Dimensional Council Chamber

“Then all of the details are agreed upon,” Varsac declares, following which over a dozen of the most influential Authority Holders within the room state their agreements. Then the King of Giants turns to look back at the grand booth at the very center of the Dimensional Council Chamber. A booth that currently has a purple veil thrown over it, making it impossible to look within the booth or hear sounds coming from within.

Months ago, when the Reset first began and Varsac first heard of The Reaper, he wasn’t very intimidated by her. At best he felt wary of her, at worst slightly dismissive of the child that he saw of her in that System-wide broadcast. Even if he knew that she was more powerful than him.

Then he felt far more wary when he saw her in person during the first Dimensional Council Meeting. Where he felt the pure power coming off of her in the meeting, seemingly without her even noticing.

But he still knew that she was young, and they were all still relatively low level and near the same level.

Now? When he saw her sitting on her throne, her legs crossed with her right arm resting on the armrest of her throne, her face just leaning up against her fist in a display of complete indifference? When he saw the waves of energy wafting off of her, silencing the entire chamber?

He finally understood the terror she puts others under.

And despite her young age, her gaze appears to be filled with nothing but indifference for them. An indifference that leaves a chill running down Varsac’s spine.

It’s also a sensation that reminds him of another being that he has met before.

The Hound of the Apocalypse.

When he met the Hound all those years ago, it was the most terrifying night of his life. The Hound of the Apocalypse showing up out of the blue at his kingdom’s doorstep, asking around about people.

But what was even more terrifying was the visit he got before that from the Knight of the Crimson Score, who placed a seal on him, making it impossible for him to speak of his whereabouts. So he had no choice but to lie to the Hound of the Apocalypse’s face.

A lie the Hound instantly saw through.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

Varsac had never been so terrified before in all of his thousands of years alive, but despite his terror, the Hound never struck him down or tortured him. Instead he acted as if he was used to this. Used to the Knight avoiding him through similar means before.

Then the Hound simply told Varsac to keep an eye out for the other person of interest and left without another word. Without any threats even.

Despite that, the man’s gaze still sends Varsac’s knees buckling even to this day.

And The Reaper’s gaze is just like the Hound’s. A fact that terrifies him more than any power of hers could.

Then there’s The Reaper’s twin sister, who somehow became a Class S variant out of the blue. Something that shouldn’t even have been possible.

Varsac’s mind is drawn back to the other Authority Holders when another suggestion is put forth about the treatment of those from Dimensional Block #109. The Dimensional Block that The Reaper herself had slain the Dimensional Leader of before their Leader was replaced with a dragon of all things.

Dragons may be powerful, a fact that everyone knows, but very few dragons make for good leaders. With the sole exception being the Ancestral Dragon. A being who terrifies Varsac just as much as the Hound does.

And a being who is the mother of the dragon in their own Dimensional Block.

Varsac glances back at the booth at the center of the chamber once more, feeling fearful of the booth itself. Also wondering why he had such terrible luck to end up being in this Dimensional Block with those three.

He turns back to the others as he gives his response to the suggestion, “Treat them well. We don’t know how the hellfire dragon would react were we to treat those under him poorly, so we can’t risk it.”

We can’t risk going to war with a second faction.

The war itself wasn’t much of a surprise to Varsac. In fact, the moment he heard that one of the neighboring Blocks to their Block was ruled by dragonborn, he knew right away that a war would break out.

That’s just how the dragonborn are when it comes to dragons.

So he’s been preparing ever since for war without letting anyone else know about it.

He’s also been making further preparations to leave The Retreat as far away from the war as possible so as to not antagonize their protector.

At this point, if he could send The Retreat to the very center of the Dimensional Block, or maybe some far off corner high in the sky, he would. Just to keep them away from the dragonborn.

But a major issue with that is that he doesn’t exactly have any control over them. Then there’s the hellfrost dragon who is following The Reaper like a young boy with a crush who also happens to be the entire cause of the war in the first place. Yet seems to have no interest in it in the slightest.

That dragon may be a larger headache than The Reaper…

Varsac sighs, wondering just what he may’ve done wrong in the past to deserve this.

He glances at the booth once more, briefly pondering over what sort of important discussion the Class S species are having right now.

It must be incredibly important for them to ignore the entire discussions and barricade themselves inside of The Reaper’s booth. They even left The Retreat on the outside.

A few seconds pass before the King of Giants focuses all of his attention on the discussions again all the way till time very nearly runs out.