"Karsus, your day has come you bastard!"
Was what I expected for them to roar at me.
That didn't happen unfortunately.
They only looked at me like I had done something heinous.
And only three hundred died!
That does not justify such seriousness.
"Karsus, you do understand we can hear your thoughts, yes?" One of the members of The Derium Nexus asked in confusion.
"Ignore it, he's one of the oldest members of The Council, he knows what we are capable of." Roseus explained.
"So why?" The Council member couldn't put his confusion into words.
"Simply because he doesn't care, newbie, let me tell you one thing about Karsus. He's a very good swindler and a swindler like him can easily avoid a ton of trouble by just not caring about it."
Hearing these words, the 'new' member of The Council who in fact had been part of them for hundreds of years, nodded.
"Come on Roseus, I prefer if you refer to my elegance as a con-artist, it's better." Karsus pointed out.
KROOOM!
An immense pressure landed on Karsus and the rest of the members of The Council present.
"You have fooled around far too long! Karsus!" A voice bellowed as cracks appeared in the Space around Karsus.
Immediately all the members of The Council bowed. Generating Soul Force from their Soul Realms that they gifted to the new arrival.
Karsus on the other hand wasn't the best of state as his Soul Realm began to crack.
Blood leaked out of his mouth as his eyes became bloodshot, however he kept a snarky grin on his face.
A rift opened up in Space out of which walked out a certain figure whose body was covered in a single large purplish robe that only left their mouth to be seen.
This was one of the most senior and highest ranking members of The Council, directly below The Absolute Minister.
Deputy Absolute Minister - Ebenzer Vongray!
Ebenzer Vongray was also the strongest active member of The Council, having reached the pinnacle of The Quasi-Deity Stage.
"Minister of The 2nd State, Karsus Vangieri, mind your tongue lest it cease existing entirely." Ebenzer warned with spite apparent in his tone.
Karsus meekly nodded, not daring to respond.
One had to be careful when poking the sleeping giant and not wake it up.
Ebenzer Vongray, ignoring The Council members, vanished and then reappeared at the second highest seat in the hall.
"Now let us commence the session!" Ebenzer ordered.
"In the name of Kuao, The Deity of Judgment! We shed all impartiality!"
"In the name of Akaratos, The Deity of Cardinality and Truth! We hereby bring forth our judgment only through the Truest Truth!"
"In the name of Raos, The Deity of The Beginning! We commence this session!"
"Karsus Vangieri, Minister of The 2nd State, you've been charged with waste of resources of Ethereal and Conceptual Aether as well as constructing an Academy without giving prior knowledge to The Council and not only that but you've failed to apprehend the intruder who possessed an Animus Construct capable of near perfect replication and reversal on the Ethereal scale. Do you have any objections to these crimes committed?"
The normal move here would be to reply 'yes' but that would be wrong in this case.
Quasi-Deities mostly possessed an incredibly fragile ego, especially someone like Ebenzer Vongray who was the 2nd most powerful being that remained active since Paradise's establishment to refute that statement would be to refute Ebenzer.
Thus the correct option would be to accept the charges and then slowly explain the wrongs.
Thus Karsus clearly knew what to do.
"Dear Deputy Minister, you're damn wrong!" Karsus roared.
The Council fell into silence at Karsus's proclamation.
Ebenzer Vongray's expression didn't change, however Karsus could feel the power slowly mounting.
"Let me explain." Karsus began.
"Please do." Ebenzer spoke, his voice raspy and filled to the brim with killing intent.
"If you will look at the records of The 3rd State, you'll be able to observe that the construction of The Academy was completely within my rights as written in The Sorcovic Codex, not only that but I also established it with several joint partners consisting of The 4th State , thus deeming it to be an establishment constructed for the betterment of the youths of Paradise!"
"Betterment? Your academy has already killed 99% of its students!" Ebenzer retorted.
"Aha! They were never meant to be nurtured in the first place! All of them are just the reincarnations of Saints and nothing more! They only were meant to serve as catalysts for the focal talent! That is Wilhelm!"
Hearing Wilhelm's name, Ebenzer didn't retort.
Afterall Wilhelm was a high priority entity that was given to The Council after The Sovereign's Shadow broke into Paradise.
But it was also a bad memory for Ebenzer.
Deities were these hidden powerful entities that all the members in The Council wanted to gain the attention of in hopes of receiving backing.
So when Abel, The Deity of Space acted personally and Ebenzer wasn't there to receive him, he couldn't help but feel frustrated.
Seeing Ebenzer's silence, Karsus continued.
"And the waste of Ethereal and Conceptual Aether resources isn't justified after all it was for the sake of Wilhelm and the duty bestowed upon us, The Council by The mighty Deity of Space! And even then I only took these resources from one of our failed projects! If they were to be utilized by Wilhelm perfectly, then we would find a new Quasi-Deity amongst our ranks in the next few moments and if it were to fail then so be it! We would only be losing out on resources we already had lost!" Karsus spoke with fiery passion, his eyes glistening.
Seeing such a display, The Council almost wanted to strangle the rat to death.
Karsus was one of the greatest swindlers of Paradise, an individual who had the ability to easily extract resources for his own benefits while still making it perfectly legal.
Actually what Karsus was doing was without doubt for the good of Paradise, that was without doubt. However that didn't mean he wouldn't reap some benefits for himself.
However, to say that Karsus was the only one who did such things would be completely wrong.
Every single member of The Council also did these things, just they weren't as skilled in the art of legally conning as Karsus who had seemed to have gained this ability right after he was given shards of Wilford's Soul.
Seeing that he was in the right direction, he allowed himself a small chuckle.
Ebenzer seeing such an action was enraged.
"I'm going to make this fucker pay!" Ebenzer thought as he flicked his fingers.
All of Karsus's defence lay on the fact that Wilhelm was a promising individual.
If Wilhelm were to die then all his points would become weak and he would be defeated.
"Let's see just how 'promising' Wilhelm is!" Ebenzer sent forward a trace of his power to the End Space where they were kept.
Little did they know that this action would only serve to further Karsus's agenda.
———————————————————————————————————
Wilhelm and Rachel stood, glaring at the armored knight.
After a gruesome battle which resulted in the death of every other student and exterminating all the undead, only these three remained.
Wilhelm's arms were bleeding heavily as he had become blind in his left eye.
Rachel's skin was pink, her flesh had been burnt away during the battle but thanks to the body given to one by The Adept Wizard Stage, she was steadily regenerating.
The armored knight glared at them as well, it's red eyes which were visible from it's visor were filled with wrath.
Suddenly it dropped it's horn and pounced at the barrier that separated it from them.
BANG!
The barrier shook but stood tall.
Thus the knight attacked.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
It continued punching the barrier without delay, the gauntlets it wore began to crack but it didn't stop.
It continued hammering at the barrier.
And then.
BOOM!
The barrier burst apart without showing any signs of cracking.
THAMP!
THAMP!
The footsteps of the knight echoed throughout the hall as it left it's throne.
Wilhelm and Rachel immediately tried to attack him using their spells.
However nothing happened.
Even Muspelheim and Niflheim weren't working.
Ignoring the dumbfounded expressions of it's enemy, the knight shrugged and sat down, inviting them as well.
With nothing working, the best course was to follow the knight and so they sat down.
The knight, without opening his helmet and merely adjusting it, spoke first.
"So you two are the ones who were given my powers I presume."
Wilhelm, puzzled,replied.
"Powers?" He asked.