"Why did you protect the Utheani?" Adrian asked. He had excused Eloise moments before—this was not a conversation for her ears.
"I found a reason to," Valhalla replied, his tone calm but firm. "Is there a problem?"
Adrian shook his head, though his fingers drifted to the spot between his brows, tapping lightly. If my men begin to act outside my plans, their reasons may one day clash with mine.
"…No. Not at all."
He let the silence linger before gesturing toward the door. "Wait outside. You and Zethar both."
The room grew quiet as their footsteps faded. Only then did Adrian allow his thoughts to unravel. He was beginning to see it clearly—how dependent he had become on those around him. Without Valhalla and Zethar's strength, without Ragnarök, he was vulnerable. Against foes beyond the Advanced—those who stood at the gates of Heaven—his own hands could do nothing.
Yet once, not long ago, he had stood unmatched in the realm of mages. His understanding of magic had been absolute, peerless. Even now, he had seen none who could grasp its nature as he could. But that brilliance was no longer enough.
He continued tapping his forehead. I need a way we could all meet and agree, a long-term one."Eureka!" He clicked his fingers, but then bit his lip. "I never imagined myself saying that." He gave a wry smile.
The scene warped, replaced by different walls—cave-like walls—those of his pocket dimension.
Adrian opened his Peerless Eyes and gazed at the space. He began pulling threads and restructuring the entire realm.
A table, like that at the Stardom, appeared at the room's center. Orbs appeared over each seat.
<
The others have mana of similar but different frequencies. They'll be able to negate the world's notice, he replied, then stopped weaving.
He headed for the throne that ordinarily belonged to the count and sat. Then tapped on the table.
Swoosh.
Dazzling lights fell from the orbs onto a seat. They slowly took the forms of Adrian's summons (the permanent ones), Ragnarök and Shadow, though they looked ghost-like and see-through.
Then in the seat directly opposite Adrian, a special addition to the design of the Stardom table of the Lords: a small blue dragon came down.
"So that's what you look like." Adrian smirked as he watched Long's miniature form.
<> Long ignored Adrian and addressed the rest.
"I summoned you all here because there is disunity," Adrian began his explanation, noticing their perplexed looks. "Don't worry, it's only a split of your consciousnesses that are here. When you grow accustomed to it, like Valhalla and Zethar already have, you'll be able to operate here and there," he pointed out.
Noticing Adrian's gaze, Long smirked. <
"You mean it's the same Anulian?" Valhalla frowned.
<
"So they are my natural enemies then." Adrian sighed.
<
Adrian tapped his forehead. "Is there anything else?"
<
"I need to change plans then." He massaged his eyes and sighed. How could he forget—Anulians are drawn to energy.
"Master, you need to stop them!" Valhalla rose with a look of urgency.
"I can't." Adrian shook his head.
Valhalla looked at him pleadingly. "Please..."
"They've got a Tier 5 Advanced mage up their sleeves," Tobey explained. He was mostly in charge of survey and information. When Adrian got a whiff of the Crime Lords' possible betrayal, he sent Tobey to investigate. "Your Annihilation Protocol is only enough to take out Tier 4 Advanceds with the aid of Zethar and the rest of us from Ragnarök."
The Tier 5 of the Advanced rank was where the difference in power really showed; Lue was currently at least an Upper Tier 5 Advanced mage—Valhalla could no longer compete with her.
<> Long said.
Valhalla looked at Adrian eagerly.
'More information on Anulians would benefit me as well.' He sighed. "Talk."
<
"You mean Leron..."
<
Adrian nodded nonchalantly.
"Next on our agenda... Am I becoming a monster?" Recently, with Eloise's definition of him and some other things, he had begun to wonder: was he truly the manifestation of evil?
"You are." Ragnarök nodded.
"What of you?" He turned to the summons.
"I have seen worse." Zethar shrugged.
"As long as you protect your followers, I'm alright." Valhalla said.
"You seem to have developed an interest in the Gyn. May I ask why?" Adrian asked.
Valhalla paused. "They remind me of my life as Ignis. They worship me, so I can't help but project my people onto them."
whirl, whirl
The wind whispered in the silence, for the second time, no one spoke.
Adrian smiled, stood and walked to Valhalla... giving him a hug from behind "I have wronged you, haven't I? I stole your name, then gave you the name of doom... but now, I promise you, casualties will be restricted only to the nobles."
"You could use his influence as a deity to push your fraction" Tobey suggested.
"I wouldn't suggest that."
Adria turned to face the corner. " Do you live in the shadows, Olga?" He asked the old hag that stood in the shadows.
He activated his peerless eyes and and observed her; blood slowly dripped from the corners of his eyes, quickly, he deactivated it and wiped the blood.
'At least when I stare at Eloise, there is no pain.' He still didn't understand why that happened, and neither Long or Olga cared to explain. 'What would happen if I were to use it on Long?'
"Why?" He asked.
"I remember telling you, on many occasions, how the gods had noticed you, and had sent warnings to their prophets." Olga said
'I just came up with cool answers to fit my role as a young master... besides I knew the story would tell, though I now regret it, if I paid attention, I would have structured my plans in a better way from the beginning.' Shaking his head, he said "You only told me to be careful.''
"Well, the Triune and the Elven gods are after you; Nyoria is the domain of the Triune so you'd be fighting the divine temple soon. Aurelia would come next with the Elven gods... Norviik's beast gods hate the rest of the world as it is, and Sahariel is just the convergence of these three pantheons." Making sure to put it as terrible as possible, she paused.
"You make it sound as though I am the Demon king to the gods. " Adrian gave a wry smile, he had already made enemies out of gods when he remained powerless against the stronger mortals.
"If you have my Master in you, then you could say so... don't worry though, the gods aren't aware fully of your existence, only their presiding will over the world is. I have confused the Grand Oracle as much as possible, but since you continue to affect people's lives, she will be there soon enough, especially now that an Omen is in town."
Tobey had taken notes from what she said, then turned to look at Adrian "Any changes to the plan?"
"If I conquer Uthean, how long will it take till I am identified?" He asked Olga.
"That's dependent on the number of fates affected by you." Olga turned into specks of light and dispersed into the wind.