Chapter 163 - Balcony

[ Three minutes before Adam Rosa and Artorias Khalil succumbed to their wounds and passed on to the other side of life. ]

"T-The System?!" All three of Luken, Gavin, and Art's eyes were tense. "That is correct, you heard me right. The system…it is what that boy Yin Sohaya possesses." Adam told them. "It will protect him and see to it that anything that will ever seem like the mildest of threats shall be seen as expendable. T-That boy is carrying a heavy burden…I sure do hope you two manage to do what you can for whatever sake you are fighting for. One more thing, the location of the main nest…" Adam Rosa pulled both Luken and Gavin in a bit closer and whispered the location to both of them. Those were the Reaper's last words to them. This left them dumbfounded as he always kept repeating how he was still at the side of the Angels minutes before.

"What a jackass, I really can't believe he went on ahead like that. Well, it is inevitable, I guess. I have a bunch of catching up to do with Adam.. I leave Niflheim and mankind in your hands, Luken, Gavin. As well as the others…" The embers of life had already been snuffed out from the Basilisk Slayer's body. He was gone. There was knowing where both of their souls might have gone on after today, but the match that they both lit in their successor's hearts will always burn for humanity. Now and forever.

[ Present time, still at the balcony. ]

They all responded to Luken Regalia, the Commander, with a nod. "You have always had our trust, Luken, no matter how callous and foolish you have always been." Kai Xin shook his head and smiled while he said that. "Tch. I do not really care whoever I have to fight or work alongside with, as long as we get our results as the strongest Slayers of mankind, there is no reason why we should not succeed." Although Ignis Silva said with a scoff, he uniformed Kai's smile. That was the arrogant leader of the Inferno Garden that they all knew all too well. 

Fen Kaori said nothing and just shrugged his elbows. His eyebrows raised as he sighed. "So, what is the plan now, Luken?" Vale Ashford asked him. "We are going to have to cancel the upcoming Slayer Tournament, I am afraid." He replied. "I agree with that course of action. And not just because I do not want festivity and the entertainment that it brings because of my grievance, I believe that it is too untimely for everyone else as well. We have still not announced the Basilisk Slayer's death to the people, chaos is going to ensue soon." Gavin muttered out.

Normally, the entire Slayer Corps is divided between the Commander and the top one Ranked Slayer. The top one ranked Slayer is in charge of much harder missions, that was also why the Basilisk Slayer was heading out on missions that would often result in an ensured failure if other Slayers would have been given the job of carrying it out. To be the rank one is very prestigious, it is a mirror of the strength that flows within your veins as a Slayer, but the weight of it looms on one's shoulder like a heavy piece of baggage.

"You know, Luken, you can just give me the title of the Commander, I can lead the Corps while you go on the missions that are fit for that of the 'top one' as you currently are as of the moment." Ignis Silva said with an innocent tone, but really, he was just being opportunistic. Gavin was staring at Luken, afraid that he might cede the power and role of the Commander to Ignis. He was sweating bullets right now. "Do not do it, Luken. You know better than this. Artorias left the Slayer Corps to you, and you are the second in line after him in terms of raw strength and combative prowess. Do not yield to his manipulativeness…" Gavin said to his friend in his head. 

"Fair point, Ignis. But I do not think an ass like you should be the Commander, honestly." Luken retorted back which made the green-haired Serpent Summoner sigh in relief. Vale Ashford also did the same. "Thank God." She said. "Do you really think you can do the job of two important roles at once? Do not forget, we are both the vanguards and the swords of Niflheim. If you dawdle, it will not only be you who shall be affected. Everyone else living here too. "I know that. I know that much, Ignis, believe me. But it is not uncommon for the Commander to be the top one ranked Slayer in the Corps, it is not the first time this has happened, in fact, there have been many instances of this throughout time. Plus, you have always hated how 'immature' or 'childish' I was. I think it is about time I grew up, don't you think so?" Luken spoke with oozing confidence and maturity, it was a very rare sight for them. "Very well, suit yourself." Ignis replied.

Luken took out a stick of cigarette from his pocket and lit it with the slight flicker from a match in his matchbox. "The Angels have some kind of vendetta against Yin. I will tell you the full details some other time, but it is believed that boy is a descendant of the Old Gods, and in return, the Angels want to bring him to their nest, that was what the Seraphims were after. That, and to bring back that bald looking Seraphim which Artorias killed a long time ago, Sarathiel or some shit." Luken said as he huffed out a cloud of smoke straight into the air.

"That is not all, I know the exact location of where the Angel's main hive is. Where their base of operations is. Adam told me and Gavin as we threatened him by pointing our blades at his neck. He relented and just gave the information up for a few seconds more of living. It was pathetic, really." Luken put up the façade that Adam Rosa died as rotten as he lived. Gavin found it hard to hear these but he knew that it was necessary. As revealing to them that Adam Rosa going from being a traitor to being the person informing them of the key things about the Angels would cause the others to doubt the two of them as well. 

Luken Regalia pulled out a map and pointed at the direction where Adam Rosa told them the main hive would be located. "That is pretty far away from here, judging from that distance from Niflheim, it is about a two to three day hike towards there." Kai Xin said as soon as Luken placed his fingers at a specific location in the map. "How do we know if those hives will still be there if ever we decide to siege?" Fen Kaori asked a good question which everyone wanted to know the answer to. 

"It is simple, this is their main hive. Even if they wanted to, there would be no way to actually move it. It is far too colossal to even be moved an inch further. Well, that is what Adam said anyway." The Commander answered Fen Kaori. "Why do you seem to place so much trust on a dying man's words? For all that we know, he might be attempting to lure us into a trap. Once we get there, we shall be decimated by something else. I don't know. I do not like it." Ignis Silva said.

"Because I do not fuck around when I interrogate enemies, Ignis. Have you forgotten that he killed my sister? There is no way that he was lying, his eyes were teeming with fear. A fear so palpable that I could even taste it. Now, if word ever gets out that whatever I have said to everyone of you here reaches the masses, I will personally show you how that traitor would have felt back then." The Commander's eyes showed that he was not messing around, his cerulean eyes lit up with intensity, much like that of a shark smelling its prey.

Vale Ashford was conflicted for a bit; however, she knew that Luken and Gavin were not traitors, and whatever they were doing with Artorias and Adam's last moments alive were only what friends normally do. To reminisce about the past and feel the slightest shame and regret for their shortcomings. Both of them did not realize that she saw them talking and sitting around, however. And in her mind, she did not need to say anything to them, just in case things might go sour. 

They wrapped up their meeting after Luken told them most of the things that Adam had, without the stuff about why he turned traitor and about his lineage as a half-Angel, however, he thought that it would just cause unnecessary fear and paranoia among the people of Niflheim if it got out.