“It has been confirmed that Seraph has been taken into custody—”

“I thought we were trying to unite the globe but here we are coming after our own damned Slayers—!”

“It doesn’t matter which way you cut it: if the International Agency has arrested Seraph, then her crimes against the world is all but certain—”

“Even Monarch has been confirmed to have participated—“

“This poses a risk to Ordo as the outbreak has not been fully contained yet—“

“I knew it from the beginning; Angels are not the angels we knew all along—!“

“Turn off the fucking TV, man!” Victor snatched the remote from Vernon’s hands and violently pressed the power button multiple times before the screen went dark.

Vernon scowled. “Back the hell off, okay? I was just tryna see what everyone’s talking about—”

“We know what they’re talking about!” The remote was thrown onto the table, the hard plastic rattling on the wood. “They’re talking ‘bout how we’re fucked three ways to hell! That’s it! We’re fucked—!”

“Boys!” Gul raised her voice from across the conference room. “You two are going to sit down and keep your lips shut. Do you understand me?”

Begrudgingly, both men obeyed but the brief squabble had created bad energy between them. They decided to take a couple chairs on opposite sides of the room, grumbling and fuming and pissed all around.

Everyone was pissed and scared, but most were keeping it inside.

Leona was trying to keep her emotions bottled anyway. Wasn’t working out for her, though. What happened today? One moment she was checking out Althea's secret project and now the International Agency had announced their investigation then subsequently arrested Seraph, High Dominion, and Damien.

Problem was absent from the list thankfully, but that meant he was officially on the run and in hiding. They had to prioritize the security of the cosmic materials; once the Global Guards get their grubby hands on them, then Angels had little means to combat Sirius Aethfell.

She looked around the room: the Alumnus plus three Alba members were present. They were ordered to reach Monarch before the eight-fourteens could get their hands on her.

Since Levin told them to wait here upon their arrival, they were too late.

Senior Agent Murke won.

The Global Guards had successfully damaged the reputation of their strongest opposition to their plans. And while Leona was certain of Monarch’s steadfastness against adversity, there was a non-zero chance she could turn.

Awful, what an awful situation. Both of the Baptists' commanders were gone.

This realization created an oppressive atmosphere weighing down on everyone present. It was suffocating. Nobody could look at each other in the eye. Nobody could speak without devolving into a shouting contest like earlier. Everyone wanted blood but blood could not be drawn.

Leona pressed a hand against her forehead, her skull pounding and pounding and pounding. A horrible cold danced on her skin. Dull veins popped from the paleness of her arms. She had to check her phone constantly for updates from Scrutiny but she was afraid of the momentary reflection she'd find of herself in the brief black screen—would she look like one of those ghouls, then, like the ones that'd attacked Althea's school?

No, she could recover later. She felt worse than awful but as long as she could put together a resolution without taking any metaphorical casualties, then all the pain would be worth it. All this pain…

“...Empress.” Gul had approached her. When did she get here? Leona did not like the look in her eyes.

“What?” Leona said, finding her voice too weak so she cleared her throat. She said again, this time stronger, “I haven’t received anything from Scrutiny yet. What about you? Anything from Problem or Shinzo? Firebrand?”

One of the fronts had fallen, the investigation; now, the Global Guards had an easier time tackling two of their other goals: acquiring the cosmic material from Angels and finding the two Anomalies. This was the best time to do it when Angel command was thrown into chaos. Effectively, Problem and Shinzo were the only barriers stopping them.

“Firebrand is with the daughter,” Gul informed her. “Rector wanted to cover every ground possible.”

“The eight-fourteens wouldn’t be so cruel that they’d seize Ariella.”

“We don’t know that. If they’re willing to arrest Seraph when Ordo hasn’t completely removed the threat of another outbreak, then they’re willing to cross lines we would never go near.”

Victor commented from afar, “Until we contracted with a Nemesis that’s prolly committing genocide right now.”

One glare later and the B-Rank settled down.

Gul continued, "Back to what I was saying, Firebrand’s currently taking Ariella to a secure place. That’s all Rector told me and I think it’s best if as little people know the location as possible.”

“What about Problem and the Sephirah?” Kaiya raised. “I mean, I dunno much about the Society but since Telescopium is his old master…”

Gul shrugged. “We have to trust Problem and his strategies, but whatever he’s doing, it’s working. For right now, at least. As for Shinzo, has anyone got into contact with her yet?”

Nobody answered.

“Our issues as always.”

