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n300 Return To The First Gate

n“Are you ready?” Dante asked Beatrice, who held Antonia in her arms, swaddled in cloth.

nBeatrice sucked in a deep breath and held Antonia closer. “Maybe. I haven’t heard good things about this first gate since you first went there, so I can only hope for the best.”

nDante patted her back lightly to reassure her and turned to Augeus, who was here to see them off. Connor and Lily wanted to come as well, along with Dante’s own parents, but he made them all stay behind because it wasn’t like they were parting forever.

nDante especially would be returning often to the universe to gather resources and make certain moves. The reason Augeus had even come was to see Portia off, since she had stayed within the universe ever since Beatrice gave birth.

nAfter saying the goodbyes, the group entered the Zero Gate portal and were whisked away. Augeus watched them leave with a slightly worried look, but he could only sigh and hope for the best.

nRight now, the most he could do was make sure their backyard was not lit on fire. Even though he currently possessed a superpower of his own, that did not make him a fighter. Everyone had their skill and specializations, and his was politics.

nMeanwhile, Portia, Dante, and Beatrice appeared in a large, semi-open chamber that was full of defensive machinery and guardian androids possessing forbidden technology that was never revealed commercially within the universe.

nThe moment they appeared, the entire area tensed as they were scanned. Before they could finish, Portia glared at the scanning equipment and released a bit of her aura, causing it to go haywire.

nEven the guard androids were crippled and made to lie on the floor despite their best efforts, making their AIs full of confusion as they could not compute this kind of phenomenon.

n“Stand down.” A strong female voice full of vicissitudes spoke, causing the resisting androids to lie flat while the scanning equipment hurriedly shut itself down, thankful to be freed from this hellish job.

nFrom the large double door leading out of this chamber, Ao Zilong walked in with a softly smiling Ophelia Seers in tow. Despite it all, the two women did look somewhat alike, if only because Ophelia sported Asian-style phoenix eyes while Ao Zilong was fully Asian.

nAo Zilong frowned. “Eternal Nightmare, can you not even give us some face? You do this every time. These are safety procedures we all agreed on way back then, even we have to go through them.”

nPortia scoffed. “Hmph, I don’t remember agreeing to any such thing. It was you and your little self-appointed council who made that decision. As of now, I’m still deciding whether I recognize the existence of your council or not, much less whether to follow any of your bull** directives.”

nAo Zilong’s face darkened. “Eternal Nightmare, you!!”

nBefore Portia could respond, Ophelia stepped forward quickly and bowed. “Madam Portia, we greet you. Would you like a report of the various happenings in our territories while you were away?”

nPortia smiled mockingly at Ao Zilong. “You see, Dragon Witch, this is how you treat those stronger than you. This girl is more suited to be a leader than your old bag of bones.”

nPortia ignored the fuming Ao Zilong and patted the speechless Ophelia on the shoulder. “Good job, sexy eyes, I’m looking forward to you bringing this **ass council forward.”

nMeanwhile, Dante and Beatrice had been looking on with amusement. If there was one difference between Beatrice and her mother, it was that Portia was straightforward and blunt while Beatrice was playful and insidious.

nThe group was led out of the chamber where a large flag was present that seemed to represent something bigger than they could fathom and came to an air-conditioned room that was meant for private meetings.

nThere, they encountered the round table meant for the Supreme Council to have their meetings, and it seemed to be staffed today. Everyone except Lara Sanguis was present, and they were silently waiting, as if knowing they would come back today and planned to meet the group.

nThen again, neither Dante nor Beatrice had hidden the fact that they were coming here, nor did Portia. Anyone who paid attention to them and had inside information on many things would easily be able to guess their next course of action.

n“Please have a seat,” Ophelia gently offered Dante’s group as they sat in three newly prepared seats for them.

n“Alright, spit it out. You bunch of conniving fellows must have a plot for bringing us here.” Portia directly spoke after sitting down heavily and crossing her legs like a hooligan.

nThis left many of the council members speechless, but they had already been beaten and battered by Portia over the course of these months while Dante was waiting for Beatrice to complete her gestation, so they already knew the best solution was to remain quiet.

n“No malicious intentions here, Madam Portia. We just want to check in with you and see how best we can cooperate as usual.” Ophelia seemed to be the only one willing to talk, mostly because she was the only one Portia treated nicely.

nPortia raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

n“Now that you have returned, we can continue our frontal push for more territories in the same manner if you wish.

nYou can freely do your thing and leave the cleaning up to us, where we do our best to stay out of your hair. How does that sound?” Ophelia offered with a humble smile.

nPortia nodded with satisfaction. “Good girl, that is exactly what I am looking for.”

nThe entire council seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that this was supported, but they were not out of the woods yet. As Ophelia was about to speak, she was cut in by Ao Zilong, who glanced at Dante and Beatrice.

n“That is fine for Eternal Nightmare, but what about you two? Are you here to come and sightsee seeing as you have brought an infant along or are you here to actually contribute?”

nPortia glanced over but did not say anything. Neither Dante nor Beatrice needed her to speak for them anymore, and they could handle this problem on their own. Dante, for one, glanced at Ao Zilong casually and looked away, not even bothered to reply.

nRather he glanced at Kurtaghagt, who was trying to minimize his presence since Dante was here. “Heh, thank you very much for the data you provided me last time. With it, I have been able to raise my power to levels unseen. Apart from mother-in-law, I doubt anyone can match the current me, and it’s all thanks to you.”

nKurtaghagt’s face changed greatly, filled with horror and regret as all eyes landed on him. He wondered what he had done to offend Dante this much that he would reveal this and pin it on him. 𝘪𝑎.𝒸𝘰

n“H-Haha… it was my pleasure to assist…” Kurtaghagt could only squeeze out in despair.

nThe way his fellow council members, even the pure humans, looked at him suggested that there would be extensive talking later to deal with his ‘treachery’.

nAs for Ao Zilong, her face became uglyat being ignored by what she considered an upstart whippersnapper who had to rely on his mother-in-law to achieve anything of note. Before she could say anything, Beatrice laughed softly.

n“My daughter here can easily defeat anyone on this council despite being an infant. The scope of her existence and talents are more than any of you can fathom, so if you can survive here, why can’t she?” 𝘦𝑎.𝒸ℴ

nThe faces of the entire council became thunderous and full of suppressed anger. Was Beatrice really comparing them to a pure human whelp who had not even passed a week in age? Such a weak and fragile little thing could be smashed to paste by them just by breathing slightly loudly.

nSeeing their anger, Beatrice chuckled. “Of course, her abilities have not fully activated yet. Come back in a month or two for your beatings and you will learn to speak properly.”

nSuddenly, Beatrice’s eyes became half-lidded, and her voice dropped to a freezing point. “Or, you can follow me outside now, and I can teach you how to respect your betters.”

nLike her mother, a wave of pressure emerged from Beatrice that caused the entire council to be pressed to the table face first, unable to move at all no matter what they did. This caused them all to have bloodshot eyes filled with humiliation and hatred towards Ao Zilong, who brought this about.

nMeanwhile, Ao Zilong closed her eyes in frustration and regret. All she wanted to do was get her lick back after being beaten up by the older one, so she wanted to use her age to talk down to the younger ones.

nMeanwhile, the other council members did not care about such things. If they had to bow their heads, they would bow and maintain their peace of mind. After all, when these fellows left to achieve their tasks, they could go back to being arrogant council members and bully their own subordinates to vent their anger.

nWhy did this stupid Ao Zilong have to complicate things?!

n𝘪𝘳.𝒸𝑜𝑚

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