CHAPTER TWENTY
"In the aftermath of Guang's unions terrorist attack, many still question whether their defeat was truly the actions of a secret defensive countermeasure or the intervention of a divine figure. With no evidence to clarify those responsible or their motives. Experts believe that this incident may remain one of the greatest mysteries of the modern era."
Ives watched the media coverage of last night's terrorist attack, there were countless theories, those claiming to have been responsible for the counterstrike against Guang Union's sleeper cell without providing any clear evidence that they possessed such capabilities and the government's response to the events which was just them giving a grand speech, a plan for retailatory actions against future crises of similar fashion and another promise that they would most likely be unable to fulfil in any meaningful sense.
Ives made a hand gesture and the TV system paused its operation.
"I hope this won't be connected to us." Ives said to Zeke.
"You don't have to worry about a thing, Guang Union's attack was done on a national scale. Countless cities have to face the same calamity and all were swiftly dealt with by an undisclosed force. Narrowing it down to Valkyren would be extremely difficult and the order members have gone to extreme lengths to make sure there was as little evidence as possible. The Blackout that occured shortly after was our doing, it served as a cover for our scrub."
Ives sighed in relief and leaned back on the couch to ease the raging flow of thoughts in weighing down on his mind. Last night was not his first time ending a life but it was his first time fighting to save one and that affected how he would be proceeding when dealing with similar further ahead.
"You did well, Sir." Zeke encouraged him.
"I was too sloppy." Ives said with conviction, despite the brilliant strategic execution of his plan during the incident, Ives felt that his own play in the field was woefully inadequate especially with the early execution of General Wen which didn't afford them any more time to act discreetly. The climatic finish was the result, any force capable of destroying with that kind of power is definitely something the world won't overlook so easily.
That clearly violated the strict secrecy that the order upholds.
Knock! Knock!! Kaleb who was standing guard at the door opened it allowing the third member of their team to enter, an alluring white haired female who dull gray eyes didn't focus on her path and yet it seemed like she could see without issue.
"Miss Eva. How may we help you?" Zeke asked.
"Mister Rothschild has a visitor, a girl named Isolde Carpenter. Do you know her?"
Ives nodded, "Yes, she has been away attending to her family."
"Tell March to bring her up." Zeke gave his instructions, Eva left with a bow to execute it.
Ever since the mission, these three have been assigned to him, on the books they are just serving as extra security but their main job is to be at hand to assist Ives in future directives. Their presence created a more secure environment in his life and Ives was deeply thankful for that.
They were formidable forces on their own, having them around made sure that accidents like the one involving Isolde's grandfather never happened again.
"Mister Rothschild, if I may?" Zeke suddenly began. Ives perked up to hear what he had to say.
"We have a meeting with Beelzebub later, he wants to meet with you about the condition of Sabine Carpenter and also hand over your commission from the battle."
"What was the reward again?" Ives inquired.
Zeke straightened his glasses and called out, "The order would take on the full expenses of Sabine Carpenter's treatment and also hand over two hundred million worth in financial assets to you. Both of these things are welcome given the fact that we need it relives both financial strain and enables further growth." Zeke added to show Ives, the true height of what he had accomplished.
"You inform the order of my affairs. Don't you?" Ives said to Zeke who froze at these words. Ives continued without waiting, "These two things are way too conveniently timed. Wouldn't you say so?"
Zeke sighed and confessed, "My duty as a recruiter is to evaluate potential candidates and groom them ahead of entry. Reporting on them is only right but I do apologise if this isn't to your liking. I do not wish to upset my employer."
Ives waved him off, "No worries. You can keep five million from the reward as a bonus then hand out a million to March, Kaleb and Eva."
Zeke smiled warmly at his words and stood in appreciation.
"Thank you, sir. I propose we use the remaining for an investment, there is an Aviation company that we can acquire easily. They are in the business of transporting both human and cargo loads and have routes throughout the planet. Would you like to consider this prospect?"
"How much?" Ives said these iconic lines.
"We would need to top it off a bit but the grand total comes down to three hundred and sixty nine million, then a little more for rebranding, renovations, change of staff and all it adds up to roughly four hundred million. Management won't be a problem as long as we enforce a strict profit margin to follow up to which is around a hundred million a year." Zeke laid it all out.
Ives nodded in approval and Zeke added, "It will be all done by monday."
Knock! Knock!! They knew who it was. The door opened and the Casanova - March returned with Isolde and her grandfather escorted by Eva.
"Mister Rothschild." Isolde gave this unfamiliar greeting, it was as if she was adjusting to being unable to call him "master".
"Welcome, you can have a seat." Isolde came over with a large box, she opened it to reveal a grand assortment of foods ranging from meats, vegetables and fruits.
"I'm sorry for not being able to cook for you."
Ives felt touched, he remembered his first night with Isolde from her comforting him during his nightmare to their love making.
Ives took a piece of cake and ate it, it tasted divine. Despite the fact she could easily walk away without any serious repercussions for her grandfather's actions she chose to find little ways like this to remain close.
'She doesn't want to go' Ives deduced internally, knowing that despite his warmth for her, allowing her to stay posed quite a risk both to her and to him.
"Thank you, Miss Carpenter." Ives then turned his attention to Isolde's grandfather. He came forward and paid his respects.
"I am in your debt, for everything." He said then gave a bow, he too was trying to make things right.
"No worries." Ives hoped to eliminate his worries lest he had further reasons to engage with him in the future.
"No, it isn't." Isolde's grandfather couldn't accept the weight of his actions and wasn't willing to accept their dismissal of it too. Ives perked up to hear what he had to say.
