Building My SSS-Rank Universal Empire: From Trash to Cosmic Overlord-Chapter 122: Ten to Eight

"Tell me again how you are going to do things," Tiber said.

Vale was dressing. He put a soft brown shirt over his black trousers, then his overcloak after that. He checked his face in the mirror, looking through his black hair to see if he’d spot any dirt. It was a hassle to wash his hair of dried blood and dirt.

But with two washings, the night before and this morning, he’d managed to get his hair into the thick, shiny mane it was once again.

He turned to Tiber. "I’ll just tell them I’m closing the ruin, and I need their help."

Tiber shook his head. "Vale, it’s not going to be as simple as it sounds. Have you forgotten there are eight of them, three Flags standing to oppose you? Even the Steelclaw Alliance might not be on your side."

Vale nodded in understanding. "The fact that they leave the ruin uncleared is evidence enough of that."

"And you can’t fight the whole team. They’ll be more suspicious now and will never agree to a one-on-one fight with you. Indeed, there’s also a high possibility that they’ll support each other. Maybe you should try the diplomatic way. You killed two people, after all, one of them the most powerful in the second layer."

Just then, the door opened. "Meaning Vale is the most powerful now?"

Slya was dressed in black, tight leather trousers with a small skirt around it that didn’t pass her hips. Her shirt was the same color as well.

Tiber paused when he saw her. "Well, yes? I mean, he should be considered as that."

"So why does he have to play nice? Just tell them you are clearing the ruin tomorrow, and those who want to come should come. It’ll be their loss anyway. How powerful can the ruin be? It has the Rift Seed, but it’s still a ruin, not a Rift," she said simply, as if they were too blind to see the answers staring at them since. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Vale shared a glance with Tiber and chuckled. "I think she has a point. I’ll combine your two ideas."

The night before, when Vale returned to base two, he had instructed Dlodus to call the meeting of the Ten, eight now that two people were dead.

He wanted to move to the next phase of his plan before the Flags had time to do anything. He didn’t doubt that they had all been reporting the incident back.

And honestly, he was a bit nervous about what they might do, especially the Flag of Scuffed Bones and the CrimsonHood. He was also looking forward to what the Steelclaw Alliance would do.

Simply put, Vale wanted to add more mess to the one he already created. He had turned everything upside down; why not flip it some more?

With that in mind, he settled down and began to eat the food that had been brought up a while ago. His teammates joined him, and they briefly forgot about other types of problems except for the one of finishing the food.

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The meeting was to be held in the base of the former rank one. Vale didn’t know why they fixed it to the house of the person he killed, and he didn’t particularly care either.

He passed through the front door and into the massive first room under the glaring gaze of the CrimsonHood.

The air practically cracked with leaking essence mixed with tension and was thick with essence pressure.

It was not only the CrimsonHood that were there. As Tiber predicted, there were other teams scattered around, alert as if waiting for a summon from their leaders.

"This isn’t like a meeting. It’s more like a trap, a fighting ground, and they are only waiting for the fight to break out."

What worsened the situation was that Vale openly carried Alyndra’s sword. It was still unsheathed, and the blade gleamed in the light, silver and sharp.

Vale had decided to keep the sword after he found out it was an enchanted tool. Its power was to basically take in the power of its user, like how it could take in light and turn into a sword of light in Alyndra’s hand.

"They’re killing us in their heads," Slya whispered. All the glaring they were doing had gotten to her, and she had made a forged sword to rest her hand on.

"Only a fool will try anything here. I’m sure they must have been warned by their leaders not to try something that’ll get them killed," Tiber said.

They walked up the sweeping stairs to the floors on the higher ground. Vale told them in a hard voice as well, "Leave all the talking to me, and don’t do anything unnecessary. They are strong Knights."

No matter how one wanted to look at it, the Ten were powerful, and Vale didn’t want a situation where the rest would turn on him and fight him at once.

"Imagine the situation where Fell was still alive and he joined in a fight with the others. Really, that bastard is too deadly," Vale muttered in thought.

They reached the large door that led to the meeting room, and it was opened to them by a guard who looked as if he’d rather tear their heads off than open doors for them.

But open it he did, and they entered.

The first thing they noticed was the large table and the ten chairs arranged around it. It was set in such a way that all the chairs were facing the same direction, towards the door.

A glass window had been fixed directly above, allowing natural sunlight to flow in since it was the highest floor.

They all swung their gaze at the newcomers, all ten of them.

There were ten filled seats instead of eight. Vale smiled. "They filled the extra spots already? They must be trying to play some kind of game here."

Vale studied the silence that followed. "So whatever is going on, it’s not all of them that support it. There’s a faction there, probably because they might always present a united front, but they are anything but."

Vale rubbed his chin with his left hand. "I remember I reduced these chairs to eight. How come I’m seeing ten now?"