Chapter 56: Council Meeting
In a dark room, a huge stone table sat in the center. The words World Council were carved into the stone in bold letters and surrounding the table were twelve chairs.
Each chair bore a number from 1 to 12.
With consecutive flashes of light, people began appearing in front of their respective seats.
The man sitting in chair No. 1 had jet-black hair and dark eyes, carrying a sheathed sword on his back. He announced with authority, "Let’s begin the 61st Meeting of the World Council."
Beside him, seated in chair No. 2 was a girl with similar black hair, but her eyes were dreamy and mist-like. She spoke softly, "Arthur, how is the African region? I sensed many Invasion Gates open there, and I sensed you there as well..."
Looking at her, Arthur sighed. "Zora, I cleaned them up. But..."
Zora looked at him in worry. "What is it, brother...?"
Arthur frowned. "I am worried about the Death Zones. We don’t know exactly how many of the invasion type gates have opened deep there."
"If the invaders survive the Death Zones and manage to build a teleportation circle connecting to their home planet, then we will have no choice but to fight them head-on."
A bald, muscular man sitting in chair No. 8 spoke up. "Boss, how are we supposed to fight something that can naturally survive the Death Zones? We might as well start preparing our coffins and arrange for four guys to dance us to the grave."
Hearing this, the unassuming man wearing an assassin’s costume in chair No. 12 said flatly, "Rik, stop with your humor. It’s not funny."
A woman wearing a provocative witch costume sitting in chair No. 6 interjected with a smirk. "An Invasion-type gate opened in my city."
Hearing this, all of them looked at her. She continued, "According to Sara, a Level 4 kid entered it. When she detected the anomaly and the kid didn’t return, she told me about it. Later, she reported back that it was indeed an Invasion-type gate."
Then, she smiled. "I asked her to silence the kid so that word of the invasion doesn’t get out..."
Arthur narrowed his eyes. "Diana, who is this kid? Surviving an Invasion Gate is no joke..."
Rik looked at her in absolute disgust. "If you had ever encountered one, you would know exactly what a pain in the ass those otherworldly invaders are."
"For a Level 4 kid to survive that, can you even fathom what kind of potential he must have? And you simply ordered such a promising kid killed."
The unassuming man said bluntly, "Idiot, she asked Sara to kill the kid."
Rik, with a pissed-off look, got up from his chair. "Do you want your ass beaten by me again, Steven?"
Arthur intervened smoothly. "Calm down, Rik. Steven is just getting you worked up. He is pointing out that she is talking about the girl, Sara, whom we asked to be in charge of the Academy in the Desert City."
Rik realized the implication and looked back at Diana. "She will not kill the kid."
He was absolutely sure of it.
Before the System arrived, his wife had been one of the orphaned kids taken care of by Sara. Later, his wife met him and they got married. Through his wife, he knew Sara’s character very well.
She might eat her own foot before she would ever do such a thing as killing an innocent kid.
During the dark times of the apocalypse, she was one of the very few who kept her humanity intact while others gave in to their devil-like natures.
Besides back then she was incredibly strong, which gave her the freedom to maintain those morals without compromise.
Diana smiled, slowly licking her lips. "I know she will not kill the kid. I will use her insubordination as the reason to kick her out of the Desert City."
Rik laughed out loud. "If you don’t want her, then let me invite her to my Champion City! Our Academy Headmaster position has been empty ever since Kevil died."
But Diana just smiled and didn’t say anything else. Seeing this, Rik narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
Before he could argue further, Zora spoke up. "Diana, tell us more about this dungeon. It must be low-level, since the System dictates that before the merger a City with a Core cannot be invaded by a Demigod-level powerhouse."
Diana nodded. "Yes, it was cleverly disguised as a Level 5 dungeon."
Hearing this, the mood in the room grew significantly darker.
Seated in chair No. 3, a girl spoke in a strange voice that felt both distant and incredibly near at the exact same time. "I want to hear about it from the child himself. What is his name?"
Hearing this, Diana wanted to reject the idea, but then she heard another voice from chair No. 4 add, "I am interested as well. If the same thing happens in my city, I want to be prepared."
Upon hearing this, everyone else nodded in agreement.
Diana sighed in resignation, knowing she couldn’t offend the entire World Council at once.
Checking the message she had received from Sara, she paused. "His name is.... huh... Sara didn’t mention it."
