Chapter 370a – Archons
“The system is under attack in ways it should not be. What are we going to do about it?”
Four figures said nothing in response to the first, each of them feeling the flow of power that ran through them from every living creature across the system.
Strands wound together in tight cords, running into the very chairs they sat upon, the seat of their power, and also the chains that bound them.
“What has happened is not new. Many times each day these things take place, and yet you now say we should act upon it?” the third archon asked. “You only bring this up because of what it is connected to.”
“Of course that is the reason,” the male archon stated, his voice louder than before and earning him a harsh gaze from the other four.
He coughed, his appearance nothing more than a humanoid body, each of them sharing the same one, filled with lights and twinkling every moment as the system’s power coursed through their being.
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“Each of you knows it is different this time. Never in so long has one been like this.”
His words caused them all to sit there silently. Time, which seemed to have no purpose in this room, passed. A thread blinked out, an entire world gone, while other threads wove together to make a strand.
“Did everyone just come to the same conclusion?” one of the female archons asked, the fourth in the row.
Heads moved slowly up and down, blank faces, no expressions given.
“Even then, the risk is so great,” the same archon who had brought up this protest continued. “How many have come, giving power back to the system to influence this thread… this strand… the very thing we all know the potential danger it represents?”
“That does not matter,” the second archon replied, glancing at the one who sat in the last seat. “We have been here so long and seen so many things. This is nothing to be concerned with. Our rules will keep things safe. The gods play their game according to them. At any time we can adjust the rules if need be.”
No more words were spoken as the other four turned their heads into the same neutral position they kept them in unless one spoke or a god came to their room.
Yet on the end, the fifth archon frowned for a moment before joining the others in their gaze across every thread they were connected to.