“So how are we gonna solve ‘em?” Althea asked, her anger leaking from each and every enunciated syllable. “We’re all dying to know.”

“Perhaps we could turn to Glory,” Chunhua offered but she did not seem completely convinced of her own idea.

Likewise, Victor shot that down: “Everyone thinks Silverhonor is a fuckin’ joke. She doesn’t have the respect we need to get gears turning. I dunno how, I dunno what fucking gears there are, but I know she’s not the answer.”

“Do you have an idea, then?”

“Yeah! I…” He paused, hissing through his teeth. “Fuck, I’m sure Angels made a shitton of connections. Especially Kosmos and Rector. Like Gadabout! Gadabout is their friend. Why can’t we call him up and see if he can fix our problem?”

“Different jurisdictions,” Vernon countered. “Besides, it’s gonna be real dangerous involving the Otherguards in anything political let alone in the ‘justice’ system. I don’t think that’s a boundary anyone wants to step over.”

“Well, the blue-ties did it first when they arrested our boss!”

Kaiya added, “For a crime she actually committed."

“Yeah! She’s guilty and we have fuckin’ zero legs to stand on morally, but we had no other choice! That’s a defense that can hold up in court, right? Under duress? That worked before!”

Althea gently palmed her [Spirit Housing Necklace] where Shandian resided in, rubbing her thumb against the centerpiece in an attempt to soothe herself. “Like you, Vic, I only know shit about bullshit but—and assuming this goes to trial—this is the first time in the history of the world that a Slayer contracted with a Nemesis to defend the planet against an otherworldly invasion. I mean, saying that out loud makes me realize just how silly this sounds but it’s legit and it’s real.”

Victor’s arms dropped in defeat. “Would you vote guilty or not guilty?”

“I’m up for some jury nullification.”

Gul motioned with her hands. “Let’s return to the base of our discussion. Back to Victor’s idea, I agree with Operator. Gadabout won’t help us and I don’t think he’s willing to considering his position. So what do you think about Martials?”

Leona rubbed her peeling lips. “It’s possible. We’ve developed a positive relationship with them, but I’m concerned about Guild Master Jin. He’s… Well, he’s unpredictable. I don’t think even Rector has a good read on him. I prefer it if we don’t approach him for help.”

“Guild Master Jin is a rational man,” Chunhua said. “More importantly, he was raised by his father to prioritize the guild over everything else. He would not involve himself unless it’s necessary, so yes, I agree with Leona. We should only approach him when he sees no avenue for neutrality.”

“So to summarize…” Leona spoke for the class, “...we can’t rely on our connections in the Otherguards or any of the Big Four. Does anyone have other ideas?”

Althea raised her hand.

“That doesn’t involve a revolution?”

She lowered it.

This time Kaiya had her hand raised. “What if we—?”

There was a knock on the door. The entire room once again was sent into a tense stillness; looks were swapped with one another like a game of hot potato, arguing over who’d open the door. Probably, Levin was on the other side but internally—or at least that was Leona’s gut feeling—the image of a devilish grinning Senior Agent Murke taunted the Baptists inside their thoughts. He could be standing outside right now.

“I’m coming in,” said a strong feminine voice, one that clearly didn’t belong to that bastard. The air felt lighter as a result, yet the pressure remained and hung over them.

One click later, Levin stepped inside looking several times worse than the last time Leona had seen her. Which was, what, back during the Disaster, wasn’t it? Combat wore you down, but politics was a whole nother demon.

“Long story short,” Levin began without much introduction into the already-broken-into topic, “Monarch was nabbed by the blue-tie. She’s gone. Carried off into custody like your Wings. I don’t know if they’re chasing after me and Fusil next.”

“Why’s that?” asked Leona, anxiously chewing on the nail of her thumb. “You weren’t directly involved in the contracting.”

“But we knew about it alongside a few others. But to be frank with you, I don’t fucking know what’s going on at this point. This is not a normal apoc-investigation. I wouldn’t be surprised if they arrested the fucking Pope at this point, so on that lovely note: you have any ideas?”

Vernon’s chair squeaked as he sat forward, his fingers digging into his phone case. “So you came in here without a single clue?”

A subtle change was seen in Levin’s expression, a twitch on the lips. “The way I see it, Vernon, we’re stuck in this dogshit together. You want your boss back and I want mine. Preferably without having our guilds dissolved.”

