Chapter 56: Interesting (2)
Ceug turned to his two allies and told them to head straight for the other battlefronts. They could tell something serious had happened, but they couldn't disobey—so they left right away.
As soon as they were gone, Ceug turned to his partner, tense, and spoke seriously:
"One of ours just died... it was one of the groups Ulqui sent to deal with that Dragoness. This confirms it—some Risen Lord must've noticed something off and sent their subordinates among the Summoners in this nest."
The Ice Hawk scoffed. "How the hell did they fail to kill that half-dragon and her Spiritual Guardian with just one ring? That's real suspicious."
"I sent Ulqui to make sure she was finished... if he failed, that means the other Risen Lords worked together and put more than one mark on the Summoners to keep me from being alerted," Ceug said grimly. "If even his divine arrow didn't work... then our only advantage is that they didn't know about the fragment of the abyssal heart."
Ceug now faced a complicated situation. The plan had been carefully built over a thousand years by a Risen Lord, and it still failed. Now, he and all his allies were in serious danger—if discovered, there'd be nowhere to run. They'd be forced to abandon the galaxy, and surviving outside was impossible.
"Fuck it all," the Ice Hawk said without hesitation. "Break the seal and use the full power of that abyssal heart to kill everyone."
Ceug turned to him and shook his head.
"If we do that, everything will fall apart. Most of the Risen in this nest were created by the other Risen Lords. Refining them would leave obvious traces connecting them to the heart's owner. That would clearly violate the rules of the Celestial Shadow. They'd have every reason to gang up on the traitor and fight to the death."
"So what?" the Hawk said flatly. "They triggered their marks. That means they know about our abyssal heart now. Which means they're coming, full force, to destroy it. The owner left safeguards; when it senses its own destruction coming, it'll use those methods to bring itself back safely. You really think we're making it out alive after that?"
Ceug swallowed hard. A Risen Lord would never leave something that important in someone else's hands without guarantees. The cost might be high, but there was a good chance he could recover it.