A mere week following the settlement of his clan within the labyrinthine fortress engineered by the Aurelius lineage around the disc, Max found himself summoned for an audience with The vampire king Regus Aurelius himself.
The Bloodfall clan, for the time being, were assigned minimal responsibilities extending no further than patrol duties within the maze-like fortress. However, Max was under no illusions – he understood well that their tasks would undoubtedly escalate as time went on.
From the moment he was relieved from his outpost to return to the disc, Max had nursed an inkling that an individual meeting with Regus was imminent.
If the king did not see value in him, he would not have taken the trouble to save him from whatever retaliation Avans was planning and called him back towards the disc.
Max was no stranger to intimidation, but his disposition remained steadfastly calm as he approached the king's war chamber escorted by five guards.
He already had the mask gifted by Hazriel to protect his identity and if that failed, he still had the Agni-Astra which was now complete and capable of preventing any probes into his identity.
As of now the only thing that Regus could find fault with was if he discovered that Max was really a primordial vampire, but apart from that Max had nothing to fear while meeting the king of vampires.
Striding into the austere confines of Regus's war room, he found himself scrutinised by a multitude of tier6 commanders of the Aurelius clan.
His arrival was also noted by Felix and Lucius Aurelius, who had mixed reactions to his arrival.
Felix looked mildly at unease while Lucius smiled a bright smile which Max acknowledged with a nod.
" You summoned me? My king? " Max asked as he awaited Regus's instructions.
" Yes Lord Ravan, first of all let me acknowledge your exceptional achievements on the battlefield.
The vampire monarchy thanks you and your clan for their valour and courage in safeguarding your orb and beating back the Mercenary alliance.
It was certainly not an easy fight and your victory has inspired many " Regus said with an almost emotionless tone but Max felt like there was almost a hint of kindness hidden underneath his words.
" You have personally killed 3 god's Lord Ravan, just how strong are you now? " Lucius said as he stared at Max's figure with awe and respect
" Strong enough to serve the monarchy " Max said diplomatically as he gave an apt reply for a question like this one.
" As you must be aware the dark faction has already won their first disc raid against the dwarves and the light faction are on the cusp of triggering one ourselves.
We have already destroyed 98 enemy orbs and can trigger a disc raid any moment now….. " Regus said as he paused to see Max's reaction who nodded to signal that he understood.
" It's not a guarantee as to what disc raid will be triggered but if the one being defended by sovereign Satan is the one which is triggered then it will be our responsibility to carry out the raid.
According to our scouting report, Satan has a force of about 120 million strong, while if we mobilise all of our vampire clans leaving about 30% to protect the orbs they are responsible of protecting, we can spare a manpower of 140 million for the raid.
Commander Gambino pass Lord Ravan a list of the detailed breakdown of force strength by tier, profession and mode of combat please….. " Regus instructed as a tall vampire commander passed Max some papers with a visible frown on his face.
Regus waited for a while as Max read through the reports getting an exact understanding of the enemy strength then that of the vampire monarchy before looking up at Regus and nodding once more, signalling the monarch to continue.
" It's my understanding that you are an excellent tactician by the way you handled the Mercenary alliance invasion which is why I want you to give your honest opinion on as to how we should progress with the attack strategy.
You don't need to feel any pressure, we already have a plan of attack and your words won't suddenly make me change my tactics.
But I still wish to hear your take on this battle " Regus said as he asked Max to give his candid opinion on how they should progress with the attack.
The reason behind why Regus told Max to give his opinion was because Regus understood that while he himself was an excellent fighter, he was not much of a strategist himself.
The war plan this time was mostly formulated by his council and his clans commanders which although undoubtedly talented could never pull off a victory like Max had pulled off against the Mercenary alliance.
Max studied the war map and the area the vampires might need to raid, but as he thought about a plan of attack on such a large scale his confidence immediately faltered as he was barely someone who could organise 4-5 legions of his own clan, there was absolutely no way he could make a comprehensive plan for how to handle 140 million soldiers.
He was still young and maybe someday he could tackle problems like these, but as of today it was better to tell the king the truth behind the actual strategist of his clan than speaking of a half-baked strategy that would lower his evaluation in front of Regus.
" Actually my king, I'm not the chief strategist of my clan. The plan against the mercenaries had been made by my counsellor.
I'm only a warrior, even if I give you a suggestion for this battle I'm not sure it would be sensible.
In my opinion, it's better if you ask the same question to my counsellor, he's a very wise man " Max said candidly as he admitted to his flaw without shame.
The Aurelius commanders in the room scoffed at his reply judging him to be weak for admitting that he was not good at making strategy when the king already told him that his advice was for speculation only meaning he had nothing to lose, but Regus thought otherwise.
His evaluation of Max improved several fold once he admitted that he was not the strategist as Regus knew better than anyone that to become a good king one need not be perfect in all departments, but rather be one with an open mind who could consult the experts of all departments.
Although Max was not a strategic genius, he was a perfect Lord.
" My lord, we are wasting our time here, this is clearly above his pay grade and summoning his counsellor is just pointless, I sug- "
" Enough! " Regus said as he cut Gambino off
" Summon the Bloodfall counsellor, this war council will hear what he has to say " Regus said as he shut off all opposing voices.
Regus had ordered to summon Rudra completely unaware of just who the hell he was summoning.
Max who was equally unaware of the old man's identity had no opposition to the idea as well as he thought it would be the old man's honour to give counselling to the vampire king.
Little did both of them know that it was the greatest honour of their lives to have the greatest mastermind to have ever lived in the universe, Shakuni The Terrifying himself to formulate war strategy for them.