Angel Monarch

Chapter 286 Alliance

"…I just don't understand why you can't tell us more about him? If he is as bad as you make him out to be, why don't you provide some evidence?" Asked the dictator of Kiev.

After Sera's initial reaction, the entire group went to a different room. This one had a large circular conference table with monitors on the walls and holographic screens in the middle of the table.

Despite lasting over an hour, the meeting showed no sign of concluding. With her statement Sera began explaining why it was a problem that Harold came out of his hiding.

Most people believed her, including the Queen, but there were leaders like the dictator, or Buda-Pest's prime minister, who disregarded every single word Sera uttered.

They believed her, but they wanted to take away her control over the conversation. Neither like Sera, but they needed her to survive, so instead of insulting her, they just made the discussion more difficult.

"I won't provide any evidence or explain my connection to him. But believe me when I tell you this, if he decided to show his face, then we are running out of time!… Now, can we talk about the actual reason we came here?"

Around the table, heads nodded; before the dictator spoke, Elizabeth steered the conversation.

"I understand why Seraphine refrains from explaining everything. She has some kind of past with Harold, and she doesn't feel like sharing… I don't know about all of you, but the only evidence I need and want is what I can check for myself…"

"Genf is gone. Destroyed. The method remains unclear, however, this is unimportant. We know enough, Harold was the culprit. I don't care what he had done to Seraphine. I don't need evidence from her, since we already got enough to know his intentions aren't good…"

As she spoke, pictures of Genf began playing on the monitors. It reminded Sera of Newber, her home city. No buildings remained standing. There were holes in the ground where the bunkers were supposed to be.

Harold didn't simply destroy the city. He made sure not a single person remained alive. Everyone, from Evolved to normal humans, from soldiers to civilians, from mother to their children… Dead, all of them…

Every single question, or disbelief, went out the window. There was no denying, whoever Harold was, he didn't care about human life. Whatever his goal was, the price to achieve it was never too high.

"As you can see, we fight something much worse than a corrupt person or government. This Harold is a pure evil individual, and the Federal Alliance with all its power is behind his back… So, let's stop bickering and begin this fucking meeting, shall we?!"

Queen Elizabeth was becoming increasingly annoyed. Nobody dared disagree with her, so everyone dropped the Harold subject. They will have other times to discuss the threat further, but there were more pressing matters currently.

"First, I think we can all agree that the first enemy we need to deal with is Napoleon. He still hadn't got all his army under control, so we have a significant chance to end the war with a single decisive blow."

Her statement made perfect sense, and everyone was onboard, so the planning began.

"What are his numbers currently?" asked a councillor from Wien.

"I'm uncertain. Napoleon was thorough in cull my spy network. We have barely anyone left inside New Paris…"

As Elizabeth answered, a woman's chuckle echoed inside the room. Everyone turned towards Sera, either with curious expressions or annoyed and angry ones.

"Including him, 3 Stellar serve under his command. At least a hundred Transcended, and about ten thousand Ascended, plus a hundred thousand Evolved, are also still loyal to him. We also shouldn't forget about the millions of regular soldiers and their weapons…"

While she spoke, Bran connected to the monitors and brought up the pictures the Angelic Order in New Paris took. The military camp's size was daunting, to say the least, but their equipment wasn't the best. The whole place was gigantic, but also a disorganized mess.

"If we want to fight against Napoleon in New Paris, we have already lost. Those walls are near impenetrable, and the citizens inside would die by the millions… A siege is not an option, and neither is a surprise attack. That disorganization means little with their numbers."

Sera stayed silent, waiting for the inevitable question…

"So, what do you suggest? How should we kill Napoleon?" asked Bea with a small smile.

She knew very well that this was the exact question Sera waited for. It done little to lessen the burning pain and anger in Sera's heart, but she showed no such emotion, and just answered the question to the best of her abilities.

"Fighting Napoleon near New Paris would only cause unnecessary destruction to the city. We all know how bad things get when Stellars fight, and I don't want to repeat what happened with Venice!"

The silence in the room was palpable. Everyone remembered perfectly to the Tragedy of Venice, and many of them realized how much of a fool they were all along.

Even then, Napoleon's pride and overachieving nature caused the destruction. Napoleon could have avoided it, but he wanted to prevent the Federal Alliance's eastward advancement.

They already determined that Harold was an evil person for destroying Genf, but Napoleon did the same, albeit a longer time ago.

The leaders who were part of the United Front felt ashamed. They reprimanded Napoleon for his actions, but the war still raged at its fullest, leaving no room for his removal.

But now, they had a chance to make amends for their past mistakes. This brought everyone hope and raised their fighting spirits. They all turned towards Sera and patiently waited for her next words.

"We need to lure him and his army away. It won't be easy, since he isn't stupid, but I already have a few ideas that could work!"

From here, the discussion turned more technical, and they made significant progress in establishing a plan which could work against Napoleon.

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This went on for a couple hours before the Queen finally jumped onto the next subject.

"Today's session has been going on for a while now, but we have another important topic that we need to talk about…"

The Queen looked at everyone around the conference table until her eyes landed on Sera. She already guessed what Elizabeth was going to say, since it was fairly obvious.

"As you all know, after Seraphine's victory in the Second Battle of Rome, the popularity of her religion increased quite a bit. The Angelic Order controls our civilians and their views, which makes it harder for us to lead them…"

People nodded around the room in agreement, and they all gave a few angry glances to Sera. She just continued to sit silently under their scrutinizing gazes.

"I'm sure this alliance between our city-states would go a long way, if you would kindly stop meddling with our cities' inner politics!"

This time, she couldn't hold herself, and Sera began laughing at the Queen. A wave of emotions travelled through the golden-haired woman's face, but at last it settled on boredom.

"The Angelic Order isn't under my control. Each city has its own chapter, which isn't opened by my agents. Sure, I could take control away from them, but that's not what the Order stands for…"

"They aren't there to cause chaos, but to serve the people. If your citizens don't like how you treat them, or lie to them, then it isn't my or my religion's problem!"

This wasn't the answer the Queen wanted to hear. She was also a person who used propaganda to a greater degree, but the Angelic Order revealed every misinformation and lie she ever spread.

As their leader and a narcissist, Queen Elizabeth couldn't handle getting caught in her own lies. She would not reprimand her citizens, but she wanted to continue using information to control her image in the people's minds.

She wanted, or more like needed, to be revered by them. Her ego couldn't take anyone's rejection, so she also didn't take Sera's 'no' well.

The Queen opened her mouth, and Sera prepared herself for the beat down, but before she could've said anything, Otto spoke for the first time during the meeting.

"Seraphine… How about you let everyone get in contact with the Angelic Order in their own cities? I'm sure it would go a long way if you would at least open a line of communication between them!"

Sera stared at Otto with an annoyed expression, then she glanced at Bea, who hid behind the tall man. Obviously, this was Bea's suggestion. Otto cared little about the Angelic Order, since he didn't care about his image at all.

With gritted teeth, she was about to reject the idea, but luckily for her, Bran was the ever present voice of reason next to her. She was about to make an emotional decision when she should've stayed calm.

"We will talk with the Angelic Order's leaders, and they will ask each chapter what they want. This decision will solely depend on them, but I'm sure they would want to be as civil as possible, since their whole religion stands for a better future!"

This seemed to satisfy everyone, and soon the first meeting ended.