The following day, Kenji, Ume, and the Twins were called to a very large empty room in Ascension Hall. It was on the same floor as the Covenant Chamber. They looked around at the room, and it had striking similarities to the Covenant Chamber, but there was nothing inside. They only saw Zac standing in the middle of the room with seven people behind him.

"I didn't notice this room the last time we came here," Kenji said.

"That's because it wasn't here. The dwarves just finished building it. I was just deciding what to put in it." Zac responded.

"And who are these losers?" Roisin asked as she walked towards the seven individuals standing near Zac.

"Wait, we've met that one before." Zidane said as he pointed towards the Drawven "youth."

He had a lush brown beard and a gruff face, but the way Ferradorn talked about him was like nothing but a kid in the face of other dwarves.

"Yeah, it's old Shorty's apprentice. What was his name again?" Roisin asked.

"Don't worry about his name. For the time being, he will be number 3. We'll call this little squad "The Numbers going forward." Zac said as he looked over his shoulder at the 7 members gathered there.

"Number 3?" Ume asked.

"Yes, these are the 6 best individuals the Seats sent to be part of my policing unit. I don't want to learn their names yet because they might not live through what comes next. If they can survive my revenge, their names will be worth learning." Zac answered.

Ume smiled, but there was a trace of sadness laced within it. It was obvious that Zac was closing himself off more than usual. She understood he had lost a great deal in a very short period. She turned towards Kenji, who had not relayed what Roratha had told them. Kenji felt her gaze and simply nodded his head.

"Oh, yeah, and the puppy's here too," Zac added as he pointed to Noctarion, the werewolf who was released into their custody a few days ago.

"Again, my name is Noctarion Veystral, and I'm at least 300 years older than you."

"Shut up, puppy." Zac ignored Veystral's protests.

"HAHAHA!!! Father was right! It will be great fun following you, lizard man!!" A large, baby-faced Titan Orc, Number 2, laughed. Clearly, this was Vaerros, the Gorvath War Chief's son. He held a large battle axe on his back, bursting with muscle, barely contained by the uniform issued to them. The twins walked up to them and began to examine the uniforms.

They were made from smart weave nanofiber; it was soft, breathable, and lightweight. It stiffened on impact to provide armor-like defense. Reinforced zones over vital areas offer discreet, kinetic protection without visible bulk.

The uniform was obsidian and slate in color. It had built-in communicators in the collars with audio sensors to ensure full situational awareness. There was a crest of a sleeping dragon over the left chest. The Twins finished their evaluation of the uniforms and nodded their heads.

"Not bad for foot soldiers. Got nothing on the Dragon's Scales though." Zidane said.

"Yeah, but there are some things here we can incorporate into our own designs." Roisin was already taking mental notes of the things she wanted to steal and the things that could be improved. While Roisin was scanning the uniforms, Zidane asked,

"Have you made a name for this thing? Don't tell me it's Sleeping Dragon or something."

"Ha, no… My naming sense isn't that bad. No, we'll be calling ourselves Veridahn." Zac explained.

A blonde, golden-eyed female vampire nodded her head in appreciation and said,

"Veri means truth, balance, or law, and Dahn means reckoning or final decree. Veridahn, Divine Judgement, I quite like it."

"Thank you, number 6." Zac said to the "young" vampire.

"Yeah, well, it's better than Sleeping Dragon, I guess." Zidane refused to give Zac any props when it came to naming anything.

"Speaking of sleeping dragons, there's something I need to tell you," Kenji said to Zac.

Kenji looked over at the monsters tentatively. Zac looked back at them and began to walk away from the group. Ume and the Twins followed behind them. Once they were about 10 meters away, Zac lifted his finger and created a barrier where sounds would not escape.

"What do you think they're talking about?" A four-tailed fox, aptly called Number 4, asked.

"That's none of your concern, cat!" Number 2 chided.

"I'm a damn fox, not a cat!!"

