Rotell left the Sky Tower and returned to her carriage.
On the ride back, her mind wandered over the matters discussed in the meeting. For the most part, she found them tedious. Politics and power held very little meaning top her. They were just distractions, annoyances that cluttered her mind and distracted her from swordsmanship.
What did catch her attention, however, was the brief mention of the little 'kidnapper' Petra.
The topic had been quickly passed over in the meeting, either because the leaders didn't want to get involved, or because they understood the delicate relationship between Petra and Elena.
For Rotell, who had actually met Petra, the matter sparked a different feeling.
That little girl from the forest was clearly intelligent, unnervingly intelligent. Rotell had later realized that Petra had used poison to force Theo to back down. Even knowing this, Rotell felt no disdain. On the contrary, her curiosity only deepened.
Using the Hellion Families information network, Rotell had investigated Petra a little further.
Details were sparse, but the fragments she uncovered painted a clear picture. In short, Rotell did not think Petra was a bad person. She found herself oddly fond of the green little imp.
She did not want to see a future where Petra would become an enemy….
A sense of unease stirred in her.
She remembered Arthur's reaction the first time he had seen Petra, and a bad feeling started to coil around in her chest. If Petra were branded a criminal, how would Elena react? And could the repercussions ripple out to Kilemin, Arthur, or others close to them?
'Sigh.'
"I wish Theo were here. He's always been a good advisor."
'What a mess,'
Rotell muttered quietly, staring out at the passing landscape.
* * *
In another large carriage, Rolilly sat opposite two stoic maids.
She cupped her cheek in her palm and watched the city pass by the window.
Her face was young, round, and beautiful.
She mumbled to herself, low and sharp with annoyance.
The whole conference left a bad taste in her mouth. For the entire meeting she had been treated like a background prop.
Like nothing!
The way they looked at her, then at her sister… They bowed to Rotell, nodded to the others, and ignored her.
If they only knew about her marriage,if they only knew what was planned, then maybe they'd pay attention. Maybe they'd stop smiling at her like she was a joke!
She lowered her eyes.
'I'll remember this,' she thought. 'When the time comes, I'll take care of each one of them. One by one. Don't you worry…!'
She grumbled in a lower voice, "As for now, all I can do is disgust you a little, damn sister…"
The carriage rocked. The wind fluttered the curtains. Rolilly's fingers tightened around the edge of her sleeve, and her mind began making lists of names, debts, and small humiliations to repay. She was a brat, yes, but she was also very cunning. She would wait. And when she moved, it would be quiet and sharp, like a knife in the back.
* * *
Hexfill and the other members of the mercenary Alliance left the sky tower on foot.
He walked with the voluptuous Vellina and The silent Anchor. They stood to one side each, following him and exchanging their thoughts about the meeting.
It sounds like we might need to start preparing to expand outside the continents." Vellina pointed out.
Anchor was silent. After the disaster in the Northern Forest, he had changed from a raging lunatic to a silent giant. Even the red eyes that once shone through the black armor were now tamed and unresponsive.
Hexfill did not respond to Vellina right away.
His mind was currently occupied.
Putting aside the fact that he had just learned that the western region would receive another disaster, there was something else that set him off.
He was furious about being repeatedly compared to his father. His father was the previous leader of the Mercenary Alliance. He was a great man respected by all. He, like his father, inherited the mercenary Alliances white wolf position, and was expected to carry on the Legacy. Unfortunately, he was still too young and too weak to live up to his father's mantle. The leader of each family would go to a special trial, but he had not had the time to do it yet. With the calamities continuing, and with the western region now at risk, the chances and opportunities for him to do the trial were almost zero.
He shook his head, finally responding to Vellina, "Yes, but it's risky. Depending on how the Sea Calamity manifests, it's not impossible for us to lose all contact outside the continent. It will be best for us to move the entire mercenary Alliance away from the cross continent."
"Ah, why don't we turn it into a task for the silver shield?"
The timid voice came from the jumpy Mousa.
He had been taken to the sky tower with Hexfill, but he spent the entire time terrified that he would be discovered by his sugar mama.
Hexfill looked at him and shook his head.
"That's not a bad idea, we can test the new structure of the Silver Shield. Have Pillia work with them and send a small team to all the major cities throughout the major continents." He turned to the man at his side and commanded.
The man nodded and ran ahead.
Next, Hexfill mumbled as he peeked at the distant carriage that was returning.
He rubbed his chin.
"There's also that matter…"
He turned to Vellina and asked, "Do you think we should help the brat?"
Vellina shrugged her seductive shoulders, "we accepted the money didn't we?"
From behind, there was a sudden voice. It was dry, empty, and emotionless.
"Have you discovered who attacked the Sevensen stronghold?"
