Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Chapter 168 - Traitors In The Midst. Part 1

The look on the leader's face was one of confusion and he could not be blamed. After all, what else was he supposed to do when two ladies practically walk into the camp/hideout he was overseeing and declare that there were traitors in his midst.

Luckily, the decision on what to do was taken from his hands by one of the guards standing by the ladies' sides,

"What nonsense are you spouting?"

The guard grabbed Melinda's arm and shook it slightly. Her light gold eyes flashed and she sneered lightly,

"Bill, calm yourself" said the other guard and Bill let go of Melinda's arm.

Even as he did so, the look Melinda gave him was still one that would have chilled him to the bones... had he seen it.

The guard that had cautioned Bill, took a deep breath and cocked his head in Rita's direction. His inquiry was clear and the lady continued with her ever-present smile, 

"As I said, right in your midst, men are waiting for a signal to strike"

The leader's tongue could now loosen and many of the Elites of the Payne Family were already gathering themselves to watch the new arrivals. 

Not just because of their news of traitors but mostly because they were a couple of lookers.

"What signal?" The leader asked slowly.

The guard named Bill looked shocked, 

"You are actually entertaining this nonsense talk. You are actually going to let them sow discord among us.

Everyone here has been handpicked by Burt who is Lord Gregory's most trusted. To suspect them would be an insult to the patriarch" He said in a tone of outrage.

The leader turned to Bill, 

"You think I don't know that? If these two are here and could even risk coming to our midst to attempt this, then I have no choice but to accept that there might be truth in their words.

No matter the insult..." He said and turned back towards the two ladies, 

"... So I ask again. What is the signal"

This time, however, it was Melinda who answered and while she said it with a smile, it was with such a cold one that the two guards could not help but take a step back, 

"The signal is us. The moment we arrived... That was the signal." She said and despite not infusing her voice with Cosmic Energy, all those that had gathered could hear her words quite clearly.

Some of them even shivered unconsciously at the coldness of those words.

And then, there was... Silence...

From the eyes of all those present, there was a desire for those words to not be true. Even though some had only just arrived at the hideout to be trained as part of the elites, no one wanted to doubt the other.

The reason was because the level of trust they had for one another had nothing to do with the duration of time they spent together. A small percentage of those that fill the Payne Elite forces were Paynes who did so for the greatness of their family.

Others were those that may not have born the Payne name but had been part of the family forces for generations.

Their agenda to make the Payne Family the greatest was only one of the things that bonded them. The main bonding agent was the trust Gregory Payne had in them by being chosen by his most trusted, Burt.

If there really was someone who had deceived Burt and was a traitor then it did not matter how long he had been with the squad because he could simply have deceived them too!

The leader's eyes narrowed. He was a Payne and had it not been for the great trust Gregory had in Burt, he might have as well become the second in command and be in the Butler's position. Albeit not as a butler.

While he was someone who regulated the training and kept everyone in line, it was far from being the position he truly wished for and the news that there were traitors in their midst... made sense to him.

In fact, he was willing to bet that Burt had something to do with the traitors making it so deep into the squad, and as such when the unrest began to swell among those that were gathered, the 'Leader' did nothing but watched.

"I..i...i...it can't be true, right?" Said one of the men and he chanced a glance at his neighbor whose eyes widened when he noticed the look and flared up, 

"Are you accusing me of being a traitor?" He asked.

The other man nearly cowered, not out of fear, it would seem, but out of shame that he might have just unknowingly accused an innocent person.

He was about to apologize when he shook his head and held his ground, 

"Well, I know I'm not a traitor. How should I know that you are not one?" He said and his neighbor's outrage visibly grew, 

"I can say the same thing about you!" He yelled and quickly pointed at his neighbor to those that had begun to speculate their argument and then addressed them, 

"He is a traitor. Let's hold him and I am sure we will get him to list the names of the others" he said and took his accusation a step further by grabbing the other man's hand.

In irritation, the one that was now being accused, let out his Peak stage Cosmic Pearl realm cultivation as he wrestled his hand out of the grip of his accuser.

In the process of doing so, a blast of his pressure pushed the accuser back and forced him to fall to the ground.

Angry at the insult of being pushed to the ground, he let out the pressure of his Cultivation base as well and it was revealed that they were both in the same realm.

One of the guards who had been securing Rita and Melinda quickly rushed to their middle, 

"That's enough. Is just a few words really enough to turn you against each other because if that is so, I will kill you both right now" This guard said.

It was obvious from how many of those present differed to this guard that he was someone of status at the hideout, however, the two who were about to start a feud looked at him with annoyance, 

"You'll kill us? Well, that settles things. If this is how you now wish to quell disagreements, then maybe... you're the traitor"

The guard was taken aback, 

"What?" He said with wide eyes and was about to refute when the other party of the developing feud spoke up as well, 

"That makes sense. The traitors will obviously be those of power at the hideout. Those that can have a heavy impact on the events of the hideout.

These men of status are those that should be looked into" he said and relaxed his stance.

Those who heard his accusation looked confused, 

The men of status were mostly those with the Payne name.

Was this young man really insinuating that the Paynes were betraying their own family?

While they pondered on this and the unrest continued to grow, someone else that had been quiet so far, spoke up, his speech directed to the quiet leader,

"I concur with that observation. Look at that man. He's supposed to be in charge but he had been quiet ever since it practically started"

No one bothered to really search for who had spoken (as it was mostly his voice that was heard), instead, they saw merit in his words and converged on the Man-in-charge.

Seeing their hostility as they began to surround him, the 'Leader' could not help himself and let out a blast of Cosmic Energy in the form of a Cosmic attack.

It was not deadly, but it did its job of repelling the mob but it was when that happened that things took a turn for the worst.

"Get back!" The leader said, "Let's not get carried..."

"Ahhh... Someone is dead!" A yell interrupted the leader and when attention was directed to the noise, there really was someone dead.

His neck was broken!

Quickly, many turned to their neighbors as similar yells sounded from somewhere else in the mob.

Some that had been in their camp, cultivating or taking a break to have a meal were flooding out due to the commotion.

And others who decided to check up on those they knew on a personal basis, either found them dead or found bodies in their camp with they themselves missing.

In the situation of the latter, once they found the missing individual whose hands would usually be stained with blood, a conflict would break out with both sides convinced of the other's guilt.

Due to the fact that it was after the 'Leader's Cosmic attack repellent that bodies were found, some soon became convinced that, those men of status might actually be the culprits and so they attempted to exit the limits of the hideouts.

Alas, at that moment, an Array Dome suddenly blocked any exit and when all eyes directed to the leader who was looking up to observe the Dome that seemingly appeared from out of nowhere, they found a Rune scroll in front of him.

"He's locking us in so that he and the men of status can kill us. This is what those ladies were here to warn us about" said one of those that were denied exit.

"I didn't do this" the leader was quick to deny but no one was listening.

"You are surely too proud if you really believe you can defeat us all just because you're at the Cosmic Armament Realm" said another and just like that, he and many others let out their Cosmic Pearl Realm cultivation base and attacked.

Meanwhile, While they attacked the 'leader' as a group, the others who could no longer exit the hideout grounds and were finding more dead bodies felt desperate and began to attack their neighbors.

The urge and desire to survive drove them all and the whole hideout, trapped by a transparent Array Dome descended into chaos.

Meanwhile, the first two to engage each other in conflict moved towards Melinda and Rita, where they were still being watched by guards who seemed intent on staying away from the sudden turmoil...