Mutagen

The morning sky was clear and bright, in contrast to yesterday\'s snowy visage. A perfect day for work, even though the weather\'s temperature was way lower than the previous days and the white snow blanketing the majority of things outside.

At long last, the alliance meeting between Auraboros and the Reclaimed City began.

Although the ongoing meeting did not seem to affect the citizens of the Reclaimed City as much as one would think, the people who passed by the former TEPCO Toyosu Building would turn their heads to look at it for a few seconds before continuing.

Even if the people seemed to be currently unaffected, they knew that the results of the meeting would greatly impact their tomorrow. This fact made the people passing by kind of nervous as they passed by the former corporate office building now used for government business.

If the meeting gave results immediately, the people would be less nervous. Unfortunately, that was unlikely to happen. It should take a few more hours if not days.

An alliance between two equal parties was not as simple as being friends because of having the same enemy. It was a negotiation where both parties strictly measured the cost and benefit of the alliance. Even if the main reason for the alliance was the Demons in the North, there was no reason not to push some benefits into it.

Within the heavily guarded conference room on the third floor of the government building, the intense discussion between the parties involved in the alliance was still ongoing.

The current topic of the discussion was the second in importance following the alliance. 

Trade. 

Both the Reclaimed City and the Auraboros had needs that could only be obtained through the other party.

Although the Magical Creatures from the Auraboros might hate to admit it, guns and bullets were far more reliable than magic when dealing with the [Infected]. Furthermore, the extensive use of magic within areas highly frequented by the [Infected] would cause unfathomable mutations. Unfortunately, gun manufacturing knowledge was something that the Magical Creatures, who were against such weapons in the past, lacked. As such, if the Auraboros wanted human weapons, they could only rely on the humans of the Reclaimed City.

On the other hand, the humans were the complete opposite. Not only Magical Creatures but even magical things that did not exist on Earth before the previous world-changing catastrophe began popping up. However, humans lacked the knowledge and capabilities to utilize these new resources. And, of course, it was something that the Auraboros had.

Aside from those two things, proposals involving information and supply trades were also in discussion. 

And now, the discussion was progressing on how trades would be implemented within the Alliance Treaty. After all, between former enemies and new allies, boundaries and conditions must be established.

Within the alliance meeting, the three leaders watched the discussion of their subordinates as they proceeded with the negotiations. They might be the leaders of each faction, but it did not mean that everything would be left in their hands.

Leaders might have the final say in things, but it never meant they would have to do all the work. In the worst cases, they would not do any work at all while hogging all the achievements.

In this case, the leaders had already prepared for possible contents of the discussion with their trusted subordinates. The only remaining thing to do was to find leverage with the other party, leaving the negotiation to the subordinates.

Besides, it was not the time for the Empress and the Priestess to focus on the negotiations. While they feigned to properly listen, their attention was on something else entirely.

Among the high-ranking individuals present, there was one, no, a group of people who barely had any participation.

The camp of the Mitsui Conglomerate, headed by the Mitsui Clan head, Mitsui Kinjiro, along with a few elders of their family.

A business-oriented family was barely participating in the discussion about trade. It was a suspicious thing on its own. However, the other participants in the meeting from other smaller business clans did not bother thinking about these things. If the Mitsui Clan was not interested, it would be a good opportunity for them.

How nice it was to be oblivious to the nefarious schemes about to envelop the place. All they could think of was profit when they might end up with nowhere to go the next day... Or they might even be in the afterlife already.

Unknown to these opportunistic individuals, they were nothing but prancing clowns in the eyes of the members of the Mitsui Clan.

The Alliance Meeting proceeded for hours as expected. The back and forth between negotiations, rejection, adjustment of conditions, and agreement repeated for each clause they wanted to add to the alliance.

And as time slowly passed, the skies slowly darkened. The clear early morning was replaced by a cloudy afternoon. No, there might even be a heavy fall of snow, considering how dark and heavy the clouds in the sky were.

***

Outside the busy building in the center of Toyosu, Mark smoothly blended with the crowd of people passing by.

Looking around the place, the building where the Alliance Meeting was occurring was heavily guarded, which was not surprising at all. But Mark was not just looking around. He was using his [Empath] abilities to detect anything strange.

And as Mark had expected. Among the guards, quite a number were with either unstable emotions or emotions that carried ill will, emotions quite strange for people with important duties.

Furthermore, some of those ill-willed guards were grouped up at certain locations, equally distant from each other. Those groups seemed to have circled around the entire building. It was unclear what they were up to, but it was no doubt something dubious.

Furthermore, it was not only those guards. Ill-willed individuals dotted the entire place in concealed locations.

Mark briefly closed his eyes and continued walking along with the crowd. He blended with the people like certain hooded assassins, evading the suspicious eyes of anyone who could possibly pay attention to him.

