Assembled within the temple of the northern city, the two sisters ruling the city gathered in the main hall, at the foot of God's statue.

A stone table had been set up in the center of the hall.

During rituals and prayers it would be taken to the side, but whenever an important meeting had to be done, it would be done here, as they wished for God to preside over them.

This was done so that God could always look over them.

Assembled around the table were four people.

Two of them were the siblings, Feidi and Stella while the other two were their advisors.

One was in charge of all internal affairs pertaining to the city, while the other was responsible for the outer affairs.

Their titles were respectively inner and outer advisor.

"According to the scouts, the mountain lake is full of the melted snow, leftover from the previous winter."

So spoke the outer advisor.

Stella nodded her head.

"Good, then we must time ourselves perfectly. Two of us siblings must deal with the caves, while one of us releases the water. Your job will be to prepare outside just in case."

This meeting was special, as today they discussed how to kill the drake.

This was their third attempt already.

The first had ended with Inpar getting seriously wounded, while the second had ended with many casualties.

"We don't have much time, as the drake will awaken soon. Inner minister, what do the records say about how much time is left."

The inner minister gazed at Stella, who had posed the question, and let out a small cough.

"Very well, princess. Each winter, the drake has hibernated and remained dormant until next spring. Our records show that the drake leaves his cave about a month after all the snow has melted. It then hunts and goes back to sleep until autumn. The last snow melted a week ago, so we should have about three weeks left."

Stella nodded thoughtfully and glanced at Feidi.

"We are going to execute our plan in one week. That way, the drake will still be asleep and it'll be easier to sneak up on it."

Feidi gave a small nod.

The two advisors glanced at each other and smiled wryly.

"In that case, we have a date, but what exactly is the plan? There are three cave entrances on the other side of the mountain connected to the drake sleeping chamber. Should we set our hunters around all the entrances? We would have to spread our force very thinly. Not to mention how it ended last time..."

The outer adviser shuddered as memories of the last attempt surfaced.

They had surrounded the cave entrances with hunters equipped with reinforced bronze spears dug into the ground.

The hunters were arranged in a half circle around the cave entrances.

Every time the drake wakes, it emits a loud roar, audible even outside the caves.

For two weeks they camped outside the caves until they heard its scream.

They had taken their positions and awaited the drake.

Unluckily, it was his cave, in which the drake appeared.

When the hunters heard the drake coming out of the cave, they braced themselves and pointed their spears at the entrance.

The drake crashed into the line with a vehement force but was driven back by the spears.

The plan was to drop boulders onto the drake while waiting for the reinforcements from the other two siblings, who were stationed at the other tunnels.

When the drake emerged, they only had one of the three mythical humans with them.

They fought valiantly, and were even able to harm the drake, not only with the boulders, but even with the spears, however in the end it wasn't enough.

It took too long and the drake managed to escape by using its flame breath.

They had tried to prevent it from spitting flames, but they were too slow.

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Of the hunters who were stationed around the cave entrance, a sixth of them died on that day, while another third carried heavy wounds that killed many of them due to the infection.

The outer minister considered himself lucky to have survived relatively unharmed.

"There will be no need for that."

Hearing Stella's voice shook him out of his recollection. Stella seemed not to have noticed the outer advisors's thoughts drifting and continued unabated.

"Two of us will be down there to collapse two of the caves simultaneously. Only one cave will be left, through which the drake can flee. You will be stationed around that entrance, to prevent the drake from escaping. Should that come to pass, we will be right behind the drake, to finish it off. A repeat of last time will not happen."

Suddenly the temple doors were opened with a bang.

All eyes turned to the entrance, from which Inpar emerged.

He had a proud and slightly condescending sneer upon his face, as a bronze knife floated beside him.

It had beautiful patterns carved into the blade and moved with every step that Inpar took.

It was moving rhythmically back and forth relative to him, almost as if it were an arm he was swinging while walking.

Feidi glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

"Finally chose to come and join us in a very important meeting for once?"

She emphasized the words "very important" with a strained voice.

Inpar briefly furrowed his brows before waving her off.

"That can wait, I have something even more important to show you."

Saying so, the knife floated to the middle of the table.

Feidi was about to say something, but after seeing Stella give her a warning gaze, she remained still. Instead, Stella asked Inpar about the knife.

"Is the knife what you want to show us? Is that what you've been working on while locking yourself in your workshop? It seems like a regular knife to me, even if it's quite pretty."

