“Sovereign Julius,” Irene said. “The evidence is clear.”
“Go ahead.” She raised her hand. “Read the files and prove me wrong.”
It was the same situation as when Irene was questioned. Just, the roles were reversed.
Now, she was sitting with the seven sovereigns across an arched table while Julius was standing in front of them.
At Sovereign Albert’s question, Julius stiffened for a moment and was about to answer.
Then, his eyes met Irene’s and he saw her lips curling up into a mocking smile.
‘You!’ Julius clenched his fists so hard that veins started to pop up on his forearms.
“Getting angry for such a simple question is very unfitting of your image, Sovereign Julius,” Ares said in a polite tone, but his words weren’t polite at all.
“My apologizes.” Julius took a deep breath and controlled himself from being angrier.
There was a place and time for everything. Even for yelling and cursing. This surely wasn’t one. At least, not yet.
“Then please explain, why did you allow such a blunder with gamma potion?” Sovereign Albert leaned forward and said in a dangerous tone.
“My researchers weren’t competent enough. I will inflict them with capital punishments.” Julius pushed all the responsibility away from him. And he did so with a straight face.
‘Shameless.’ Irene Nial shook her head. If it was really true, then she wouldn’t have scorned him. But it wasn’t. Because…
“Then what about the Omega potions?” At Sovereign Ares’ words, the hall fell silent.
Omega potions were actually the first potion Roxanna came up with. They were also the potions that she used to convince Sovereigns to overlook the violations in her research.
The Sovereigns didn’t exactly know what she did. But they did know that she ‘changed’ the data of one or more people in the central database.
Despite her evil actions, Omega Potions seemed well worth the trade.
They significantly improved one’s progression speed, and increased the chances of advancement even in high awakeners.
The oldest test subjects of Omega potion were almost a year old by now. Compared to their peers, they showed significantly higher progress.
By projecting their progress into a decade, it was suggested that they would become the ‘edge’ of humanity against Abyssals.
Of course, after learning about the miraculous effects of the potion, the army ordered every produced potion.
But then came a problem.
‘Enigma stole our main ingredient.’ Julius suddenly said one day. ‘She also killed my sister brutally.’
And that was how Julius finally convinced the Sovereigns to designate Shadow Guardians as a terrorist organization, despite their reluctance.
But other than that, they didn’t agree to other things like targeted army operations, and special funds to find and destroy the guardians among others.
A year went by and after their nagging, Julius said he overcame the dilemma of the main ingredient and was going to introduce the ‘Gamma potion’.
‘Not only is it better, but its main ingredient also can’t be cut off from supply by Enigma.’ Those were his words.
But since gamma potion itself was proven to be dangerous…
“Do you know how much damage it could cause?” Sovereign Ares slammed the table as his whole body was covered in snakes of lightning.
If it was any other person, they’d have frozen in fear. But Julius merely glanced at him and shook his head confidently.
“Gamma potion is indeed a mistake. But Omega, I can vouch my life for that. It is harmless.”
“And where does your courage come from?”
“…My late sister.” At Julius’ words, the room went silent. “I believe in her genius. Even a year after her passing, many of her papers aren’t comprehended.”
The Sovereigns looked at each other. They could only hope that it was true. Or else, the high awakeners that took the omega potion would experience mishaps, creating a domino effect that might cause major losses.
“Fine.” Sovereign Irene said in a calm voice before it turned extremely sharp. “The main ingredient you talked about the gamma potion, it’s the blood of kids?”
“Teenagers.” Julius corrected.
“You are making a potion from human blood. Have you gone insane?” Irene growled.
Even the Sovereigns that were calm until now looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze.
“They missed their best time to practice. They can’t achieve much in their lives. Their lives are better served to push others to the top.” Julius said without a shred of guilt.
“…You are killing them!” Irene said in a breaking voice.
“I know.” Julius nodded with a straight face.
“Do you have a bit of conscience…or even humanity left in you?” Irene asked with red eyes.
Julius who was calm until then looked at her dangerously. If it wasn’t a virtual conference, it seemed like he’d have attacked her on the spot.
The Sovereigns also noticed the change and the air tensed up.
Finally, Julius said. “We are weak.”
“Huh?”
“Do you forget that we almost lost Uranus and Neptune only two weeks ago?” Julius looked at his peers. “If not for the guardians and Dreamer, we’d have lost.”
“Don’t you dare utter their name, Julius Xander!” Irene stood up with a menacing glare.
Her eyes turned red and she pointed at him with a finger shaking in rage. “It was all because of you! You killed them all, bloody bastard!”
The Sovereigns looked at each other and looked back at Julius. Their gazes were also blaming him.
“I took the safest decision on the information I had,” Julius said without backing down.
“Say you now know that someone is an alien and they can contact their race outside the solar system. What will you do?” He asked Irene.
“I…will tal—”
“I will kill them,” Julius said without batting an eye. “No matter how well their intentions might seem to be, they can turn against us in the blink of an eye. They are not humans, they are not us.”
Irene wanted to curse him but Ares gestured for her to sit down. And she begrudgingly did.
“Coming back to Gamma potions, the main ingredient is human blood, right?” Sovereign Ares asked.
“Obviously.”
“And you said Gamma potion is developed without the main ingredient of the Omega potion.” Ares tapped on the virtual table, but his fingers merely passed through.
“Yes.”
“So,” Ares raised his voice. “I think it’s feasible that the main ingredient of omega potion is also blood.”
His words caused the Sovereigns to raise their brows in surprise while Julius frowned in reflex.
“And that blood is not human blood,” Ares smirked. “Enigma’s first major event is killing Roxanna. So, I think the blood is also Enigma’s. She is the one who escaped and that is why she killed Roxanna.”
“…” Julius fell silent.
“What? Am I wrong?” Ares leaned forward and stared at Julius with cold eyes.
Julius would’ve scoffed at Ares at any other time, but under the stare of seven sovereigns, he had no choice.
He kept silent. He couldn’t reveal about Sia. It would unravel another threat altogether and might lead to bigger problems.
“No wonder you hate Enigma and go to the extent of using your power to call her people terrorists and even brutally murder them.” Sovereign Albert deeply sighed.
“…” Julius didn’t reply.
“You did mistakes, Sovereign Julius.” Sovereign Albert said. “You have to pay the price.
All your Xander family businesses and cooperations on planets other than Earth are hereby terminated.”
The Sovereigns voted in favor of the proposition.
Overnight, the Xanders’ influence on every other planet other than Earth disappeared.
History books would note this as the first step in their fall.