Morvius stood frozen and utterly stunned for a full ten seconds.
He didn’t blink or speak. He didn’t move, just stood there like a statue as if ti itself had seized his limbs.
His mind raced struggling to process the sight before him. Clyde, the anomaly who had disrupted the balance of the higher realms, now standing re steps away, asking for a conversation about alliance... after crippling an entire squad of elite soldiers like they were nothing.
Clyde didn’t interrupt. He allowed the silence to stretch, giving Morvius ti to absorb the gravity of the situation.
He understood how overwhelming it must be. After all, this wasn’t how first etings were supposed to go. But even Clyde’s patience had limits.
He took a step forward, while around him the groans and cries of the wounded were heard.
"What do you say?" Clyde asked calmly, his voice cutting through the stillness.
Behind Morvius, movent began to stir. Staff inside the Bureau’s headquarters who until now shielded from the violence outside had begun to take notice.
Curtains shifted, faces appeared behind reinforced glass windows. So even stepped out onto the upper balconies witth their eyes wide with alarm and curiosity. Whispers spread around them.
Morvius turned his head slightly, registering the growing attention. The situation was escalating.
He swallowed hard, the motion oddly painful. His mouth was dry and his throat tight.
Clyde hadn’t made any overt threats, but he didn’t need to. The devastation around them spoke louder than any words could. And with the World Masters who served under him currently away again to supervise their own sectors, Morvius was almost alone.
Fighting Clyde now would be suicide.
Rejecting him outright could be worse. There were only two likely outcos — either Clyde would walk away after rejection, or he’d simply decide to destroy the Bureau right here, right now.
Morvius had seen the look in Clyde’s eyes. He didn’t doubt for a second which path the anomaly would choose. It must be the latter.
Finally, forcing his throat to work, Morvius exhaled.
"...You and your companion can co to my office," he said slowly, doing his best to sound composed. "We’ll... discuss it there."
Clyde gave a single nod. That was enough. He turned slightly and raised a hand. From across the battlefield, Asqa appeared beside him then walking silently at his side.
The fire that had danced around her monts ago was gone, but her presence still radiated danger as bad as Clyde himself.
Together, they entered the Bureau’s main building.
Inside, the atmosphere was thick with tension. All eyes turned to them — from the stairwells, the balconies, the zzanine floors. Staffers stared openly, so frozen mid-task, others whispering to one another in disbelief. The air buzzed with nervous energy.
Clyde felt the weight of their gazes but he didn’t react. He hated being the center of attention — always had. But after what he and Asqa had just done, he couldn’t exactly expect subtlety.
The fear in the room was almost tangible.
"What are you looking at? Get back to work!" Morvius snapped across the stunned silence.
The staff jolted as if waking from a trance. One by one, they scrambled back to their desks or disappeared down hallways, though many still cast anxious glances at the two newcors as long as they could.
The walk through the Bureau was long and quiet. They rode the elevator in silence, the soft hum of machinery the only sound between them.
When the doors opened, Morvius led them down a pristine corridor.
At the end of the hall stood a tall set of double doors. Morvius pushed them open and stepped inside.
Clyde and Asqa followed him into the office.
Morvius gestured stiffly toward the chairs across from his desk. "Please, sit."
His voice was tense, the strain behind it barely concealed.
As Clyde and Asqa settled into the seats, Morvius hovered awkwardly behind his own chair for a mont before lowering himself into it.
His hands fidgeted for sothing to do, landing on a button embedded into the desk.
"Would you... care for a drink?" he asked, the nervousness in his voice completely betraying his attempt at diplomacy.
Clyde gave a small shake of his head. "No need. This won’t take long."
Asqa remained silent, folding her arms as she leaned back slightly, her eyes never leaving Morvius.
Morvius nodded, swallowing again. The dryness in his throat hadn’t gone away. He cleared it, as though the gesture would sohow give him clarity.
He forced his voice to steady. "Then let’s get to it. What do you an by... alliance?"
Clyde leaned forward slightly, placing both elbows on the armrests of the chair.
"I want the Bureau to assist us," he said plainly, without hesitation. "Help Asqa and bring down the higher realms."
