8 people who thought they were the most important persons among them were sitting around the same table, planning their next heroic achievement.
Pressure from the responsibility was scaring Kaelen.
Silas was holding back a lot of emotions; Aurelion was disappointed in everyone's work. Lyne and Nyx were in their old world gossiping about how others failed their missions.
It was looking scary—the perfect time to decide how to destroy the world.
Everyone realized Aurelion's disappointment and stopped whatever they were doing.
Aurelion stood up and walked towards Caeran's chair to pick a file. "As you read about your failures, which caused quite the commotion, that led to the deaths of more than 10,000 people."
Everyone except for Silas lowered their gazes. Aurelion took a look at the file and lifted it. "This is our new mission, one that we can't fail no matter what. This one would cause the death of more than 1,000,000 at least. Followers of the god of war have managed to get their hands on the origin of creation; they will use it for worldwide war, death, and the end of the world."
Aurelion had stopped speaking, but his words still kept coming anyway.
Silas hammered his fist on the table and said, clenching his teeth, "I told you we shouldn't let them grow so much."
Caeran replied before Aurelion could open his mouth, "They found it through luck; we had bigger priorities than them, and no level of growth can help you get it. The uses of it are unknown; if they were able to use its full power, then we wouldn't be able to plan against them. We still have a chance."
Lyne's face brightened and Nevyziel's gloomed; the way they took Caeran's statement differed by a lot.
Aurelion started explaining the plan: "Kaelen, Nevyziel, and Caeren will infiltrate one of their bases. Lyne, Nyx, and Silas will assassinate 'Solmar,' the strongest apostle of the god of war, leading this plan."
He closed the file; after a long pause, he added, "Kaelen has to reach where they have kept it and destroy it in the early stages; the other group has to assassinate Solmar before Kaelen reaches the final stages of his mission."
Zeph raised his hands and started speaking before anyone approved. "Why am I stuck between the two idiots?"
Nevyziel gave an answer only to Zeph: "We are the only two who accomplished their targets as they were planned. There is no reason for you to be concerned about our performance."
Zeph smiled, looked at the file in front of him, and said nothing.
Lyne didn't even raise her hands. "We are the only ones who can complain; we are stuck with a grandpa."
Silas turned his head at Zeph; they nodded at each other and stayed silent.
Caeran replied, "Your groups were made for the best results. No matter how much you all complain, I am not changing them. You kids can cry together if you want to, but don't come crying to me."
The group was divided into duos: Lyne and Nyx, Nevyziel and Kaelen, Caeran and Aurelion, and Zeph and Silas. Each duo hated another duo and loved another duo.
Everyone knew about this separation, yet no one could do it; this hate towards each other was what had been stopping the collapse of their group.
Aurelion said in a slow voice, looking down, "Go prepare for your missions."
The groups disbanded in the groups exactly as Kaelen had expected. Kaelen and Nezyziel came with him.
Aurelion and Caeran remained in the meeting room as everyone shot into different rooms.
The distance between the two rooms felt longer; gazes from everyone had slowed them.
They entered Kaelen's room. She took out two chairs from a stack and placed them opposite to each other and sat down.
Nevyziel looked at him the way she always did when she was waiting for him to say something worth hearing. "So. How do you plan on doing it?"
"We could run for the origin of creation while their group attacks the captain and brings all the attention to them."
He stared at her eyes and noticed she was doing the same.
"Ahem." Nevyziel opened the file she had brought with her. "I can see us doing that, but coordination with the three of them is hard. We will have to wait for them, without letting them know." She handed it to Kaelen. "Here, take a look at their base and powers they will have."
Kaelen read it for a while; most of it went through his mind as Nevyziel had most of his attention.
He stopped giving useless stuff his attention and had a look he had waited for since the night they met; her eyes were wet from innocence, and her face—he could spend eternity admiring it.
Her smell felt like that of the moon; it wasn't noticeable at first, but after wandering in her beauty, he could smell it. It didn't feel like a physical trait. It came from her presence itself.
He didn't look at the file and said, "If they can buff their physical stats, I should be a good match for them." He mumbled to himself, "And you..."
"Well, I can see the 'good match' part in you."
She narrowed her eyes; the white-pink light that came from them brightened to the point where it was impossible to look at them directly.
"Kaelen, take a good look here." She pointed towards a certain highlighted line.
It read "Any power belonging to the god is detected, and everyone is alarmed."
Kaelen smiled and said, "You can take cover behind me while I do all the work. A princess shouldn't get her hands dirty, you know?"
Nevyziel hid her blushing face and kicked Kaelen, throwing him and his chair down.
Nevyziel ran to check him; he was perfectly fine. She left and, mid-hall, said while laughing. "Now, you will be able to read the file without any distractions."
She met Lyne and Nyx in the hall; they stopped but barely made any noise.
Kaelen read the file and came with a plan. They could keep switching identities until they take over the guard controlling the origin while the other group distracts everyone. They would get there unnoticed and finish before the fight ends.
Caeran and Aurelion stayed awake the whole night planning something they would do alone.
It was midnight, and Kaelen wasn't getting any sleep in; he tried a few other abilities he obtained from the gods and prepared a combo that would get him out of any situation.