Pausing to see if everyone was following, he continued. "As the Emperor is already aware of me and wishes to meet with me, there’s no way to avoid getting entangled with him, thus, I, as well as Berenice, shall work on distracting him."

"Me?" Elena muttered, clearly surprised that she’d been called.

"Yes." Came the calm response from the highest seat.

"But why me?... I..." she hesitated before ultimately replying. "I haven’t even mastered my power yet."

"That is hardly a point for concern. As it is, even with our combined force, we might not be able to face off against the Emperor, according to Andromeda. Though it may be exaggerated, I feel it best to err on the side of caution."

"But still..."

"You share a deep connection with the Emperor, Berenice, and I plan to use it to our advantage. Understood?"

"..." Though silent, she managed a subtle nod which served as enough of a response.

With that sorted, Alex continued. "Then the next portion of the plan, Troublemaking, concerns anyone that could serve to disturb the meeting with the Emperor. We need Him alone to ensure my plan works so for this, Andromeda shall serve as the troublemaker, drawing just enough attention that any around the Emperor would be sent to handle you."

"What if the Emperor considers me a nuisance and kills me himself?"

"He won’t."

"This..."

"Do you trust me, Andromeda?"

Ana hesitated, clearly still struggling with the fear of her first meeting with the Emperor all those years ago.

Finally, after what seemed like a long time but was merely a few seconds, she nodded before falling back into her chair.

"Next would be Extraction, this is the most important portion of the mission, we absolutely cannot allow it to fail."

As he spoke, he snapped yet again before opening his palm, causing a glass box containing a common key to appear on it.

"This is the Wanderers Key and is our ticket past the Blackgold gate. However, it causes void rifts proportional to the strength of the seal it undoes and since we can’t be sure of how powerful it would rate the gate we seek to open, we have to expect the worst."

"I volunteer to partake in Extraction." Victoria readily remarked, having already discussed things beforehand.

Alex nodded. "Your Spirits would be essential in ensuring the closing of the rift the Key would create."

"But that means that Mas, I mean, Lady Victoria won’t be able to enter to take the Godstone." Douglas quickly pointed out a problem.

"Indeed, which is where you come in, Lupus," Alex said. "Your Power to manipulate the fundamentals of Motion will ensure that you are out quicker than anybody else."

Though caught off guard by the assignment, Douglas was quick to accept as he replied. "I will do my best."

Satisfied with his response, Alex returned to addressing everyone present. "There are numerous unknowns for this mission and without a proper gauge to know what we are getting into, we can only make speculations. I won’t lie, this would be dangerous as we are like children treading into the den of a lion. One single mistake will ensure that we are devoured completely. I can’t stress the importance of what we are about to do so for all our sakes, do your best."

"By your wish." They all echoed at the same time, their voices resounding in the great hall before dissipating.

Just as Alex prepared to dismiss the gathering, Arwen meekly raised a hand, drawing his attention over.

"Yes, Apys."

"That... What about Cassiopeia and I?... We’ve been training hard and we think we are ready. We’d like to help."

Alex paused, quickly realizing that while cooking up the plan, he’d conveniently left out Arwen and Nadia from the participants.

Was that intentional or subconsciously done?

He couldn’t quite figure it out.

Pursing his lips, he remarked. "You both will serve as backup for Andromeda. However, I cannot stress the importance of being careful."

"We’ll be sure to watch our backs," Arwen replied, barely suppressing the excitement bubbling up within.

Alex spared a glance Nadia’s way to find that she was also pleased with the arrangement.

It would seem he had placed them on the back burner for too long.

Perhaps it was time to test them to figure out how prepared they were for the days ahead.

Regardless, he coughed before calmly intoning. "That will be all for now, the mission begins in two days so prepare yourselves, physically and mentally. Also, I know we can pull this off, so no pressure."

***

As the members of Constellations began to take their leave, heading back to their quarters to prepare for what was going to be an encounter to remember, Alex remained seated, his expression unreadable as he pondered the probability of success.

It was terribly low as he was playing with too little information to work with but who knew how long it would take to get the required information to increase the success rate?

He couldn’t wait that long so he had no choice but to hope for the best while preparing to put up the best performance of his career.

Just then, he noticed he wasn’t completely alone causing him to inspect the hall only to find Nadia still seated, her brown eyes peering at him as though studying him.

"Is there something you wish to say?" He inquired, breaking the silence in the hall.

Nadia hesitated before ultimately nodding. "I’d said I wished to speak to you about an important matter before now, do you remember?"

"I do," Alex replied, recalling the time just after the meeting with Princess Berenice that ended with some rather confusing revelations.

"If it’s okay with you, I’d like to do so now," Nadia remarked as she took off her veil completely, revealing the slender beauty underneath.

Unsure of what she meant as it held a few undertones, Alex replied. "I’m all ears."