Chapter 303: The council meeting (1)
(Next Day, The Elders Council Emergency Meeting, Planet Tithia)
The First Elder was the first to arrive at the meeting venue.
He entered the grand hall in silence, his ceremonial robes trailing behind him, as he ascended the curved stone dais and took his seat at the head of the table, overlooking the rest of the chamber.
He sat without a word, hands folded, his expression neutral as the hall remained still for a moment longer... until the others began to arrive.
One by one, the remaining eleven elders stepped through the arched entryway, each cloaked in ceremonial garb, their faces veiled, their hands gloved, and their body language carefully restrained, as dictated by council protocol.
No identities were revealed.
No names were spoken.
Only the faint sound of footsteps echoed through the circular chamber as each elder entered, paused briefly to acknowledge the First Elder with a slow, deliberate nod... and then moved to assume their designated seat along the perimeter.
By tradition, the Council of Twelve operated under full concealment during all formal sessions, allowing positions and power to speak in place of personal identity— so that policy, not personality, would dictate the outcome of each debate.
Then–
As the final elder settled into place and the doors behind them sealed shut with a muted hum, three robed scribes emerged from the side passages and took their positions in the center, ready to transcribe every word spoken in the meeting from this point forward.
The First Elder’s gaze swept across the room, pausing for just a second longer on the Fourth Elder’s seat... before shifting forward once again.
The silence was heavy.
The air thick with unspoken tension.
As without raising his voice, the First Elder finally spoke.
"Let the emergency session... begin."
—------------
"First Elder? Why summon an emergency session when our annual meeting is scheduled barely a month from now?" the Second Elder asked as soon as the session commenced, his tone measured but laced with concern.
His question was undoubtedly legitimate, and one that was mirrored by many, as internal discussions immediately broke out when he asked it.
Though none of them had dared voice it earlier, everyone had been surprised to receive the summons.
The timing of it was odd, and the absence of any forewarning only made things worse.
Hushed discussions hence began in the room, each elder carrying their own suspicions.
"Is this about a new Dragon Candidate?" the Seventh Elder asked, sounding far too eager.
"Are we under attack?" the Eleventh Elder added, his voice tight with unease.
But the First Elder only raised his hand calmly in response, as he waited until the chatter around the chamber died down before responding.
"I called this emergency session because our assets are being purged," he said, voice calm but strong. "The righteous faction has begun cleansing their inner circles with brutal efficiency. Agents we’ve spent sixty years embedding within their ranks are being dragged into the open, stripped of all cover, and paraded through the streets like criminals."
He paused.
"And it’s not just the exposed ones being eliminated," he continued, his voice a little firmer now. "Even those with the faintest trace of association to us are being sniffed out and dealt with. Our information network... the one I’ve spent decades building... has collapsed."
Silence swept the room.
The scribes barely moved.
The weight of those words was not lost on anyone.
"I understand that the Sky-God Arena incident was a resounding success," the First Elder went on. "It served its purpose. It boosted morale, made a statement, reminded the universe that we are still a force to be feared. But the backlash from that event... has only just begun."
He exhaled slowly.
"I’ve dealt with the righteous faction for over seventy years. And I know this much, that the purge is just the start of their retaliation.
They will not stop at just dismantling our information networks and will only be happy after they’ve had a massive war that ends with massive territorial losses for us."
He looked around the room slowly.
"To appease their masses, to display strength, they’ll shift the narrative. They’ll frame us as the root cause of instability in the universe and begin a coordinated campaign to destroy the Cult entirely, starting with the border planets."
He leaned forward slightly.
"That is why I called this meeting," he said.
"Because I need every single one of you to begin building your own secondary information networks, so that we are forewarned before they strike—
And so that all of you can better prepare for a frontal war that I know is coming for sure," The first elder concluded as a heavy silence took over the room.
Nobody spoke for a few seconds, until the third elder broke the silence.
"A frontal war...?" he repeated cautiously, his voice low and uncertain, as though saying the words aloud made them all the more real. "Are we truly at the point where we must start preparing for a full-scale conflict?"
More murmurs followed, rippling down the line.
"If what the First Elder says is true, then the righteous faction has already declared war in all but name," said the Eighth Elder. "Their methods may be covert now, but they’ll escalate. They always do."
"But preparing for war is not a small matter," the Tenth Elder countered, his tone rigid. "It requires redirection of resources, reallocation of forces, a full-scale restructuring of strategy. Can we truly afford to do that based on speculation alone?"
The Seventh Elder, leaning forward in anticipation, added, "If we are preparing for war..."
But before he could complete, the Fourth Elder’s voice cut through the room.
Measured, cool and undeniably confident.
"With all due respect to the First Elder..." he began, his tone polite but unmistakably challenging, "while I agree that the information network must be restructured if it has been compromised... I do not believe there is any need to sound the alarm bells just yet."
His words turned the room still again.
"I understand the First Elder is speaking from decades of experience," he continued, "but let us not forget, experience is not intelligence. It is an observation. Interpretation. Not evidence."
He let that hang in the air for a moment.
"What we are being asked to prepare for is a frontal war. An open conflict. Based on what? A collapse in communication lines? A few high-profile arrests? That isn’t war. That’s cleanup."
He leaned back slightly.
"If we are going to sit here and speculate about the future, then I, too, will offer my speculation. I speculate... that war will not happen. That the righteous faction, despite all their noise, lacks the ability to truly bring the fight to our doorstep. Because if they did— if they truly had the resources and manpower to strike at us— they would have done so years ago."
His voice remained calm, but firm.
"We have demi-god blacksmiths supplying our forces. We have some of the most advanced anti-aircraft and orbital artillery in the known universe. Our border defenses are not just adequate, they are unbreakable. And if anyone dares to test them... they’ll be turned to dust."
A few elders nodded at his words.
"There is no need to spread panic amongst our members," the Fourth Elder concluded. "Especially now, when morale is finally recovering. Let us strengthen our information web, yes. Let us monitor. Let us prepare contingency plans. But let us not rush to declare a war that may never come."
A long pause followed.
One by one, the other elders turned their eyes back toward the First Elder.
Some seemed uncertain.
Some swayed by the Fourth.
And others, caught somewhere in between.
Because while no one questioned the wisdom of the First Elder... the Fourth had made his case with dangerous poise and they couldn’t find flaws in his logic either.