CHAPTER 119: TILL THE DAY AWAIT

The side entrance creaked faintly, drawing all eyes as Oizys slipped in, her black feather wings rustling softly against her violet halo’s flickering light.

She moved with her usual fluid grace, but there was a slight haste in her step, as if she’d been pulled from some internal contemplation.

Kivas tilted her head, a faint smile tugging at her lips, though her eyes held a glint of mild reproach.

"You’re quite late, Oizys," Kivas said, her voice warm but pointed, crossing her arms lightly over her regenerating white dress. "We were just diving into the heart of this mess. Did Yoiglah’s chat run long, or were you off pondering some existential crisis behind my back"

Oizys waved a dismissive hand, her smirk curling as she settled into a spot beside Samael. "No need to rewind for me. I’ve been keeping up from afar—some of my skills let me eavesdrop on the vibes without being in the room~"

"Well, I suppose there is no need for a replay."

"The gist is clear to me," Oizys wryly chuckled. "Paradox War tangles, Suiyen Concord in the crosshairs, Umaska’s dirty tricks, and a fat stack of Eulanite if we play hero. I’ve got the play-by-play."

Samael snorted softly as she glanced sideways at Oizys. "Convenient. Saves us the breath. Though if you missed the part about temporal illusions turning the battlefield into a choose-your-own-disaster, that’s on you."

"I left that part intentionally since your pride of wisdom will fill me in without me saying anything."

"She caught you there, Samael," Kivas snickered.

"The privilege of sharing your wisdom is only attainable by the wise, and I will always stand by that unless the witless individual makes my skin crawl."

Torvola, his crow-beak mask tilting slightly in acknowledgment of Oizys’s arrival, didn’t miss a beat.

His modulated voice cut through the banter with precise efficiency,. "Your timing is fortuitous, then. To conclude the proposal: the Consortium has five days to prepare and decide. Should you commit, the Karasu Association will deploy a large-scale variant of the Black Living Cloud to transport your forces directly to the Suiyen bastion.

"It’s of the highest quality, capable of cloaking entire contingents and phasing through distortions with minimal risk. Until then, the choice rests with you. We won’t press; neutrality is respected, but so is the opportunity lost."

The offer hung in the air like a charged spell, the promise of Eulanite ore—sixty tons of the stuff, unmatched in durability and Mana Psyche resistance—tempting Vaingall’s ambitions for fortified defenses and enhanced Eldritch Bolt arrays.

Kivas nodded slowly, her halo flickering with thoughtful light as she unclasped her hands. "The instructions are clear, " Battle Archivist Torvola. Five days gives us room to weigh the scales—risks versus that shiny Eulanite haul. But before you depart, there’s another matter I’d like to broach." Kivas tone changed, albeit almost imperceptible. "Regarding Cayame, the Director of the Monochara Chapter."

From time to time, Samael would always report any important details to Kivas directly within the intel findings of her Divine Constructs’ reach.

Torvola’s posture stiffened ever so slightly, the mask’s beak angling toward her with intrigue.

His voice held a note of guarded admiration. "It seems the Consortium’s intelligence network is as formidable as the archives suggest." He glanced at Azulus to see her reaction, only to be met with nothing. "This information has been sealed within Karasu’s Singularity—accessible only to Monochara internals and related overseers. Outsiders shouldn’t be able to pry so deeply, yet here we are. Impressive."

Samael couldn’t resist, her chin lifted with a prideful tilt, her draconic horns catching the light as a smug glint entered her eyes.

She crossed her arms, an air of quiet triumph.

Kivas caught the gesture and smiled in amusement, her eyes sparkling with fondness before returning to Torvola. "We have our ways. But tell me—is the Karasu Association fine with it? Cayame’s defection, I mean. Leaving her post like that... it definitely ripples out."

Torvola paused, his mask turning fractionally as if scanning for hidden listeners, though the spell formation of the hall already ensured privacy. "Traitors fall outside a Battle Archivist’s purview unless direct confrontation is mandated. My role is the field, not internal purges.

"That said, Cayame isn’t the type swayed by empty promises or fleeting temptations. She’s pragmatic, vengeful even, with a resolve forged in Monochara’s harsh hierarchies.

"Yet the archives confirm she’s not only abdicated her directorship but has been sighted aligning with the Nightsilk Order. It’s... anomalous, to say the least."

