Meeting - Second day

On the second day of the meeting, Seth, or, better said, Otis, was not invited to attend again, which was perfect as it better suited his plans.

While the kings were busy discussing their plans and calculating the gold needed to hire a high shell ascended, the door to the meeting room swung open, and a panicking guard fell on his knees in front of the other kings.

Everyone turned towards the sweating guard with frowns on their faces, and Ronald asked: “What is the meaning of this?”

The guard’s entire body shook, and he didn’t dare lift his head from the floor as he said: “Y- Your Majesties, I apologize. Someone is insisting on joining the meeting.”

Everyone frowned, and Ronald was about to order his knights to take the guard away, but Theodor asked: “Who is it?”

“He says his name is Seth and claims to be the King of Endora. We also tried to stop him, but he beat the guards up and forced me to come to announce his presence.”

All the kings turned towards Roland simultaneously, a trace of fear appearing in most of their eyes as they waited for Roland to decide.

Roland pondered for a moment before turning towards one of the two knights sitting behind him. This knight’s face and body were entirely covered by his armor.

Seeing the knight nod, Roland turned towards the kneeling guard and said: “Go and invite him in.”

The guard bowed twice and quickly scurried outside to fulfill the king’s order.

“Are you sure that’s wise? He’s most definitely an ascended…” asked Iwan, the King of Noth, and most other kings nodded in agreement.

“Is fine. I already made preparations to ensure everyone’s safety during the meeting. You need not fret about it.” Said, Ronald.

As everyone was still on edge about the entire situation, the doors to the meeting room opened again, and Seth walked inside alone, a subtle smile on his lips.

While everyone was carefully analyzing the king, which supposedly fixed The Blood Kingdom, Seth’s eyes remained set on Ronald, or more precisely, on one of the knights behind him.

“I apologize for arriving late, but I’m glad you started the meeting without me.” Said Seth with a laugh, creating a chair out of nowhere and sitting between Icas and Theodor, right opposite Ronald. “Now that all Oath’s neighbors are here, I guess we can have a true meeting.”

Ronald smiled as well and was about to speak when one of the knights behind him, the one that Seth stared at right as he entered the room, bent forward and whispered something in his ear.

After listening to his knight’s words, Ronald’s smile became somewhat forced as he said: “Good to finally meet you, King of Endora. May I know for what purpose you have graced us with your presence?”

The other kings around the room had awkward looks on their faces, not knowing what they should do, but Icas looked utterly terrified, his knees even shaking under the table.

Seth turned to look at Icas, who had his head lowered, and said: “I initially didn’t intend to make my presence known, but it seems that there have been some wrong assumptions about me, and I came to correct them.”

Turning back towards Ronald, Seth said: “My name is Seth, and all of you can address me by it. Also, I am not a member of the Oath Kingdom, as everyone here assumes, but one of the Council of Unseen.”

Ronald looked surprised at Seth’s words but didn’t get the chance to speak as King Adalwolf did it first: “What is this bullshit about some council? Shouldn’t we take care of him now that he has delivered himself to us?”

Seth’s eyes widened as he turned towards Adalwolf, his reaction shared by all the other kings present.

“I’ve never been to the Curse Kingdom, but with such an idiot king ruling over it, I can’t imagine it being that much different from the former Blood Kingdom.” Said Seth with disgust.

Adalwolf stood up from his seat and turned towards Ronald: “Didn’t you say you had a way of dealing with him? So what if he’s not a member of Oath? I say we just kill him either way.”

Ronald’s face twitched, wishing he could strangle Adalwolf himself, and he said: “Shut up. The Council is not something that should be taken lightly. If you want to rush to your death, be my guest, but don’t drag us all down with you.”

Adalwolf looked unconvinced and was about to rush toward Seth’s seat when one of his advisers grabbed hold of him and tried to convince him otherwise.

Seth ignored the monkey show and addressed the meeting: “Contrary to how it might look, I didn’t come here today with bad intentions.”

“Some might have heard about us, The Council of Unseen, but with the long time none of our members had appeared on the continent, many things had been forgotten, so I wish to take a moment to refresh everyone’s memory.”

“The Council of Unseen had always been a guardian of the human race. We have ended the Age of Horror and ensured the humans’ dominance over the continent.”

Iwan cleared his throat and asked: “King Seth, our records of the Age of Horrors are quite scarce. Can you tell us what the Council had protected the humans against?”

Seth smiled and asked, “How have none of you figured it out yet?”

