Chapter 584 - Day MMCXXXIX, Part VI

- After all the talking about preventing war, you do this? - asked Nil immediately after we landed. - You could just take us here, and there would be no problem.

- If you are concerned about war, rest assured - Katri Xel Avakadaisu butted in before I was able to say a thing. - What the emperor wanted, was to attack us, not start a war. He can't do that. You are an unofficial part of the empire now. Any conflict among the factions needs to be approved by the High Queen herself. I believe your reaction was correct. They would attack us anyway. They just needed to gather forces. Although moving here and avoiding the whole thing would be the best solution, it was still a pleasure to watch how you crushed them.

A slight smile appeared on her face.

- You knew that, right? - Will asked me.

- Of course, I did - I lied.

The fact was that I just couldn't take it anymore. The soldiers were the last drop of water to spill the whole cup of suppressed emotions. I watched my friend suffering and dying, but what was really hunting me was the fact that I had to face Irina and tell her to her face that I couldn't save Boris.

I tried my best to not think about it, but it was still there. Hunting me on the back of my mind. 

- So what now? - asked Nil.

- We need to contact somebody - said Adam.

- We should contact Ashal Kal Anur and tell him everything - said Atri.

- We will take care of that - agent Karol Siemiątkowski joined the conversation. - We have just the right people here to do it.

He smiled slightly as he looked at the army of assistants and officials from different governments. His words were confirmed quickly by a few nods from the whole group, and then they split apart. Some were clearly heading towards hotel management, others just take a few steps to pull out their phones.

Throughout the whole time, we were watched by the guests and the workers who simply didn't know how to react.

Will grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to the side to quickly hiss:

- Get your shit together. You didn't know shit. We were trying to prevent wor so hard. People sacrificed themselves for it, and now you are doing something like that?

- You hear her. They can't start a war.

- Yes, but you didn't know that. See? This is why we couldn't allow you on that stupid arena. You are falling apart, just like when Nadia died - he sighed. - Maybe I shouldn't have said that... Look... I know it's hard. It's hard for everybody, and we can support each other ok? From now on I want you to absolutely do nothing, until I say you can, ok? Can you promise me that?

I nodded. I felt like a kid who just got slapped on the wrist, but I did deserve it.

Adam joined us, as we were finishing the conversation purely out of curiosity, as he was suspecting that something was happening. Katri Xel Avakadaisu followed him.

- What's going on? - he asked.

- Nothing. We just had to talk about something on the side - said Will. - So what now? Do we wait, or do we go somewhere?

- We wait - said Adam. - At least until the suits are done talking with authorities.

Just as he finished, Vikram Kaur showed up next to us.

- We talked with the hotel management, and you can go to the bar, and rest a bit. The drinks are free. We will also get you TV there so you can check out what's going on. People are still making calls, but we will keep you updated.

- Thank you - said Will.

I kept silent. I still saw the man as a traitor.

Since everybody was going, I followed too and we got ourselves a nice table. The group was formed out of Adam, Will, Atri, Me, Tai, and Gavriil who both joined us on the way seeing that we were assembling.

A few minutes later they brought the TV and placed it on some frame. There was a bit of fighting with the wires, but they managed to deal with that in a span of a few minutes.

In the meantime, we ordered some drinks. The alien woman though took just a glass of water.

The guy who was installing the screen shuffled through the channels and stopped on news provided by some English-speaking station.

There was an elegant woman wearing a white jacket talking about us.

- Although we don't know the details yet, we were able to confirm that the group of our heroes, who fought to prevent war has already landed back on earth. We will give updates on the matter as soon as we are able to. Meanwhile, the celebrations of victory by the hands of a hunter named William are spreading throughout the whole world.

After she said that, we were flashed by sneak-peaks from all around the globe of people chanting Will's name, cheering and clapping in crowds on the streets.

- You are famous now - said Adam looking at Will with a smile on his face.

But their conversation was cut short by a sudden change on the TV screen. The host appeared again with footage from the place where both alien ships were levitating above the ocean. You could see hundreds of smaller vessels departing from the Zor'xal's gigantic ship.

- There has been reported an unusual activity of aircraft departing from the mothership belonging to the Dispurian empire - informed the woman.

We all immediately looked at Katri Xel Avakadaisu. She was watching it all with her mouth wide open.

- What is he doing? - she asked directing the words more to herself than to us.

- This awfully looks like a start of the war - pointed out Gavriil.

Around us, more people were shocked by what was being shown to us on the news.

Suddenly three more gargantuan vessels slowly breached through the wall of reality sliding inside our world.. I peaked at everybody, but they all were thinking the same.