Chapter 183: The Council of Harmony

Chapter 183: Chapter 183: The Council of Harmony

Chapter 183: The Council of Harmony

The morning light broke through the high, stained-glass windows of the grand estate. The heavy oak doors of the Council of Harmony stood completely sealed. Muffled shouts echoed from the other side of the thick wood.

Draven stood in the empty corridor. Nyx and Lucien waited silently behind him. The violent distraction in the courtyard was serving its purpose perfectly. The booming sound of falling statues masked their presence.

Draven held the reinforced glass jar in his left hand. The dark smoke of the Treachery-Fiend thrashed wildly inside.

He gave a single nod.

Nyx placed her hands on the left door. Lucien placed his hands on the right. They pushed the massive oak doors open without making a single sound.

The three of them stepped into the grand chamber.

The room was vast and circular. A massive table carved from solid white stone dominated the center of the floor. Three distinct leaders stood around the table. They were locked in a bitter, screaming argument.

Forge-King Thorgar stood on the right. His thick red beard bristled with anger. High-Warden Sylveth stood on the left. Her elegant green robes shimmered under the morning light.

Lord-Emissary Lionel stood at the head of the table. He wore a pristine white and gold uniform.

Lionel spotted the intruders instantly. His eyes went wide with fake, righteous outrage.

"Guards!" Lionel screamed, pointing a trembling finger at the doorway.

"Execute them immediately! They are assassins!"

A dozen royal guards from the three different factions spun around. They raised their glowing spears and heavy halberds, pointing the lethal weapons directly at Draven’s chest.

Draven did not stop walking. He ignored the heavy blades hovering inches from his neck.

Forge-King Thorgar raised his massive, calloused hand.

"Hold your blades!" Thorgar roared. The Dwarven guards instantly froze. Thorgar glared at the intruders.

"Who are you?! How did you breach this estate?!"

Draven reached the edge of the stone table. He did not draw a weapon. He simply raised his left hand.

THUMP.

Draven placed the reinforced glass jar firmly onto the center of the table.

The dark parasite writhed violently inside the glass. The black, thorny smoke slammed against the runic seals, shrieking in silent agony.

"This is the source of your war," Draven stated. His voice was cold, flat, and completely devoid of fear.

"It is a Treachery-Fiend. A parasitic entity designed to hijack the human nervous system and manipulate the host."

Lionel’s face paled for a fraction of a second. He quickly recovered his arrogant composure.

"What is this nonsense?!" Lionel spat loudly. He slammed his fists onto the table. "They are terrorists! They broke the Elven assassin out of her cell! Do not listen to their lies! Kill them!"

High-Warden Sylveth narrowed her sharp green eyes. She looked at the thrashing shadow in the jar, then looked at the calm, middle-aged guard in the iron chainmail.

"You speak of parasites, human," Sylveth said softly. "Explain yourself."

Draven turned his pitch-black eyes toward the Elven leader.

"These parasites do not act alone," Draven explained.

"They are an extension of their creator. They share a singular, unified consciousness. They share a hive-mind pain response."

Draven slowly turned his head. He locked his gaze directly onto Lord-Emissary Lionel.

"Which means," Draven continued, his voice dropping into a deadly whisper. "If you hurt the parasite, the King feels it."

Lionel sneered, trying to maintain his mask of political outrage.

Draven did not give him another second to speak.

[Vector Manipulation]

Draven applied microscopic kinetic pressure directly to the dark smoke thrashing inside the glass jar. He squeezed the entity with invisible, crushing force.

SKREEE!

The parasite shrieked against the glass.

At that exact same millisecond, Lord-Emissary Lionel choked.

BLURGH!

Lionel violently vomited a massive stream of thick, foul-smelling black blood. The dark liquid splattered directly all over the pristine parchment of the peace treaty resting on the table.

High-Warden Sylveth gasped and stepped backward in sheer horror.

SNAP!

Lionel’s left arm violently jerked. The bones snapped backward uncontrollably, bending at a horrifying, unnatural angle. The sound of tearing muscle echoed loudly in the quiet room.

Lionel fell hard to his knees. He grabbed his ruined arm, his eyes rolling back into his head. He opened his mouth to cry out in pain.

"GRAAAAGGHHH!"

The scream that ripped from his throat was not human. It was a terrifying, overlapping demonic roar. Dozens of different, screeching voices echoed simultaneously from his vocal cords.

Forge-King Thorgar stared at the black blood staining the treaty. He stared at the shrieking human diplomat.

The heavy, lingering fog in Thorgar’s mind completely shattered. The pure silver crown Cole had forged flashed brightly in his memory. Thorgar remembered the corrupted crimson-vine drug. He remembered the suffocating paranoia.

Thorgar roared like a wounded lion. He lunged directly across the stone table.

CRASH!

The Forge-King grabbed Lionel by the neck with his massive hands. Thorgar lifted the shrieking human diplomat entirely off the floor and slammed him violently into the solid stone ground.

"You filthy, cowardly rat!" Thorgar bellowed at the top of his lungs. He pinned Lionel to the floor with bone-crushing force.

"You poisoned my cup! You poisoned my mind! You son of a rotting goblin whore!"

Thorgar spat a continuous barrage of vulgar Dwarven curses directly into Lionel’s face. The words were harsh, guttural, and filled with centuries of mining profanity.

"I will rip your beard off and feed it to the magma worms! You worthless piece of slag! You spineless, unwashed cave-leech!"

The Royal Guards from the Elven and Dwarven factions instantly realized the truth. They lowered their spears away from Draven. They turned their weapons squarely on the writhing, screaming form of Lord Lionel.

"Secure him!" High-Warden Sylveth commanded fiercely.

But Lionel was no longer a man.

The human disguise melted away entirely. The King Level Beast had been pushed into a corner. Its political shields were gone. It had nowhere left to hide.

"FOOLS!" the overlapping demonic voices screeched from the floor.

SQUELCH!

Thorgar was violently thrown backward. A massive wave of dark, corrupted Miasma erupted from Lionel’s body. The human flesh ripped apart like a cheap suit, shredding the white and gold uniform into bloody ribbons.

The creature expanded rapidly. The stone floor cracked and buckled under its shifting weight.

It grew into a towering, terrifying giant spider. Its body was not made of flesh or bone. It was constructed entirely of shifting, suffocating shadows and dense dark matter.

SHNK! SHNK!

Multiple elongated limbs erupted from the shadowy mass. The legs ended in razor-sharp, scythe-like blades that dripped with toxic, acidic poison.

The giant spider reared back. Its face split wide open, revealing a gaping, horrific maw lined with hundreds of jagged, uneven teeth.

ROOOOOAR!

The King Level Beast shrieked. The sheer concussive force of the roar shattered the stained-glass windows of the Council chamber. The heavy stone table cracked directly down the middle.

The ceiling groaned loudly as the massive shadowy scythes carved deep trenches into the stone walls. The grand meeting room was rapidly falling apart.

"Fall back!" Thorgar shouted, rolling across the debris and drawing a glowing rune-hammer from his back.

Draven did not step back. He stood calmly amidst the falling debris. He looked up at the towering King Level Beast, his white mask reflecting the chaotic dark magic swirling in the room.

"Nyx. Lucien," Draven ordered coldly.

The two Eclipse Hunters drew their weapons, stepping up to flank their leader.