Although none of the council members were releasing any significant pressure and many of them were even able to completely conceal their power so they seemed powerless, there was no way they could hide the sudden tension that filled the room once they appeared! Jason could tell that every single person in here was extremely powerful! Jason watched the expressions on the faces of the council members as he looked around. Some of the council members like Lamina and Hesabeth were intrigued by what was about to happen and Hesabeth even had a smile on her face as she looked down at Jason with interest, but some other council members like T’arigan, the ruler of the dwarves, and Val’kat the ruler of the goblins looked absolutely bored of the situation and it was obvious that the only reason they were here was because they had to appear as members of the council! But none of the people seated there drew Jason’s attention as much as the person sitting in the sixth seat.
Rubik, the king of the Machina, was an extremely large man who was built like a bodybuilder on steroids! Rubik didn’t wear any clothes, and this allowed Jason to get a good look at Rubik’s body and all the mechanical augmentations that had been done to it, and with all the robotic attachments Jason could see on Rubik’s body, Jason didn’t even know if he could call Rubik a man anymore. It was almost like Rubik had replaced nearly every single inch of his body with something robotic! Everything from Rubik’s neck down to his fucking toes had been replaced by mechanical parts. Rubik’s skull was also mechanical, and his nose and lower face had been replaced by some sort of mechanical mask that almost made him look like a ninja. Rubik’s ears and left eye were also mechanical, and that meant that the only part of him that still had some flesh and bone was his right eye. If not for that eye, Jason would have thought the man sitting there was a robot rather than a man!
But from what Jason could feel, it was obvious that Rubik’s appearance wasn’t just for show! The system told Jason that the Machina race used a ’Cybertronic’ gene to augment their body with machines and grow stronger, and Jason was certain that Rubik’s power was at least five times higher than what Jason currently possessed! Even though Rubik wasn’t letting out any of his mana or aura, there was just an instinctual part of Jason that knew that he was looking at someone far above his power level!
’But what the hell is this weird feeling?’
Jason frowned as he stared at Rubik closely! There was something strange about Rubik that Jason couldn’t put his finger on no matter how much he tried, and Jason wondered if his senses were deceiving him or not. Jason turned toward the audience seats to take a look at the Machina that were gathered there, and Jason frowned when he realised that there was really something off about Rubik.
’His mana. It doesn’t feel right.’
’What are you talking about?’
Esdath suddenly spoke up from within Jason’s Alternate Dimension and Jason just said that something was off about Rubik. Jason had improved his ability to sense Mana and Magic Essence a lot in the past few weeks, and his sensory abilities had grown even more after he gained the ability to sense Qi and Life Essence, so Jason had a lot of confidence in his ability to pick up the slightest deviations or irregularities in the mana of those around him! And right now, as Jason watched both Rubik and the other Machina sitting at the audience sector, Jason couldn’t help but feel like there was something off!
’Perhaps you’re just not used to sensing the power of beings that are so much more powerful than you.’
Jason frowned when Esdath said that, and Jason quickly dismissed that as nonsense. Jason could sense the power from the other members of the council, and Jason couldn’t feel that strange uneasiness from them. That means it was something special to Rubik alone! Rubik’s robotic eyes turned down to stare at Jason when he noticed Jason looking at him, and even though Rubik wasn’t releasing any pressure, Jason couldn’t help but feel like Rubik’s power was pressing down on him with intensity! Jason held Rubik’s gaze for a few seconds, but Jason eventually turned away with a frown.
That strange feeling was still at the back of Jason’s mind, but Jason had to drop the matter when he heard a loud voice echo around the room again.
"The case of Rubik, Overlord of the Sixth Primordial Domain, versus Jason Marc, representing the world PDM-235213-Alpha, also known as Earth, and Riyala, the Priestess of Fire, representing the world PDM-132942-Alpha, also known as Radagan, shall now commence. The two representatives will be given time to present their case to the council, after which the council members will be permitted to ask questions and finally deliberate before giving a vote to finally decide."
’So we’ll get a chance to talk first.’
Jason looked over to Riyala to see how she was doing, and Jason was glad to see that she didn’t look too nervous. Riyala took in a deep breath and let it out slowly to try and relax her nerves, and Jason just waited for her to speak since they had agreed that she would be the one leading this case. Riyala was a member of a Rank III world as well as the one acting as Shieldbearer for Earth, so the council was more likely to take them seriously if she was the one leading rather than Jason. Riyala stepped forward once she got the signal to begin, and she spoke in an even tone.
"I greet the exalted members of the Council of Nine and One. I am Riyala of Radagan, the Priestess of Fire and the highest authority in my world. And I have come to you today to ask for your intervention..."
Riyala’s start was perfect. She began by laying out what the case was all about. She spoke about the situation that Radagan had gone through. How the Sovereign had attacked their royal family and taken over the world through a coup, and she also spoke about how the armies of Radagan had been split down the middle, with half of them supporting the Sovereign and the other half being either killed or forced to support the Sovereign in order to preserve their lives. Riyala spoke about how she had found refuge on Earth and how Jason had helped her greatly in recovering from the Sovereign’s attack! The council just listened attentively to everything that Riyala was saying and it wasn’t until Riyala got to the part of the story where the Sovereign started to search for her that Jason came in to paint his story from the perspective of Earth.
"I am Jason Marc, representative of Earth. The coup carried out by the Sovereign was not only felt by the people of Radagan, but it spilled over from Radagan and affected the people of Earth as well. On the third day after Riyala was found and rescued during my mission inside an Orange Gate, my world was raided by the Phantom Assassin Group, and my lover almost lost her life..."
Jason then spoke about how the Phantoms had attacked them on the orders of the Sovereign and how he had to find an elixir to save Gina’s life. Jason could see the questions brimming in the eyes of the council as they wondered how Jason was able to discover that he needed the Banshee’s Tears and the Heart of a Lich to create the [Elixir of Life]. Knowledge like that wasn’t something that the members of a Rank II world could come across so easily, so it was obvious that they would be curious about it! But Jason didn’t bother to stay on that story for long, and he moved on to talk about how Earth had been attacked by a large Unit from the Radagan Royal Army on the orders of the Sovereign, and Earth ended up losing an entire city, as well as thousands of lives, from the attack. If not for Jason’s intervention, then the Sovereign would have destroyed even more of Earth for his pointless goals.