Morvius’s gulped, his fingers tightening around the arms of his chair. For a mont, it was as if the walls themselves recoiled.
He blinked rapidly, trying to make sure he heard right.
The higher realms? The Angel, Demons, Gods?
This man... this thing... had just spoken of overthrowing them as if it were nothing. As if they weren’t sacred. As if they weren’t eternal!
This is sacrilege! Arrogance. How dare he!
A lifeti of reverence and fear for the higher beings boiled inside Morvius like a kettle left too long on fla. The fury welled up and tightening his chest and reddening his face, but he bit it back.
His throat worked once, then again, and he gave another strained cough to cover the storm inside.
Clyde’s eyes narrowed, catching the shift in energy imdiately.
"Are you mad?" he asked.
"W-What? No," Morvius stamred. "Of course not."
"You seem mad," Clyde continued, eyes narrowing further, unreadable. "I know you’ve worked with the higher beings for a long ti. You’ve bent the knee. Maybe you still believe in them. But open your eyes. They’ve already lost. They’re bleeding power every day. Holding on by force and pride."
Morvius didn’t respond. He couldn’t. His jaw clenched as he gritted his teeth, a thousand argunts caught in his throat.
The cracks had indeed already started to show in the higher realms. And this man before him... this anomaly... might just be able to actually shattered it all.
Morvius leaned forward slightly.
"Before anything else, I need to know how did you even get here? This place is sealed. Hidden. Even higher realm entities struggle to enter. Only those with express permission can access it," he said, his voice cautious but edged with tension.
Clyde gave a faint smile, the kind that didn’t reach his eyes.
"Does it really matter?" he said. "You’ve seen what I’m capable of. Getting here wasn’t the hard part."
Morvius fell silent. His mind raced again.
There was no known path for Clyde to follow. The Bureau’s base wasn’t just hidden—it was locked in dinsional folds, shielded by layered barriers, cloaked by the will of the higher realms themselves. Clyde’s presence here should be impossible.
Unless...
Unless soone gave him access. A traitor from inside the Bureau.
The thought chilled him more than Clyde’s words. If soone had betrayed them, leaked the location, the dinsional codes, the entrance protocols—it could only have been a World Master. No one else had that level of access from outside to enter this place.
He swallowed hard, masking the storm behind his eyes.
"So," Clyde said, interrupting the silence. "What’s it going to be? Are you forming an alliance with us? Or are you going to get in my way?"
Morvius looked at him.
Those eyes weren’t asking. They were asuring and he wouldn’t wait long.
Ti was running out.
"I..." Morvius hesitated, then forced himself to speak. "I still need ti to consider."
Even as he said it, he sent a silent command through his mind, activating the internal link he shared with the Bureau’s elite guard.
A subtle pulse traveled from his mind to theirs, "The anomaly is here. We need to contain him. Summon the World Masters. All of them. Imdiately!"
He kept his face calm, neutral. But under the desk, his hand trembled slightly.
"I can’t wait too long. How long do you need to consider it?" Clyde said.
Morvius leaned back in his chair, trying to appear composed, though the subtle twitch at the corner of his mouth betrayed the pressure he felt. He let out a heavy sigh.
"To be honest," he said slowly, "I wasn’t planning to help you at all."
Clyde’s gaze narrowed, expression hardening.
"I already know your origin," Morvius continued. "Your past, your state before you gained all this power. It’s all been recorded. And soon, we’ll know exactly what happened that makes you this strong and the way to defeat you. I don’t need to act now. I only need to wait."
Across the table, Asqa’s expression darkened. She pulled her wand from her belt as a silent warning.
Clyde didn’t move. He simply stared.
And Morvius felt the pressure. Like the air had beco too heavy. Like sothing ancient and angry had fixed its gaze on him.
Still, Morvius forced himself to et Clyde’s eyes.
"I’m not afraid of you. Even if you kill here, now... the data I’ve gathered will still reach the higher beings. They’ll know and they’ll co for you," Morvius said.
Clyde’s sighed. Then he said. "Then I have no choice but to destroy all of this place."
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