Hexfill looked at Anchor and shook his head.
"We can't find the culprit, but Pluto has gone personally to investigate. The City Lord is unresponsive, so we can only rely on Bouer, but he was out of the city at that time."
"That's convenient." Vellina chuckled.
Hexfill returned his gaze forward. "It's not his fault. He's gone crazy after his son's death."
* * *
Kilemin: "These guys are too soft. When it comes time to deal with the real calamities, all of them will die."
* * *
Arthur: "Rolilly's causing trouble again."
* * *
Elena: "The meeting went better than anticipated. Although there's a lot more unstable factors this time, it lowers the chances of something happening."
* * *
The final group to depart was the representatives of the church. This was formed from mostly old priests with a few asperits, and one angel.
As they left, the angel suddenly covered his nose, his brows wrinkling in disgust.
"This place is getting more disgusting by the day. If it wasn't for our agreement with the Sky Tower, I would want to cleanse the whole city."
* * *
Time ticked by and the many leaders all returned to their temporary residence.
Back to Petra…
Petra was curled up and sat down in the fox maids tail, writing something in her notebook. This book contained many of the research notes for her recent experiments.
She scribbled from time to time, not forgetting to occasionally reach over and scratch the fox girl's ears.
The excitement had overflowed throughout the city, and the time for the grand gathering's main competition was quickly approaching.
Petra had used the smallest ant she had to secretly listen to the conversation between all the leaders.
She did this through a small earpiece-like bug that looked a little bit like an earphone.
With the conclusion of the meeting, she understood everything that she needed to know.
Currently, Petra was focused on developing a new field of poison that could combat monsters like the forest ghost and the strange skeleton.
Petra asked, leaning back and looking up, "Do you know who uses poison in the Cross Continent?"
The fox girl shook her head.
She tightened the arms that had been wrapped around Petra and pulled her closer, purring like a fox as she did.
"The western region probably had a lot, but I don't know about the strongest."
Petra snuggled deeper into the fluffy pillow.
She planned to make a trip to the west anyway, so it was still helpful. Petra didn't want to touch the calamities, but there was something about the 'Poison Sea' and 'Poison Calamity' that she wanted to study.
Petra added a few more notes to her book, then closed it.
Her mind moved, and she conjured a virtual book using her mental energy and pulled it from her Sea of Consciousness. This was another way to read things from her Inner Library.
She began flipping through the book.
Petra had a few things to do…
She wanted to mess with the sky tower at some point to get revenge for the Owen stuff, she wanted to meet Elena and tell her that it was ok if the world hunted her, and she wanted to continue to steal all the knowledge she could from the city of Imai.
She smacked her lips, excited for the next few days.
Petra had been very busy.
She could store poison in her body and release it in the form of a solid, liquid or a gas. She used this to teach herself how to create little poison armaments. She could grow claws made from solidified poison that melted armor on contact, extended sword-like blades that killed on contact, and surrounded herself in a layer of toxic armour that killed on contact. Combined with poison breath, Petra was on her way to being a fake little dragon.
Next, Petra had begun breaking down the many medicines that existed in Pillomal and returned them to their foundational forms. She then started calculating the ultimate form of 'evolutionary medicine', that would allow the beast kings to create the most powerful foundations possible. This was a work in progress, but Petra was still missing something. Although some of the beasts were very big, they were still technically children. Now was the best time to genetically engineer them, so she had put a lot of focus on this.
Finally, Petra had begun building her mental domain from the pure darkness elements that were temporarily stored in her Sea of consciousness. She had created a small island using mental energy around the inner library, then she spent a few days learning how to turn the darkness element into a forest. She couldn't give it spirituality, but it still functioned as needed. Petra began feeding this forest with her own spiritual energy, and it produced a seemingly infinite amount of the darkness element in return.
This allowed her to cultivate unendingly.
Last but not least, Petra finally broke through to the second realm of the Mage Pathway, going from an 'Apprentice', to a proper 'Mage'. She could feel a wave of powerful energy flowing through her bones.
Levy had once explained to her that the first four realms were usually the easiest. When one arrived at the fifth realm, things began to become difficult. That was because this was when one would begin to cast away their humanity. Levy had said that no matter how human a person above the fifth level looked, don't forget that there not.
Petra finished writing and moved onto the next book.
She had been keeping up with Levy's lessons, and studying with Elli on the side. Originally, Elli was supposed to teach Petra all about runes, but after meeting the twelve human girls, she seemed to get distracted, and threw Petra to the side burner.
Elli had spent almost all her time 'tuning' the human girls' bodies, slowly transforming them through some ridiculously high level method. Levy told Petra that she was building their physiques into a new and never before seen one. Petra didn't fully understand what this meant until she returned that night and read about it. Creating a physique was a ridiculously difficult and complex task. All the notes that the old man had on such a thing either claimed that it was almost impossible or you needed an extremely rare profession. In addition, you needed a 'canvas' to paint on.
