Agrath (Amorphous) heard the servant, and his brows furrowed. He nodded before instructing the servant, "Call every senior elder and core members for an emergency meeting in an hour," he said before leaving the room.
He was coordinating with Grimlock in his mind using the mental hive to find directions around the base.
Grimlock was now walking around him but still not close enough to look like he followed him. After all, he was just a junior elder.
Finally, under Grimlock’s instructions, Agrath (Amorphous) found the meeting room. The room was unfamiliar, but his confidence masked any hesitation.
"All the best," Grimlock spoke before standing in a corner a few meters away from the door of the meeting room.
He decided to assist Amourophous navigate the upcoming meeting, which was beyond his expectations and knowledge, as far as Grimlock knew.
There was supposed to be no upcoming meetings today.
That could only mean one thing, which was the presence of an uninvited guest.
Amorphus entered the room with a dizzy expression as if he were mildly high on certain substances; after all, that’s how Agrath was most of the time, smoking more than breathing.
The act was deliberately staged by Amourpohous as he had noticed how Agrath acted. Also, a sloppy exterior allowed room for inconsistencies in behavior without raising alarms.
"What do you see??" Grimlock asked hurriedly in his mind.
"What is a pheonix doing here??" Amourophous asked as if he had seen the most unexpected thing.
"Phoenix??" Grimlock asked with a shocked expression. There were no phoenixes working in the main headquarters of the Clayman cult; most were humans or more populated races like elves, vampires, and beastfolk.
Phoenixes were rarely seen in this part of the continent. Even if there were phoenixes in the cult, they were rare and mostly in bases located near the Ashfall Empire.
"Why are his eyes bloodshot?? I don’t remember cucking him ever??" Amourohous spoke, making Grimlock suddenly twitch.
"What is he wearing??" he asked.
"A rough robe like a beggar, or maybe he is a prisoner," Amorphus spoke in his mind while he walked towards his seat.
He slowly settled on his seat in a relaxed, laid-back posture, looking at the phoenix-kin man who seemed to want to kill him at any moment.
"Look at his forehead. Is there a golden head ornament worn by him?" Grimlock asked Amorphous.
"Yeah, he has one," Amorphus replied while silently looking at the man who was biting his lips silently now.
"A high-born phoenix," Grimlock’s voice sounded in Amorphus’s mind. That single identification raised the stakes of the room instantly.
"How many red rubies are engraved on that band?? " Grimlock asked
"I see nine slots, but one slot is empty on the right side; the rest are embedded with red rubies." Amourphous said he was getting confused now.
As someone who had spent most of his time in the Abyss and even when he arrived on Aris had spent most of his time in the Skybreak Empire, he knew less about the pheonixes as a race.
"Shit," Grimlock exclaimed.
"What happened??" Amorphous asked hurriedly.
"That must be a member of the imperial family that rules over the Ashfall Empire; the empty slot means he has died one time."
"Oh well, let’s see what this one has to say." Amourohous didn’t panic; he looked at the man looking at him with a hateful expression.
"Will you say something??" he asked, pretending to know him.
The phoenix man with sharp and young features gritted his teeth, his fists clenched together.
"My Celera was killed."
"Oh!!!" Amourohous couldn’t care less in actuality, but he still showed a shocked expression as if he had heard completely unexpected news.
Then his expression turned grim; clearly the man was grieving for this Celera; he just needed to show the right reactions to get all the context from this phoenix-kin.
Years of deception in the Skybreak Empire had made him a master at it, and the natural actor talent bestowed by William made his work easier than ever.
"What happened??" he asked with a grim expression. The man in front of him bit his lips, and a few drops of tears escaped his red eyes. The question opened a floodgate of tears.
"The Celestial army, Commander Damian, found out that she was a spy! That bastard, whore’s son, killed my Celera in such a cruel manner!!!" the man now cried at full volume.
"I didn’t even get to see her for the last time; she was thrown in the sewers after getting herself crushed and broken into pieces by that bastard!!" His grief turned into volatile rage slowly now.
"I searched the sewers of that place desperately day and night, only to find this," he said before taking out a skeletal bone of a hand; it was broken from a side.
He rubbed his face against its surface, making amorphous frown. The act of this man blurred the line between mourning and obsession.
"That bone belongs to a male; look at its width and proportions," he said.
"What??" the man in front of him asked with a frown. Agrath nodded with a serious expression, confirming he was not joking at all.
The phoenix’s eyes widened, and he threw the bone to the side abruptly. For a moment, anger replaced sorrow entirely.
His teeth gripped his lips tightly. He looked at amorphous "A member of your cult was killed so ruthlessly, and you have no clue??" Now the blame shifted outward, searching for accountability.
Amorphis realized the reason why this man had been staring at him hatefully. With a sigh he replied.
"The shadows of war are looming over my cult right now; the human emperor is about to attack us any day."
"Especially after our operations in the south got halted. The cult is struggling to get back on its feet; thousands of Clayman cult members died under the hands of the celestial army. It’s only natural that we overlooked Celera’s absence."
"But don’t worry. Now that we know what they did to her, we will give her all the respect and rights she deserved; after all, she martyred her life for the demon lord Clayman. I am sure he will compensate you properly."
Amourphous’s intention wasn’t to make this guy calm down; it was to inflame the anger in him even more.
By now he had realized that this woman had a romantic relationship with this royal phoenix, the way she caressed that bone.
Smash!!!
"FUCK!! YOUR COMPENSATION!! Do you think Astra Ashfall seeks some petty compensation from you?" the phoenix shouted and slammed the table in front of him, breaking it apart.
Amorphous’s eyes widened on the surface while he gleefully informed Grimlock that he had gotten the name out of this man’s mouth.
"Hmm, Astra Ashfall doesn’t ring a bell in my mind, but the Ashfall family is the ruling family of the Ashfall Empire. Well, at least we have something to report to Lord William now," Grimlock said.
"Try to get some more information out of his mouth." Grimlock suggested.
Amorphous, meanwhile, confronted the enraged Astra. "What do you seek, Astra??" he asked.
Astra’s sobs right now had turned muffled; he clenched a part of his face and started laughing maniacally.
"Khekke!! I want to see his head crushed; I want revenge; I want the head of Damian Cross, the commander of the Abyssal Extermination division."