"Becoming a God." Willem rubbed his chin while contemplating what to do.
He originally had every intention to go find the large oak tree where his Father's spirit was tethered to the world, but present circumstances forced his attention away. His mind raced and he was barely able to come to a decision.
"Set up another meeting, we must tell everyone the truth." Willem's mental link to Ashkatar was about to be disconnected but Ashkatar kept it open forcefully.
"Are you sure it is wise to speak of the mission of the Fey? I would not have even mentioned it to you if I did not have a firm grasp of your own personality. We are talking about becoming a God..." Ashkatar seemed to have heavy doubts about his new comrades.
"Leaving information out serves us no purpose in the coming battle. We will tell them everything they need to know in order to make sure they understand the consequences of this battle." Willem forced the mental link to close when he was finished speaking.
Willem opened up the door to his room and the first thing he saw were the bright smiles of the people living in Paradiso Rosso.
"Grand Mage!" Many called out to him, glasses of wine in their hands.
Willem took a glass of wine that had been offered to him and slowly drank as the others bowed their head politely.
"Thank you." Willem spoke uncharacteristically gently.
The alcoholic drink did nothing to inebriate him, instead showing him the sobering reality that these people depended on him for protection. The closer the Magical Beings marched, the more of a reality it became.
Willem began to think about the arduous task ahead of him.
Even he cannot fight a God.
Not yet, anyway.
As he cordially greeted those who approached him, a whisper of the meeting time slowly made it's way through each group of civilians.
By the time he finished the glass of wine he was entertaining, everyone knew another war council meeting would soon be taking place. Instead of continuing to greet the Grand Mage, the citizens moved in order to form a straight path to the room that had previously been used.
"Thank you, everyone." Willem handed the wine glass back to the person who offered it to him and gave his thanks. As he walked over to the room, opened the wrought iron doors and closed it gently behind him, murmurs of conversation could be heard behind his back.
With a moment to himself, Willem breathed deeply and gracefully pulled the chair out, placing himself at the head of the table.
Within minutes, Ashkatar, Jura and Sir Gehrig entered the room.
"Sorry for being late." Sir Gehrig and Jura bowed their heads politely.
"The meeting was called hastily, pay it no mind." Willem waved them off passively and motioned for them to sit in their respective seats.
Ashkatar had a pensive look on his face, his serious look cast against the highly expressive emotions of Jura and Gehrig.
Jura excitedly told Willem about the preliminary results of the Dark Elf Synthesizing test. Gehrig listened to the conversation with a grin, nodding his head to everything Jura was saying.
"Master Grandia, the results of the potion and scroll creation have been wonderful." Jura was practically jumping out of his seat, he was fidgeting so much.
After bottling his self defeating emotions up during the testing phase, he could finally speak proudly about positive results worthy of his position.
"We were able to make ground-breaking new potions and scrolls with the combination of Dark Elf and Human Magic. A more formal report is currently being written by the lead Mages on the project." Jura looked to almost be foaming at the mouth in excitement.
Sir Gehrig remained calm and just smiled along, as he already knew this was probably closely calculated by the Grand Mage. To say nothing of what happened in the past, Sir Gehrig could not picture the Grand Mage being in a compromised position when it mattered.
More people began piling into the room one by one while Jura extolled the virtues of the Synthesizing program. Just like a merchant who was attempting to sell his wares, he continued to ramble about the versatility of the results and their potential meaning.
"Jura." Sir Gehrig caught the attention of the Dark Elf representative and motioned for him to stop talking.
Jura swallowed a mouthful of saliva and shrank back into his seat when he saw the Grand Mage's expression had turned from expressionless to serious.
The previous participants of the war council had all arrived, taken their seat, and were ready to hear what Willem had to say.
"The reports."
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Willem spoke two words, and a pile of papers were distributed to each representative sitting at the table.
"Our spies have successfully infiltrated the camp of the Magical Beings and were able to copy the information sent from their Capital to the leaders of their Army. Jerbalt, step forward." Willem motioned for the leader of the assassin team to come stand near him and report.
"Reporting. The Magical Beings should have no reason to suspect there were spies amongst their number, as we have successfully removed ourselves from our original positions and found replacements to do our jobs. In front of you, you will find the missives written from the Capital clearly explaining the marching order and plan of attack. This was most likely written clearly due to there being a large amount of Magical Beings who could be considered simple creatures, barely showing intelligence." Jerbalt took a moment and waited on Willem.
"Continue." The Grand Mage put his elbows on the table and let his fingers fold together, placing himself in a contemplative position.
"Yes, Sir. The marching positions leverage the innate abilities of some Magical Beings, such as centaurs, who will be charging the front line as mobile infantry with the Dragoons. The size of the Army is within our calculations, being a little over one-hundred thousand with the inclusion of clan members with magical abilities." Jerbalt stopped talking once he had mentioned the size of the Army.
