Finally, after almost three hours, the gathering came to an end. Amax was the last one to stand up from the large wooden table and waited till everyone already left.

The table radiated a strong magical aura, for it was marked with countless symbols. On the one hand, these were there to record everything that was discussed in the room, and on the other hand, they gave the table a certain stability that should prevent it from simply breaking through if the meetings got out of hand and the arguments ended in heated arguments.

As silly as it sounded, this happened more often than Amax would have liked.

The table was once just a small side project of a former symbolic of the organization, but after it survived for centuries it has become a symbol of the organization.

Amax sighed as he slowly made his way toward the passageway that led him to the secret chambers. With quick steps, he crossed the hall and stepped through the door that led out into the hallway. He felt the power of the symbols flow over him as they checked his intentions and authority. He ignored this, as he was already used to it, and so he walked quickly down the hallway.

The corridor was narrow and its walls, as well as its ceiling and floor, were paved with hundreds of symbols that ensured that only authorized people walked down this corridor and of course, they gave it external protection from attack. It was one of the best-protected places of this fortress. The construction of this passage and the room behind it were among the hardest creations of the fortress and demanded many years of Symbolic's life to create. Nonetheless, the secret passage was quite long and quite tedious.

The musty stench that hung in the corridor burned Amax's nose every time he took this path. But he had to do it, no one else wanted to. Finally, after almost half an hour, he came to the end of the corridor where a small black door was, which was again, covered with dozens of strong symbols.

He quickly brushed his hand over the rough surface of the door, activating the desired mechanism. Slowly, the door opened, giving Amax a glimpse inside. It was a large black room, with only a single candle in it. There weren't many objects in the room, only a black clock, a desk with an old chair, and of course the pitch-black throne in the middle of the room.

-I hate his urge for drama. He has no reason to make the room so...gloomy.-

Amax didn't like the design of the room, nor the personality of the occupant. Both were disgusting to him, but he had no choice but to obey his orders.

Immediately as he entered, a black cloud gathered on the throne. In the very next moment, the cloud disappeared, and a figure was now sitting on the throne.

It was an old man, who was lean and bony and completely wrapped in black clothes. His skin was white and wrinkled from age, and he had short gray hair. It almost seemed as if the person was trying his hardest to blend in with the room. Amax quickly dropped to his knees, and bowed his head,

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"I salute the great Lord Rhul."

He felt the old man's gaze and a cold shiver ran down his spine.

"Amax, why don't you cut out the unnecessary formalities and stand up? We've known each other for ages now, haven't we?"

When his voice cut through the room, Amax almost flinched.

-Does it seem like just me, or has his voice gotten even scratchier and older than last week?-

Amax slowly raised his head, looking the old man directly into his black eyes. His entire appearance was that of an old man, but his eyes shone with a menacing light that sent another shiver down Amax's spine.

"Of course, Lord Rhul," he said, standing up.

"So what news do you have? Of course, I only hope for good news. I'm really not in the mood to get upset right now."

Amax hesitated for a moment before starting with the good news,

"We have found 16 more shards of Kreos, realm 2 and 3 in the last few days. We also have eight level 5 shards, and even two level 7. We also found an army in the outer part, whose leader is the owner of several crystals that he has already absorbed. And we have found a single seventh-level shard seeker currently hiding in the Nurt Organization. While we only have sparse authority in their territory, our spies have already set the wheels in motion, and soon he will be ours. As for the head of the army, we can't do it without paying attention and need to plan it through a bit better and check his army strength, but this won't be a problem."

"Hand it over!" was all Rhul commanded.

Amax didn't hesitate for a second and handed Rhul a pouch filled with heavy content. Rhul took it and reached into it while he continued talking,

"Ohhh, thank you very much. This is all pretty good news, but I can tell from the look on your face that this was not all. So what else is there?"

He pulled a small Black Crystal from the pouch and inspected it.

Amax sighed again. "The Grail Organization has recently accused us of unprovoked murder. They are now seeking the support of other organizations to move against us. And they seem to be succeeding."

Rhul broke the crystal with his bare hand, but it did not shatter into a thousand small stones, instead, it became a dark shadow that entered Rhul's skin. The shadow could still be seen briefly under the skin on his hand before it flowed under Rhul's wide sleeve towards the magical heart. Rhul laughed in his old voice, sounding more like the cackle of a dying bird,

"The Grail Organization has always been greedy for our territory and has been looking for an excuse for ages. But now that our plan is finally coming to an end, we can't risk them attacking us. Go to the vice leader and give him this from me."

An ancient scroll appeared in his hand, and Amax took it. Blackness still briefly fell from the scroll before it took its final form. It radiated the aura of official parchment, and Amax gasped in surprise. It shouldn't be possible to forge such a parchment. He looked at Rhul again, not knowing when the latter had become so powerful.

Rhul broke another stone from the porch,

"This gives us a reason for committing the murder and should buy us some more time. I want our spy in their organization to begin phase two of his assignment. I'm confident he'll get it together. For everything else, it's best we lay low from here on out. We can't afford an unnecessary scandal this close to the end."

After a short pause he added, "If there's nothing else, you can go now."

Amax nodded obediently and took his leave with a bow. On his way out, he heard the cackling laugh of Rhul again,

"Don't worry. Not long now and we'll have reached our goal. Then we can move on to the next phase. Our plan that we started hundreds of years ago will finally bear fruit."

With that, the door closed behind Amax and silenced his laughter.