"My name is Krueger Savastin. I served for a while in Ostania's armed forces before retiring. When I returned, my daughter had already made a family with a foreigner and I hoped to see her flourish in life. But then I got the news that her husband had left, I couldn't leave Sabine's mother so I offered whatever support I could from the distance not knowing the truly terrible things they had to endure till one evening I received those recordings from Isolde's phone most likely sent by her former masters. I couldn't waste any time, my years standing by had to end so I came here to United Columbia to set her free whatever the cost and that led to that…." Krueger swallowed with effort before continuing, "....I am a man of the iron, it forbids me from simply shedding off my crimes. I wish to make it right even with my life."
The room was silent as everyone awaited Ives' decision.
"I don't care about whatever that is. In the meantime, I have a new venture that will soon kick off, Isolde would you be interested in managing it for me or do you have anything better to do?"
Ives' response was savage, making even the team question whether he felt anything at all about this man, he acted like his heartfelt declaration had no weight.
Isolde immediately gave her response, "As long as it pleases you."
"Then that will be all." Ives ended the discussion without a glance and laid back with his eyes closed as he rested in preparation for other engagements.
...
Ives met with Beelzebub in his underground complex at the mountains.
Donning his signature tuxedo and eagle mask, he wasted no time in emulating the same presence as his host.
"Good tidings, Lord Beelzebub." Ives greeted the moment he laid eyes on his iconic fly head gear.
"And you two. Come in alone."
Ives left the three at the door and headed into the corridor with his host, he didn't need to fear. Beelzebub had nothing to gain harming him.
"How are you adjusting?" Beelzebub began their conversation.
"Fine. A year ago, I couldn't imagine even an inch of these things being possible and now I live in a world of cults and mysterious phenomenon. At this point, I really wouldn't be surprised if there really was a God." Ives calmly answered.
Beelzebub chortled, "Perhaps but do you really find all we do that hard to understand?"
Ives turned to face him, silently showing the absurdity of his question but Beelzebub refused to relent.
"Well, then I will try to debunk it for you. Are you an acute science student or plain like most?"
"Knowledge but plain." Ives didn't waste time revealing.
"Good, I like your honesty. Let's first start with your hollow body suit, studying the life, I was able to imiate most of the biomechanics driving action and tensile strength in an organism. Add in a supporting exoskeleton and advanced generator then you have the hollow body, most of its mass is woven from trillions of a hundred micron wide nano particles capable of creating their own internal lift force when exposed to an electric field hence the reason I placed a compact solid fuel generator on the spinal region of the suit. It can perfectly detect and match every bit of your movements and complement it while also being able to manipulate every inch of your momentum. Then the blades are simply made from a meta material that is sharpened till it is one atom thick, capable of slicing through steel bonds. They can also hit at a range by firing a thread woven from countless atom thick microscopic blades which are then fired and retracted four times the speed of sound creating a weapon that can dismember a dozen bodies in a row. Then the rest are just theatrics, the invisibility garments are flowing screens, perfectly projecting what is behind it while slightly altering the path of light to prevent glare and distort the vision of depth. Is there anything I missed?"
Ives was genuinely impressed by Beelzebub's genius which brought out incredible effects from simple concepts but he still had something he hadn't accounted for which was the spatial aberration he created to destroy Zhou gin's plant and the bullet hand March uses.
"Is there anything you are missing?" Ives queried.
"Since you wish to know so bad. That was a gravitational anomaly I manifested, I matched the wavelength of a particle above the plant with that of a supermassive black hole a few light years away through something like a delicate balance of quantum teleportation and a new technique of mine called phase shifting. I was able to entangle its properties with that of a black hole momentarily creating the effects of one before it wore off. Then the hand gun is simply a transfer of a unique kind of energy that disstabilizes the molecular bonds of a structure like for example, a person's skull. The contraction for this is much too large to carry around so the person simply uses a hidden laser marker to determine where the energy should be transferred and we beam to the coordinates, ending the life of an innocent scumbag."
Ives listened and was completely blown away by this revelation.
"Calling you a genius would be an understatement."
Beelzebub agreed, "Obviously."
They arrived at a room, inside Isolde's mother laid unmoving in a glass chamber.
"It would more eaiser to simply grow her a new body than to save the one she currently inhabits though it would need a decade to mature while the brain is preserved till transplant."
"So she isn't responding well?" Ives asked.
"No, she will soon recover, I was just stating a fact."
"Then?"
"My boy, what is your purpose?"
"I just want to live a good life and be strong enough to defend it."
"You will need to do better than that. Those like us can't really say when our lives will end given our capabilities."
"A good life is enough." Ives insisted.
"My Boy, I'm sorry to tell you this. You don't quit till the order says so that includes death too. So I ask again what is your purpose?"
Ives froze, Zeke had earlier informed him that getting involved with the order wasn't something you could walk away from so easily. If this was the case, then they were approaching beings not too similar to gods.
"I don't know." Ives had no choice but to admit.
"Hmmm…. Let me tell you something, my very first invention was one that allowed communication through time itself. A device that can disrupt linear casuality and do you know what I did after making it?"
"No."
"I blew the brains out of everyone who knew of it and built an empire. My point is that before you were even born, I knew of you, Mister Ives Rothschild. Each little thing that happened in between, I knew how it would pan out. And I also know that saving that woman might lead to a future which ends horribly for you so I will say this once."
He came closer and whispered to a terrified Ives.
"When a man stares into the darkness, it stares right back. If you are willing to sacrifice anything, be prepared to sacrifice everything even what you are fighting for."
Beelzebub added as he walked out.
"Selene Arman. Will call you right about now, she is an interesting lass get closer to her."
Ives heard his ringtone and brought out his phone which showed Selene's number.
"Hello. Are you free tonight?"