"Wait what?" a guy wearing the uniform of Vertigo Box said as he looked at another guy in the office.
"How am I so hard to understand?!" the other guy shouted in rage. "I said that we should have an all-out battle with Swirling Abyss right now! Let's just ignore all of this stupid scheming!"
The first guy and a third guy looked with absolute shock at the second guy.
"Are you mental, Alvin?!" the first guy shouted. "We can't just fight them! What is wrong with you?"
Alvin was taken aback, and the other two could see that the comment had deeply hurt him, which confused them even more.
"I'm not mental, Martin," Alvin said. "You don't have to say something like that. You could've also just said that you disagreed with my idea. You're the CEO. You get to decide what we do anyway. No reason to be so aggressive."
Martin and the third guy, Sten, looked at each other.
"Are you okay?" Sten asked. "You've been acting strangely in the last couple of days. Did something happen during that strange meeting?"
Alvin furrowed his brows. "I don't see how I'm acting strangely, and no, we just talked normally. We tried to get onto the same page on some conflict, but naturally, we failed to do so."
The other two looked at Alvin with concerned expressions.
These three were the leaders of Vertigo Box.
All three of them were Initial Heroes.
Martin was the CEO.
Sten was the CZE.
And Alvin was the CFO.
"Are you sure?" Sten asked.
"Of course, I'm sure!" Alvin shouted back with annoyance.
"Can you stop shouting for once, Alvin?" Martin asked.
"What? This is my fault now?" Alvin asked, feeling insulted. "You are the ones that keep criticizing me without end. Am I not allowed to defend myself now?"
"We're not attacking you!" Sten said with annoyance. "We are just talking normally."
"Just like me!" Alvin shouted. "I'm also just talking normally!"
"Stop!" Martin shouted before taking a deep breath.
"Alvin," Martin said slowly, eliciting an uncomfortable shake from Alvin. "I think you are a bit stressed about the conflict. I believe it would be in all of our interest if you took a couple of days off. We're going to deal with everything."
Alvin seemed like he was about to explode again, but he just took a deep breath.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe I was a bit loud," he said. "I will deal with some of the finances for the next couple of days before I focus on the conflict again."
The other two nodded.
After a bit, Alvin walked out of the meeting room, and the other two looked at each other.
What was wrong with him?
Meanwhile, a couple of kilometers away.
"Nergel, what do you think about that?" a guy wearing the Swirling Abyss uniform asked.
"Hm," Nergel grunted in boredom. "Seems too risky."
Silence.
"Yeeees?" the first guy said. "And why is that?"
"Our Extractors could die," Nergel answered casually.
"Yeah, I know," a third guy said with annoyance. "That is always a possibility during an ambush. However, just as explained earlier, the chances of the ambush failing are, at most, 30%. I don't see how that is risky."
"Then go do it, Thor," Nergel said with an annoyed sigh.
The other two furrowed their brows.
"Nergel, can you please take this seriously?" the CEO of Swirling Abyss, Karl, asked. "You've been giving non-committal and short answers for the entire meeting."
"I am taking this seriously," Nergel answered with an eyeroll. "Just, why go through with such a risk? I wouldn't bet my life on 70%. It's just unnecessary."
"We are not betting with our lives," Thor, the CZE of Swirling Abyss, answered. "If it is about the company's survival, yes, 70% would be too low, but the worst thing that can happen is that two Veterans die."
"Okay," Nergel answered.
Silence.
Thor and Karl looked at each other before looking back at Nergel.
"Is that all?" Karl asked.
"Yeah," Nergel answered.
Karl sighed.
"Nergel, did we offend you in some way?" he asked.
"No," Nergel answered.
Silence.
"Buuuut?" Thor asked.
"What but?" Nergel asked.
"Weren't you about to say but?" Thor asked.
"No, I wasn't," Nergel answered.
Silence.
"Okay, what is going on, Nergel?" Karl asked. "You're acting unusual. What's on your mind? What's the issue?"
"Nothing," Nergel answered with a shrug.
"Is this about the meeting from a week ago?" Karl asked. "You've been acting weirdly for a couple of days."
Nergel shrugged. "No, everything's fine. We just talked about some conflict but couldn't get on the same page. Nothing strange happened."
