On the day of the announcement to retake the swamps, Nathan and Arnold discussed and decided they would commence the attack after thirty days. Arnold had told him he had some prior 'issues' that required his immediate attention. Nathan wanted to know what the said issues were, Arnold had his lips sealed. He wouldn't talk about it so Nathan let it go. But now Arnold had been missing for over three days...

Nathan could be patient and understanding but the syndicate was a whole another story. And after the bombshell Arnold dropped on the people, many were thinking he might've already dropped out of the picture. Even within the syndicate, there were a few people who thought Arnold was being immature with his decision to retire early and his disappearance gave them another opportunity to talk shit about him, behind his back.

According to them he should just man up, accept his 'mistake' and move forward. Most of them were the once who lost their family members at the hands of that wretched dragon. While Nathan sympathized with them, he couldn't ignore the wellbeing of one of his family members either. Arnold had been through a lot as it was, he just requested them not to add more burden on him. Most of them backed down... but a few were adamant. But decided to keep their mouths shut. 

'Arnold... I'm afraid your disappearance isn't doing you any good.' Nathan thought as the 12 remaining heads of the syndicate kept talking among themselves. 

"So you're telling me, this plan revolves all around that soldier of yours?" Madame Roosevelt, leader of the Roosevelt family smirked, "Oh! I couldn't feel any safer in the hands of someone who is nowhere to be found."

"I agree. A battle shouldn't be dependent on one man only. No matter who they are." Andrex joined in. 

"Oh shut up. You just don't want Arnold to lead the attack because he's Chinese." Nathan finally snapped, "And as far as you're concerned, Madame Roosevelt, I'm sure the last time I remember, we were called warriors, not soldiers. Also, the man in question had saved all of your sorry lives including mine. If it wasn't for him then we wouldn't be here planning our next move, but hiding somewhere underground waiting for the realisation of defeat to dawn upon us. So even if you can't show him some respect in front of him, try not to trash talk behind his back."

Andrex opened his mouth to argue but Nathan cut him off by waving his hand. Right now he had more authority than anyone else in the room. The reason? He was the commander of the army of warriors and it was wartime. A time when his words were to be considered absolute until the courts decided otherwise. 

He was intentionally abusing his powers and he didn't care. If they could talk shit about their saviour behind his back, he doubted they wouldn't do so behind his back either.

"Do I need to remind you who is the bloody sister of that man? I believe I don't. She had made an impression on you, hasn't she, Andrex?" 

Andrex immediately clutched her hands and put them in the pockets of his tuxedo. Of course, he remembered what happened back then... his missing middle finger was kind enough to remind him about the 'angel of death' as most of them like to referred Nicole. 

Andrex always had a thing for beautiful women having powers and Nicole more than qualified the criterion to become his consort. But rather than asking someone face to face, Andrex had his fun with them in a different way. He would abuse his family's name and try to touch them at inappropriate places without their consent and get off of the despair on their faces. Nicole was supposed to be his next conquest but he didn't know he was playing with fire. 

As usual, Andrex requested a meeting with Nicole under the guise of making a new plan for the defence of LA. Nicole thought it was odd as she wasn't involved in matters regarding defence but since the order was coming from one of the heads, she had to oblige to his request. 

Once she was there all the 'defence' plans were thrown aside and Andrex got uncomfortably close to her. Something Nicole didn't like at all. But it was only the beginning of his plans. He soon went ahead to grab her but the next second he was on the ground bawling like a kid while grabbing his hand. Nicole had turned his middle finger into dust before kicking him in the testicles. 

With whatever strength he had left, he warned her he would make her life hell. Little did he knew, Nicole had already recorded everything and showed the recording to him. 

"Sure... Go ahead and destroy my life. I'd like to see how that'll work for you." 

That one line still kept Andrex on a leash. Even Nathan knew about the recording that's why he was being extra nasty to Andrex. And Andrex knew it very when if the recording got 'leaked' it'll all be over for him. He would be excommunicated and thrown into prison or worse, he'd be sent away to serve as a soldier in the wastelands. 

Moreover, he was more upset about another thing: A Chinese had screwed him over. He had hated the Chinese ever since his ex-wife cheated on him with one but this incident pushed that hate to new heights. So much so, that he was plotting of ways to divide the blacks and cause them to lose their authority and seat in the syndicate, however, it was all in his mind till now. 

Andrex wasn't a fool to go to a full-fledged war with the most powerful family of the country. Not after knowing they had not two but three SS ranked warriors as Arnold was now classified as one as well. He needed to do something else... But he was holding his horses for a while. His revenge will have to wait. 

"Ahem... As much as I'd love to hear your banter, I think we have more important matters to discuss." Alicia, another one of the heads spoke up, "Nathan, me and my family trust you completely. But for the sake of keeping the peace, can you tell us where Arnold is?"

"He's at the Alpha base in zone 4. And before you ask it, yes, he is preparing for the war." Nathan replied, "As much as some would like to think of him as a backstabber, I assure you he isn't like that. However, he too is human and I'd like if you respect some boundaries. Now if you're done asking irrelevant questions, shall we go ahead and plan the rest of the attack?"

Nathan lied to everyone, brilliantly so. Even he didn't know where Arnold was. The last time he tried to contact the base, he was told by Talos that Arnold wasn't there. He thought Talos would tell him about Arnold's whereabouts but even he refused. But the heads didn't need to know that. For them, Arnold was preparing for war while he was at the Alpha base. 

Everyone nodded in agreement and went back to planning. The gears Arnold had provided them was a blessing to his reputation. They now know, he was a man of word and an excellent creationist. He had done his job, now it was time for them to do theirs. 

****

It had been ten days since Arnold walked inside the void... Although it might not seem like much, it was more than enough for Arnold to forge. However, he was wrong.

The one week he thought to be enough to make a relic had passed long ago. He was now in his second week inside the void. Tirelessly working to finish the ascension quest as soon as he could but the road wasn't as smooth as he thought. 

He remembered a saying in the modern world, "A warrior is not built of ease but suffering, and that is why they chose to build themselves to ease the suffering of others and themselves."

He, who not only was a warrior but also a creationist, understood it more than anyone else. 

When he first started forging with celestial silver, he didn't know much about it but the first step to start forging was to change the metal's state and convert the solid cube into a molten state. There was a slight problem though... he didn't know what it's melting point was.

He kept raising the temperature of the forge in hopes it would melt soon. But the block of metal remained unchanged. It was a celestial material, obviously, it won't melt under the earthly flames he had been using to forge so far. The first couple of days inside the void were wasted away because he couldn't figure out how to melt the metal. On the third day, however... 

"I need to find something that burns anything... THAT'S IT!" Arnold exclaimed as a light bulb got switched on in his head. 

He did have a flame that could burn anything: hellfire! 

Even though Arnold could conjure 'hellfire', his flames didn't affect inorganic targets. But... He wasn't the only one who could use hellfire. Scylla could help him out and unlike him, her flames were absolute and didn't differentiate between organic and inorganic targets. He used Scylla's flames and wouldn't you know it, the block soon started melting like an ice cube. But the process was slow, very slow. 

While he was thinking of ways to further increase the temperature of hellfire, he discovered another thing. The beast crystals could be used to increase the temperature of the hellfire. So he tossed a shit load of high tier beast crystals into the flame to hasten the process. Still, he ended up losing five more days to completely melt the metal cube. 

He thought he'd need a week to make a relic but after wasting a week, all he managed was to melt the cube.

Three days later, things were looking better yet he was falling behind his schedule. 

"It's going to a tough road ahead... Isn't it?" Arnold sighed and started shaping up the molten metal.