Overall, the meeting was quite simple, so Uriel could summarize it fairly briefly.
The First Army planned to withdraw from central Antarctica, taking its entire population with them. The previous plan to defend multiple siege cities had failed completely due to the intensity of the nightmare chain.
As for East Antarctica, it was better protected due to its greater landmass and population, which was larger than central Antarctica. Everyone going there were Awakened, totaling fifteen thousand, in contrast to the hundred thousand mundanes and three hundred Awakened assigned to protect central Antarctica.
In Uriel's opinion, this was completely idiotic. All resources should have been focused on central Antarctica, as it was the most hostile and difficult area to fight in, while the Second Army prepared.
Even if there had been at least three thousand Awakened in central Antarctica and fifty thousand soldiers, the situation would have been completely different and much more favorable.
However, the government had chosen to send thousands of soldiers to their deaths, knowing their mission would fail—or perhaps it was meant to be that way.
The population of central Antarctica was around four hundred million civilians, of which nearly a hundred million had died due to the nightmare chain, leaving a total of three hundred million, give or take.
In total, more than a hundred million lives had been lost due to the government's mismanagement of the operation.
Uriel sighed mentally.
As if that weren't enough, there was the lack of Saints. Only three Saints were participating. Two of them were in East Antarctica: the first was from the government, Wake of Ruins, and the second was an envoy from the Song clan, investigating to find a gate leading to Ariel's tomb.
The only two Saints he respected were Sky Tide and Bloodwave.
Finally, the last factor was external: the Winter Beast, which was the biggest problem for East Antarctica and the one that caused the greatest number of deaths, responsible for bringing down communications across the entire continent.
If it weren't for Sky Tide keeping the Corrupted Titan at bay, everything would be worse, and Uriel felt things were going to get worse—his instinct told him so.
Currently, Falcon Scott had around two hundred million people, and relocating them would take at least three weeks to the eastern part of the continent, assuming they could do it in time and keep the abominations at bay.
...
"Yesterday, we withstood three large-scale attacks, and there will likely be four or five today. That number will only increase in the future. I think sooner or later, we'll have to stop counting them, because there will be an uninterrupted attack of atrocities twenty-four hours a day."
Winter and Dale looked at each other. Winter sighed, feeling the heavy air in the room.
"It's not the number of creatures that worries us. It's those particularly powerful bastards who have nowhere else to go but here now," said Winter, and Randal agreed.
"We'll have to develop strategies for each of them. That's what the big meeting is for, so let's not talk about it yet," Jet replied.
Uriel somewhat ignored the conversation, mentally throwing insults at the great clans and their families.
Hearing himself being called, he looked at Jet.
"Uriel, are you listening?" Jet asked.
"Yeah, something like that," he replied.
Jet nodded and tossed three objects. Uriel caught them, seeing three shiny-looking medals. The first was the image of a flaming heart, the second was a heart with wings, and the third, the brightest, was a warrior in armor holding a heart with wings and flames.
"What are these medals? And why does this one glow?" asked Uriel, pointing at the last one.
"You don't know what that is?" said Jet, but Uriel shook his head.
"That medal is something that was created recently. It's called the Unbreakable Human Spirit. The highest rank awarded to those who will go down in history as legends. Congratulations," Jet congratulated.
"Oh, well," he said, dismissing the medals into his Dark Storage without giving them a second glance, provoking laughter from the Ascended present at his disinterest.
"Oh, you also have an amazing amount of contribution points."
Uriel's eyes lit up.
"Oh, now I'm richer. That's good. I'm buying drinks," he added at the end.
"Well, it's time to move to a larger office. The strategic meeting is about to begin."
...
The new conference room was much more comfortable and larger than the previous one; there were even snacks and drinks for the participants. Uriel moved a bit away from the center, keeping to a corner. By chance, he sat between Sunny and Jet, ending up in the center, and at the same time, he was eating peaches.
[You have received a Dark Shard]
The Spell's voice resonated in his mind after eating the first peach. He then ate the second, obtaining another soul fragment.
Slowly, the room filled with the most prominent figures. Among the Masters, he saw Naeve, Roan, the Irregulars, and several others.
Uriel ignored the chatter, concentrating on something more important. Of course, that was his discussion with Shade about the true nature of a platypus and why it couldn't do much.
The discussion was about to continue when the Transcendents arrived.
The first was Saint Tyris. She was imposing, with a strange air around her—blonde hair, electric blue eyes, and silver armor with white feathers.
The second was a man with smooth ebony skin and white hair, his eyes shining indigo and deep blue. He had an air of seriousness, and Uriel slightly smelled the scent of blood around him. This was Bloodwave from the House of Night clan.
Uriel just bit into his peach, locking eyes with the member of the House of Night without feeling intimidated by his presence—only slightly amused. Having fought a Supreme and felt its will, a Transcendent's presence was like any other Master to him.
Snapping out of his monologue, he noticed Sky Tide had begun to speak.
"Everyone knows what needs to be done..."
Quickly, the Saint of the White Feather clan explained the current state of the First Army, the scope of the tasks ahead, as well as the enemy forces deployed against them. Her voice was calm and serene, as if it were even casual and not a meeting that would decide the future of over a hundred million people.
Most of it was stuff Uriel already knew, so he paid little attention. Finally, the important point arrived.
