In a rather large private room, a number of colorful people were sitting around a table loaded with snacks, staring at the multiple screens hanging in the air over said table.
There was silence for a mont, only interrupted by the munching sounds of a certain old lady with rabbit ears gleefully chomping down on mana rocks without a care for everyone else’s stares.
The oldest-looking man at the table had his hands joined in front of his face, a pensive look, he watched the screens and monitored the reactions of others. After so reflexion, he ca to a conclusion, sharing it with the others. “We cannot permit her to ascend,” he declared with a voice that carried unquestionable authority, “not even with a holder.”
The munching sounds stopped. Fragnts of mana rocks were violently spat on the table.
The rabbit ears disappeared, the person turning distinctly less human and more reptilian. Her vords were laced with undisguised hostility as she stared right in the eyes of the old man sitting right across the table from her, “My family needs no permit, Avross.”
“You know full well she’s not your family, Erredis,” a woman in bright blue robes argued, her arms crossed, “and even if she were… I am also against it. This human will beco a danger if we let her grow.”
Erredis gave the blue woman a deadly stare, but soone stopped her from answering, or rather, they answered before she could, and not interrupting others was the most basic rule of the council.
“I stand with Erredis on this one,” a calm voice chid in, “Unless you kill her, she will not stop. And I cannot allow that.”
“You too, Beligenus?!” the woman in blue reacted.
“I will not let one of my students suffer the cowardice of this council,” the old headmaster of Brighthall Academy continued, his voice ever steady, “She is already a danger. Her na alone has so of you shaking under your scales, and so what? We need strong people, now more than ever. Before we worry about the balance of power, we should focus on the threat from outside, you, of us all, should know that best,” he finished, staring at Avross.
Everyone was silent, waiting for the patriarch to answer, but another old man in white armor spoke first. “You would have us raise a Kleptra in our garden to keep the Fairies away? We took you for wiser than that, ‘great sage’.”
The table cracked under the pressure of Erredis’ claws, as she tried her best to stop herself from freeing a certain old fart from his skull, “You’re the kleptra! YOUR ENTIRE LINEAGE ARE KLEPTRAS, YOU FUCK!”
“Hey, hey. Calm your tits Erri,” Phillip said, holding Erredis by a shoulder as he was seated to her left, “Why don’t we have a vote? Surely you’ve all had ti to ponder the question since I brought up the subject last ti. How about that?” he suggested, looking at Patriarch Avross, as he technically held the power to decide on starting the voting sessions.
“Very well…” Avross conceded, “Since there are three of you in favor of letting her grow freely already, then as per our rules, let us have a vote. The subject of this vote will be: Letting Sofia Aphenoreth and her followers grow without interference from the mbers of this council and their peers. For or against. The twelve of us will vote, majority wins. I shall start.”
The patriarch stopped for a second, cleared his throat, and gave his vote.
“I, Avross of the firmant, vote against,” he declared, before turning his head to Ebeorn, the dragon to his left wearing an armor of flowing magma, both signaling it was his turn to vote, and trying to avoid Erredis’ uncomfortable deathly glare. “Next… Ebeorn the molten.”
“Against,” the magma dragon answered, “No slight to you, Erredis, but she does not seem ntally stable nor mature enough yet for the power she could bear,” he added.
“Two against,” Avross said, looking at the next council mber,” Vlakirr the thousand-horned.”
“For,” Valkirr answered without hesitation, giving Erredis a very obvious wink.
“One for, two against,” Avross continued, again passing the torch to the next mber, the lady in blue from before, “Valacis the blue.”
“Against,” she answered without more comntary.
“One for, three against. Beligenus the sage.”
“For, of course,” Belignus voted as he sat relaxed on his chair with his eyes closed.
“Two for, three against. Alkorm the faceless.”
“Against,” he said, “we have enough on our plate. Now is not the ti to deal with another unstable ascended.”
“Are you serious?” Erredis asked, “Wimp.”
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“I will reconsider when we are rid of the phageid. Until then, letting her do her thing is just too much of a risk. She could lead us toward another war with the fae…”
“Let us keep going,” Avross said, “Two for, four against. Erredis the rotten…”
“Do you need to ask?” Erredis answered with an angry glare.
Avross sighed from his seat. “Three for, four against… Phillip the green, for as well, I assu?”
“For,” he confird.
“Four for, four against, then. Four votes to go. Ohomarr the red?”
“Against,” the red dragon who had been silent until now said with disinterest.
“Four for, five against. Cecless the hollow.”
