Chapter 114: The Price Of Pride

Selene’s analysis had been calm to the point of coldness, but that was precisely what made it so difficult to dismiss.

She had dissected the strange behavior and rapidly growing power of Abyss Squad with the precision of a surgeon, stripping away assumptions and focusing entirely on the information available to the Dragon Sovereign Guild. More importantly, her report had exposed the increasingly dangerous dilemma the guild now faced. Abyss was only a three-person squad, yet every encounter with them had produced results far beyond what their numbers should have allowed.

Her speculation about a possible precognitive ability had only made the situation more unsettling. If Abyss truly possessed some method of anticipating enemy movements before they happened, then conventional pursuit tactics would become increasingly ineffective.

Selene’s recommendation was therefore straightforward: temporarily avoid engaging Abyss on their terms and concentrate on strengthening the guild’s long-term development. It was not an admission of defeat. It was simply the most rational method of protecting the Dragon Sovereign Guild’s interests while they gathered more information.

The tapping of Damien’s fingers against the tabletop suddenly stopped.

He slowly raised his head.

The handsome face that had once been hailed as the Hope of Humanity showed no trace of contemplation. There was no visible shock at Selene’s conclusions and no hesitation over her recommendation. Instead, the corner of his mouth lifted into a cold sneer.

“Precognition?”

Damien’s gaze moved across the conference room, lingering briefly on the guild’s senior members before returning to Selene.

“Superior to every elite team?”

His tone became increasingly mocking as he repeated the conclusions of her report. When he reached her recommendation, his disdain was impossible to conceal.

“Temporarily avoid their edge?”

Damien leaned back slightly and studied Selene for several seconds before speaking again.

“Selene, your analysis is detailed, and your data is thorough. I won’t deny that. However, you’ve made one fundamental mistake.”

He rose from his chair and slowly walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window. His posture remained perfectly straight, and as he moved, an invisible pressure began to spread through the conference room. It was not merely the pressure of his position as guild leader. His SSS-rank class, Sovereign of Fate, subtly influenced luck and willpower, and its presence seemed to suppress the uneasiness that had begun settling over the room.

Several of the guild’s senior members unconsciously straightened.

Damien looked down at Ashford City through the glass.

“You have overestimated our opponent,” he said calmly. “And you’ve underestimated us.”

He paused for a moment before turning his head slightly.

“More importantly, you’ve underestimated the power of Destiny.”

Damien turned around completely. His eyes had become sharp, and the confidence in his expression bordered on absolute certainty.

“What precognition?”

His voice rose slightly.

“They’re nothing more than a few lone-wolf players with better luck and bigger guts. They’ve gotten lucky a few times, stumbled across some hidden information, and managed to exploit a few opportunities. That’s all.”

He returned toward the center of the room, his expression filled with disdain.

“The fusion with reality is constantly changing. New variables appear every day. New areas open, new monsters emerge, and countless players make decisions that affect the situation. Who can truly foresee the future in a world like this?”

He shook his head.

“Precognition is nothing more than a fantasy.”

Damien stopped beside the analysis chart Selene had displayed earlier. He raised one hand and struck a section of the holographic display with his finger.

“As for their combat strength supposedly surpassing an elite team, that’s even more ridiculous.”

He pointed toward the combat data.

“Those three are only around Level 15. No matter how good their equipment is, how far can it really take them?”

His finger shifted toward the image of Luna’s cloak.

“Apart from that suspected Legendary cloak, what else do they have?”

Damien’s voice became firmer as he looked around the room.

“We have thousands of members. Dozens of fully equipped elite teams. More than ten players possessing SSS-rank or S-rank classes. We have resources, manpower, infrastructure, information networks, experienced players, and established territory.”

He spread his hands as though the answer should have been obvious.

“How can a three-person squad possibly compare to that?”

His argument became increasingly forceful. There was confidence behind his words, but beneath that confidence was something more complicated. It was almost as though Damien was not merely convincing the others. He was reinforcing his own belief that the Dragon Sovereign Guild could not possibly be threatened by three people.

“The reason they’ve succeeded repeatedly isn’t because they’re stronger than us.”

Damien slammed his palm against the table, causing several people nearby to flinch.

“It’s because we were careless!”

His eyes burned with irritation.

“We spread ourselves too thin and allowed them to exploit the information gap. They used guerrilla tactics to pick off isolated teams and attacked whenever our forces were divided. That’s all.”

His expression hardened.

“If we concentrate our forces and crush them with overwhelming strength, what use will their little tricks be?”

“Exactly!”

Garrett immediately seized the opening.

His earlier frustration had disappeared, replaced by renewed confidence. He stepped forward and nodded firmly.

“Sir is right. We’ve given them far too much room to operate. We’ve been chasing them from one location to another, allowing them to exploit every gap in our formation. If we gather a large enough force and simply bulldoze every area where they could be hiding, they won’t have anywhere left to run.”

Seraphine opened her mouth as though she intended to respond, but the words never came. She looked toward Damien and saw the unwavering determination in his eyes. After a brief silence, she quietly sighed.

“Damien…” Her voice was restrained. “What exactly are you planning?”

Damien returned to his seat at the head of the table. He placed both hands on the tabletop and leaned forward, his entire posture carrying an unmistakable sense of aggression.

“Retreat?”

The single word came with a cold laugh.

“Absolutely not.”

His gaze swept across the room.

“The dignity of the Dragon Sovereign Guild cannot be challenged.”

He paused before continuing.

“Abyss must be erased.”

His eyes hardened.

“And it must happen quickly.”

Damien straightened and looked around the conference room.

“In front of everyone. We will do it in the most overwhelming manner possible.”

He did not give anyone time to object before beginning to issue orders, completely overturning Selene’s recommendation.

“First, the investigation continues.”

His gaze settled on Selene.

“I don’t care what methods you have to use. Activate every covert channel available to us. Contact every information broker we’ve worked with and anyone else who can provide reliable information.”

He raised one finger.

“Triple the bounty.”

Selene’s expression tightened slightly.

“I want the exact location of Abyss’s hideout within three days. If you can uncover their real-world identities, even better. If you can’t, find them in the game.”

Selene remained silent and simply nodded.

Damien then turned toward the commanders responsible for the guild’s elite forces.

“Second, we’re changing our strategy.”

His eyes moved across the commanders.

“We concentrate our forces.”

His finger pointed toward Garrett.

“From today onward, dungeon progression is suspended. The First, Second, and Third Elite Teams will enter full combat readiness under Garrett’s command.”

Garrett immediately nodded.

“The Fourth and Fifth Elite Teams will guard our major resource points and handle essential guild operations. All remaining elite teams will remain on standby.”

A murmur immediately spread through the conference room.

One of the commanders responsible for dungeon progression finally stepped forward.

“Sir, we’re already ahead of the other major guilds in the Flame Abyss and Shadow Castle progression. If we stop now, Ironhelm and Valkyr could overtake us.”

“We can’t worry about that right now.”

Damien cut him off before he could continue.

His tone left no room for negotiation.

“If we don’t eliminate Abyss, we’ll never have peace.”

He swept his gaze across the room.

“What good is dungeon progression if our reputation is being torn apart? What good are resources and levels if every faction in Ashford City starts believing that Dragon Sovereign can be challenged without consequence?”

His fist tightened.

“We deal with this threat first.”

He paused before adding, “Then we return to development.”

The commanders exchanged glances but said nothing.

Damien continued.

“Third, expand the search and deterrence operation.”

Cold determination appeared in his eyes as the holographic map of Ashford City expanded across the center of the room.

“Use Ashford City as the center and extend our search across every known Level 15 to Level 25 leveling zone, resource point, and dungeon entrance in the surrounding regions.”

He pointed toward several areas on the map.

“Set up checkpoints. Question anyone acting suspiciously, and increase patrols around major routes.”

His gaze moved toward the representatives of the guild’s external affairs division.

“I also want a warning issued to every small and medium-sized guild and every independent player with ties to us. Anyone who shelters Abyss, conceals their movements, provides them with resources, or knowingly assists them will be considered an enemy of the Dragon Sovereign Guild.”

Silence followed his declaration.

Everyone in the room understood what Damien was doing.

He was launching an all-out war.

He was willing to mobilize a significant portion of the guild’s foundation, disrupt its dungeon progression, consume its resources, and expose its movements simply to eliminate a three-person squad.

Selene’s expression became slightly pale.

She stepped forward again despite the atmosphere in the room.

“Sir, please reconsider.”

Damien’s eyes shifted toward her.

Selene continued.

“Suspending our primary dungeon teams will severely affect our long-term development. Those teams are responsible for our current advantage in several major areas. If they’re pulled away for an extended period, we could lose progress.”

She glanced toward the regional map.

“Expanding the search to this extent may not necessarily help us locate Abyss either. It will consume an enormous amount of resources while making the entire guild more visible to every faction in Ashford City. The more forces we move, the more information we’re giving our enemies about our movements.”

“Selene.”

Damien’s voice was quiet.

But the pressure behind it was unmistakable.

She stopped.

Damien stared at her for several seconds.

“When did you become so timid?”

A faint trace of disappointment appeared on his face.

“Have you been frightened by Abyss?”

Selene’s lips parted slightly, but she did not immediately answer.

Damien continued before she could respond.

“Remember who we are.”

His voice grew stronger.

“We are Dragon Sovereign.”

He pointed toward his chest.

“We are the faction destined to lead this era.”

His conviction was absolute.

“Any obstacle in our path must be crushed. Anyone who challenges our authority must face the consequences. That is how you survive.”

He paused.

“That is how you become a king.”

Damien turned toward the floor-to-ceiling window and pointed toward the city below.

“Look.”

Ashford City stretched beneath them, its countless streets and buildings illuminated by the afternoon light.

“How many people are watching us now? How many are waiting to see whether we’ll fall?”

He turned back toward the others.

“If we retreat now, who will fear Dragon Sovereign in the future? Who will follow me?”

His voice thundered through the conference room.

“We fight.”

He looked around the room one final time.

“And we fight decisively.”

Under his intense gaze, Selene finally lowered her head.

She swallowed the rest of her objections.

“Understood.”

The word was obedient, but there was no agreement behind it.

Beneath her lowered gaze, her concern had only deepened.

Damien was blinded by anger. More than that, he was blinded by the damage Abyss had done to his reputation. He could see the provocation, the humiliation, and the threat to the Dragon Sovereign Guild’s authority, but he had chosen to disregard the aspect of their enemy that concerned Selene the most.

Their precision was abnormal.

Their efficiency was even more troubling.

Abyss had repeatedly exploited weaknesses before the Dragon Sovereign Guild even realized those weaknesses existed. They never seemed to attack randomly. Every movement served a purpose, and every retreat appeared to place them somewhere more advantageous.

Yet Damien had chosen to interpret all of that as luck.

He believed overwhelming strength could crush any strategy. He believed the sheer scale of Dragon Sovereign would eventually bury three players beneath an avalanche of numbers. Most importantly, he believed his Sovereign of Fate could suppress the variables that threatened his plans.

From Selene’s perspective, that belief was precisely what made his decision so dangerous.

By refusing to retreat, Damien might be walking directly into the rhythm Abyss wanted him to follow.

Every order he issued would force the Dragon Sovereign Guild to commit more resources. Every additional search zone would require more players, more transportation, more communication, and more coordination. Every checkpoint would reveal another portion of the guild’s deployment pattern. Every elite team pulled away from dungeon progression would represent lost development.

Abyss did not need to defeat the Dragon Sovereign Guild head-on.

They only needed to make the guild spend its strength in the wrong places.

Step by step, move by move, they could force Dragon Sovereign to burn through its resources while its attention remained fixed on a target that might never appear.

The more desperately the guild searched, the more predictable its movements would become. The more aggressively it expanded its operations, the more exposed its deployment would be. And the longer the hunt continued, the more its elite forces would be separated from the dungeons and resources that had originally made the guild powerful.

If Abyss truly had the ability Selene suspected, then Damien’s response was not merely aggressive.

It was exactly the kind of response they could exploit.

“Execute the orders.”

Damien waved his hand, bringing the discussion to an end.

“The decision is final.”

“Yes!”

Garrett and the other members of the pro-war faction immediately responded.

Their morale had been restored, and their fighting spirit burned hotter than before. The uncertainty that had spread through the room at the beginning of Selene’s analysis had been replaced by confidence. To them, the problem was no longer mysterious. Dragon Sovereign would simply gather enough strength and crush Abyss.

One after another, the guild’s senior members began leaving the conference room to carry out their assignments.

Selene was the last to leave.

At the doorway, she stopped and looked back.

Damien stood alone before the floor-to-ceiling window, his back straight and his hands clasped behind him. From a distance, he still looked like the confident leader who had once been hailed as the Hope of Humanity. His posture remained composed, and his expression carried the certainty of someone who believed victory was already within reach.

But to Selene, something about him had changed.

There was a desperation beneath that confidence that had not been there before.

She quietly sighed before turning away.

Perhaps this stubbornness was exactly what Reaper had been waiting for.

Abyss had spent days establishing its rhythm, forcing the Dragon Sovereign Guild to react instead of dictate the course of events. Now Damien had willingly stepped into that rhythm.

Every decision he made would push the guild deeper into the conflict. He would force its elite players away from development, consume its resources, expose its movements, and gradually weaken the very foundation that had made Dragon Sovereign so powerful.

And when the guild’s strength had been sufficiently drained, Aiden would have the opportunity to deliver the decisive blow.

Selene walked down the corridor without looking back.

There was nothing more she could do except carry out her intelligence duties and hope that her concerns proved unfounded. Damien had already made his decision, and the authority of the guild leader left little room for further resistance.

But deep down, she understood that the conflict between Abyss and the Dragon Sovereign Guild had entered a far more dangerous stage.

Until now, it had been a confrontation between a powerful guild and an unusually capable three-person squad.

From this moment onward, it was becoming something much larger.

Because of Damien’s decision, Dragon Sovereign was no longer simply hunting Abyss.

It was committing itself to a war.

And the price of that war might eventually become far greater than the guild could afford.