The Achievement Junkie

Leaning over the chipped viewing table, Halmut's gaze was sharp yet calm. He spoke, "Lyrun, summon the others. It's time we discuss preparations for war."

"Right away, your excellency." With a bow of his head, Lyrun pulled out his contact crystal and began to summon the holy gods one-by-one.

Halmut continued mulling over the recent events of the world in his mind.

The syndicate was practically abolished, leaving the chaotic gods with little to no forces left. Contention among the chaotic gods had become obvious by Tralbok wielding Moranti's scythe. Also, a chaotic god had actually been killed and it wasn't at the hands of a holy god, or even a god at all! Not to mention Kori and Lunara joining the neutral gods, despite Kori losing his godhood for the time being.

Mumbling to himself, Halmut closed his eyes and nodded, "Things are much different now… I wonder how we'll trample this new rising force?"

Racing toward the Olympic Chateau, a dragon was rocketing through the air. It's scales matched the darkness of a night sky, easily noticed in juxtaposition to the white clouds underneath the beast. At twenty meters long, the black dragon slipped through the barrier without a hitch and slowed his sound-barrier-shattering speed with his mighty wings, which had hands near the ends of its wings.

Those hand touched down on the ground as the beast landed on the pavilion outside of the conference room, where Halmut and Lyrun found themselves.

"Perchet, come. It's been too long…" Halmut greeted the new arrival amidst his soft mumbling.

Perchet's long ear twitched, catching Halmut's whispered mumble with no trouble at all.

The black dragon didn't adjust his gaze or turn toward the conference room. In fact, it had no gaze to adjust. The black dragon had no eyes or eye sockets. As a proud Nocturnal Dragon, it relied on it other heightened senses to live its life without any weakness.

Rocking slightly from side to side, the dragon walked with the front hands of its wings and its hind legs. Though Perchet had no sight, he showed no struggle in finding the entrance to the conference room.

"Use your human form… That way we can discuss things over the viewing table…" mumbled Halmut, not leaving his train of thought till the others arrived later.

Nodding, Perchet took a deep breath as his body gathered dark energy and shrunk down. In his human form, Perchet seemed to be an average man with long black hair, in a black robe, with a black blindfold wrapped over his eyes. Now in his human form, Perchet found his seat and took a sniff.

"Why was Sterfen in my seat?" Perchet asked, turning his ear toward Lyrun.

Used to Perchet's mannerisms, Lyrun casually answered, "Well, Sterfen only took Naparn and I as hostages in exchange for his wife's contract. No big deal, really."

"Oh… that's interesting…" sighed Perchet, nodding and grabbing his hairless chin.

The hard-to-read Nocturnal Dragon kept his stoic appearance as he too joined Lyrun and Halmut in waiting for the others. He was always the first to arrive as Perchet was very punctual and well-organized.

*****

"BLAST!"

Tralbok almost destroyed the chaotic gods' viewing table in rage as he watched Pestro slowly receive a dishonorable death at Jack's hands.

The other chaotic gods were mumbling amongst themselves, not daring to sit on the same side as the rarely enraged God of Time. They kept their thoughts to themselves until Tralbok was ready to talk more openly.

Five minutes passed as Tralbok did his best to calm down. Though he wasn't fully calm, he was now at least clear-headed.

"What should we do about this?!" Tralbok shouted, waiting for the other four chaotic gods to respond in some way.

One spoke up with a more relaxed tone. "Tralbok, how are we supposed to fight now?"

When Tralbok didn't reply, that god elaborated, "With just us five, facing the holy gods will be nearly impossible. Adding the now-rising neutral gods into the mix only worsens our chances of success. Should we just wait for those two factions to fight?"

"Not a bad idea… But I don't think it will be that simple," Tralbok replied. "With Pestro falling like this, I shouldn't have revealed myself with Moranti's scythe. Then, at least the holy gods would've kept our strength in question to an extent. But now… I think we've become the target of both the holy gods and the neutral gods. Oosam, do you have any ideas?"

The god who spoke earlier nodded and continued, "I think we need to go into complete hiding."

"Then what should we do about Choron and Moranti?"

"Hmm… that's the hardest thing to say…" Oosam itched the scruff on his face. "As for Moranti, I think we should kill him."

Suddenly, Tralbok burst into chuckles. "That's easy to say, but do you have any idea as to how we can pull that off?"

"Why not simply gift him? I'm sure we could reach an agreement of a temporary ceasefire with Halmut should you offer Moranti as collateral," reasoned Oosam. "With Moranti's life in Halmut's hands, I'm sure the great Sun Dragon will agree to hunt us down after dealing with the neutral gods, so long as we don't offend them in the meantime."

Tralbok nodded. "True… That's very doable… Then the rest of us would only need to hide and wait for the war between the neutral and holy factions to die down. We'll have to focus on gathering the last two enchantment keys while they kill each other… But what about Choron? We didn't manage to catch him before he fled."

"Given his relationship with Sterfen, maybe we should count him among the neutral gods," Oosam added.

"I agree. I'd rather play things safely than wait for the unexpected to happen…" agreed Tralbok. "Then, for the time being, we'll be splitting up. Keep your contact crystals ready at all times and search for the final enchantment keys at the cost of your life. I'd rather congratulate a resurrected ally on a job well done than scold a frightened wimp that couldn't stand up for our cause as a whole."

All other gods nodded, keeping Tralboking severe methods of "scolding" in the back of their minds.

Tralbok added, "Now, you're all excused to scatter and find new homes outside of Talrania. I'll pay a little visit to Moranti. I should wake him up before dragging him to Halmut."