Stella projected a composed demeanor.

In comparison, the other two siblings seemed downright childish.

No one would believe, that she was the youngest one there.

Thinking such unnecessary thoughts, the advisors pretended to be invisible as it wasn't wise to get on the bad side of any of the king's children.

Inpar flashed a brief sneer in Feidi's direction, before turning to Stella and ignoring all other present.

"This is an enchanted knife! It is made by cutting specific grooves into the bronze and infusing it with royal blood. The bronze absorbs the blood and takes on magic properties. You can then create a bond with the metal, making it an extension of yourself. In addition, the specific grooves make it so this knife can split any boulder in half."

The two advisors exchanged impressed glances while remaining otherwise still.

Feidi meanwhile scoffed and dismissed Inpar.

"That sounds very impressive and all, but I can split boulders on my own, why would I need a teensy knife for that?"

Stella shot Feidi a glare, while Inpar outright scowled at her.

"The reason why you would need a 'teensy' knife, is because the energy used to split the boulder would be used by the knife. This would allow me to do something like this with minimal effort."

Saying so, he plunged the knife into the middle of the table and discharged the stored energy.

The stone table split into two large pieces and collapsed.

The advisors stood up in shock, while the two sisters floated to the side, angered.

Feidi was quick to lash out.

"What did you do that for? How dare you use the gift given to you by God to disrespect Him within His halls?"

Inpar was quick to reply with an equally venomous tone.

"Given by God? What are you talking about? This invention is purely mine and that of my assistant. God had no creation in this. Stop assigning all my achievements to God and pushing all my mistakes solely on me. Shouldn't God also carry my mistakes, if He gets all the credit?"

The argument was heading in a bad direction and the two advisors were really wishing to be invisible right now. Suddenly, Stella's voice resounded within the temple.

"Enough!"

A total silence descended within the hall, only broken by the faint sound of children playing outside on the streets.

Stella gave a long sigh and looked at her siblings.

"Inpar, it was wrong of you to break the table. Especially since we are in the temple."

Inpar was about to interject, but Stella cut him off.

"Not a word! As for you Feidi, you shouldn't antagonize him needlessly. Inpar spent the last few months locked in his workshop, researching this enchantment or what have you. It is unjust to him for you to brush off all his efforts."

Feidi was about to say something, but after receiving another glare from Stella, she thought better of it.

Stella sighed and rubbed her temple.

After sitting down, she gestured for the others to take a seat as well.

Everyone sat down around the now-ruined table.

Inpar was left awkwardly standing, and Stella gestured for him to sit down as well.

He took a random seat and sat down as well. Stella addressed Inpar.

"We were discussing how to kill the drake before you came in. The current plan is to drown it by connecting the mountain lake with the cave system underneath the mountain. There is a nearby cave entrance next to the lake, and all we would need to do is to create a channel connecting the two.It would cause a flood to come down, and we hope to drown the drake within the caves. For that, we need to collapse the cave connected with the drake's sleeping chamber. Originally, I was going to take you and me down into the caves, and let Feidi handle the lake, but with your new invention, do you think you would be able to handle releasing the water? That way the more... gifted in the amount of inherited power can handle the tunnels and if need be the drake."

Inpars's expression darkened considerably at the last part of Stella's speech, however, he was quick to cover it with a neutral expression.

"I can manage the lake. I'll need to create a few more knives in preparation, but if I use premade knives and focus only on the carving, then I should be able to produce quite a few. When are we executing the plan?"

Stella exchanged a glance with Feidi.

"We plan to execute our plan in one week."

Inpar scratched his chin, feeling the rough texture of his beard.

"Then I should get back to the workshop. There is much for me to do in preparation for the coming challenge."

He stood up and turned to leave.

Before he was able to reach the door, however, Feidi's voice called out to him from behind.

"And don't mess it up like last time. Many people died because you couldn't hold off the drake until we arrived."

Inpar froze at the door, his expression unreadable from behind.

Stella immediately scolded Feidi.

"Don't you say that! It wasn't his fault, and blaming him won't help."

Feidi harumphed and turned to the side.

Inpar didn't turn, nor talk back and simply left, the door slamming shut with a bang behind him.

Stella sighed and turned to the other three at the table.

"Well, there are still some finer details to discuss for the plan. Let's settle those before we finish our meeting for today."

Meanwhile, the inner adviser was wondering whether he should become a hunter, considering how well he can remain still and unnoticeable during these meetings.