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Chapter 1334  Exterminate Them!

"Miss Julia made the right call," defended Yuran before the eighteen guild masters, but no one agreed with him. "If we had participated in the war, the casualties would have risen considerably."

"Our guild members believe we chickened out!" rebuked another guild master, a middle-aged man with tanned skin and long brown hair. "Is that how we carry ourselves? Let our weaker members fight while we watch?"

"If we got involved, then the empyrean would not have stood idle," said Yuran with a frown. "He would have come to rescue his son, and we would have been exterminated."

"That just proves his point," added Rae with a frown. "We did chicken out. Even if it was an empyrean, nineteen of us should be able to fight him. I have to agree with Ron on this one."

"A sensible mind at last!" shouted Ron as he glared at Yuran. "If you believe that we should have sat around while—"

Ron was still talking when the doors opened. Julia walked into the hall with Oriole following behind. Their expressions were stoic as they strode toward the central chair at the table. The guild masters rose in respect as their Vice-Master sat down and gestured for them to do the same. Oriole stood behind her, acting as her assistant for now since he had no real role in the guild. Julia had offered him the position of lead runemaster, but he refused.

"Reports," demanded Julia in a single word. Everyone looked at each other, and then to Ron. The middle-aged man rose, letting his fur coat fall to the ground. Julia turned toward him, her eyes questioning his actions.

"Miss Julia," said Ron with a grave expression, "the recent battle has been a catastrophe. We lost five thousand men from every participating guild, while we did not sustain a scratch. There is already infighting and doubt spreading among our ranks because no one led the battle."

"Cut to the chase, Guild Master Ron," said Julia with a cold expression. "What do you wish to say?"

"You ordered us to stay here and watch the battle unfold, and I, among others, believe that decision to be a mistake."

No one else objected to his words, and Ron stood determined under Julia\'s gaze. Some expected another Garrick Bloodclaw incident, but to their surprise, Julia smiled.

"Thank you, Guild Master Ron. It takes a lot of courage to stand up to your superior\'s mistakes. Please be seated as I explain the logic behind my orders."

Ron nodded and sat down, and Julia turned toward Oriole and nodded. The latter then walked toward the table and placed a small runic chip that projected a hologram image before the guild masters. It was a list of people.

"Dragonir has harassed us ever since we made our debut into the world," said Julia as her eyes flickered with the light from the hologram. "At that time, Arthur was aware of the threat they posed. Therefore, he sent shadows to Thiria to investigate the guild."

"This is a list of every guild member that Dragonir has on the surface," explained Oriole as he swiped down the list. "These people are ranked from the strongest to the weakest. Kaius Firebrand, the guild master, is the strongest."

"We already know that," said Rae with a frown. "And didn\'t Li kill him?"

"Kaius Firebrand was already killed by Arthur before, but he came back. We believe he has a secret power that allows him to clone himself or divide his powers among others. According to Lian, Kaius Firebrand is a parasite."

"A parasite?" muttered Yuran with a frown. "In a literal sense?"

"Unfortunately, yes," replied Oriole. "I am about to explain a secret that Lian has hidden for the past two decades. None of you are going to believe what I\'m about to say, but it\'s the truth that we need you to accept. Lian used to be Kaius Firebrand before his body was overtaken by an unknown entity. The parasite is none other than the Lord of Lesser Lives himself, the Ruler Guardian, who stole Lian\'s body."

"Of course, we cannot believe such a thing," answered a woman with giant glasses and curly hair. She was one of the recent guild masters to join Ascent. "You expect us to believe a story as unbelievable as this?"

"Just a year ago, no one believed that a single man could fight off four empyreans," replied Oriole with a smile. "There is nothing impossible in this world. We have already seen similar cases of this happening."

"We don\'t have time to convince you," interrupted Julia. "This matter requires our urgent action. Talk to your friends and make sense of it, but this is reality."

None of the guild masters could respond. It was clear that Julia and Oriole carried some bad news, and they had no time to discuss whether Lian\'s story was true.

"If we follow that logic, then we can assume that the Lord of Lesser Lives has the ability to either resurrect or use the bodies of others. We don\'t know, but that leads us to conclude that he must still be alive," finished Oriole before he changed the list. "These are the top members other than Kaius."

"…is this for real?" muttered Ron with a frown. "This cannot be true."

"These are the members we know about," said Oriole while scrolling down the list of names that contained a picture and their rank. "As you can see, there are at least a hundred Deme-rankers."

"Impossible," said the guild master with curly hair as she began using her analysis ability. After a few moments, her face paled. "I just calculated our chances of winning in a direct confrontation. Less than ten percent." Nôv(el)B\\\\jnn

"And if we factor in astra-rankers that we could not identify, then the chances drop to a staggering zero. We also have astra-rankers on our side, but do we have the same number of deme-rankers?" asked Oriole.

"And based on these findings, I made the decision to avoid an all-out war," muttered Julia with a grave expression. "I believe that the enemy feared our Guild Master getting involved if the main force of Dragonir made a move. Another possibility is their lack of knowledge about our forces, but since Garrick has confessed to being a spy, I doubt that."

Julia had ensured that no one knew about Arthur\'s vacation. As far as they were concerned, Arthur was training to become stronger in the meantime. If their enemies learned about Arthur taking a vacation, they would tear them apart.

She also couldn\'t call him back, knowing his plan to propose to Diana at this time. To be honest, she couldn\'t care less who their opponent was as long as Arthur achieved a little bit of happiness.

Arthur deserved it.

"We are weaker," muttered Ron while gritting his teeth. "But is there nothing we can do?"

"And would I have called you if there wasn\'t?" asked Julia with a frosty expression as she rose. "We cannot fight an all-out war, but we have things they don\'t: runes and information. We know their strongest members, and we can strike them before retreating."

"A guerrilla tactic?" muttered Rae with a grin. "This is going to piss Dragonir off."

"Our plan is more than just annoying them," replied Julia while gritting her teeth. "Offer the weaker members a chance to surrender and imprison them using the shadow army. As for the guild itself and the members who fight until the end—" Julia paused, "exterminate them!"

The guild masters rose and cheered because this is what they had wished for: retaliation. The reason they joined Ascent was that it became a symbol of resistance against injustice, so they did not want to stand around and get bullied.

The guild masters began their plans and shared their tactics around the table. Julia and Oriole left afterward, and Yuran slipped from the crowd to follow them. Once away from the rest, he stopped the two.

"Are you sure about this decision?" asked Yuran while standing behind them in the corridor. "Does Arthur know about this?"

Julia stopped and turned toward him. "Arthur knew that Dragonir would declare war against us at some point. He asked that when it happens, we minimize the lives lost. We are past that point. Kaius will not rest until he takes his revenge against Li, and I won\'t allow that."