“You don’t care your boss helped kill billions of people?” Victor commented. Banging his fists on this subject again earned him the seething glare of multiple people here including Leona herself.

But their annoyance was little match for Levin, the notorious queen of lightning whose words sparked fires as her bolts did. Loudly like a dam breaking, she cracked a short, curt laugh and a hot breath whistled through her pink teeth shrill as a hawk. “That’s a brave thing to say, Baptist, telling me I’m a heartless bitch. If I didn’t need you right now, I would’ve kicked your sorry fucking ass outta my territory with the rest of your useless fucking snot-nosed brats who’s only here because your friends died or something.”

The Alumnus went rigid.

A burst of energy erupted beside Leona like an alarm. “Levin.”

“Your kids are hot-headed as hell, Gul.” And I almost forgot how hot-headed you are. The Disaster made us forget. “And clueless. I put you all together in a room and you couldn’t bash your two brain-cells together for a proper solution, huh?”

Crimson began to bubble on Victor’s face starting from the neck. His teeth thumped together but then Gul stepped towards the main conference table and dramatically slammed her hands on the wood. Everything on the table shook and rattled and some dropped onto the ground. With a single gesture she’d prevented her kids from absolutely roaring at Levin’s disgraceful comments.

Leona laid a hand over her heart. It rumbled. She was glad for a few more seconds of peace. But why couldn’t she think of that? She could’ve taken the initiative but all she’d done thus far was stand here like a bad lampshade, being one of the “useless fucking snot-nosed brats”.

In an effort to contribute, she kept her ears on the conversation but her eyes on her Baptists hoping a fight wouldn’t break out.

Gul lifted her palms off the table but kept her fingers glued on the surface like legs on a spider. “Then let’s bash our heads together, Levin. We’ve already talked about Glory and Martials; we don’t think they’ll be any help.”

“Obviously, a retard would’ve come to the same conclusion. What about Gadabout?”

”Unreliable.”

“Right, I’m shit out of contacts myself. Nobody wants to lay a finger on this mess. What about Kosmos? What’s Kosmos doing?”

“I don’t know. He hasn’t said anything to us yet.”

“So even Kosmos doesn’t know what the hell we’re gonna do, is that right?”

“He’s speaking with Rector I’m sure, trying to settle down Angels Guild so it doesn’t devolve into chaos—”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like Royals is the most harmonious fucking guild and I’m here wasting my time with you! Like two fucking shits I want to follow after that Martial psycho and Silverhonor, so give me fucking SOMETHING because it was your fucking plan that got us into this bullshit in the first fucking place so it’s your job to fix it!”

At the face of her demand, the former professor was locked into silence and not even her cool tongue could navigate around this unexpected obstacle. A flicker of blue eyes surveyed the room but no one had any good particular ideas to entertain. Not because their imagination was running dry but their fury had been fueled instead.

Leona’s heart dropped, now. She didn’t know Levin that well personally but was more than familiar with her kind.

Hesitation was weakness.

This little understandable second of silence brought by Gul—who had positioned herself as the leader—had destroyed her standing in the eyes of the Acting Guild Master. Within a few minutes of her arrival, she had viciously reminded everyone why she was the subject of much controversy before the Disaster.

A jarring, crooked smile came on and she nodded multiple times like she grasped the meaning of the multiverse. “Right, nobody has anything, yeah? I should’ve expected that, my fault. My fault for relying on a fucking loser who couldn’t keep her guild and students alive. What a fantastic high-ranker you are—“

Leona snatched Gul’s wrist.

Moments before she would’ve done something she’d sincerely regret later down the line.

But someone had done something regrettable. It was a flicker of plastic reflecting the lights from the ceiling. Whoever had thrown a water bottle, it was by far the worst thing you could do to an authoritarian like Levin, several magnitudes worse than slapping her across the face.

Levin let the empty bottle bounce off her armor.

Shouts and screams, threats of violence, and a swirl of voices crashing together worse than two eighteen-wheelers head-on. Someone had jumped over the table and chairs fumbled over onto their backs. People were pushed, forcibly separated. Some fought. The room intensified in energy where the bulbs above brightened to the point of blinding. Leona gulped and placed a hand over her mouth, chest pulsating.

Her mind turned white and she couldn’t hear the voices anymore. Just the harsh humming of blood in her ears, followed by a feverish ache swarming her body. It shouldn’t have been like this. This was supposed to be a discussion, a discussion. Where was Kosmos? Rector? Why hadn’t they come back with news yet, with an actual plan? Where were those useless assholes?