Kivas’s eyes snapped to Samael, her expression sharpening with surprise. "Samael, you didn’t mention anything about Cayame being spotted with the Nightsilk Order. That’s a detail I’d have appreciated earlier."

Samael shrugged nonchalantly, her eyes closing briefly in a feigned nonchalance before reopening with a sly glint. "Because it’s not confirmed, sweetheart. Whispers and shadows—nothing solid. Besides, that kind of intel shouldn’t leak beyond Nightsilk’s inner circles.

"If it’s floating around the Karasu archives for some reason, someone’s fed the wrong information or it’s the very Nightsilk Order that gave out such revelation."

Torvola turned his masked gaze to Azulus, his voice probing. "Field Archivist Azulus, does this sighting carry a verified informer? Archives demand provenance."

Azulus’s ears twitched once, her neutral expression unbroken as she folded her hands tighter. "As far as I remember regarding this incident, the data stems from four anonymous sources. Association protocol requires at least three distinct, confirmed anonymized reports for preliminary legitimacy review.

"These cleared that threshold, but full validation awaits cross-referencing with Monochara remnants or Nightsilk intercepts. Regardless, the timing and magnanimity of such implication still rest a powerful development that the Cayame being regarded to be on the Nightsilk Order’s side have been somewhat placated to be the truth by numerous Nests."

Oizys leaned forward slightly, her violet halo flickering with curiosity, a wry smile playing on her lips. "What’s the odds one of those ’anonymous’ tipsters is Cayame herself? Stirring the pot from the inside—sounds like a plausible strategy done by the calculative former director, no?"

Torvola’s modulated chuckle was brief, a low rumble filtered through his mask. "An intriguing hypothesis, but one I’ll leave to the analysts." He sighed. "I’ve lingered too long; bloodier, more chaotic fronts await my archiving. Thus, I bid you farewell, Leader of the Consortium, Endless One, Spiraling One, and Field Archivist Azulus. May your decisions fortify rather than fracture."

With a sharp incline of his head, Torvola turned, his High Tengus falling into step like silent shadows.

The side entrance swallowed them, the heavy tread fading into the corridor’s stillness, leaving the hall feeling suddenly emptier.

Samael waited until the doors sealed before breaking the silence, her deadpan cracking into a faint smirk as she pushed off the pillar. "Azulus, about that Cayame intel—mind if we cross-inspect later? Your Feather Library might have threads we can pull."

Azulus’s eyes met Samael’s, her voice even but laced with opportunistic gleam, though her face remained stoically deadpan. "The information isn’t native to my Feather Library, it’s drawn from secured Association pools, layered with protections. Permission isn’t automatic.

"That said..." Her gaze sharpened, the neutrality cracking just enough to reveal a spark of interest. "It can be expedited. The Darkness Essence as payment would grease the archival wheels of the higher ups. Consider it a fair exchange for delving into sealed vaults of information."

Kivas let out a light laugh, her hands gesturing expansively as she shook her head in mock exasperation. "At this rate, we’ll need a second Dark Matter Reactor just to keep up with the Darkness Essence demands. Ever since we fired up the first one, everyone’s lining up like it’s the new divine nectar."

Oizys’s eyes lit up at the mention, her black wings rustling with excitement as she clapped her hands together, her halo pulsing brighter. "Speaking of which, Kivas—I’ve been tinkering with the schematics in my downtime. Came up with some improvements, tighter entropy coils to boost output by fifteen percent, and a feedback loop that recycles residual void-flickers for self-sustaining bursts!

"Doesn’t mind me saying, but I wouldn’t object to firing up another power plant. We could scale it modular—stack ’em like divine bricks!"

Before long, the conversation revolved around the development of a second and improved version of the Dark Matter Reactor.

Azulus was there to record everything, as per her Field Archivist work, but she had zero idea of what was being discussed by them.

And at one point, Azulus realized that the reason why those three were comfortably discussing these important details right in front of her was due to that it was practically indigestible by the mind.

But to make sure, Azulus stayed to see if there was any worthy information to be put in her Feather Library.

Until the end of the schematic planning, Azulus came back to her Feather Library without a single new information about the Dark Matter Reactor aside from the fact that they were making a second one.

"It seems like you have a lot on your mind," said a Tengu who is placing down a tea on the table in front of Azulus. "Is the meeting that impactful."

"More like, I feel like there is nothing in my mind..."