Hearing this, Rik burst out laughing, clutching his stomach. "Ahahahaha! Now how will you kick her out of the city for insubordination? She will just lie and say she already killed the kid!"
Diana’s eyes glowed dangerously with crackling lightning, but before she could make a move, Zora intervened. "I understand Haruka’s (No. 3) and Jingyi’s (No. 4) concern."
"It is better if someone from the Council talks to the kid directly to gather intelligence. And it is better if it is done in person. Who wants to volunteer?"
Haruka said, "Let Jingyi do it. My Sea City is currently being attacked by aquatic monsters. Also, Jingyi is already familiar with Sara."
Jingyi agreed in her peaceful, melodic voice. "Alright, I’ll go talk with her. My city is much safer right now, and we have a lot of powerhouses on standby in case we get attacked."
"After this meeting, I will go into closed-door cultivation for two to three weeks, so I will go visit her right after that."
Zora nodded. "Two to three weeks is fine since we already have the basic information, but don’t delay it for more than a month. At the next meeting, we want to hear all about it."
Arthur then looked at Ivan (No. 5), Vikram (No. 7), Kwame (No. 9), Min-jun (No. 10), and Amélie (No. 11). "Do you guys have anything else to add?"
Kwame, flexing his massive chest muscles, said in his heavy drawl, "Nah, I gyat nating to add ta dat."
With his dark skin and absurd, bulging musculature, he looked like a tank. Even the burly Rik looked small sitting across from him.
The others simply shook their heads.
Kwame then added, "These stupid-ass stone monkeys be chilling near ma city. Its getting kinda annoying, ya hear me? They be taking ma Bazinga City too lightly, ye."
The others were already used to his unique way of speaking. Vikram offered in his thick Indian accent, "Do you needa helpa? Whata levela are they?"
Kwame scoffed. "Dem shit-asses be Lvl 95, man. Des hairy-asses be trolling me hardd... if ya coming, we can skin their asses together."
Vikram smiled. "Oke, brothere. I will be cominga there soona."
Kwame grinned, bumping his fist against his chest. "Thx, mane."
Vikram nodded respectfully.
Arthur brought the room back to order. "Okay, now that we are done with this, next we will discuss..."
And so, the highest-level meeting on Earth continued.
....
After the meeting concluded, Arthur appeared outside a heavily sealed room. Sensing a visitor, the heavy door slid open on its own and he stepped inside.
The room was completely filled with thick, black tentacles covering the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. The actual walls of the room could barely even be seen beneath the squirming mass.
When bright, crimson-colored eyes suddenly opened on each and every tentacle, Arthur froze in place like a puppet with its strings cut.
It was not because he was being controlled.
This being was currently entirely unable to exert its true power on Earth. He froze purely because of the suffocating power and aura it radiated the moment it let its presence be known.
The Being spoke, its voice vibrating through the very fabric of space. "teLL mE, huMaN... wHy haVe You comE to uS?"
Arthur, physically unable to move his jaw, used his telepathy to speak.
My Patron God, [The Sleepless Sword], detected your presence in this world and asked me to send his regards.
The Being replied, "i aM [Zethe-thoth], thE onE wHo Eats. i SensE a deLicaCy oN thIs plAneT wHen i was wanDerIng tHe [VOID]."
It paused, its countless crimson eyes blinking out of sync. "[The Sleepless Sword]? i hAve heArD hiS nAme eCho iN thE [VOID]."
Arthur was desperately hoping his Patron God’s name would cause a strong reaction of fear or respect in this entity.
He had previously used his Patron God’s name to scare away many terrifying beings from different worlds...
In the Cosmos, [The Sleepless Sword] was a genuine force to be reckoned with.
After all, he was one of the Twelve Primordial Gods in their entire Cosmos.
If anyone messed with him, where could they possibly run to? The whole Cosmos was his personal playground.
This divine backing was the primary reason Earth remained relatively safe even after these Invasion Gates started appearing left and right.
Many invading worlds in their universe had God-ranked beings who could easily cause total devastation to the planet if they pushed hard enough.
But the terrifying being in front of him showed no fearful reaction like the previous entities had.
And that was deeply concerning, especially since his Patron God had very little direct influence on this specific universe before the upcoming ’Merger’.
After the Merger, no one would dare touch their Earth.
But before that happened, Arthur needed to find a way to keep monstrous beings like this on a tight leash.
Otherwise, the damage they could do just by throwing a tantrum might completely wipe out what little remained of humanity...
