Fate Online: Shadow



In the bustling city of New Bronx, the air was thick with tension as the Rothschild, Biden and the other four of the great families had started to convene together towards the city to address the deaths of Richard Rothschild and Grom Biden, the patriarchs of the two families.

They knew that they needed to confront the perpetrators responsible for these tragic events and also deal with the nuisance posed by Mine Tech. Industries if they ever take this chance to strike back after a long slumber.

Meanwhile, word of the deaths of the two patriarchs and the involvement of Monk and Silver Fox, these retired individuals had reached the ears of Zero, The Continental's high command.

Even though he had also heard that it was actually Michael that masterminded it, Zero didn't seem to care at all as he seemed to just want to watch for the events to slowly unfold.

After all, the organization really had no direct affiliation with any of the six families or even Mine Tech. Industries, but..that doesn't mean that they wouldn't be pulled into this whirlpool once the identities of the members involved were unraveled.

Inside a meeting room, Andrew Scott, a key player in the War Temple organization and the brother-in-law of Alice, sat with a focused expression. He was one of the owners of the War Temple Guild, a force to be reckoned with. Andrew listened intently to the discussions around him, strategizing on how to protect their group's interests and ensure their survival in the impending storm.

Sitting beside Andrew is his wife Maurine, Alice's sister and a prominent shareholder of the Edyrem Alliance since she held sway over the three guilds, respectively, War Temple, War Angel, and the War Dragons Guild. Her influence was significant, and she was determined to protect her family's legacy while supporting her husband and the group.

The husband and wife just listened to the discussions happening around them as they patiently waited for the people who were still not present and would be occupying the two remaining vacant seats.

It wasn't long before the door leading inside the room was pushed open and everyone inside turned their heads towards it and saw three people making their way inside.

Alice, Tom and the last one, probably their assistant.

"Alice! Tom! It's good that you two are finally here!" Andrew said as he stood up from his seat, followed by the rest of the people in the room, except for Maurine who stayed seated and only gave a nod towards her sister.

"I don't want any talks about raising our defenses in preparation for their attacks, what I want are ideas on how we can utilize this opportunity to chip away at the power of the six families" Alice had just sat down when she immediately uttered those words in a tone that doesn't accept any compromise, while Tom on the other hand just calmly sat down beside her and observed the people inside the room.

The people who met his eyes quickly looked away, all scared to meet his eyes since they can even feel some kind of an invisible pressure emitting from him just by sitting there.

Her brother in law, Andrew was the first one to bring up his opinion and said, "The six families aren't that united since they only banded together for a similar interest, which was to suppress our growing influence. We know those two are only figureheads in their families and don't really have that much power, but their deaths would certainly cause some chaos in their lower ranks when this news reaches their ears and made known to the public, and then their so-called allied families would certainly take this chance to have a bite at them from the dark. But we don't know which families will jump out to do that, so we'll wait and whoever jumps out first will be our prey when they are busy trying to rob another house. Of course, I'm not saying that this is what we should do now, but we can at least put this idea as Plan B or something, or maybe another plan altogether"

"Sir, that is a plausible plan, but this begs the question, is our company ready for this confrontation? The six families have already been here centuries before us, so we don't know what they are truly capable of. We don't even know if those politicians who are on our side are even reliable at times like this" said one of the executives with concern in his face.

"What about attacking the smaller families affiliated to them? This way we can at least get more results with the least effort since we don't need to move a lot of resources in dealing with the smaller ones"

"If we do that, and the news spreads, then rumors will spread in our circle that we are afraid of the six families and that we can only bully.."

The executives started arguing again by pitching their own ideas, and only until there's only two voices of ideas opposing each other that someone finally had a reaction.

Bam!

"Enough!" Alice angrily yelled and slammed her hand on the table, startling all the people present!

"I've heard all of your ideas, but I'm sad to disappoint all of you but we won't be doing any of those, and as one of you have said earlier. These families have been around longer than any of us and a death of a patriarch, most especially a puppet wouldn't be able to even shake them! So I want all of you to prepare to protect the company from any attacks. In addition, make sure to augment our security measures. If no attack comes, then that's good news, but if there is, then we should brace ourselves. Andrew, Maurine and Tom, stay, the rest are dismissed" Alice said and the people slowly left the room, leaving the remaining four inside.

Those people were clearly disappointed since not one of their ideas will be used.