While those three were leaving that world, the other five guild masters were meeting somewhere else. Until now, most people that watched things from outside, considering the guild masters' behavior, assumed that those eight were divided into three groups. A neutral part, which was supposed to be Hugo. A lawful part, which was composed by Frederick, Milena, and Helena. And the chaotic part, composed of Michel, Leah, Liu, and Rhobat. However, things couldn't be any more wrong.
"How are the preparations?" Hugo asked when the group reunited in a frozen world and was heading to a cave.
"So far, so good… considering that we were supposed to have finished this on the day of that attack," Michelle said.
"What is done is done, no point in dwelling on that anymore," Hugo said. "What about the sacrifices?"
"Our supporters are bringing them as often as they can, but since the number of people like us is small when it comes to reincarnated individuals from other worlds, it seems that things will be finished in one month," Rhobar explained. "It is a problem since our teleporter can't invade the illusionary world of other species…"
"We don't have a month," Hugo said as they entered the cave. "It seems that we will have to speed up things once again by shedding some of the human race."
"... is there no other option?" Liu asked with his face down. "Our goal was to protect the human race, but to do that by spilling out our own blood."
The other three walked in silence for a while, they weren't sure if that was the best option either, but it was the only one they had. Some sacrifices were going to be made, but that was for the sake of the race as a whole. They could only hope that in the future, they would be regarded as the ones who saved the human race instead of the ones that caused its downfall.
"... We don't have any other choice," Leah said when they reached the final part of the cave and found the thing they had been looking for. "We are weak. Our species is too weak to survive by itself… we have to ally ourselves with the strong to survive."
The other four could only nod while looking at the same thing that Leah was looking at. In front of them, they found a giant mass of flesh in the shape of an egg… that whole thing emitted a repulsive aura that made them feel goosebumps. That thing was also a cocoon that was going to give birth to the enemy of their entire universe… That was the thing that killed Jake before.
"You are right, we were given the chance to save the human race, and we made our choice," Hugo said. "We can't be annihilated again due to internal discord… inform the others that we have 'found' the dark guilds. Prepare our soldiers for the ambush."
That was right. Those five were the leaders of the dark guilds. They planned many ambushes against the members of their own guilds and their own allies to wipe out those that they were told to kill. They also ordered those attacks in those three worlds in order to get the royal blood and the most powerful relics of those worlds…
The dark guilds stayed ahead of the guilds because more than half of them were actually the dark guilds… without a common enemy, they would never be able to grasp the power and influence they needed and put all of the humans that had come over to help them.
"We need to set up an anti-teleportation barrier and choose the right place and time to lure everyone in…" Hugo said. "We have ten days… spread the information that we will need the help of even the small guilds. We can't let others spread rumors to other worlds and species about this operation once it starts."
The group split up and then went to work on their designated tasks… they wondered if the others would give up since once they pulled that off, there was no going back. They killed some humans and started some small wars, but doing that to their species really troubled them to no end… Still, they kept working…
—- —-
"Oh, man… I know that I said that I wanted to help Jake, but he isn't making this easy," Lana said and then sighed when they found traces of his activities around the giant's dungeon. "I am a bad person for having second thoughts about this when he can be so hard to deal with, even from a distance?"
"I am not sure… but considering that he would say that we were wasting time doing this, I can see where you are coming from," Karina said and then shrugged.
"I guess helping out friends can be quite the burden at times…" Lana said and then sighed again.
"Let's focus on the task ahead, everyone," Louise said. "We have been doing this for a while, but it isn't meaningless. It is annoying. I can understand that, but…"
"Louise, I need your group to return to our base right now," Rose said. "All of the guilds are preparing for the war against the criminal guilds."
"Of all times such a thing could happen…" Louise facepalmed and then explained what she had just heard to everyone.
"Well… this is technically a problem bigger than everyone," Lana said. "Stopping right now will make Jake get even further ahead, but we can't let those guys keep throwing mud at our name."
"It appears that your species is really messed up… you are going to stop looking for a friend to fight others like you all," Arilene said.
"Listen here, little girl," Karina said without hiding her anger. "You lived a sheltered life, so don't try to act like you understand our problems."
"Don't fight…" Louise said, and she realized that she had lost count of how many times she said that thanks to those two.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel