I Possess the SSS Skill: Future Sight-Chapter 28: The Meeting ( 2)

— Damian Ivaris’s POV —

I was dying.

It wasn’t a dramatic exaggeration, nor was it a figure of speech.

My human body, which had been honed in the academies of magical intelligence and had barely reached Rank A, was literally collapsing under the weight of the terrifying aura that filled the hall.

My eyes bulged as if they would pop out of their sockets, and the warm blood streaming from my nose began to drip onto the luxurious carpet, drawing small red stains.

The air had turned into masses of molten lead.

I couldn’t pull a single particle of oxygen into my lungs.

The right joint of my knee, which I was leaning on, began to crack, warning of an imminent break.

In those few seconds, I understood what it meant to be an insect beneath the foot of a giant who doesn’t even acknowledge your existence.

This is "Kaiser Dravion." The Exalted.

The crowned ruler of the city of Elysium.

Just one step of his inside the hall was almost enough to annihilate half of the lower-ranked attendees.

And as I waited for my blood vessels to explode and for me to die a humiliating death behind my commander’s chair... the wall of that deadly pressure split apart with another sound.

A calm voice—but one that carried an authority equal to death itself.

"Kaiser... stop releasing your damned aura like that the moment you walk in."

The words fell into the hall like a thunderbolt.

Who dares? Which madman dares to speak to the Exalted in such a reprimanding tone?

I heard Kaiser’s voice for the first time.

It was deep, resonating in the chest before the ear—a voice that carried the pride of kings who had never known defeat.

"Why?" Kaiser asked with pure incredulity, as if discussing the weather.

"Is it not necessary to show them a very small portion of my aura? Just a friendly reminder of who stands before them."

The other voice replied with icy calm, completely ignoring the Exalted’s pride:

"Everyone in this world knows how powerful you are. You don’t need to release it and show off like a peacock. Look around you—there are people here who won’t withstand it and will die of heart attacks before we even begin the meeting. We need them alive to work, not as corpses to clean up."

A charged silence filled the room for a second, then... I heard a long, bored sigh from Kaiser.

In a fraction of a second... the pressure vanished.

Completely gone.

The air returned to being air.

I took a deep, desperate, violent breath, filling my empty lungs until I coughed harshly.

I wiped the blood from beneath my nose with the sleeve of my formal suit while trembling, then slowly raised my head to see my savior—and to see the ruler of Elysium.

Kaiser Dravion was walking toward his throne-like chair at the head of the table.

A man embodying physical perfection fused with absolute majesty, wearing a long black coat lined with gold.

But what caught my attention—and the one who had the audacity to reprimand him—was the man walking one step behind him, then stopping at his right side.

That was his deputy and right-hand man, the living legend... "Dameron Valzark."

Dameron wore a dark black military uniform, but what made him a nightmare walking on two legs was the imposing mask covering his face.

A dark metallic mask, from which his eyes—or rather, a terrifying burning red aura—emanated from the eye sockets, like suppressed hellfire watching our souls.

Kaiser Dravion sat comfortably on his grand chair, crossing one leg over the other, while Dameron remained standing like a statue of death at his right.

The leaders in the hall regained their breath with difficulty, trying to compose dignified expressions on their pale faces.

I curiously looked at the two highest intelligence authorities in the room to see how they reacted.

The FBI director, "Alexander Vance." His gray hair was meticulously styled, and his cold blue eyes measured everything around him with computer-like precision.

He stood behind his chair, wiping a single drop of sweat from his forehead with a silk handkerchief, yet his back remained straight as a sword.

Opposite him stood the CIA director, "Lucius Thorne."

He embodied toxic elegance. A man in his forties, his body slim and refined like a cobra, wearing a black suit tailored with ethereal silk threads.

His features were sharp like a bird of prey, and his pale green eyes gleamed with demonic cunning.

Lucius wasn’t sweating, but his usual smile had completely vanished, and his fingers lightly tapped the edge of the wooden table in tension.

Dameron spoke, his voice echoing from behind the mask like a resonance in a deep cave:

"Welcome, everyone. You are the third batch. I have summoned two batches before you from other sector leaders and global guilds, because there is a very important matter that must be discussed and distributed to you with precision."

The third batch? So this was the elite meeting—the third group that would receive direct orders.

As everyone waited in fear and reverence for Dameron to continue... a female voice, laced with indifference and boredom, tore through the solemnity.

"Did Kaiser come personally just for a few reports about human experiments and that so-called... Joker?"

The blood in my veins froze again.

I looked down at the chair I stood behind.

It was Valisera.

My damned commander was leaning back in her chair, playing with a strand of her silver hair, speaking as if she were asking a café waiter why her coffee was late!

Kaiser Dravion raised a single eyebrow, looking at Valisera with a mixture of surprise and high disdain.

"What is this ’Joker’?" Kaiser asked sincerely, his tone laced with aristocratic sarcasm.

"Is there a traveling circus somewhere in my city I haven’t heard of? Have you shifted from intelligence work to clown control?"

My face burned with shame.

The Exalted ruler of Elysium doesn’t even know who the Joker is! And we—Alpha Squad—lost to him! What a humiliation to be recorded in history!

Dameron let out a light cough from behind his mask, one that sounded like an attempt to hide a smile—or perhaps to salvage the situation.

"My apologies, sir, and to everyone," Dameron said pragmatically.

"As you know, we had to be careful about the content of this meeting so its true purpose wouldn’t leak to infiltrators in the lower sectors. Therefore... we partially lied in the official invitations. We made the apparent reason the investigation of the recent human experiments and the case of this ’Joker,’ since Joker’s notoriety is very high these days in the lower media, and it served as a perfect cover for an emergency security meeting."

My eyes widened. A lie? The human experiments case—the one that nearly killed us, the one that put the FBI and CIA on high alert—was merely a... "cover" to them?! Just a lie to pass a bigger meeting?!

Alexander Vance frowned, while Lucius Thorne smiled faintly, as if he had already known.

Kaiser Dravion turned toward the attendees, resting his chin on the back of his hand.

His gaze swept across the faces in the hall.

When his eyes passed over me for a moment, I felt as though my soul had been placed under an X-ray.

"Our topic today concerns the horrific human experiments happening in the shadows, yes," Kaiser began, his voice asserting absolute dominance over every particle of air in the room.

"But... that is not the most important part. Human experiments are merely a symptom of a much greater disease."

He paused, his eyes gleaming with deadly coldness.

"The most important part, which is hidden from many of you here—except Alexander and Lucius, and a few selected leaders... I speak of the true threat creeping toward our necks."

The silence in the hall preceded the storm.

Kaiser spoke slowly, each word emerging like a death sentence:

"I am speaking of... the Six Voiders."

A faint murmur, suppressed by terror, spread among some of the Rank S leaders.

Alexander Vance’s jaw tightened, and Lucius Thorne narrowed his green eyes.

As for me? I had never heard that name in my life. Voiders? Is it some new gang?

But before Kaiser could continue, before everyone could grasp the weight of the word... Valisera’s voice rang out again.

"Who are they?" she asked with innocent curiosity, lifting her head from the table and looking directly at Kaiser.

Kaiser stopped speaking.

He slowly turned his face toward her.

Nothing was released from his aura.

There was no pressure, no magical wind.

But he didn’t need it.

His gaze was enough—a lethal, inhuman stare, the gaze of an Exalted observing an insect that dared to interrupt him.

The terror that gaze spread through the hall was worse than the previous aura.

Alexander Vance involuntarily stepped back. Lucius Thorne froze in place.

Keryon Drathis, my great commander, closed his eyes and clenched his fists as if preparing to die defending her.

As for Dameron, standing beside Kaiser... he was scratching his ear behind the mask in boredom, as if the scene didn’t concern him.

And Valisera... that foolish miracle... was staring back at Kaiser without a trace of tension, as if she hadn’t even noticed he was about to erase her from existence.

"Oh, Valisera..." Kaiser said in a low, eerily calm voice, dripping with venom and threat.

"Didn’t they teach you manners in your damned unit before sending you to sit at my table?"

If I were in her place, I would have prostrated myself, begging for forgiveness and kissing his shoe.

But... what happened next made my mind stop functioning entirely.

"Manners?" Valisera replied with a wide smile, waving her hand dismissively in the air.

"Come on, Kaiser, it’s not worth all the formalities and angry staring. We’re dealing with something important—end-of-the-world type stuff or something, right? Let’s just get straight to the point."

What... did she say?

My Rank A-efficient brain officially resigned.

I’ve gone insane! Completely insane!

I screamed internally, tearing at my hair.

Kaiser?! She’s calling him by his bare name like that?! "Come on, Kaiser"?! As if he were her high school classmate?!

No one... no one in this world calls him that except the other six Exalted and Dameron!

And she—a girl barely eighteen—addresses him like this in front of intelligence leaders?!

She’s going to kill us! She’ll anger him and wipe this room off the map with us inside!

I looked at Keryon for help, but he looked like he wished he were a corpse in a morgue rather than being here.

I waited for the explosion.

I waited to turn into dust.

Kaiser sighed.

A real sigh—long, heavy with exhaustion.

Then he said, the killing intent in his eyes slowly fading, replaced by a strange resignation:

"You’re right."

Huh? My jaw literally dropped.

I couldn’t control my expression. She’s right?!

A Samin... agrees with her?! Samin Kaiser Dravion, the Army Massacre, accepts her insult and says "you’re right"?!

What kind of relationship do those two have, for hell’s sake?!

Is she his secret daughter? Or some kind of cosmic disaster he avoids angering?

I looked at Alexander and Lucius.

Both were trying to hide their deep shock, but their eyes spoke volumes.

Everyone in the room realized at that moment that "Valisera" was not just a young squad leader...

She was something else entirely.

Something that possessed privileges beyond the limits of logic.

"Anyway..." Kaiser continued as if nothing had happened, ignoring the stunned looks around him.

"Let’s answer the question of our ill-mannered young commander."

Kaiser straightened in his chair and interlocked his powerful fingers.

"The Six Foliders. They are people... or rather, entities that take human form. It is highly likely—based on our rare intelligence measurements—that they have breached Rank SS."

Murmurs returned, but this time they carried pure terror.

Rank SS? Breaking through it? That meant they stood on equal footing with the Seven Samin!

Samin... walking among us!

"Do you know what that means?" Kaiser asked, a harsh smile forming on his face.

"It means that the combined power of everyone in this room... is nothing more than child’s play before the weakest among them." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

I swallowed, my throat going dry.

Kaiser continued:

"So far, we have identified six of them. The biggest problem is that they are constantly moving, scattered across the world. They have no central base that can be easily bombed. And we have confirmed information that some of them command thousands of Awakened and abominations... personal armies operating in the shadows."

"In short," Dameron interjected in his metallic voice from behind the mask,

"They are a mysterious organization, devilishly structured, and we do not yet know their ultimate goal."

"Perhaps their goal is to bring down the three human capitals and rule them," Kaiser said coldly, his eyes staring into the void.

"Or perhaps... just perhaps... their goal is us. The fall of the Seven Samin."

Real fear spread through the room.

Just the thought of a war between entities beyond Rank SS meant planetary destruction.

The entire continent of South America could sink into the ocean if Kaiser fought one of them.

"Though I highly doubt they could bring us down," Kaiser added with an arrogant smile, the pride of the Samin returning to him,

"But... the world is strange, filthy, and full of surprises. Underestimating the enemy... is the first sign of a humiliating defeat."

And the moment Kaiser said, "Underestimating the enemy is the first sign of defeat"...

Valisera slowly turned her head toward me.

I caught her gaze.

It was brief—but filled with dark mockery, a silent message directed at me and my squad.

It said:

"See, Damian? Even a Samin knows this rule you ignored when you mocked that Black Joker and got your dignity wiped across the ground."

I lowered my head in shame and wished I had never been born.

It wasn’t enough that I was humiliated in the car like a janitor—now I was being reminded of my failure in a top-level security meeting.

"And we strongly suspect," Kaiser resumed, drawing everyone’s attention again,

"that these Six Foliders... are the true masterminds behind the human experiments spreading in the lower sectors. They fund them, and they provide the biotechnology necessary to turn humans into abominations."

"What do they want with an army of monsters if they already possess power beyond SS?" asked Alexander Vance, Director of the FBI, trying to regain his professional composure.

"Chaos, Alexander," Lucius Thorne replied with his poisonous smile.

"The monsters distract us. They keep us drowning in internal crimes, while they prepare the killing blow in silence."

Kaiser nodded slowly.

"Exactly. We are telling you this today because the time for games is over. It is time for you to use your intelligence, your dirty networks, your eyes in the lower sectors, and your brute force... to uncover what is happening behind the curtain. I want the names of those funding the labs. I want threads that lead us to the Foliders."

Kaiser slowly rose from his chair, standing at his full imposing height.

"Elysium City is mine. And I will not allow a club of six amateurs to play in my backyard. Find them... and when you find a lead, do not confront them. Call me."

The meeting officially ended with that sentence.

Kaiser didn’t say "dismissed." He simply turned and walked toward a rear door, with Dameron following like his loyal shadow.

The commanders began gathering their imaginary papers, wiping sweat from their faces.

The tension gradually dissipated, replaced by murmurs once more.

Valisera turned to me, yawning and stretching her arms.

"What an inspiring session," she said sarcastically, glancing at Kirion.

"A whole meeting just to tell us there are strong villains and we should look for them. Honestly, they could’ve sent that in an email."

Kirion didn’t respond.

He was looking at her with a complex expression—the look of someone who knew a dangerous secret about her that we didn’t.

"Damian," Valisera suddenly said, her crimson eyes gleaming with a mischievous spark,

"since you’ve become our certified logistics expert... go to the refreshment table and bring me some of those gold-covered strawberries before we leave. I’m hungry again."

I looked at her. Then at the generals still in the hall.

"Ma—ma’am, this is for high-ranking officials... I can’t just—"

Her smile vanished.

"The strawberries. Now. Damian."

"Understood, ma’am! Golden strawberries coming right up!"

I rushed toward the refreshment table, passing CIA Director Lucius Thorne, who glanced at me with disdain as if I were an insect.

I grabbed a small plate and filled it with gold-coated strawberries, my hands trembling, thinking only one thing:

If the end of the world at the hands of the Six Foliders is truly coming...

then I hope it hits me first—so I can be spared from this insane commander and this humiliating life.