Then, It's All Set
Axiolypito couldn't be more ecstatic, he had no reason to believe that Blouvier had what it took to take on the first minister, Reduvia, who seemed like the strongest after the Obsidian Queen.
But after all, Sir Solitar had shown to be faster than him back then, even though Axio bent the natural laws to go faster, it wasn't that unlikely.
He looked around the room once more, taking in each of their expressions.
He had gathered the strongest of this continent and he was the one that had given them a chance to be victorious over the monsters, he was their only chance but also their worst enemy.
It made no doubt that he would be much worse than the Obsidian Queen were he given her position and authority.
The monster queen was at least not slaughetering everything other than monsters indiscriminately, she sought to rule over everything and everyone.
Axio? He seemed more likely to go out of his way to wipe out civilisations for no reason.
The monster told them to discuss between themselves for some time, letting all of them think and build up strategies to whatever was their mission.
He himself was rethinking his own plan.
With Blouvier taking care of Reduvia, he would only have the Obsidian Queen to worry about, not that he was worried, he could already taste victory.
He already had a clear idea of how things would go.
First, The Condemned would die suddenly whilst the queen was busy with conquering, and it was from there that the demise of all of his obstacles would be orchestrated.
Nearly everyone in this room would die, either while doing their part of his plan or by his own hand once he had ascended to the throne.
His first plan of burying Cradled Lich deep into the earth had the drawback of not actually keeping her occupied, she would instantly try to get out or to call for Faceless Lord, now that she had an adversary to worry about, he would have all of the time necessary to deal with the queen.
Blouvier wouldn't be able to kill Reduvia however, her phylactery would be out of her reach but not out of his own.
After tricking her, he had had a few other occasions to converse with her and with his facade, had managed to get the clue he needed to know where exactly her phylactery was at.
Turns out, the Obsidian Queen truly lacked imagination with her titles.
Cradled Lich was titled that for a simple reason.
Her phylactery is in the hands of the Obsidian Queen in person.
The first minister is truly untouchable as long as the Obsidian Queen isn't defeated.
Normally, the two of them would always be together, making the prospect of ending her reign truly impossible.
Axio would be ending the lich at the same time he ended the queen.
Despite having to face against a being that had once enslaved him with tremendous ease, he had no worries.
Whether or not it was his ego speaking or if he had a good reason to believe victory was his, nobody could know.
Sir Solitar had been assessing him the entire time and what he noticed didn't seem good.
He had significantly grown since last time, to the point he felt like Axiolypito was now close to being just as fast he was.
That fool air around him was also familiar.
'He brought the Abyss back with him' now that was truly worrying, abyssal matter was no joke and anyone in contact with such a thing would have a bad time.
'I hope you'll grow even further when the time comes, Superstes' he thought in his mind.
For now, he would need to focus on his own battle.
He hadn't gotten the chance to truly meet with Faceless Lord and evaluate him, but from what Axio had said, he was one of a kind, a champion amongst monsters.
He even hinted at something greater about the fifth minister, the fact that he sent both Solitar and Roderman could only mean that he believed this was the bare minimum.
Roderman had gotten the occasion to see Faceless Lord from up close, however, he had been outsped severely and quickly knocked out.
This mistake wouldn't repeat itself, Faceless Lord would get to truly see what a fight with the old king of Roderst was like.
"Faceless Lord may consider you two threats to the queen and decide to fight, but he may as well simply decided to regroup with her and defend her, we can't let that happen and I know exactly how to 'convince' him to fight you" Axiolypito finally spoke up again and decided to elaborate, after telling them to make up plans, just so he could hear them and propose his own.
His own plans which were much better crafted since he had more informations than all of them combined.
"One of you need to slash his face, specifically where his mouth should be" he did not explain on the why and instead turned to the four who would be facing off against the meat slime, Sovereign Of Flesh.
"No need to go for the kill, simply make sure that she doesn't send any of her creations away from the room, kill all of them" he didn't have much faith in them, so he just instructed the four to only keep the slime busy.
"Bizinda, about that hero I heard about, also make sure that whoever they are, that they don't get close to me, you can lead them to another of their fights if you can, surely they can be useful" he hopped off his throne and put his hands behind his back.
"I'll come back to all of you the second the Obsidian Queen begins her first battle abroad, it might be tomorrow or in multiple months for all I know, so stand ready" he snapped his fingers and openings appeared in the walls, his 'room offspring' as he sometime liked to refer to it as, creating ways back up for some of the people before moving to the next place and dropping off some more.
Like some sort of public transportation.
In the end, the last ones remaining were Solitar and his people, the swordsman lingered longer than the rest, telling them to go on ahead.
The room remained silent for a while before someone broke the stillness.
"Tell me, Axiolypito, do you remember all of those you have killed? The warriors, the monsters, the common folks?" it was Solitar who spoke first and his question made Axio raised an eyebrow as he turned to face him.
A small smile crawled up onto his face.
"Do you?"
"..."
"Me neither"
"..."
"That was the wrong question to ask, then, does it mean anything to you, to kill?" the swordsman stood up from his seat and began walking toward the tunnel that opened up.
"Huh? If there is any significance? No, there is not"
"If I was forced to elaborate, I would say that what matters, is not to take a life in itself, but whose life it is, that you are taking" Axio chuckled.
"It is the 'who' that differentiate between nothing and satisfaction, you Solitar... I would be overjoyed to kill you" he clapped his hands close off the tunnel sending Solitar away.
'What was even the point of those questions?'