"If this information is correct, and we have no reason to believe it is not... Then even with the inclusion of the Bastion of Hope's soldiers into our own calculation, it is still roughly five to one. How would we even begin to make up the difference in size?" Ashkatar rubbed his temples as he paced back and forth.
"Ashkatar, tell them the real problem." Willem glanced to his right side, where Ashkatar had been pacing, and requested for him to explain what they had previously discussed.
After a few moments of struggle and scratching his head, Ashkatar seemed to resign himself.
"What I am about to tell you, I say with absolute certainty as a divine beast. The fey, a malicious race of tricksters and deviants, intend to warp the ley lines flowing through the mountains of the Bastion of Hope. Through manipulation, they can convert the Bastion of Hope and all lives therein into pure magical energy. Anyone with a strong enough body can absorb that magical energy, and become a new God capable of re-shaping the world as they like." Ashkatar's brow furrowed deeply as he looked around the table.
Every individual person besides Willem looked at him with wide eyes, unsure of how the conversation had changed so quickly.
"It should come as no surprise to anyone here that, considering the magical energy needed for such a feat of strength, no one here could possibly absorb that amount of pure magical energy without dying outright." Willem swiftly culled expectations that were beginning to show on the faces of some of the council members.
"Not even yourself, Grand Mage?" One of the Family Leaders spoke out.
"I believe it would be in everyone's best interest to not even entertain the thought. Therefore, we must take the next step, and figure out a way to stop the Fey Leader from reaching that magical energy. We must assume he has some way of being able to handle the backlash from the amount of energy he would need to take in." Willem spoke out in a very serious tone, so that even the lackadaisical members of the council understood the seriousness of the situation.
The Lovejoy family head knocked her smoking pipe on the table to get everyone's attention before speaking. "If we launched the previously approved offensive, would that not be enough to ward off the advancement of the enemy toward the Bastion of Hope?"
Willem stood up from his seat at the front of the table and walked around the room. "Unfortunately, the Army of Magical Beings are unaware of the Fey's intentions, which means they will stop at nothing to see us defeated. The only thing going for us right now is that they have no idea we exist, which means we retain the element of surprise until we launch our attack. Throwing them into confusion and killing their leaders will make the battle chaotic but ultimately more favorable towards us. This lapse in their leadership should allow us to thwart the intentions of the Fey."
Willem stopped in front of the Lovejoy family head and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"It was a good suggestion." Willem nodded his head in appreciation towards her.
Willem sighed gently before continuing on. "Now that we know of their intentions, we have two choices. We can attempt to repel them from the Bastion of Hope and surrounding mountains before they are able to divert the ley lines, but if we are unsuccessful then anyone caught in the blast will be converted to pure energy. This is essentially throwing away the lives of our soldiers on the hope that we can directly repel an enemy five times greater in size to us."
"What is the second choice?" Jura worked up the courage to speak.
"We take full advantage of the event by forcing the Magical Beings into the vicinity of the Bastion of Hope, and with some luck the majority of the enemy Army will be wiped out by the blast. Anyone still alive will do all they can to stop the Fey Leader from reaching the core before he can assimilate with it." Willem reached his chair after he finished speaking and breathed out deeply.
No one expressed their concern for the well-being of the Grand Mage. It was not the right time, nor could they afford to acknowledge the weight that rested upon his back.
"Thirty three people here, in total. Just like last time, each of you gets a vote to decide what we shall do." Willem sat back into his seat as papers were distributed amongst those in the room.
Ashkatar and Willem wrote down their decision and placed them into the magical box Willem created. One by one, each person wrote down their decision and placed it into the box.
"Lovejoy Grand Elder, if you would please." Willem floated the magical box toward the position of the Grand Elder and had him tally the results.
The Grand Elder gulped down a mouthful of saliva as his chest heaved up and down. His daughter sat at his side, poking him in the ribs with her smoking pipe, urging him to go faster. She could not feel the fear he had felt as the chosen representative to reveal the results. Of the two plans, the Grand Elder knew which he had chosen, and it was what he considered the lesser of two evils.
He took one more look towards Willem, before reaching his hand into the box and pulling out single pieces of paper, reading them out loud to the group.
Once the reading of the decisions had been completed, the results were piled and sorted.
"Sixteen... Ahem- Votes to defend from the side of the Bastion of Hope. Seventeen votes to push the Magical Beings into the Bastion of Hope." The Grand Elder let out a deep sigh as he announced the final results.
The room quickly turned divisive and hostile, slurs and cursed words were being thrown around almost immediately.
"Silence." Willem sent a wave of dark energy that forced the air out of the lungs of everyone present.
Since Ashkatar did not need to breathe, he felt only the pressure of Willem's single word.
"We have chosen a plan, now we will execute the plan. This is for the future of the Humans and Dark Elves. make sure to properly convey that when you hand down your orders." Willem released the dark energy that had stolen the very oxygen from the room and walked out by himself.
Even Ashkatar did not follow him.
When the door had closed behind Willem, Ashkatar looked over the gathering and spoke calmly.
"The Grand Mage's mind has been compromised."