The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Intermission 2 (Patreon)

                                                                            The Chamber of the Triad

Silence rings throughout the chamber as the emperor stands at the center of a large dais in the center of the room. The dais is raised by two steps above the floor level, and has three levels of stairs around it, each with two dozen counters facing towards the center. But unlike the clean appearance the chamber had prior to the Eternal Winter, the chamber now has frost coating everything, along with several dozen light sources made up of frozen one corpses. Meanwhile only twenty-one of the counters have any people behind them, with the rest of them being empty.

No one says anything for several minutes, with each of the Triad members simply staring down at the emperor, who has red eyes and short black hair as he stares back at them, turning his gaze between each of the Triad members.

The silence is broken by a loud crashing sound coming from outside, followed by shouting and a loud roar outside of the tower the chamber is located in. But the Triad members and the emperor all simply ignore it as they continue their silence.

Eventually though, the emperor speaks up, his voice echoing throughout the chamber in a deep bass, “As of right now, the mother terminal has registered the deaths of two thousand six hundred and forty two different higher ranking officers. Of those officers, none of them are lieutenant generals or major generals. Two of them are colonels. Forty-one are lieutenant colonels. Three hundred and fourteen are majors. Six hundred on the dot are captains. And the remaining one thousand six hundred and eighty five are either first or second lieutenants.”

Another grim silence follows the emperor’s words, but this time, after a loud crash echoes from outside shaking the tower a bit, one of the governors from the Legislative Council finally speaks up with a question.

“And what are the symbiont host casualties?”

The man who asked the question has dirty blond hair with gray eyes and is wearing a roughed up business suit.

Emperor Rainald Inverno turns to look at him and says, “We’ve lost a total of eight Tier 4 symbiont hosts, thirty-five Tier 3s, three hundred and fifty four Tier 2s, and two thousand two hundred and forty five Tier 1 symbiont hosts.”

Every single member of the Triad within the room grows even grimmer at this news.

“We’ve lost trillions of credits in this catastrophe!” One of the CEOs of the Economic Council shouts while slamming his hands down on the counter in front of him, making cracks in the counter with his Tier 3 symbiont host strength.

A governor from the Legislative Council turns a glare on him and says with no little heat, “That’s what you’re worried about?! Not the lives of our soldiers that were lost!”

After this, an argument breaks out between the members of the Triad, but it ends just as quickly when a man slams open one of the four doors located on opposing ends of the chamber before walking into the room. The man is wearing the red and black armor of a lieutenant general of the military with spikes on his shoulder, and his helmet held underneath his arm.

The emperor turns to look at him before nodding his head and saying amidst the new silence of the chamber, “Welcome, duke Cornelius. Has the situation outside been handled?”

Cornelius Walter sends a brief around the room at the Triad members present as he answers, “Yes, it has.” The Tier 5 symbiont host then focuses on one of the CEOs – the very first one to speak after hearing of their losses – and gives him a very stern but silent glare as he adds, “I heard the casualties report as I was entering the tower.” the CEO he’s staring at flinches at that before the duke turns to look at the emperor again and continues, “Would you please share with me who the fallen colonels were?”

The emperor nods his head and answers, “They were colonels Fraugnt von Jose and Delilah Rose, and they were both stationed-” he suddenly pauses as red text flashes across his eyes, making him frown.

Cornelius’s eyes narrow at that and he asks, “What is it?”

Rainald doesn’t say anything for a second before looking at the duke again and answering, “Another lieutenant colonel, lieutenant colonel Artorius val Ruth, along with three captains, and two majors have fallen.”

This declaration sends another wave of silence through the chamber after his voice finishes echoing through it.

No one says anything for nearly half an entire minute until blue text flashes across the lieutenant general’s eyes and he suddenly stands at attention and shouts, “Lieutenant general Cornelius Walter, reporting, sir!”

All of the Triad members and the emperor all turn their attention towards the man, clearly understanding who the man is talking to as the man only has one direct superior.

“That is correct, sir. The emperor has arrived from the palace two hours ago, following which an attack from an evolved class frozen one came, to which we have already ended the threat of.”

Everyone in the chamber remains quiet as they listen to the one sided version of the man’s conversation that they can hear until he reaches the point that was just stated by the emperor and find the man wincing. He then looks at the emperor and asks, “The general would like to speak to you all. Would you grant me permission?”

The emperor’s eyebrows raise at that, but he nods his head and walks over to him before placing his hand on his shoulder and stating, “Allow user Lieutenant General Cornelius Walter to use the synchronize function once with the user General Edward North.”

After that, the duke nods his head in appreciation and states, “Activate the Synchronize function with user General Edward North.”

The man’s eyes flash with lines of code before a red light shines from behind the man’s ears and his expression changes.

“Greetings General North. What did yo-” the emperor begins to ask, just to be interrupted by the man as he practically shouts, “I want to confirm this. You said that lieutenant colonel Artorius val Ruth is deceased? Which means that the tourist world of Arran doesn’t have any Tier 3 or higher symbiont hosts on it anymore?”

His outburst causes that very same realization to spread throughout all of the Triad members, but nearly half of the CEOs don’t show any care about that outside of a few comments about the loss of the tourist income, and the governors merely show a small amount of worry about it due to the drastic number of more significant issues they have to deal with.

The emperor frowns before muttering, “Isn’t that where Cynthia and Alex are stationed…?”

This comment silences the Triad, both the CEOs and the governors. And the silence grows grimmer after the general nods the lieutenant general’s head.

A dark look replaces the frown on the emperor’s face at that.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord Invite

Top Web Fiction

Table of Contents