This was her fault—this was her fault. What could she have done to fix this? If she hadn’t fumbled the ball with Mystic…! If she took initiative and reached out and did research, there could’ve been connections and tools waiting to be used! Yet they were here with fucking nothing and just waiting to be thrown into the grinder!

Leona clasped her ears, struck them multiple times to try to get that fucking noise out of her head.

Then like magic, the room went deathly quiet. Did she pass out? No. Her vision came into focus and she found herself staring at the dirty floor. Mud and dirt and little splotches of blood were tracked onto here. Beneath the stains were her haunting health in the dirtied reflection. She looked up.

She looked up and everyone was staring at her. The door or window must be open because it was unexplainable how she’d gotten this cold this fast.

She rubbed her throat. It felt raw.

“Shut up…” Look at them, they knew it was true. They knew she could’ve been better, done more—there was always a path to victory and she took the quickest detour to disaster. They knew she had failed them. “Shut up, dammit…”

A hand lunged and she slapped it away. She stepped back, stumbled, back hitting a small table. She hissed and balanced herself for dear life.

“Everyone just shut the FUCK up! I don’t…! I don’t need this from any of you! Ah—! Dammit! GODDAMMIT!”

Someone said, “Leo—!”

“I told you to shut the hell up already! I’m not Kosmos, I’m not Seraph, I’m not Rector, I’m not Alex! I’m not Alex, okay?! What do you want from me?! What the fuck do you want from me?!”

Of all the people in the room, she saw Levin clearly and she was sneering. “Imagine being so fucking pathetic that you can’t go one day without your boyfrie—“

Her knuckles hurt.

They pounded.

On her right hand, they had been stripped raw. There was a small mark on Levin’s cheek.

Leona trembled and opened her mouth but like all the times before, nothing came out because she forgot the purpose of her tongue. Like a drunkard, she shambled backwards towards the door, maniacally swinging her head preparing to get jumped on and restrained for being the crazy woman she was.

“I don’t…! I don’t…!” she muttered—

Like spears in the dark, there were arms.

Her heart leapt out of her chest.

She pushed them away and sprinted for the door—slammed into the door, dizzy yet somehow managing to open it. The sun turned the world white.

She ran.

And ran.

And ran.

Leona fell. Right onto her arms and knees, scraped the skin off and she began to crawl in no particular direction. Anywhere. Anywhere away from that place. Once her hand felt something hard she turned and laid slumped over. She breathed and breathed, she cried, and cried, and coughed and kept coughing and kept crying.

Shinzo’s words returned fiercely when she had so stupidly collapsed in the middle of the Hospital, puking her guts out from the sudden teleportation. Leona remembered her words and by God was she right about everything: in the whole world there was no one more miserable and laughable than her. Kept torturing herself, kept hurting others—Levin couldn’t be blamed for this, Seraph wasn’t. The one at fault was the future SSS-Rank Slayer, cowering and hunched over in squalor.

The world got darker. There was another sound reaching her. Not her own heartbeat or her tears, but something soft greatly standing out from the inexhaustible chaos. It reminded her of her life before the Disaster. It reminded her of Alexander whenever he dropped his snark and demonstrated the reason why she’d fallen for him.

It was that soothing gentleness, that comfort…

When she opened her eyes, she didn’t find him.

That source belonged to a man several decades older and had the deepest green eyes she’d seen in someone. Everything that existed in humanity lied within his eyes, genuinely: compassion and endless warmth, yet struggle more than her ignorant mind could imagine. Hate existed tortuously inside him, but he had known hate for so long and so intimately that he understood the entire worth of love. And of the two paths, here he was, helping a stranger.

“Young lady, are you okay now?” asked the kind man as he pushed up his glasses. His sleeves sunk down to reveal an intricate tattoo of sorts.

Leona slowly nodded. “I… Ahem, yes. I feel better now. I…”

“Don’t be embarrassed.” The man smiled. “I’ve dealt with worse, Miss Ahn.”

She blinked. “How do you—?”

“Leo!” From her right, Althea frantically appeared sweating bullets. “Oh, thank God you didn’t run outta the base! We’re not Slayers anymore, I can’t run like this forever, y’know—Huh?”

She was frozen in place.

The man stood up nonchalantly and rubbed her head without fear. “It’s been a long time since I saw you, peaches. Have you gotten so famous that you forgot all about your uncle, Thea?”

Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up at him. “Uncle… Uncle Ali?”