"Why the fuck are you not greeting the members of your superior world properly?"
Gina’s face immediately soured! Gina had been trying not to cause any issues with these fools, but it was now obvious that Freya wanted a fight! Gina felt her hand tighten into a fist, but she remembered Jason’s words from earlier, and her hand relaxed again as she released a sigh. Gina took a step back and inclined her head slightly before speaking in a gentle tone.
"It’s a pleasure to meet you. I didn’t know it was customary to greet every escort that tags along with the Overlord, so please don’t take any offence."
Freya scowled at the pathetic greeting, and she pointed a finger at Gina before pointing at the floor.
"A proper greeting means you get on your knees. Do they not teach you anything in that pathetic backwater world you call Earth?"
Doom!
Gina’s eyes suddenly narrowed as the tension in the room grew exponentially! Freya’s lips widened into a cocky smile, and Gina spoke with poison on her tongue.
"Don’t push your fucking luck, you—"
Gina was about to call Freya a ’bitch’, but she suddenly stopped when someone else came forward from behind her and spoke up.
"The treaty does not contain any law that demands the members of the governing world to be greeted by kneeling. Don’t go around spreading misinformation for no reason."
Gina turned to glare at Agiel in slight anger, but she finally closed her eyes and let out a sigh to calm herself. Freya’s smile widened, and she shrugged at Agiel before she spoke.
"Even if it isn’t written in the treaty, members of such a low-ranking world should know where they belong. What better way to acknowledge their superiors than down on their knees? And besides, why is a member of another world standing as a representative of Earth? Don’t tell me you renounced your own world just to join such a worthless world."
Agiel’s expression became tight, but she tried her best not to allow her emotions to get out of hand, and she spoke with as much respect as possible.
"I became a refugee on Earth a few decades ago, and I have since integrated into their culture. My allegiances lie with them."
Freya gave a disgusted sound when she heard this before she turned back to Gina and spoke.
"You’d better learn how to properly greet your superiors before our next meeting. You might be protected by the non-aggression pact in here, but out there in the real world, there is no one who can save you. Disgusting lowlife."
Freya turned to leave, and Gina felt her entire body tense in anger! Gina’s teeth clenched so tight that she thought they would fucking break, and her fists were tightened into furious fists! Gina wanted to fucking kill that woman! She wanted to end her pathetic life so badly that it physically hurt! But Gina knew that that was exactly what Freya wanted! Freya was only trying to rile up the group so that they would make a mistake, and Gina knew that falling for such an obvious trick would be foolish!
Pat!
"You did a good job holding back."
Agiel patted Gina’s shoulder as she passed her and said this, but Gina just scowled before shrugging Agiel’s hand off in irritation! Gina began to head for the seats again, and the rest of the group followed after her. Behind the group, Katarina looked to her left, where she could see a Faceless Keeper standing in the shadows of the Hall and watching them closely. Once the groups separated, the Faceless Keeper melted into the wall and vanished like they were never there! Katarina knew that they had just dodged a situation that could have been far worse. If things had escalated, then forget about the trial; they would’ve kissed their lives goodbye.
....
On top of the raised platform in the center of the hall, Jason could feel the eyes of all the audience members piercing into him and Riyala’s backs, and even though the situation was very tense, Jason was glad to see that Riyala didn’t look nervous at all. Riyala was standing with her hands held in front of her calmly as she looked up at the thrones surrounding them, and Jason had his hands in his coat pockets as he waited for the Council to show themselves. The two of them stood there for about five minutes without anyone showing up, and Jason slowly began to feel irritated by how much time they were wasting. But all of a sudden, Jason heard a voice echo across the entire hall.
"The Great Council of Nine and One shall now convene for the proceedings. The tenth seat of the council, T’arigan, sovereign of the Dwarven race of Foragen. The ninth seat, King Kalum, ruler of Getrine. The eighth seat, Queen Lamina, ruler of the Vympir. The seventh seat, Queen Hesabeth, ruler of the Minari. The sixth seat, Rubik, ruler of the Machina. The fifth seat, Val’kat the Conqueror, ruler of the goblin race of Yemen. The fourth seat, Baron Skarr, ruler of the Draconian race of Vulcan. The third seat, King Farlow, ruler of the elven race of Arandell. The second seat, Queen Rak’hael, ruler of the Angelic race of Eden. And finally, the highest authority in the known world, and the Overlord presiding over the council, the Great Celestial of Order, C’thlyanu."
As the announcer began calling out the names, the various members of the council suddenly began to appear in their seats one after the other, and they leaned back comfortably as they looked down on Jason and Riyala with varying expressions on their faces. The appearances of the various council members weren’t very different from what Jason thought they would look like. The dwarven king was a short man with various dark runes all around his body, and the draconian king was a tall man with long horns on his head, a long tail, and large wings that folded behind him. When the announcer finally called on the first seat of the council, Jason already prepared himself to witness a creature with power that was far beyond anything he could comprehend, but Jason was shocked when he saw a large purple mist seeping out from behind the throne and moving to calmly hover over the throne! Jason’s brow furrowed in shock! None of the other council members looked surprised by the appearance of the purple mist, so Jason was sure that this was normal, but it didn’t make any sense! Was the head of the Primordial Expanse really a cloud of purple mist!?
[The true form of C’thlyanu is too dangerous to exist in the same world as any mortal, and he would most likely eradicate this entire world along with the next five hundred worlds parallel to it if his true body appeared here. The purple mist is a stand-in that C’thlyanu uses as a representative.]
’So where is his real body?’
[There is no known record of the location of C’thlyanu’s true body, but it has been rumored that he resides in a solitary world on the edge of the Primordial Expanse. The world is surrounded by various magical protections and runes that allow the world to contain his power and prevent it from seeping into other worlds and causing disasters.]
Jason hummed when he read through all of this, and he looked towards the mist one last time. It almost felt like the mist was staring back at him, and Jason held its gaze for a few seconds before he finally looked around at all the other members of the council.