( The floor 21 throne room )
The aftermath of the True Elites's raid on floor 21 was not all sunshine and rainbows.
The Church of Coward's after finding out that their controlling share of the resources on floor 21 was a mere 25% felt cheated by the Elites, as Zain and Karna had a very heated verbal spat.
Zain expected the profit split to be 50-50, between the church of cowards and the Elites, however, he was unaware that the Elites had already signed previous agreements with other guilds of Earth, which had diluted their share in the raid.
Feeling betrayed, tensions arose between the two sides, which were only resolved when Karna proposed to hand over the controlling rights of the floor over to the cowards, appointing Zain as the next floor master as the two sides finally reached an acceptable compromise.
"Once the 45 days cool down period ends, I will appoint you as the next Floor Master....
It was not my intention to betray you and I'm sorry that you feel this way–" Karna said wholeheartedly, as Zain accepted his apology.
"I feel your sincerity guildmaster, so I accept your apology.
I understand that things sure looked dire for you before the raid and I realize that it's partly my own fault to not verify how much % stake you held in this venture before signing an agreement with you.
However that doesn't mean that you did not have the chance to disclose it prior to us signing the deal.
You knew all the facts beforehand but still chose to scam us, and that will make me hesitant to trust you in good faith going forward" Zain said candidly, as while he accepted Karna's apology and prevented feelings of resentment to grow between the two sides, he also made it clear that trust between the two sides had taken a hit because of the trick that the Elites tried to pull.
"Guild Master.... Rocky insists on meeting you, now!" A member of the True Elites Guild whispered into Karna's ears, prompting him to end his meeting with Zain.
"Once again, my deepest apologies for the dishonesty on my part.
"The worst part is that Perseus, the man responsible for these killings and injuries as well as the alleged main perpetrator behind kidnapping Riva is now missing–
We have no idea as to where he might have run off to or who helped him escape from Floor 21, but according to reports from Vice Guildmaster who was last battling him, two unidentified hooded men helped Perseus escape our justice" The information head reported as Karna pinched his nose in frustration.
"So we failed to kill Perseus?" Karna asked, before cursing out-loud some of the most profane curses that his information head had ever heard him speak.
"I'm afraid so.... Both the brother and sister have been rescued and evacuated it seems" the information head said, as Karna's anger got even more amplified after receiving this piece of news.
"What do you mean, both brother and sister?
We had already secured Sophia hadn't we?" Karna asked in shock, as his information head hung his neck in shame.
"I'm afraid we have also lost the sister, guild master.... Sophia was also rescued by some unknown hooded man who managed to kidnap her from the middle of our entourage and escape without us being able to do anything about it—"
Karna felt his head spin when he heard this report.
Rocky had risked his life to kidnap Sophia and had entrusted her to the guild as a bargaining chip, yet the guild had failed him rather pathetically by being unable to secure the hostage for even a few hours.
"Do you have any more bad news for me? Because if you do just lay it on me all at once–" Karna said, sounding extremely frustrated as his information head pursed his lips.
On one hand he did have more bad news to present to Karna, however, on the other hand he did not have the heart to say it.
"I'm sorry guild master.... I feel like Rocky is the only person who should tell you the rest..." the information head reported, as Karna brushed his shoulders past the man and began sprinting towards where Rocky and Riva were camping near the outer wall.
'As long as we have managed to save Riva, all this is still worth it.
The spirit of the guild is intact and although we won't make much monetary gains from this war, we would send a strong message across the universe that the True Elites Guild is not to be trifled with–' Karna thought, as he reached the area outside Riva's tent, where Rocky seemed to be waiting for him with red furious eyes.