Chapter 561: The Pendragons Lied

Lian kept his eyes fixed on the woman’s face, for a moment, he felt like he had heard completely wrong.

"They never managed to." Isolde slowly let out a breath.

"The Demon of End is still alive and imprisoned beneath Verendal."

The room remained silent.

Young Vorhelm had not expected such an answer, not because she was surprised that there was a great secret within the Pendragon Family.

Great families probably would not remain great families without great secrets.

But this? This was not just a family secret.

One of the most famous recorded battles between humanity and Demon Rank beings was based on the claim that the Demon of End had been killed.

The Pendragons had been known for that victory for centuries, today’s ceremony had also been built around that legend, the entire myth, reputation, honor, and greatness of this family came from that story.

And now it turned out that there had never been a body, because the thing that should have been a corpse was still alive.

Was this some kind of fucking joke? Had the great Pendragon Family lied to the entire world for more than dozens of years?

Lian gave Seris a look, her face had almost no change.

But her right hand was beside her body, and her thumb was slowly pressing against the edge of her index finger.

It was a simple movement, but it had a clear meaning, the girl was upset, much more than she was showing.

"Do the elders of the family know?"

"Some of them, but not all."

"Aurelia?"

"No, the total number of people who know about this fact is less than twenty."

"When were you going to tell me?" Seris’s finger pressed slightly harder.

Isolde looked at her, this time, her answer came a little later.

"After the ceremony."

"So today."

"Yes."

The young Pendragon did not ask anything else, she did not raise her voice or accuse her mother, but Lian felt that this silence was heavier than an argument.

She had grown up with a great story that was considered part of her family’s identity.

Now, within a few sentences, she had learned that her parents had known another truth all this time.

And they had hidden it not only from the world, but from her as well.

The reason the Pendragon Family was famous was nothing but a lie.

He turned his eyes back to the Matriarch, so the Pendragons had lied to the entire world for centuries.

It was understandable.

If news of a living Demon Rank being under Verendal became public, how many enemies would try to release that dragon over the course of several centuries?

Probably not a small number.

So hiding the truth was logical, but the fact that a lie was logical did not make it any smaller.

Isolde did not let the silence continue for too long.

"The Dragon Mark is not just something that increases the power of the younger generation."

Seris fixed her eyes on her mother again.

"All active marks are connected to the main structure of the seal."

Lian looked at the faded mark on Seris’s hand, now what had happened a few minutes ago had a different meaning.

"When they all activated at the same time and then their energy dropped, it means something entered the prison network."

"Something?" he asked.

"We still don’t know what it is."

She gave one of the seals in the room a brief look.

"Rhaenar sensed the change in the flow from outside, an unknown structure is weakening the seal from inside, its clear goal is to release it."

This time, there was no doubt left, all the events of today, from the murder to the framing, the accusations, the Overlords, the Celestial, and the change in the formations, were probably connected to a being that the world did not even know was still alive.

Isolde added.

"It has not been released yet, if it had been, this meeting would not be our problem right now." But then her voice became slightly lower.

"But we don’t know how much time we have."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Lian asked a much more important question, and his eyes moved to Seris for a moment.

"I understand that, but why me?"

The woman remained silent for a few seconds, there was something in her expression that told Lian that she did not like the answer very much either.

"You have to enter the prison and stop whatever is trying to release that Demon, only holders of the Dragon Mark can enter that prison."

"The Dragon Mark acts like a key to the prison and at the same time provides energy to the seal, that is why the holder of this mark can be considered the key to the prison of that monster, the fact that the marks are fading means that someone is weakening the seal." Then she looked at Lian.

"And as for you, Rhaenar said you also have to go, more precisely, you may be the only person who can go with her."

"That’s it?"

"That’s it."

So Rhaenar had seen or understood something that made him insist on Lian being there.

Isolde either did not know what it was, or had no interest in explaining it, and that meant the Patriarch had seen something inside him that made him certain that Lian also had the ability to enter the prison of that Demon.

Either way, now was not the time to pressure her, they had a much, much bigger problem now.

"So the Dragon Mark was also a lie?" Seris whispered.

"Yes and no, the Dragon Mark is an artifact that belongs to that Demon, to imprison that Demon, a sealing formation was created and that artifact is also part of it, the formation needs energy to keep working and the holders of the Dragon Marks provide that energy." Isolde paused slightly and then completed her explanation.

"So someone killed a person, framed two families, turned the Six Great Families and the Twelve Guilds against each other, brought Overlords here, and even brought a Celestial into the game... all of this to release a dragon?" he whispered.

Isolde looked directly at him.

"Not a dragon, but the Demon of End."

Those two words alone were enough to remind him of the weight of the difference.

A being at the Demon Rank.

The same rank that only a limited number of beings had been recorded at throughout human history, and each one of them could turn a continent into a disaster.

If something like that were released in the heart of Europe, the problem would not only be the destruction of Verendal, all the powers of the world would be forced to react.

And exactly at a time when trust between the greatest powers had reached its lowest point and they were unlikely to show any interest in cooperating.

"Who could even come up with such a plan?" Lian asked, the plan was truly flawless and impressive.

No matter how he looked at it, this plan had been designed to cause as much damage as possible to humanity and the entire world.

If a human or a power in their world did something like this, it would be nothing but extreme stupidity and pure wickedness, because they could practically push their world into another era of the apocalypse.

"I still think it was the Primal Firmament." Isolde answered calmly.

Lian’s expression changed slightly, he could not believe that something like this could be the work of humans, this was not only a blow against the Great Families, it could cause the fall of another continent.

"Still?"

"More than before."

She walked toward one of the walls.

"They have the imitation tool and they were the ones who suggested rewriting the defensive network, rewriting the defensive network caused whatever is now trying to release the dragon to enter the prison."

Then she turned around.

"And they were the only ones who brought a Celestial."

The last point was more important, all the other powers had settled for an Overlord.

The Primal Firmament was the only one that had raised the crisis one level higher, Kairos did not need to come personally.

If the goal was only to protect the Guild representatives, an Overlord would have been enough to show their seriousness.

But Kairos had come, the result? Rhaenar had left the heart of the city.

Isolde said calmly.

"If someone wanted Rhaenar to be away from the center of Verendal at exactly this time, they could not have chosen a better method."

Lian could not disagree, this one was really bad, and when you placed it beside the request to separate the security areas, the Primal Firmament once again looked too perfectly placed.

"That is why I ordered the complete arrest of the delegation before coming here."

"What about Celestial Kairos?" Seris asked shortly.

"He is outside and has not done anything yet."

But all the people from the Primal Firmament inside Verendal were now under the control of the Pendragons.

Lian still had the same feeling as before, there was a lot of evidence, far too much, but perhaps Isolde was right.

Perhaps the fact that they were so obvious was itself part of the plan.

If the Primal Firmament had intentionally brought itself to the edge of being accused, the Twelve Guilds would stand behind it.

And Kairos would have a perfect reason to be there, in that case, even something that looked like a mistake could have been planned.

The Matriarch placed her hand on one of the seals and another door opened at the end of the room.

"We don’t have time."

The path ahead was dark.

"The Demon is still sealed, you are looking for whatever is touching the seal and trying to release that dragon."

"I understand." Seris said.

"What if whatever is down there is stronger than us?"

"You come back."

Seris had only one question.

"What if we can’t?"

"You can, you have to be able to, and in the worst case, your father will step in."