Shaken with fear, the servant shuttered "be be because she was located in the last place we thought to look. "
"Where would that be?" asked Katarea.
"In the Dimensional Gap. " As the servant displayed a projection of Ophis and Issei.
"Why, in Satan's name, did it take you idiots four FREAKING years to look into the dimensional gap" roared Shalba as his aura leaked out from him. He was clearly not in a good mood.
"its… its… be because Great-Red is living in there and since Ophis despises him, we believed she wouldn't set foot in there until Great-red is removed. " Said the servant trembling and scared for his life.
Even though Shalba wanted to end this fool's life, he could not refute their reasoning considering the fact that Ophis gathered them specifically for that purpose. He somewhat calmed down after a moment and said
"haah, very well. Now dismiss.
" They bowed and left the room as quickly as possible leaving behind the leaders who were conversing with each other.
"This is troubling news. If she is in the dimensional gap, does that mean that she managed to defeat Great-Red by herself and if so, it would mean that she would not be willing to give us her powers anymore" stated Creuserey as Shalba immediately refuted him.
"I highly doubt that simply due to the fact that if her strength alone was sufficient, she would have never created the Khaos Brigade and would have simply engaged him long ago. "
"Then, what of Great-red? Has he taken residence somewhere else because there is no way Ophis would share the dimension gap with him. " queried Creuserey.
"I don't know and the truth is I don't really care at this point. Our primary concern was locating Ophis location and now that we have found her, we must find a way to acquire her power once more.
Our plans have been delayed for too long searching her" claimed Shalba.
"And how exactly are we going to achieve that? Through brute force? You know as well as I that it is stronger than us. The only reason it promised us power was to help it kill great red and return to the dimensional gap!" Creuserey explained.
"I know you idiot. There must be some way to force it to give us its power.
"
Eventually, Creuserey noticed that Katerea was silent during their entire conversation and decided to ask
"Katerea, is everything ok, you are unusually silent?".
"I've been examining the image left behind by the servants while you two have been uselessly bickering. ".
Shalba twitched at that while Creuserey simply continued to listen "Now that I have both your attention, didn't any of you notice something amiss about that image?". Both of them took the time to examine the image once more and quickly noticed what she meant.
"Who in blazes is that kid?"
"A new recruit perhaps. "
"What aid can a mere child offer in a battle against Great-Red. " Exclaimed Shalba.
"hmhmhm" giggled Katerea, "you two aren't looking carefully. The boy is much more precious to her than a mere recruit.
Just look at Ophis's expression. " Responded Katarea as she point at the image of Ophis.
Shalba immediately retorted "What in blazes are you saying Katarea? Ophis doesn't possess any emo…" As both looked at Ophis's face, they became astounded as she expressed a pure smile.
Now, they were shocked beyond belief, Ophis displayed a smile of pure happiness while embracing the boy. "What the hell!" they both thought.
It is impossible for Ophis, a being born from nothingness to be able to display any kind of emotions and yet the image before them disproves that. No words came out of their mouth as they contemplated the oddity before them as Katarea continued to hypothesize a theory.
"The way she acts with that boy appears to be how a mother would with their son. "
Shalba practically jumped out of his seat as he shouted "What bullshit are you spewing now? The Ouroboros has no son that anyone knows about. "
"Then do you have any theory about Ophis's situation right now? In all our time in Khaos brigade, have you ever seen it react like this towards us? At best, all I've seen close to a smile was a small smirk it had when speaking to the White Dragon Emperor. If you have an idea, then I'm all ears" she asked.
As much as he wanted to refute her, she was right. He had no suggestions to counter her nor could he think of anything that could explain this anomaly.
"Anyways, why not look at this as an opportunity?" she continued.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Creuserey. She looked at the two of them forming a small smirk "Weren't you two talking about how to get Ophis to give us its power.
The answer is right in front of us. " As she pointed at the kid.
"Whether it's its child, spawn or ally, we can deduce that he is an existence who is extremely important to it. So, if say, we manage to kidnap him and use him as a hostage, we'll be able to use him as leverage for Ophis to give us its powers.
" Shalba agreed with her view however Creuserey has a different opinion on the matter.
"Your idea is plausible, if not for the simple fact that we are dealing with the Ouroboros dragon. If, as you claim, the boy is important to it, the moment we try something Ophis will annihilate us.
"
"Which is why we must be extremely careful with how to deal with this. It will take some time but if we plan things correctly, we will be able to negotiate with it and claim Ophis power for our purposes.
Unless, you guys have a better idea on how to persuade it to give us its powers?" stated Katarea.
Both of the team leaders could not think of anything. After a brief period of thinking, Shalba let out a sigh and said "Very well, we will go with your suggestion, Katarea.