"Bam."
Bitter weapon's hand slammed the table in the meeting chamber and the people's posture shifted.
Their eyes turned towards him one by one.
Moments ago, their voices had clashed against the walls, and their shoes had scraped across the floor on notice. Now the air hung heavy.
"Listen..." Bitter Weapon froze mid-sentence. His eyes lingered on the empty chair. Someone was missing. Where was he, he thought.
His lips twisted slightly. His servant's pupils moved towards the empty chair before he leaned in and whispered urgently into his ear.
"Is that so?" exclaimed Bitter Weapon as if to assure himself. Though he was the most capable among them, it seems I would have to plan this operation without him, he thought.
His gaze paused before he shouted, "A catastrophe has befallen us."
A chill swept through the chamber, tightening throats until one voice cut through from a man seated on the last chair to the right side of Bitter Weapon; the sixth. "A catastrophe...."
With a sharp nose and brown complexion, Diego was the only audacious man among Bitter Weapon's generals
Bitter Weapon let a quiet breath slip past his lips as it betrayed previous words. "More like a catastrophe to be..."
A hint of smirk slipped across Diego's lips. "If it were a catastrophe to be, I think this meeting wasn't urgent at all."
"That would have been the case if it were as you said." Bitter Weapon replied.
Diego's eyebrows lifted effortlessly, "Aren't you the one who said so?"
Bitter Weapon's words carried weights. "Not in that sense. And I can assure you that the danger level is proven. After all, it is linked to that unique incident."
That was when Fernando's mouth moved, his voice hitching briefly. "The [TDP]." Silence pressed down, thick enough to taste, and a single chair creaked as someone shifted nervously.
"Yes, and that is why we are going to plan a large-scale pursuit."
Bitter Weapon's fingers spread across the wooden table as if pointing at something and his eleven generals pulled their weight toward it. "First, we will have our men encircle this whole area as you can see here on the map. Secondly, each of your units will be dispatched to the core area where that catastrophe was dropped."
Almost all of his generals' minds settled on his elaborated plan except Diego.
"No." He clenched his fist and thought, what the hell was this measly plan? "How can you draft such a childish ambush and believe that it will stop the thing linked to the [TDP]?
The name [TDP] brought them back to focus, even Bitter Weapon tilted his head.
"Judging by the urgency of this case, let's just boost the ambush." What a rush plan, Diego thought as he rubbed his forehead.
"By boosting the assault, don't tell me you want to use that..." whispered a blonde, shapeless, beautiful woman called Rebecca.
Her eyes sparked wide and she hugged herself in excitement the moment Diego spilled the beans.
"The magic weapons."
What was wrong with her? Diego frowned inwardly, then brushed it aside. Whatever. "From my perspective, we should create a situation where the catastrophe will think that there was an escape route. And then bam, we catch him off guard with a nuclear fusion blast."
Bitter Weapon's head dropped to face the floor as he thought, that's something Rebecca's unit specializes in and she would do it if I order her, but...
He hesitated. With our relationship already this complicated...Perhaps I should tell her not to get involved. His left hand hovered above the table, influenced by Diego's decision.
"My unit will work together with Rebecca's own."
"Let the remaining task be allocated to the other units." He paused as he awaited Bitter Weapon's reply.
"Do as you wish."
"Rebecca, let's move." Diego uttered but his words only reached her after her attention was withdrawn from the commander.
"Ah! Yes."
On their way to the weaponry unit, Diego asked, "Rebecca, who do you think the commander will put in charge at the core area since that idiot of Leonel was absent." But before she could answer, he shook his head "Never mind."
Much later, a few meters to the left of the castle, Zergde stood beneath the sun. His smile gleam with pride.
"To think the commander would assign me to the core zone..." he scoffed. Such an honor could only be presented to me whenever that idiot would be absent." Loudly he yapped, "I will prove that I am more capable than he is... No, I will show terror to that so-called catastrophe."
Then a subordinates approached him, "General Zergde, at your order the combat battalion has assembled and everything has been prepared." Before he then raised his hand and pointed a head, his tone was high.
"Now charge forward."