CHAPTER 30: THE MEETING P3
~30.3~
*****
“And whose fault is that?”
“Your own! You made the choice to-”
“-save every single soul. “What did you do?” He didn’t respond, so Kye continued. “You invaded and waged war. You are responsible for many deaths. You are fortunate I could save their souls. Even though many lost their lives, they were reborn in the stars, rather than being sent to Purgatory. And they will continue to be reborn in the stars.” She sighed. “If you have nothing to say that isn’t for the sake of the people, be silent.”
“No. I don’t abide this! You can’t simply come back and take over as if you-”
“As if I what?” Kye glared at him. “Own the place? Never left? Both things are true. I never left, and I am King. I’ve been here this whole time, transmigrating from star to star, living and dying. I have lived over one hundred billion mortal lifetimes in twenty-four world lines each!”
The five leaders looked between each other, each wondering about one thing.
“Why?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why did you go through so many lives?”
Kye sighed. “What drives the system?”
“Mana?”
“Yes. Where does it get that mana from?”
“... you?”
“Yes. What happened when I banished the lot of you?”
The three that were arguing shrugged.
Nephele spoke up, “The magic you used to remove everyone is the Origin Magic Zen Sanctuary. On the scale you used it, it demanded more mana that you could spare, which is saying something. You couldn’t maintain both it and the system. So you pulled your soul from your body and split it in two. Over your lifetime, your body had absorbed an unfathomable amount of mana from your soul, and could provide enough to run the barrier created by Zen Sanctuary while your soul transmigrated from star to star to maintain the Foundation Mana. All the mana being generated by your soul could go directly to the system unhindered by your body, albeit with drawbacks. You could not invoke your authority as King with a mortal body. So by transmigrating, you kept your soul halves and body separate, and both could actively power the two things you could not power otherwise. One half of your soul took up the role of elder sister and retained the authority of the King to wield if absolutely necessary.”
“Correct,” Kye said. “However, Alfia lost her body in battle, and now that I’ve returned to my body, something had to go. The barrier is gone, meaning that it is possible for the satellites to enter Elysium again, which brings us to the main point of this meeting. All will return to Elysium and cease causing problems. This is not up for vote or debate. This is an order. Make it happen. I’ll give you ten thousand years to prepare. Once that time is up, I will personally come disable the cores of each civ. Anyone left there will die and be delivered to Purgatory.”
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“Then I have no choice but to declare war,” Orion said, his eyes deadly serious.
Kye laughed at him, which only angered him further.
“You arrogant wench. How dare you reappear out of nowhere and make such demands? I agreed to your wife’s body restoration out of respect and regret for the distant past, but this is unacceptable.” Orion stood up and began walking toward the door. “I shall return for the core of Elysium.”
He suddenly found himself flipping over and slammed onto the hard stone floor, Kye’s foot square on his chest holding him down. “I said this is not up for debate.” She reached down, grabbed him by the throat, and held him up in the air. “You are being insubordinate because you believe I cannot stop you. You forget where you are and to whom you speak.”
Suddenly, the room changed. It faded away and all the chairs were gone, leaving everyone to scramble to their feet. Kye tossed Orion, and he slid along the white stone floor until he reached the edge. His eyes widened as he looked down, seeing an endless expanse of stars.
“What?”
He scrambled to his feet and saw right away that the other envoys were kneeling. Looking at where they were facing, he found out why and kneeled.
Sitting upon a white stone throne was none other than Eve. “Greetings. Don’t mind me, I’m only observing.”
Kye stepped I’m front of him. “Why wait? Go on. Take the core.”
“What do you mean?!”
Kye laughed and pointed behind Eve. “How can you hope to acquire the core if you cannot even perceive it?” She sighed. “<
A large circle of silvery white aether appeared behind the platform. Through it, everyone could see it.
“W-What?” “Is that...?”
Orion, finally standing up, gazed upon the core. “It looks like a soul.”
An enormous swirling mass of rainbow aether was there, just floating a short distance beyond Eve’s platform.
With it being rainbow, everyone who didn’t know looked at Eve. She only shrugged and said, “It’s not mine.”
They looked back at the core. “Then...” Their gazes shifted to Kye.
Kye didn’t give them an answer, only shrugging in response.
“Who else could it belong to?” asked Iris. “It makes sense. How could you have created Elysium otherwise? This has to be yours.”
“You’re the only one that could do such a thing...” Nephele added, barely maintaining her calm demeanor.
Kye shrugged and glared at Orion, then Noah, then Adaal. “The three are you are opposed to my decree. Go ahead, act on it. You have permission. Whatever you do in this space will have no consequences outside. If you think can take the core, by all means... Try.”
Behind Eve, a few of Kye’s entourage were whispering among themselves. Atalante said, “They’d be fools to try.”
Astarte said, “They’re incompetent. They’ll try.”
Astraia added, “I want to see this.”
Alethea had stepped closer to them after the seats and table disappeared. She added, “Oh, they’ll try. Watch what Shi-chan does.”
The black-haired, black-eyed Dimos, the man that arrived with Noah, jumped into action. He released his aether and flew straight for the core. Eve chuckled, and Kye sighed. She floated up above the platform to get a clean shot at him. She held out her hand, face up. A small ball of pure silver aether formed and radiated sparks of energy outward. She balled her hand into a fist, then pushed out her index finger with her thumb, readying it as if to flick something. Then she placed the ball on her thumb.
“Oh, this one,” Alethea grinned. “Hehe.”
“What’s she doing?” asked Zen.
“What spell is that?” asked Edward.
“Just watch. It’s great.”
*****
Revision: 2024-9-17