"...Now that Falcon Scott is the only target in the region, the internal fighting among the nightmare creatures will drastically intensify. The terrain limits their advance, which means that several swarms and tribes of abominations will compete among themselves for the right to attack the wall. Many will be massacred before they reach us.
"Thus, we should not worry too much about numerical superiority. What we must ensure is that only the most brutal, lethal, and powerful abominations manage to survive. The main objective of this meeting is to identify priority targets among the creatures and find a way to face them."
The Saint pointed to several projections showing various images.
"Preliminary analysis shows that these nightmare creatures pose the most serious threat to the city."
Uriel looked at the images, recognizing several. In fact, he had eliminated one or two of those threats.
A swarm of flying insects, the image of a river of darkness flowing through a deep gorge, the image of a furious snowstorm. There were two other images: a one-eyed mountain and an image of the LO49 facility, which were grayed out with a "eliminated" tag on them.
Sky Tide waited a few seconds before continuing.
"Some of you have already faced one of these monsters. Master Sunless, out of the abyss, has even survived four out of five."
Several whispers filled the room, and Sunny took the opportunity to make a joke about completing his collection of the five abominations.
"Before continuing, I must inform you that both the Fallen Titan known as Goliath and the Corrupted Terror known as LO49 have already been eliminated by Master Uriel at Camp Erebus a month ago," she informed.
All the Masters except Dale, Randal, Jet, Sunny, and a few others who already knew this were not surprised; however, the same was not true for everyone else, who were left astonished.
"Master Uriel," said Sky Tide, looking at Uriel, who was calm.
"Can you explain what happened at Camp Erebus?"
"Sure," he replied, organizing his thoughts.
"First, the situation was under control. However, in the first week, a Category Three Gate emerged from which a Corrupted Tyrant appeared, which I eliminated with the help of Masters Dale and Randal. After that event, a week later, while on a mission to gather weaponry to defend the city, a Category Four Gate emerged, and a Great Creature appeared, which I killed after an intense battle. A few weeks later, we discovered we were under a powerful mental influence from a Corrupted Titan, which I called the Mist Devourer. After that, Corrupted-rank abominations appeared, ranging from Beasts to Terrors, controlling thousands of abominations." Uriel paused.
"Of course, I killed them all, only to discover seven new Corrupted, among them one called the Prototype, a parasitic-type Corrupted Terror that was trying to evolve into a Corrupted Titan capable of controlling living beings and using them as puppets. Shortly after that, the Fallen Titan Goliath and the LO49 Terror appeared, which I killed on the seabed. After that, things calmed down, and there were no more attacks of that scale."
When Uriel finished speaking, the silence was so dense you could hear a fly flapping its wings clearly.
Dale and Randal were calm, but everyone else had bewildered expressions or were in deep shock at the abominations Uriel had described and killed.
"How did you survive all that?" asked Naeve, unable to hide his surprise.
"I have no idea. I suppose it was the Unbreakable Human Spirit," he replied, lightening the mood with his comment.
"Thank you for the information, Master Uriel," said Sky Tide finally, after remaining silent for a full minute.
"Continuing. Thanks to Master Uriel eliminating several of our great threats, we won't have to deal with them. What remains are the Devouring Swarm, the Heart of Darkness, and the Winter Beast."
Sky Tide continued with the meeting, explaining about the three abominations and assigning specific Ascended to deal with them.
Finally, she reached the Winter Beast.
"The Winter Beast... has recently been confirmed as a Corrupted Titan. I cannot kill it, but I can contain it. Dealing with the creature will be my responsibility."
"Saint Tyris," Uriel interrupted, drawing all eyes to him.
"Do you have something to add?"
"Yes. I will kill the Winter Beast."
The looks of disbelief were immediate. Clearly, everyone looked at him as if he were crazy.
"This is not a good time to boast, boy," said Bloodwave.
"Oh, here's one of them. Saint of the House of Night. I've killed several Titans, both Fallen and Corrupted. Killing the Winter Beast will be no different. It should take me one or two days to reach it and less than an hour to kill it, not to mention that I'm the only one who has what it takes to do it."
"And how would you accomplish that?" asked Sky Tide.
"With Transcendent Echoes, of course, and several surprises I have prepared for that thing," he said without going into details.
Sky Tide looked at Uriel, who returned her gaze. This continued for almost a minute until the Valor Saint nodded.
"Alright. If you say you can kill the Winter Beast, I'll leave it to you."
Uriel smiled.
"You won't regret this decision, Saint Tyris. I will bring the Winter Beast's head on a silver platter within three days from now."
...
Once the meeting had ended, Uriel was walking alongside Sunny and Jet.
"I have to say, that was either very brave or very stupid, declaring something like that in front of everyone," said Sunny.
"I have to agree with Sunny. What were you thinking?" asked Jet.
"First, it was brave. And second, I simply want to kill something big, and the Heart of Winter meets the necessary requirements for it."
"Still, we're talking about a Titan whose power is to freeze everything. How will you manage to kill it?"
Uriel smiled.
"I have my methods," he said as he stepped into the darkness. "Well, I'll be back in a few days," he said, disappearing into the darkness of a hallway.
"And he's gone," said Sunny.
"Do you really think he can kill the Winter Beast?" asked Jet.
"Yes. If anyone can do it, it's Uriel. Besides, he's the strongest person I know. If something manages to kill him, well, simply put, goodbye to any chance of survival." Sunny began to walk away. He had things to do, like continue practicing his weaving.
To divert his mind from the dark future awaiting Falcon Scott.