The initial plan was for Mark to participate in the meeting, invited by both the Empress and the Priestess. Involving him in the alliance would actually be beneficial for both the Reclaimed City and the Japan Branch of Auraboros. But after changing information the previous night, Mark opted out of the Alliance Meeting, and the two agreed.

Since the traitors planned a trap for the Priestess and the Empress during the meeting, it was better for Mark, someone of the same strength as them, to be outside if some things went unexpected.

This allowed Mark to move around while the meeting was ongoing. And while at it, observe the possible machinations the traitors had prepared.

"It looks like they are planning to isolate the entire building, huh... Then... It must be that thing."

Mark murmured.

That "Thing" Mark mentioned was something he heard from the Empress the previous night.

A huge portion of the Demons now following Gar\'Vlam were once the Empress\' subordinates. And when they left, a hefty amount of tools and treasures the Japan Branch had were stolen. One of the most important items was a so-called [Isolation Core]. It was an artifact to create a barrier to isolate a place. The very same artifact used on Auraboros branches to isolate their bases from human cognition and prevent anyone unauthorized by the controller of the artifact from being able to pass through the barrier.

The [Isolation Core] was limited in number, but all Auraboros branches had one or two extra of these artifacts. It was to ensure that they could keep their bases from being exposed even if the already activated core got broken or destroyed.

This artifact even kept the base of the Japan Branch still isolated and safe from the [Infected] and the alien robots.

But the only extra core the Auraboros Japan Branch had was stolen. Although it was mostly used to isolate places, it had other uses.

For example...

Confining people inside the isolation barrier.

There was no way that mortals, even if they were members of the Mitsui Clan, would be able to ambush and win against the Empress and the Priestess. The only way was to utilize such artifacts, but the chance of winning was still close to none.

Unless the goal of the Mitsui Clan was not to kill the two but bide for time.

Mark and the Priestess received such information from the Empress, which was highly the probable outcome.

That conjecture actually got the agreement of the Priestess. They might be enemies, but having the same powerful enemy had already made them temporarily allied.

And the Priestess agreed because of the fact that her barrier, the one she cast to protect the Reclaimed City, allowed her to detect entry of Demons. It was the reason she managed to figure out the true identities of Mark and his group despite the method they used to hide their Demonic presence.

So far, only Mark\'s group were the active Demons within the barrier that was not affiliated with either Auraboros or the Temple.

Then, there were no Demons that could possibly ambush the Alliance Meeting.

It meant that the Demons would most likely come from outside while the Priestess and the Empress were unable to move freely.

And where would they come from?

Mark looked to the northwest, the direction he was walking to.

Kachidoki, the territory that lost its leader. Without the actual strength of the Black Lotus, the territory was the perfect place to start an invasion.

Mark smirked.

"It is good that Ren\'s older brother blabbered a lot to her. He probably thought that she won\'t survive it at all. Look at how it is going now..."

And without noticing Mark at all, he vanished, turning into an invisible surge of mist.

***

Day 341 - 11:24 AM - Sumida River, Chuo City, Ruins of Tokyo

On the northwest coast of the Sumida River, silhouettes of different creatures littered the ruins.

The invasion was about to commence in full force. Amazingly, neither [Infected] nor [Mechids] was in sight. The ruins had nothing but Demons of all sizes and shapes. It was such an absurd sight.

From the sky, a surge of barely visible black mist flew, watching the movements of the unknowing creatures below. The black mist in the sky transmitted everything it saw to its father, informing him of the incoming attack.

And it was not only on the northwest border of the Reclaimed City. In all directions facing the coastal borders, Demons were in hiding, waiting for the planned time.

Each individual was itching to fight. The humans they hated so much... They were just a river away.

Once the humans of this city were killed and enslaved, this country would become the Demons\' paradise. 

...A country for themselves... 

...A country devoid of greedy and deceitful humans...

Who would not feel excited?

***

The sky began to darken even more...

The wind began to pick up...

A blizzard was coming. A blizzard on the second day of winter.

It was strange but not impossible to happen. And considering the current unstable state of Earth, it was even more likely for anomalous weather phenomena to happen.

But as the snow began to fall... It became clear that it was no ordinary blizzard.

Alluring songs began to echo within the ruins of Tokyo. The signal of the invasion was finally heard.

As the songs echoed, the temperature of the surroundings began to freeze faster than it should.

Slowly, from the outer coast, the rivers froze. The river froze as if the ice was crawling over the river\'s surface.

The people near the coast began to feel strange. As the songs entered their ears, they felt like they were floating with the clouds. It did not take long, and everyone by the coast lost hold of their consciousness.

Just like that, the coastal areas became open to anything and everything.

And with the rivers freezing entirely, the preparations for the invasion were finished.

The songs within the ruins reached an abrupt stop, declaring the start of the invasion.