"Shut up, cat." The Titan Orc laughed.

"Both of you control yourselves. I will not have you two make fools of us in front of the humans." Number 5, a blue-tinted Leviathan male, spoke. He scratched his scaled head in frustration; the breathing apparatus covering the gills on his neck bubbled, showing his agitation. Number 1, a strikingly handsome brown-haired elven male with a lazy demeanor, sighed.

"I just hope this won't be a shit show."

Over the next few minutes, Kenji and Ume relayed to Zac what they heard from Roratha. After they finished telling him about The Darkest Day, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I see…" was the only response.

"That's all?" Zidane asked Zac.

"What do you want me to say? It's good information to have, but it doesn't change anything. I had no intention of wiping out all of Heka, to begin with. The person who has things to think about is Trigger." Zac and the others looked at Kenji, who smirked.

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He had already thought everything through. What happened between their mothers was between their mothers. Nina must have known who he was after he explained his story to her, yet she still accepted him. His own mother said she had already forgiven Nina for the events that happened that day.

"The main parties involved have already moved on, and so will I. We just need to focus on what's at hand." Trigger said.

"That's my boy." Zac smiled.

"But what is at hand?" Trigger asked.

"Right, we need to take these guys on a test run before we tackle our main objective," Zac explained to the rest of them.

"A test run? You think just 12 of us can get through a horde of Persequion and Chasers?" Ume said, unconvinced.

"No, I don't. But we should be able to handle anything that isn't their main hideout. We can use these to set a baseline to estimate how many we'll need. While they don't have the exact location of the main base, they did get us the exact locations of several bases." Zac explained.

"Wait, you want to attack another base? That means we'll most likely have to kill them." Kenji said.

"Yeah… your point?" Zac asked.

"I… I just thought we would try to avoid as many casualties as possible." Kenji explained.

"That's exactly what we're doing. Take out a base, limit-test what we are capable of, and then strike at the heart." Zac frowned at Trigger.

He was worried that this might happen. However, things had been going rather smoothly till this point. The conversation with his mother had more effect than Trigger was willing to admit. Zac grabbed Trigger by the shoulder and then said,

"Don't forget, these are the same people that planned on killing you, simply for existing. Even your mother said the same."

"Yeah… yeah, you're right." Trigger cleared his mind of any doubt.

He had no real ties to these Persequions. It was just that his mother's story made him wonder about what could have been if The Darkest Day hadn't happened. He would never be able to find out, because they had already reached the point of no return. Besides, not limiting testing what these monsters could do before going all out could put their lives in danger as well. From everything that he had seen, they had been just minding their own business over the passing centuries.

"Are you with me, kid?" Zac asked.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm with you." Trigger responded.

"Alright, let's go talk to these kids." Zac lowered the barrier he had created and began to walk toward the seven of them who had been standing at attention the entire time.

"Kids? I'm pretty sure the youngest among them has at least 80 years on us." Ume said with a smile.

"More like 25… I'm not that old, sweetheart." The Elven male gave Ume a sly smile.

"Who's that?" Ume asked, ignoring the Elf.

"That's Number 1," Zac answered.

"Do their numbers have any significance?" Trigger asked.

"If you're asking if I ordered based on their ability, then no. But I do plan on making Number 1 their squad leader." Zac chuckled.

Veystral raised an eyebrow and then looked over at Number 1. Veystral was the oldest and strongest among the monsters present. How the hell could this lizard expect him to take commands from a child? Before Veystral could properly express his discontent, Zac chuckled.

"Don't worry, mutt. I'm making sure to keep you on a leash. You'll be with us. They're going to make their own group of 6." Veystral didn't like being called a mutt, but he'd rather be under the command of a Council Seat and some snot-nosed Elf.

"Fine…" Veystral folded his arms and walked over to Zac's group.

"Veystral here wasn't the only one who seemed to have a problem." Zac looked at the upset faces of a few of them.

