"Do you even know how much money that is!? That’s more than the GDP of most fucking countries! We don’t even have that much gold in the fucking Fort Knox! Are they insane!?"
This was the first time Cersai would ever raise his voice in such a way, and it was such a shocking situation that even the men who were working on the ground looked up in surprise! Cersai’s hands were spread wide in anger, and there was a look of righteous fury on his face that told Jason that Cersai would probably send a nuclear bomb to eradicate the Machina if he could! And honestly, Jason couldn’t blame the man. It was such an enormous amount of money that even Jason knew it was absolute madness to ask for something like that. And the fact that they were demanding it for such a stupid reason only made it more irritating! Jason had done what the Primordial Overlord was supposed to have done. He protected Radagan and killed the Sovereign that was trying to ruin the political landscape of the world, so why the fuck was he being punished for it!?
For the first time in his life, Jason found himself agreeing with Cersai, and he nodded to the man. Cersai had a frown on his face, and he turned when Riyala spoke to him.
"The Council will send us a date and time for the hearing very soon, but until then, it would be wise to think of some way to gather the required amount. Although we have our own cross to bear, our worlds are now in alliance with each other, so if we can help you in any way, we would gladly do it."
Jason was surprised when he saw Cersai nodding along to Riyala’s words, and he was even more surprised when Cersai suddenly spoke fluent Radagan and thanked Riyala for her help. Jason knew that Cersai wasn’t a superhuman, so he wondered how the hell Cersai knew the Radagan tongue! But that wasn’t important right now, so Jason decided not to bring it up as he listened to Cersai.
"I don’t know about this alliance. This entire situation is mainly due to your world attacking ours, so I don’t see why we were even involved in this punishment at all. I’ll try to gather what I can or find some loophole out of this, but in the meantime, Jason, I’d appreciate it if you remained quiet about this to anyone outside the four of us. We can’t spread panic by allowing the public to know about a potential interdimensional lawsuit."
Jason nodded calmly as he saw the sense in what Cersai just said, but he turned to the side when he noticed that all the superhumans that had come with him were being rounded up by the Gaia agents, and they were being ushered towards transport vehicles. Jason’s frown deepened at this, and he spoke.
"What’s going on there?"
Cersai turned to see what Jason was referring to, and he answered simply.
"They’ve been exposed to a foreign climate, so we’ll have to take them in for testing and interrogation. We’ll also debrief them about the situation and warn them against spreading the news of what they saw on the other side."
How fucking stupid. This thought crossed Jason’s mind all of a sudden, and he felt a feeling of annoyance bubble up from deep in his heart. Was this really all Gaia could think about at this moment? Earth was being sued for trillions of dollars and they were about to be put on the largest interdimensional stage to face off against some of the most powerful people out there, but all Gaia could be concerned about was making sure the people didn’t know that there were other worlds out there? Jason turned to Cersai and said,
"You won’t be taking them anywhere. They’re part of my guild, so they’ll be coming with me."
This finally managed to put a frown on Cersai’s face. Cersai faced Jason with a heavy stare, and Cersai could literally see the irritation Jason was feeling at that moment from the look in his eyes. There was an itch at the back of Cersai’s mind that told him that they were currently moving into dangerous waters. This was the first time Jason would speak up against Gaia’s operations with such a tone, and Cersai knew that if he didn’t do something about this, then things were going to take a very wrong turn! Cersai spoke with as much seriousness as possible.
"I would like to remind you that this is my jurisdiction, Jason. I am the one who has a say over who is taken in and who is released from my organization. You would be wise not to overstep your boundaries."
"And I’d like to remind you that I don’t give a fuck about your jurisdiction."
Jason’s simple statement was met with silence from Cersai, and the tension on the roof suddenly shot up to a hundred in no time at all! Gina and Riyala could both sense that the mood had shifted seriously, and Gina narrowed her eyes at Cersai while listening closely.
Jason spoke with a nonchalant calmness that didn’t properly convey just how serious he was at that moment.
"Earth isn’t the same as it was in the past, Cersai. Maybe you could have justified keeping all this a secret from the masses a few years ago, but times have changed. The entire Primordial Expanse is about to learn about our existence and set their sights on us, and you’re still worrying about whether or not the regular citizens know what’s really out there? I say who cares? It’s about time the masses learned what we are really up against. Look what happened in this city. We were caught completely off guard by the Radagan soldiers because the superhumans had no idea that they were from another world. The superhumans expected mindless beasts, but what they got were intelligent soldiers. If we continue hiding the truth like this, then we’ll all be caught off guard again when we inevitably run into another world."
Cersai stepped closer to Jason and seethed up at him.
"You better not be saying what I think you are saying, Jason. Your father and I had our differences, but he knew better than to even suggest spreading the truth about the Primordial Expanse to the rest of the world. He knew that he was not from this world, and that meant he had no say in how we ran our affairs. I respected him for that. You are his son, and that means you are more Avaran than you are human, and I would suggest that you act like it. I will not tolerate you going against the laws of Earth and exposing our people to news that they are not ready to comprehend. Watch yourself, Jason. I have every right to arrest and detain you just for suggesting what you did. So if you step out of line, you’ll only have yourself to blame for what happens."
Cersai let his words hang in the air to allow Jason to comprehend what he had just said. He didn’t need to say anything more because he knew that Jason would understand perfectly. Jason was powerful, but Cersai believed that he had more than enough resources to take Jason down if he needed to. But Jason’s face suddenly darkened, and Cersai felt an insane pressure push against him! Cersai took a step back as the building they were standing on began to shake, and the people working around the city all stopped and looked up when they felt the insane pressure! What in the world was going on!?
Jason’s eyes stared Cersai down with furious disbelief.
"Did you just threaten my family, Cersai?"