Kill the Sun

"What's our plan?" Nick asked.

Right now, the four people of Dark Dream were gathered inside the Screaming Coffin's Containment Unit.

It was simply the best place for talking about things that nobody was allowed to listen to.

The Screaming Coffin was just lying near one of the walls and didn't move.

It was happily digesting its meal.

Surprisingly, it was still consuming the spy's corpse.

Apparently, the corpses of Extractors took far longer to digest and also gave far more Zephyx.

"We can't openly attack Ardum," Wyntor said. "Ardum has exposed our secret enmities, which makes it difficult when members of Cycle die."

"While the guards don't really care about wars between Manufacturers, they still perform a superficial and rudimentary investigation, and if we are too suspicious, they might even decide to permanently place someone in Dark Dream to supervise us."

"Naturally, no one wants that to happen. Not even Ardum."

Wyntor snorted. "But because Ardum acts all friendly and innocent in front of his employees, he has to act all shocked, emotional, and angry in front of them to get them on board with this entire conflict."

"If he didn't, his smarter employees might realize that some things don't add up and will become suspicious."

Wyntor snorted again. "Because of Ardum's incompetence, he made it more difficult for our companies to fight."

Nick chuckled a bit.

Trevor just smiled helplessly while Jenny looked worried.

"What about your spy?" Jenny asked with worry.

"What do you mean?" Wyntor asked.

Jenny furrowed her brows as she looked at Wyntor. "You said Ardum was free to kill the spy. Are you truly willing to throw one of your people away like that?"

"Oh, that?" Wyntor said before he started to laugh. 

"I don't have a spy in Cycle," he said.

This surprised everyone.

"What? But then, how, why?" Nick asked in confusion.

"Ooohhh, I get it!" Trevor said with a surprised expression.

"What? Explain it!" Nick said with annoyance. "I also want to know!"

Jenny just looked with confusion at Trevor and the grinning Wyntor.

"Ardum wants to get rid of someone," Trevor said. "One of his employees probably became skeptical, and Ardum accused them of being a spy so that he could kill them. He tried something similar on me when we first met, remember?"

Jenny and Nick understood now and looked at Wyntor.

"But then, why did you confirm that there was a spy?" Nick asked.

"To make him paranoid," Trevor said.

Wyntor nodded. "Exactly."

"Ardum expected me to deny having a spy among his ranks, but instead of denying, I confirmed it and acted like it wasn't a big deal."

"That would make him believe that I truly have a spy in his company."

Wyntor grinned. "I can already imagine him looking with suspicion at all of his employees."

Nick and Jenny looked with awe at Wyntor.

That was amazing!

Wyntor had managed to disrupt Cycle's unity with a single sentence!

"We should get back to the topic," Wyntor said.

The others nodded.

"Wars like this are fought in secret, and it's all about reducing the enemy's numbers until they no longer have enough employees to take care of all their Specters."

"There will most likely not be a public battle. Most of the time, it's just a number of assassinations on the employees."

The three of them furrowed their brows.

This was troublesome.

"What about our families?" Jenny asked.

"Ardum will most likely use them," Wyntor said.

At that point, Jenny became nervous.

"What about my partner?" she asked.

"Get her to live in here," Wyntor said. "Nick and Trevor don't have any family, which makes things easier for them. We have more than enough space for one woman to live here."

"Although, you won't have a lot of privacy here."

Jenny nodded. "That's fine. As long as she and I are safe, I don't care about that."

"Then, get her right now," Wyntor said. "Ardum has to act like convincing himself to battle his younger brother is very difficult, which means he can't possibly strike this soon after our meeting."

"Okay," Jenny answered. "I'll get her."

Jenny quickly ran out of the Containment Unit, leaving the other three alone.

"Will we take the offensive?" Nick asked.

"I'm not sure," Wyntor answered. "There are good and bad things about these things."

"If we initiate the battle, Cycle's unity will only increase, but if we don't, they might strike with a force that makes it impossible for one of you to resist on your own."

Trevor and Nick furrowed their brows.

Traveling outside alone was dangerous now.

Even worse, their Barriers had to be activated manually. If they didn't activate them, it would be like throwing their lives away.

"Should we travel together when we leave?" Trevor asked.

"No," Wyntor said. "We always need two of you to be here. If too many of you leave at once, we leave our base open."

"While the guards will react very quickly, it only takes a short moment for a level two Extractor to damage the Screaming Coffin's Containment Unit."

"If the Screaming Coffin gets startled and runs away, any Extractor on the streets is allowed to capture it. At that point, we will lose a great deal of our income."

Nick furrowed his brows.

That was troublesome.

"I think I should live here for the time being," Trevor said. "It doesn't really make that much of a difference."

"That would be for the better," Wyntor said.

Trevor nodded and stood up. "Then, I'll get my things right now."

"Of course."

Trevor also left the Containment Unit, leaving Nick and Wyntor inside.

"What about my training?" Nick asked.

"Dangerous," Wyntor said. "You have to go through relatively isolated places, which make for a great ambush point."

"While you will be safe during the training due to your teachers, you are vulnerable before and after training."

Nick looked at Wyntor with furrowed brows.

"But isn't that also an opportunity for us?" Nick asked.

Wyntor furrowed his brows and scratched his chin.

Then, a gleam appeared in his eyes.