“The Blood Race?” asked Lorin, the King of Sorrow.

“Indeed.” Replied Seth with a nod. “The blood race was one of the many horrors the Council has fought against. We found out the blood race was planning on returning to the surface again, so the Council sent me to try and deal with them.”

“I’ve tried to fight them in the Blood Kingdom, but since they had over 600 years to develop undisturbed, their numbers exceeded even our estimations.”

“Following my attack of their underground tunnels and realizing the Council has returned to deal with them, the leaders of the blood race ran away and spread their people around the continent.”

Seth sighed and turned towards Ronald: “I know the continent has its own political problems, wars, and ambitions, but if the blood race is allowed to continue with their plans, not even the ascended on the whole continent might be able to deal with them.”

Ronald frowned and asked: “Do you know their plans?”

“To rise above the human race once more and bring back the Age of Horrors, but to gain the strength to do that, they need to feed a lot. That’s why the mass feedings have been going on all over the continent.”

Noticing that most kings were starting to believe him, Seth smiled inwardly and continued: “I’m going to be honest with all of you.”

“The Council has declined over the last few centuries, and we’ve lost a lot of powerful members in the last war, so we don’t have the numbers to go after the blood race.”

Sighing lightly, he continued: “That’s why I have taken over the Blood Kingdom, to recruit more people into the council’s ranks, but that will take time, a time I’m not really sure the continent has.”

Ronald could see where Seth was going with his words and asked: “So you want us to mobilize our forces into hunting down the blood race?”

Seth shook his head and said: “What you choose to do is up to you, but I wanted everyone to know the truth and be aware that the Council might not be able to protect the human race again.”

Ronald frowned and asked: “How do we know what you just told us is the truth and everything is not a plan of the Oath Kingdom to spread our troops thin?”

“You do not, but if you go forth with your decision to attack Oath, the blood race will surely use this chance to hasten their plans.”

“In the end, the question is; will you attack Oath, leaving your backs completely vulnerable towards a centuries-old enemy of the human race, or will you purge the threat currently infecting your very homes?”

After saying his piece, Seth stood up and started walking away under the frowning gazes of every king at the meeting.

Once he reached the door, he turned towards a knight behind the king and said: “If you still question my motives, you must know I could have killed you all here today. I’m sure Miss Alice has already informed you she stands no chance of fighting me.”

“If you choose to fight against the blood race, I’ll provide you with all the information the Council has about them. If you want to continue going after the knowledge in Oath, I pray you will get the chance to read it before you are all dead.

Once his words ended, Seth didn’t open the door but chose to teleport away, leaving a heavy silence to descend upon the meeting hall.

Ronald turned around and addressed Alice behind him. “Do you know him?”

Alice shook her head and said: “Not really, only having met him once, when he came to visit our Sanctuary. He called himself as a fourth shell destruction ascended passing through and asked if I wanted to become his apprentice, but I declined. I didn’t expect him to be the king of another kingdom.”

Ronald nodded and asked: “How sure are you of his strength? Also, what’s with the way he disappeared and created that chair out of nowhere?”

A complex look appeared in Alice’s eyes, hidden behind her helmet. She took a moment to think and said: “I am sure he’s a fourth shell destruction ascended since he has already proved it to me before, but I don’t know anything about everything else. I could feel two other types of energies being used, so he should be able to use three types of energy, which level would not be weaker than his destruction.”

“With all due respect, Your Highness, If he wanted to kill everyone here, I wouldn’t have been able to stop him.”

The meeting room fell into silence once more, everyone having a serious look on their faces. Even the rabid Adalwolf was utterly silent, his face turning pale. By now, even he realized that the knight behind Ronald was supposed to protect everyone at the meeting.

Ronald watched everyone’s expressions and sighed as he said: “The person behind me is a third shell destruction ascended from the north, and I trust her words. Also, for someone so powerful to appear out of nowhere, there is little to no chance he belongs to the Oath Kingdom.”

After everyone nodded, Ronald continued: “That being said, you all heard his words, so we’ll have to reconsider our plans. If someone so powerful, and a member of the Council of Unseen, claims that the blood race is such a big threat, I propose we return to the main topic of the meeting, dealing with the blood race.”

All the other kings agreed, and the discussions of the meeting returned to the initial purpose it was called for.

Back inside Seth’s inn room, a broad smile appeared on his face as he listened to what everyone was discussing inside the meeting room.

“I knew Alice won’t let me down. Finally, things are going the way they were supposed to.”