"And let us assume, purely for the sake of argument, that the Eternals decide to abandon the Prime Territory," I continued. "Wouldn’t that still count as a victory? The Wardens refuse to interfere because the Eternals are the rightful rulers of the Prime Territory. But if they leave, and the Twelfth Soul Current becomes the only threat remaining, the Wardens would no longer have a reason to stand aside. They would be forced to act."
"That is a very dangerous assumption to build a war upon," Shade chimed in.
He folded his hands together before continuing.
"You are assuming the Wardens will intervene. You are assuming they possess both the authority and the desire to stop the Twelfth Soul Current. If they choose not to..." His gaze shifted toward the carved map of the Prime Territory. "...then the Current could consume everything before any of us have the opportunity to stop it. Every settlement, every hidden civilization and every soul that has endured here for thousands of years could disappear forever."
I nodded.
"That outcome is only possible if every Saint gathered through this alliance fails to restrain the Current. We aren’t walking into that dimension blindly. We are bringing together the strongest warriors the Prime Territory has left precisely because we intend to control the situation from the very beginning."
Shade let out a quiet chuckle and slowly shook his head.
"There are still far too many variables, Lord Billion. Every answer you give begins with . If the Eternals respond. If the Current can be restrained. If the Wardens intervene. If we survive long enough to reach Verilux."
He leaned back in his chair, never taking his eyes off me. "For people like us, wars are won by reducing uncertainty, not embracing it. Yet your strategy seems to do the exact opposite. It asks every civilization in this room to wager its future on a chain of possibilities that none of us can predict."
Evelyn’s brows drew together as she looked toward me. For the first time since the meeting had begun, even she remained silent. Shade wasn’t trying to undermine the plan.
He was simply exposing its greatest weakness. There were too many unknowns. Too many variables that none of us could predict.
Before I could respond, a familiar sigh echoed through the chamber.
"Shade..." Gerald said, shaking his head. "After all these years, you’ve still never learned to appreciate calculated madness."
A faint grin appeared beneath his beard as he looked toward me.
"Billion."
I met his eyes.
"I think it’s time you showed everyone what we’ve been working on."
I immediately understood what he meant.
With a wave of my hand, eleven black rods emerged from my spatial storage and floated into the air above the center of the strategy table.
The room immediately fell silent.
Each rod was nearly three meters long and completely covered in dense black runes that continuously shifted across their surfaces. The runes pulsed with a rhythm almost resembling a heartbeat, releasing waves of Soul Force that caused several leaders to instinctively narrow their eyes.
Gerald slowly rose from his chair and walked toward the floating formation.
"Billion came to me shortly after his encounter with Verilux," he began, circling the rods with obvious satisfaction. "He asked me a question that, surprisingly, nobody had ever asked before."
He glanced around the room before smiling.
"’How do we sever Verilux’s connection with the Soul Sea?’"
His fingers lightly brushed one of the rods.
"So...I built the answer."
Several leaders leaned forward.
"These eleven rods are linked together through an ancient resonance array. Once deployed around Verilux inside the Soul Sea, they form a temporary suppression field capable of isolating him from the very source of his strength."
He looked directly at Kaelra.
"For five minutes.....Verilux becomes just another Saint."
That statement landed like a hammer. Even Shade’s silver eyes narrowed slightly.
Gerald’s smile widened immediately.
"Ah...I see I’ve finally managed to impress a few of you."
He proudly folded his arms.
"I’ll graciously accept your silent admiration."
Kaelra rolled her eyes.
"Don’t get ahead of yourself."
Gerald ignored her completely.
"Naturally," he continued, "a masterpiece of this caliber comes with one tiny inconvenience."
He held up a single finger.
"The rods are completely useless until all eleven are placed inside the Soul Sea."
A second finger joined the first.
"And Verilux is intelligent enough to destroy them the moment he realizes what we’re doing."
He shrugged dramatically.
"Rather rude of him, if you ask me."
A few smiles appeared around the table despite the seriousness of the discussion. Gerald’s expression gradually became solemn again.
"Which brings us back to Billion’s proposal. Without something capable of demanding the complete attention of the Eternals, there is simply no scenario in which these rods can ever be deployed successfully."
His finger slowly shifted toward the projection of the hidden dimension.
"The Twelfth Soul Current changes that. If we succeed in bringing it into the Prime Territory, the Eternals face only two choices."
He raised one finger.
"They ignore it."
A second finger.
"Or they move to stop it."
He slowly lowered his hand.
"If they ignore it, the Twelfth Soul Current becomes a threat not only to us, but to everything they have built here."
His eyes swept across every leader in the room.
"If they respond.....then for the first time in thousands of years, Verilux’s attention will be divided."
Gerald gently tapped one of the floating rods.
"And while the greatest battle in the history of the Prime Territory unfolds elsewhere..."
A slow smile appeared beneath his beard.
"...my beautiful creations will quietly take their places around Verilux."
He looked around the chamber with complete confidence.
"The moment the eleventh rod is activated....the King of the Eternals will discover what it feels like to fight without the Soul Sea protecting him."
The old man clasped his hands behind his back.
"Only then.....does killing Verilux become a realistic objective."
Silence returned to the strategy chamber. This time, however, it felt different.
The leaders no longer saw only a desperate gamble.