"I don't want to follow someone weaker than me!" Number 2, the young Titan Orc protested.

"You're not; you're following me, and my command is to follow his orders as if they were mine." Zac's slit eyes stared at Number 2.

"I-I… yessir." Number 2 balked at Zac's stare. He had heard from everyone there that this man had given his father the best fight he had had in centuries, and he hadn't even undergone his shedding. It was obvious that Zac was far beyond him, and disobeying power was nearly sacrilege for him.

"Why him?" The blonde vampire asked.

"Hmmp, what did you think? That I was going to pick between the three of you?" Zac asked as he looked at the young Leviathan, Vampire, and Titan Orc. The society was all equal, but it was obvious to see who had the most pull among them, the races of the first three seats. The look on the young vampire and Leviathan's faces betrayed their thoughts.

On the other hand, there were no thoughts in the Titan Orc's head. He just thought things were going to come down to a battle royale. Once he realized that was the case, he stopped caring and would follow orders… as long as he got to kill things.

"I interviewed all of you beforehand. I liked his answers more than the rest of you. It's simple." Zac shrugged his shoulders. The young vampire wasn't satisfied with that answer but was not foolish enough to dig for more. The young Leviathan, on the other hand, just folded his arms.

"I was trained and educated on how to lead armies and squads. I don't see how I'm not more suited."

"You're right, you were trained in those areas. Standard procedure and protocol have been drilled into your very fiber." Zac nodded his head. The young Leviathan smiled with pride. That pride was instantly crushed as Trigger jumped in.

"But that's the problem, right? He won't be flexible enough to adapt well to unexpected situations?"

"Exactly, he's too rigid, and you're too indecisive. You'll spread your team too thin while trying to cover too many options." Zac also pointed out number 6, the vampire's flaws.

"My apologies, I just don't see how this sloven playboy is the happy middle ground between the two of us." Number 5, the Leviathan said.

"Well, lucky for you, your job isn't to see such things. It's to shut the hell up and do what I tell you. So shut the hell up and follow Number 1's orders until such a time as I say otherwise." Zac stared at the Levithan lad, who lowered his head and cleared his throat.

"Yes, sir."

"Looks like you got your work cut out for you." Number 4, the kitsune, giggled as she looked at Number 1.

"Looks like it…" Number 1 sighed lazily as he ruffled his hair. However, the look in his eyes did not match his lazy demeanor. He noticed Zac giving him a knowing smile. Number 1 was shocked for a moment and returned to his original demeanor.

"I'm sure you'll find my decision is the correct one when you come back alive."

"Yes, sir!" They all responded.

"For the rest of the day, you 6 will be getting to know each other and planning your battle strategies. Tomorrow morning, we will have a briefing on your first mission. After your briefing, you will continue your team exercises, but don't overdo it, because the following morning you'll have your first mission." Zac explained.

"What is our first mission?" The kitsune asked.

"You'll be attacking a Presequel base." Zac smiled.

The Numbers were frozen in place for a moment when they heard that. They knew this group would be getting into some wild and heavy things, but they didn't think they would start with something so wild. Number 2, the Titan Orc, on the other hand, was doing everything in his might to contain his glee.

"The mission will take place in Mexico, so keep that terrain in mind while you run through your exercises. This place will be big enough for you guys to go wild." Zac said with a smile on his face. He then clapped his hands to get them all to refocus.

"Get to work… You five help them out. You have more real fighting experience than these pampered kids. But don't skip out on your own Vaylora training." Zac commanded Trigger and the other as he began to walk out of the room.

"Where the hell are you going?" The twins shouted in unison.

"I'm going shopping to spruce this place up," Zac smirked.

"Are you sure you don't want someone to come with you?" Ume asked.

"No need, Veydris is going to help me out," Zac said as the door closed behind him.

"Veydris… huh?" Ume's eyes narrowed. Veydris, the 6th Seat, showed a little too much interest in Zac than she was comfortable with.

"I'm sure it's nothing."

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