"Then, what's up with you?" Thor asked.
"What do you mean?" Nergel asked.
"This!" Thor shouted. "You barely say anything. You constantly shrug your shoulders like nothing matters. You don't show even a bit of emotion. You act like you don't give a shit about anything anymore."
Nergel shrugged. "No idea what you mean. Everything seems just like always."
"Is this some kind of game?" Karl asked with annoyance. "You are obviously acting differently."
"How?" Nergel asked in a bored tone.
Karl took a deep breath.
"Nergel, please leave the room," Karl said. "I don't know what's going on with you, but we can't make proper progress when one of our strongest people is acting like this."
"Please, leave the room and think about your conduct today. I'm open for a man-to-man talk later."
Nergel rolled his eyes. "Sure," he said with minor annoyance.
Then, he walked to the door of the meeting room. "See you," he said with a wave before leaving.
After he left, the other two looked at each other with furrowed brows.
It seemed like both Manufacturers had issues with one of their leaders.
Luckily, due to the conflict between them, they didn't know about the issues on the other side.
About a week later, the two Manufacturers received an important message.
The Governor wanted to talk to the CEOs about defining more laws about the conflict.
They would still be allowed to kill each other, but she wanted to minimize the harm that would come to the general population.
Only the CEOs were allowed to attend to keep the chances of a sudden fight to a minimum.
After all, if there were only the two CEOs, the Governor would have significant leverage in that situation since she was stronger than either of the two.
One day later, the two CEOs gathered in front of the city's headquarters.
"Ah, nice to see you again, Martin," Karl said with a smile as he offered his hand to his enemy.
"Oh, it's been too long, Karl!" Martin answered with a laugh as he shook Karl's hand.
Even though they were trying to kill each other, they appeared like old friends right now.
"Why don't we go in?" Martin asked, gesturing to the building.
"Of course," Karl answered with a smile.
Then, the two of them walked into the building while having a bit of small talk.
The Governor was already in the main hall and looked at the two of them.
"Karl, Martin," she greeted.
"Serna," they answered with a nod.
Serna, the Governor, gestured to the stairs, and the three of them went to the seventh floor of the building.
Serna stopped in front of a huge gate, and her Barrier activated.
The next moment, the huge gate slowly opened, and the two CEOs saw the insides of the room.
"That's quite some expensive material," Karl said as he looked at the abyss-black material the room was made of.
"This is our new meeting room for sensitive meetings," Serna explained. "The room is completely isolated, like a Containment Unit, and it is made of material that can even contain a Demon. I only use this room for the most important meetings."
The two CEOs inspected the room closely.
Sure enough, it was completely isolated.
Eventually, the three of them entered, and the gate began to close slowly.
BANG!
The gate closed, and the three of them were in the room alone.
"Well then," Serna said. "Shall we get to it?"
And then…
Ding!
All the lights turned off!
Karl and Martin immediately began to panic and pulled out their weapons.
BANG!
A gun fired, and the room was illuminated for just a moment.
Karl saw Serna and Martin moving towards him.
Martin saw Serna and Karl moving towards him.
Serna saw Martin and Karl aiming at each other.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The two immediately began to fight each other as Serna stood back.
At the same time, a black mist appeared behind Karl.
The black mist turned into a human with a blade.
CRK!
The blade broke Karl's Barrier.
At the same time, a three-headed figure appeared behind Martin.
The three heads had long black hair, and they all had different expressions.
The one on the left was crying.
The one on the right was laughing.
The one in the middle was disinterested.
Next, six arms came out of the figure, and they scratched the Barrier in front of them with terrifying speed.
BANG!
Martin's Barrier was also broken.
Both of them fell into a panic, but without any Zephyx left, the Nightmare's influence completely overtook them.
Nick controlled the Nightmare's influence and caused them to lose consciousness.
At the same time, Nick was also protecting Serna from the Nightmare's influence.
"Do it," Nick said to the three-headed figure.
The three-headed figure stepped between the two unconscious people and began to move its arms in a mystical manner.
A moment later, colorful gas came out of Karl before entering Martin's body.
The figure began to cry and laugh.
"More food for the Lord!" it shouted.