Isekai: The Eight Soul Fragments

Draxus was in the forge room of the Hall of Sentinels, performing final checks on participating member's equipment. Currently, he's now making checks on Gayle's equipment, working to improve her weapon.

Outside the forge was Gayle waiting by herself. She was wondering if she could be allowed to enter the forge as she knew that Draxus wouldn't really let anyone disturb him from his work. Wendy arrived, carrying a tray with her. Gayle looked at the meal in the tray, it was a Tuna Steak with a can of coke. "Draxus eats tuna?" Gayle was curious, as she did not remember anything about Draxus having something in regards to tuna. "Hmm? Well I didn't really know what his tastes were until recently either." Wendy simply entered the forge without even knocking.

Looking at how Wendy simply entered without even knocking. Gayle looked up to the ceiling, thinking about the past. After a while of waiting, Wendy left the forge with a slightly more beaming expression, she greeted Gayle again before leaving.

After a few more moments, Draxus finally left the forge, handing Mysteria to Gayle again. "This weapon has a lot more than what I thought. I improved the capacity and the durability of your weapon. [Concept Reaping] is quite a strong effect, as long as you have a wide imagination, you'd be able to handle it." Gayle accompanied Draxus for the time being as they arrived to the Dimensional Laboratory.

"Oh Drax? You're getting supplies prepared?" Remuel greeted the two on their arrival, behind him was multiple boxes that had been labeled by colors. "Yeah, did you go through the checklist?" "Yep, fifteen boxes of [Recovery Deluxe], [Liquid Mana], and [Precise Focus] right? That's forty-five boxes in all." Draxus opened one of the boxes, revealing twenty-four potions per box. "Yeah, it's enough for the mission." "Great, the total expenses... I'll just bill it to you later, you still need to prepare the rations right?" Draxus nodded, thanking Remuel for helping out. 

As the two left the Dimensional Laboratory, Gayle was somewhat confused as to why they need a lot of supplies. "Draxus, why do we need like, so much stuff? It's not like this mission is going for over weeks right?" "Well two things..." The two continued walking towards the Hall of Sentinels as Draxus started to explain. "First thing is that I want to avoid casualties as much as possible, surely you know that already right? The other thing is because we can't really expect that a war could simply end in a single day. Sure it's a full on operation on dismantling the entire government of Aquila, but our group, the [Core] is simply moving to operate to directly get rid of the hero, the government officials and the guards in the castle and the capital city. And of course, the [Hero] which will be troublesome. However, there are also other factors such as the presence of the [People of Earth] there, we can't tell if they would move to escape or try to defend a possible seedbed for their bases. It would be quite easy for us to ensure that since I am around. However, both [Hunt] and [Trap] groups will likely have to stay for a while, [Hunt] specially. I doubt they could finish everything within a day. After the capital takeover, the [Trap] group will continue to operate, filtering out corrupt nobles from civilians, while I will operate alone to join the [Hunt] group as a final check unit." "Oh? Then if possible could I join that as well?" "Why? Straggler kills?" "Yep, using [Concept Reaper], I could also strengthen [Mysteria] using blood and souls." "Alright then, not like I could bring my fiancés to a bloodbath." Gayle chuckled, seemingly thrilled to have more opportunities to go wild without having anyone hold her back. "You're really up for it when it comes to bloodshed." "Why not right? I wasn't able to go wild like this when we were still in a party. But with you, I can really have my time shredding people out." Draxus remained silent, hiding his feelings as Gayle tried to read his mind using [Mysteria], only to hear something else in Draxus' thoughts. "If you think you could just read my mind willy-nilly, then too bad. Next time you try I may as well destroy you." Gayle smiled smugly as she tried to tease him. "But didn't you already destroy me so many times back then~?" "What kind of destroying are you on about? Also I don't remember doing any of that to you." She was shot down in that instant, reminding Draxus her of the contract.

The two arrived to the Hall of Sentinels, finally seeing most of the members around.

"Alright, is this everyone joining the operation?" Most of the Sentinels have gathered in the Hall of Sentinels, aside from various other members who are still fairly new and had no titles yet. Most members for the mission are titles Sentinels, and the Unlisted members. Wesley, acts as the main operator of the [Hunt] group had gathered his unlisted sentinels, Scuti, Majoris, and Cephei, along with Jevil. Keith, acts as the lead for the [Trap] group, joining him were Viceroy, Justine, Gilbert, Layla, and many of his other friends. Josh is staying as he still needs to train more. And then finally Draxus, who will act as the frontal command of the [Core] group. Operating with him are two of his fiancés, Lilianna and Julianna, Audrey, Pauleen, Juniper, and then Gayle.

With all the members for the operation gathered, Draxus finally began his speech for the Order. "Alright everyone, today will be a tough operation, so I suggest that everyone here should get the rest of the week off. Take the rest and prepare your minds on a heavy battle. But before that..." Olivia came to his side and brought what seemed to be a device for someone to place their hand on for a scan. "Put your hand here so we can record who is officially joining the operation. This way, we can guarantee the pay for the mission. We'll be making bank with Aquila's treasury after this!" Everyone cheered on from Draxus' plans to give them all massive bonuses from Aquila's treasury. Olivia on the other hand showed a troubled expression as her fiancé is doing whatever he wants again, but she smiled in the end as Draxus patted her on the head.

Everyone had their hands placed on the scanner device, having recorded their DNA so nobody could fraudulently claim that they joined in on the operation. After going through everyone, Draxus and Olivia remained. "Drax, you're going to be okay this time right?" Olivia showed concern as she knew about Draxus' tendencies during missions. He oftentimes goes too far or possible places himself in risky positions just for others to do well in their parts. She remembered what had happened in Santuria in particular, where he fought against Santuria's hero, and then the first time the Council members appeared. "I've grown a lot stronger since then, but of course I would still be careful around them. I'm sure at least one of them will show up in this operation after all." Draxus and Olivia walked towards his room, as he didn't want to bother other Sentinels with PDA.

The two got another chance to cuddle before sleeping as they were even closer after having done the deed back in Quisterion.