Petra felt like a kid before christmas. She was very excited to learn what her twelve guards would be reborn as.
Next, Petra continued to shop around town and collect everything she could. All her money came from her business or the banditry that the ant trio had started with the hat snake.
Shifting in her seat, Petra dug herself deeper into the fluff.
-
Over the next few houres, Imai had received many stragglers.
With the competition's starting date quickly approaching, the final arrivals had appeared.
There were countless wanderers, hopeful explorers, legendary figures, roaming tribes, parties of adventurers, nameless scholars, academy representatives, city representatives and a few old sages from the central region.
Following there arrival, almost everything was ready.
* * *
Dimbeck Family: "Did you know? The south will be left out of the next calamity? Hahaha!"
* * *
Gallon Family: "There was a report that the white whistle was spotted in the city, should we make contact?"
* * *
Barak Family: "My lord, the next calamity will begin in the west, shall we begin to set up?"
* * *
Azurefell Family: "the prophets have divined that the twins will appear in Imai, make the preparations to apprehend in advance!"
* * *
Next Day.
Sky Tower.
Heavenly Hall.
For the first time in a long time, the Heavenly Hall was full.
That massive table from the previous day had been removed.
Hundreds of Tower Teachers filled the upper balconies. All Nine Floor Guardians were present. Eleven of the Twelve Tower Pillars sat in their places. Three of the faceless Tower Ancestors sat with folded hands. High above them all, the Tower Master, an unassuming old man in white sat at the top, watching calmly.
Before the meeting began, the Pillars were announced....
Sebastian, The First seat. Cold strategist, enforcer of law and order.
Celeste, Golden elf, master of divination and reflection. Prideful, precise. Absent!
Requll, Sharp-minded, sarcastic, master of memory and insight.
Ballad, Blind, mute warrior monk. Keeper of stillness and order.
Atom, Old, pragmatic, master of diplomacy and politics.
Gon, Necromancer, soul researcher. Pale, unsettling presence.
Menarose, Silent assassin, shadow of the Tower, Mask.
Venan, Old, cruel, master of interrogation and truth extraction.
Jivot, Young artificer, genius in alchemy and machines.
Cain, Martial commander, straightforward and strong.
Coin, Twin, manipulator of probability and fate.
Nioc, Twin, calm overseer of light and purification.
The hall fell silent, an unseen weight pressing down on each participant.
Sebastian rose, his voice flat as a blade.
"The first matter to discuss is the Heavens Chosen. The final vote is unanimously focused on control. This includes the 'missing Petra' and the 'deserter Dorothy'."
No objections.
"Next, expansion outside the continent. Any objections?"
Silence.
"Then, with no objections, we will now discuss…"
* * *
Cellistan Continent, Church of Light
On a distant continent, within the sprawling white expanse of the Church of Light, the largest cathedral rose above all else in the world. At its peak, the tallest tower cut through the sky like a pillar of ivory. Behind closed doors, and locked in silence, a single room waited, bathed in the glow of sunlight that poured through one massive window that was shaped like a hollow sun.
Inside, a young woman with long blonde hair stood, her presence bending the world around her. Light seemed to cling to her like a living shadow, flowing over her shoulders and cascading down her back like silk cloth. She moved with the grace of someone untouched by the world, yet aware of it all, lamenting each sunset, and from any angle, she could have been mistaken for a goddess sent to walk among mortals.
Her eyes flickered with the divinity of the Sun God.
Every glance carried the weight of authority and law, judgment, and a strange, incomprehensible curiosity and innocence that was unique to her and her alone.
"Is it true?" she asked, her voice calm.
A kneeling paladin, armor like a mirror, bowed his head. "Yes, Saintess. I have confirmed it."
The Saintess turned toward him, her simple movement tearing the void around her like paper.
"Show me…" Her voice was both a whisper and a command.
The paladin hesitated only for a moment, then produced a portrait, carefully unrolling the golden ribbon and holding it up.
Petra…
The Saintess's eyes widened, with a storm of unspoken emotions that bloomed into a crushing wave that stretched out into the unseen world. Shock, disbelief, curiosity, was all suppressed by her calm. For a long time, she remained silent.
"How…?" she murmured, her words barely audible, yet still trembling.
She straightened and exhaled slowly.
Her hands relaxed at her sides.
The room became quiet except for the soft rustle of her hair in the sunlight.
"Thank you," she said at last, her voice soft, returning her gaze to the massive window above. "You may go. Keep me updated."
The paladin bowed once more, almost touching the floor. "Yes, Saintess Ashley!"
* * *