"Did something happen?"
Patricia took a deep breath before she nodded her head. "Vice supreme leader, this is something big. Erick is dead."
Silence descended in the room after Patricia passed the information.
It was obvious that none of them could believe the information that they had received. Considering the capabilities that Erick possessed, it was obvious that he couldn't be easily killed, even if he fought against another person who had the same capabilities as him.
The only level of person that could kill him would definitely be a person who was a single level and above ahead of him in terms of capabilities. But as long as they could think of it, they had not detected any person of that level leaving the stronghold.
After all, the movement of the people in the stronghold wasn't something that was just monitored by the other organizations. Instead, this was something that involved a war.
As long as those big guns of the organizations made moves, then they would be making several risks of the stronghold being taken down.
Antonio Phillips, the current vice supreme leader of the Panthers organization, was fuming inside. He couldn't believe that a guardian of the Panthers organization had been killed off.
It was not just a matter about Erick being part of his faction, but being a member of the Panthers organization. Losing a guardian at such a moment was definitely no different from crippling them. Although the injury was not that big, it was still significant enough for the Panthers organization to suffer.
"Do you have any idea about who did that? Or could it be that he took the poisonous pill?" Antonio asked in a chilling voice. Currently, he really wished that he could find the person who was behind this, and tear them into pieces.
Patricia shook her head. Then she said, "According to the information that I have received about his vitals, I have found out that he was engaged in a fight. That fight wasn't easy at all, as he was beaten up one-sidedly."
"After that, his vitality continuously dropped. Finally, it reached a moment that it seemed that he was undergoing immense pain. Then after a few minutes, his life was depleted as he was killed."
Silence dominated the room once again. None of those present could actually understand what really happened. From the information that they had received, it was obvious that Erick had been beaten until he was killed. But then, the main question was, who was it that was involved in the matter?
Antonio, on the other hand, was already fuming in anger. It was an agreement that, all those that were already above the five-star level, were not supposed to deal with those of the lower level belonging to other organizations.
This was an agreement that was never supposed to be broken, unless another organization aimed at starting a war with the organization that they would have attacked.
From the details of the report, it was obvious that Erick had encountered a person who was at a level far above him. As for the torture that he had undergone, it was obvious that the other party was trying to search for information from him.
"As for the one who did it, I am not sure about that. But, Erick managed to send us an audio of what occurred at that moment." Patricia continued.
After she said that, she immediately began playing the audio that had recorded the conversation between Erick and Jack. Other than the conversation between Erick and Jack, there was another pre-recorded audio between him and Samantha.
This was the conversation that had occurred during the time that they had met for the first time outside the stronghold.
Since Erick had not managed to send the audio well, the arrangement of the audio wasn't right. So, it began by playing the most recent audios.
Even though the audio that had been recorded between Jack and Erick was there, it wasn't a complete one. Instead, it was the final parts that had been captured.
During this final moment, Erick had been giving the overview about the stronghold that he belonged to. And from this, they could deduce that the person who had killed him was definitely not from their stronghold.
But when they got to hear the conversation between him and Samantha, they couldn't help but have a shift in their thoughts.
"He-he, it appears that there is an enemy who is trying to direct us to another place. I never expected that they would be the ones who were going to make a move on us." Antonio laughed coldly.
The anger within his eyes began increasing. Currently, his battle intent immediately began soaring in the air. A lot of pressure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, making all those that were present in the same room as him begin sweating.
They all knew about this situation. This was a time that Antonio was fully angered. For that reason, it was obvious that there was someone who was going to pay for that.
After taking a moment to calm down, Antonio finally managed to rein in his anger. After that, he looked around without saying a word, as he began deliberating on what to do.
As for the other guardians that were present alongside Patricia, they too looked at each other. Some guardians couldn't help but begin speaking.
"It seems that The butterfly organization is not as gentle as we expected. They actually launched an attack on our members without us expecting. I'm quite certain that they never expected that Erick actually recorded their conversation." The man with long red hair spoke.
"This is something that cannot be taken lightly. We will have to counter as soon as possible to show them that we are not weaklings that they can simply mess with." A lady spoke. Just like Antonio, anger was blazing in her eyes.
The relationship between the five of them who belonged in the same faction was good. For that reason, having one of them getting killed was definitely something that they didn't take lightly.
Not to mention that it was going to decrease the strength of their faction, there was also a fact that they at least cared about each other.
"Silence! I don't want you to discuss this matter with others. Let this matter remain a secret of the top echelons of the organization. Since this is something big, it is obvious that we cannot hide it from the others, as they should have already known about it." Antonio said.
After taking a deep breath, he finally continued, "Even though it will be something that will hinder my plans, there's nothing else that I can do about it. I will have to inform the supreme leader so that we can act on the butterfly organization's move."
"Although I cannot recognize the voice that was speaking to Erick, it is not difficult for someone to change his voice. Heh, they thought that by changing a voice into that of a male was going to work on us? How laughable." Antonio snorted.
The butterfly organization, was the only organization that was present in the stronghold that was only for females. Even though they were ladies, they were actually the second-strongest organization.
The ladies of the organization were strong and could not be underestimated. When facing the vice supreme leader of the butterfly organization, Antonio wasn't sure that he could be advantageous.
And apart from them, there were other organizations present in the stronghold. All of these were waiting for chances that they could take advantage of to leap to the top.
And even though it was true that the Panthers organization was the biggest organization present in the stronghold, it actually wasn't ahead of the other organizations by a big margin.
The range at which they were ahead of the other organizations was almost negligible. And a loss like the one that they had encountered was enough for the gap that they had created to be closed.
Even though it was true that the 12th guardians were not the strongest of the organization, during a war, they were important. They acted as the generals, and led all those that were below them to battle.
In most cases, it was these 12 that always acted. As for those who were a level above them, they only took action if they faced an enemy who was beyond the level of the guardians to handle.
With the 12 guardians, The Panthers organization held an advantage. After all, the butterfly organization, that was just second to them, coincidentally had 11 guardians as well. But now that the Panthers organization had lost the only advantage that they had, it was obvious that in a fight, they would no longer be able to dominate easily.
But still, that didn't matter to Antonio. At this moment, he was actually thinking about if it was possible, to find another way so that they could utilize what they found about 5 years ago.
If it were possible, then it wouldn't be a problem for them to actually dominate the whole stronghold. If they managed to do that, then the resources that they were going to get would definitely make them even stronger.
However, currently, the main difficulty that Antonio was facing was that, Erick went out on his orders. Since that was the case, then he would be blamed by the supreme leader for his death.
Even though it was true that the supreme leader wanted to find a method that could be utilized to use what they found, it wasn't at a cost of losing some of the strongest members of the organization.
Another thing yet, there was a fact that, he would have to reveal what it was that he was looking for.
So, to deal with this, Antonio had decided to go and look for the supreme leader, rather than waiting for him to be called. He wanted to ensure that he met with the supreme leader in private, to try to preserve the secret.
"Every one of you, better get ready, we might have to fight at any moment now." Antonio stated before raising from the throne that he was on. Subsequently, he walked out of the room, heading towards the living quarters of the supreme leader.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om