211 The Piper

"There are several members that will be part of this conference, but there will only be four figureheads," Allen said. "The ones that will represent the Hunters will be Lin, from the Snake Society is Genesis, from Barandilla is Liam, and myself as the Snake Bearer."

"I don't understand," Liam stood and asked. "Why is Barandilla part of this? Our organization was over the moment that Sun captured all my men."

"Who said I put them in jail?" Sun entered the room with a scowl on his face. "You might be overreacting."

"We assure you the safety of the Barandilla members," Allen said. "So you don't have to worry about them and let's focus on this conference."

"To proceed, I would like to announce the type of group each figurehead would specifically represent," Jeremy said. "Allen will represent the entirety of this conference and the new organization we will establish.

"Meanwhile, Lin will represent the allied Hunters that we have on our side," he continued. "Genesis will represent the Snake Society as well as the allied businesses. He will have Dennis as his second in command. And finally…"

Jack stepped inside the room with Lay and Rourke following behind him. He sat in the empty space beside Liam.

"Liam will represent Barandilla and the black market," Jeremy finished. "Jack will be second in command."

Liam was in disbelief. Even when he was the leader of Barandilla and had sealed their position at the top of the black market, Jack was still on another level. The presence of the old man alone was terrifying for him.

"Let us work together, okay?" Jack grinned at Liam. The latter felt like a bucket of cold water was dumped over his head, relieved at what the old man said.

"O-Okay," Liam stuttered.

"Now that we have settled that, it's time for us to discuss the three threats that we have right now," Allen said. "The first one would be the future of the organization. As much as all of you know, we now have all of the Board Officials of the Organization on our side. This means that we now control them."

"And what is the issue here?" Lin asked. "Why is there a need for us to discuss the organization when we cemented our power there?"

"My name," Allen replied. "Maybe you forgot, but my name was dragged to the mud when Drake Nelson died."

"We did?" Lin asked, then realized it all and formed an O with her mouth. "Right. We did. I'm sorry about that."

"They wouldn't want a supposed murderer to join your ranks. That's why we need to address that," Allen said. "Now the next one is the threat of the Otherworlders."

They were all silent as Allen showed them photos of the Zodiacs that he displayed on the projector. "They are called the Zodiacs and they are here to destroy us."

He then proceeded to tell them about the story of the Celestums. That their time was almost up and that the Zodiacs will interfere with them.

"The lucky thing is that they cannot inflict damage on us," Allen said. "If they do, they would turn to stone and we all know they would try to avoid that."

"And that is why they are approaching through a different method of attack," Jeremy said. "They will use other Hunters to attack, give them weapons and Codes that are powerful enough to match their target. It wouldn't even be a surprise if we found out that they gave their Celestums."

"They are mad because they want our world to end, is that right?" Genesis asked to which Allen answered with a firm nod. "Then why don't we attack them before they attack us?"

"That's the biggest obstacle for our second and last problem," Allen sighed. "We don't know their locations. They could be anywhere, pretending to be anyone."

"And I assume the third problem would be Roger Huntsman?" Lin asked. Once again, Allen nodded. "The organization has still no idea who and what he could be."

"But after what Liam discovered, we might have our clue," Allen said. "Liam, wasn't Judge Stephanie a Body?"

Liam, who was still nervous about sitting beside Jack panicked. "Ah, yes. She's a Body. But her owner cut ties with her to an extent that I am not able to locate their original Body."

"Is she related to Roger Huntsman?" Lin asked. "If so, then Roger Huntsman is the third person to have the Body Creation Code."

"This doesn't narrow anything down," Allen said with a sigh. "The original Body could be just anyone. And the fact that we don't know anyone that–"

"I think I do," Liam said. "The person I got my Body Creation Code from."

"The Piper," Jack muttered. "If you're going to come to him, then I insist on coming. It would be nice to see an old friend."

"An old friend?" Allen asked. "You know this person?"

"Verta Carta and The Piper has roots that spanned for decades," Jack said proudly. "I think we can get an information from him."

"Alright," Allen nodded. "Then it's settled. Liam and Jack will go to The Piper and settle their matter there. They will gather information and then when they come back, we will have another conference."

Everyone stood to adjourn their conference. It was then that Gwen spoke, "What is your little group called?"

Allen turned to her and pouted. He was also clueless about what they are called from now on. They were a collection of organizations and groups, but they didn't know what to call themselves as a whole.

"What about–"

"The Serpent Conference," Allen said. "From here on out, we shall call ourselves as the Serpent Conference."

"The Serpent Conference," everyone spoke.

– 

"What the hell?" Jack said in disbelief as he watched a mansion burn to the ground right in front of him. "They have the highest level of security. Even a Bearer would have a hard time entering."

"The Piper…" Liam trailed off as he held the phone shakily. "Allen, The Piper is dead."