This mber of the council was perhaps the weirdest looking one, hiding under what looked like hundreds of layers of overlapping gray fabric, it was hard to even tell if they were in an humanoid form at all. Nevertheless, a high-pitched voice ca from under all the fabric.“For!” she answered with enthusiasm without giving any explanation.
Avross was starting to look uneasy on his seat. “Five to five. This better not be another tie…” he mumbled in his beard, before looking at the next mber, the old man in white armor who had compared Sofia to a Kleptra earlier. “Sactanum of eternal frost,” Avress called.
“Against,” he answered with a small smile, holding eye contact with Erredis who was staring daggers at him.
“Five to Six,” Avross continued the voting session, “Now for the last vote…”
“It looks like this is already over,” Valacis said, leaning back on her chair.
“Stebron the god-eater,” Avross called.
Stebron was hard to read, hiding behind a full armor with his helt’s visor closed, he had been silent until now, and even when called, he said nothing for a few seconds.
As everyone stared at him, he grumbled so inaudible curse words from under his helt. He had been rather discontent at learning about this random human collecting so many divine essences at their last council eting, and so everyone had expected his vote to be a clear cut against, yet he seed to hesitate. It was with a voice oozing with frustration that he voted. “For.”
The council imdiately erupted in a noisy disorganised debate, as was common every ti there was a voting tie. This situation happened quite often, much to Avross’ displeasure as the one with the arduous task of keeping everyone in line.
The noise was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a purple portal in a corner of the room, which was surprising as no one had permission to cast non-transformation magic in the vip room, and much less to open up a teleportation portal. A man in a black three-piece suit with a design stolen straight from the human heroes’ world stepped out of the portal, entering the vip room without permission of the owner, which even the trial’s ruling Seraphs were not allowed to do.
Completely warping the space in the VIP room as he walked, he extended the table to make so room between Avross and Stebron, and a chair appeared beneath him as he sat.
Pulling on his tie, he spoke. “Thirteenth mber of the council, Nex the explorer. I vote for.”
At the sa ti, a violent battle started to unfold on the room’s screens.
Sofia looked down at the smoking crater after looking at her kill count.
Her mana senses could still feel foreign mana vibrations coming from way down the fault.
It’s not over yet.
She barely reacted in ti, teleporting back with [Summon Self] as a blade split the space she had occupied an instant before.
A ten ters tall twisted creature with a mangled head, four arms, and way too many eyes had flown out of the fault faster than Sofia could even see. She only had her mana senses and quick reflexes to thank for her survival this ti.
Pareth!
Pareth was already appearing in front of her as Sofia flew back, while Kuli and Mornn noticed the enemy and rushed in.
The demon roared and scread, “You human pile of filth! DIE!”
As he scread, he disappeared, teleporting behind Pareth and swinging his four curved swords at Sofia again.
Strong magic envelopped the demon right as he attacked, making it plumt toward the ground like a teor until he slamd into the glassy crater below. This was Mornn’s gravity magic in action.
Pareth, who could now walk in the air like Sofia thanks to his signature skill imbuing a Soguva spirit on his armor, deactivated it, and fell toward the demon, sword pointed down. Kuli had the sa idea, and crashed with a magically-enhanced downard kick right on the demon’s head while Mornn’s magic kept it down.
Sofia lost no ti starting to channel two piercing bolts as she watched Pareth’s sword severe the demon’s spine and Kuli’s boot crush its skull. She knew this would not take the demon down, not when it had survived the previous bolt’s explosion with no visible injuries.
While the demon was getting destroyed on the ground, another one of him appeared behind Sofia.
She had no ti to react, and her body was sliced clean through by three swords, while the fourth one shattered as it hit her armguard, but broke Sofia’s entire arm at the sa ti.
Minimal damage.
Sofia took control of her own bones, fixing the breakage and pulling the separated parts of her body back together in an instant and spinning around. Though her two piercing bolt were still low-mana, she released them directly in the demon’s face.
It was not enough to pierce the demon’s head, but it blinded him long enough for Pareth to attack again, using the Spirit of a Lancer Sparrow imbued on his weapons of light through his signature skill. It allowed him to use throwing and ranged weapons. A spear of light entered the demon through his left foot and pierced all the way through before exiting through the top of his skull.
There were now two dead bodies of the demon, one crushed on the ground and one plumting from the sky.
The demon appeared again, uninjured and with his four curved swords ready to strike, one of him was behind Sofia again, while another was behind Kuli.
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