( Within the Royal Palace )
Max sat at the big roundtable which had 36 seats around it.
The table seemed to be made of wood and was historically significant as it was the place where the first vampire lords gathered to establish the vampire society and sweat their allegiance to the first king.
While the table had no ' Head ' since it was a round table, it did have a big square pattern carved within it with three corners of the square appearing in silver while one was plated in gold.
It was a beautiful design, but the purpose of the square was clear-
At the gold head sat the one and only Vampire King Regus Aurelius, and on the other three silver heads sat Julian Caesar, Leroy Velter and Vega Titus.
It was a clear demarcation of power as it symbolised the four main pillars of vampire society.
The rest of the seating seemed to be random, or the symbolism behind it was too complex for Max to understand, however, he was sitting close to Vega and opposite Sam on the table.
Sebastian and the rest of the commanders stood beside their lord's and there was pin-drop silence in the room, the atmosphere extremely tense.
It was kind of funny that the commanders were not even offered a seat, but since all of them were military men it did not seem to bother anyone.
While it was not a problem for the rest, it was a problem for Sebastian who was standing with his face as red as a tomato as with his short stature his eye level was exactly below that of the height of the table, meaning he could see nothing that was going on above.
He was in a dilemma on whether to ask for a small stool to stand on and embarrass himself through the meeting by standing on it, or pretending to see everything while he saw nothing.
Max, who understood his friend's dilemma better than anyone, silently chuckled as he used a wind spell to gently lift Sebastian off his feet by a few inches and maintained it there to protect his friend's integrity.
Looking back towards him, Max winked giving Sebastian an assurance that he had his back as Sebastian literally looked like he was about to shed a tear or two as he felt the love from Max.
' Thankyou for saving me from the embarrassment, my brother ' Sebastian thought as he silently nodded at Max who nodded right back.
It was at this time as the two shared a moment of budding bromance that the servant announced the entry of King Regus Aurelius as everyone stood from their seats including Max and waited for the King to take his seat.
" Sit "
Regus said in his powerful voice as he did not acknowledge anyone's presence in the meeting and urged everyone to take a seat so that they could move on with the day's agenda.
If the atmosphere in the room before now was tense, the tension was almost physical ever since Regus arrived as everyone awaited his words of impending doom.
Max had missed a lot, but apparently the King had put everyone on notice to prepare for an upcoming great war and today was the day where he was supposed to announce that their preparations needed to be cut short as they needed to plunge themselves into war.
" Yes, the rumours are true, the kingdom of death has fallen to the dark faction, King Hades is severely injured and with the fall of his Kingdom the dark faction have opened 3 new frontiers of battle…. " Regus said as he confirmed the floating rumours in the market that the Kingdom of death had fallen.
Everyone in the room sucked a breath of cold air.
The light faction had lost a monarchy to the dark and it was the unshakable Kingdom of Death at that, it was truly unexpected.
" The dragon king is dead, the dragon's have fractured, unfortunately for us however, 40% of the fractured forces have sided with the dark, 40% have shown willingness to join Beast King Omar in his neutral kingdom and stay away from the war while only a small fraction have sided with us mostly from the black and golden dragon clans.
Without the dragon's, they did not have enough number of God level fighters on their side to win this war, since the angel monarchy being on our side gave us an overwhelming advantage, but Lucifer has truly played his cards well this time, unfortunately it seems like we are on the backfoot " Regus said, his voice as emotionless as ever as he gave the council the facts leading up to this war.
" No way- The mighty dragoon has fallen? That seems incomprehensible, even if Lucifer is strong he can run away, no way he is dead…. " A lord who Max did not recognise personally said with shock.
" Lucifer is in possession of a tier10 treasure called the seed of darkness, he has embedded it in his divine sword and has been using it to deal significant damage to both Dragoon and Hades.
While Hades survived by the skin of his teeth, Dragoon who was being held down by four other Sovereigns could not escape in time " Regus explained as he clarified the situation behind Dragoon's death.
For a moment there was complete silence in the room, nobody uttered a word as they tried to imagine the scene of the mighty golden dragon being held down by four sovereigns as Lucifer used a tier10 treasure to slay him.
A truly unfortunate ending to his magnificent reign lasting over 2000 years.
" So what now my king? " Julian asked with his fists balled.
Although he said no words, his expression said it all…. He was ready to fight the dark faction to the bitter end, all Regus had to do was command it off him.
" The queen will oversee this showdown, all teleportation gates will be connected to a different realm where this fight between light and dark will take place.
The ancient pact has been violated and the two sides of the universe can no longer coexist.
This time either only the dark faction will remain or shall the light faction.
Inside this plain will be a massive battlefield that will be covered with 1000 orbs and 10 discs that we would need to protect.
With every 100 orbs destroyed a random disc will be activated to be protected that the enemy can destroy to get a lead in the war.
The war ends when all the forces on one side have either surrendered or are dead. Or when all 10 discs are destroyed.
If we are all dead it's well and good, but if we are alive when all 10 discs on our end have been destroyed then it will be a disaster as the victors will decide the fate of our lives and we will be powerless to resist.
Im sure all the lord's in this room are smart enough to understand that expecting mercy from the devil and his followers is foolishness, so we must win this war or hope we die trying " Regus said as he laid down the complete scenario of the upcoming war before the council.
Regus did not use the term ' Celestial ' but rather used the word universal queen to describe the scenario because the common masses were not aware of the existence of celestials controlling the universe and it was supposed to be kept that way.
Some shuddered at the king's words, while some had colour drain from their faces.
This was serious
This was a mega war not seen since the chaos era.
This was a war that would have no Bystanders and no draws.
The only way to win was to annihilate the other. The sickest kind of battle to be in.
Max on the other hand did not feel afraid to participate in this war even though he knew that there was a high chance of him dying.
He understood the reality that in life there were times when a situation could not be avoided and there was no point in hoping that the situation never happened.
The vampires had to go to war, and since he had to participate in it anyways there was no point to be afraid.
Whatever was going to happen was going to happen, all he could do on his part was to make sure that he fought with all he had and tried to stick it to Lucifer anyway that he could.
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/// A/N - This bonus chapter has been sponsored by patron Cervantez91, please thank him in the comments for the same///