Chapter 579: Mapping It Out
Once Chaosbringer had finally regained his composure, Leo wasted no time bringing him up to speed, outlining the entire plan in a calm yet deliberate tone.
“The Twelfth Elder is an enemy I must remove,” Leo began, his gaze fixed on Chaosbringer, who sat listening with rapt attention. “But he’s still an Elder of the Cult, so killing him publicly is impossible, and doing it in secret would only spark suspicion.”
He began pacing slowly, his voice steady.
“At this point, I don’t want any unnecessary eyes on me. I can’t risk triggering an investigation. The Twelfth Elder needs to disappear… but it has to be in a way where no one even realizes he’s gone.”
He stopped, meeting Chaosbringer’s eyes.
“That’s where you come in. The reason I had you interact with him these past days was so you could study him…. Learn his behavior, his speech patterns, his mannerisms. Because once I have him in my custody, you’re going to replace him in public view.”
Chaosbringer’s eyes widened. “Replace him?”
“Yes,” Leo confirmed. “I’ll teach you a technique… you won’t need to master it in full. Just follow my guidance, and I’ll mold your body into his exact likeness— vocal cords, hair color, even his scent if needed.”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
“From that point on, it will be in your hands. You’ll take the Twelfth Elder’s place, move freely within the Council, and serve as my eyes and ears from the inside.
As one of the ruling members, you’ll wield the access and authority to make things happen when I need them—often without question.
So in short, you will be my most critical undercover asset.”
Chaosbringer’s expression shifted from disbelief to awe. “Brilliant! As expected of Lord Boss… a flawless plan. Rest assured, I’ll play my role to perfection.”
“I know you will,” Leo said with a faint smile, nodding in approval. “That’s why I entrusted this to you. This role demands both reliability and cunning, and I know you have them both.”
Chaosbringer’s heart fluttered at the praise. “Oh please, my Lord, you flatter me,” he said, batting his eyes dramatically, as Leo ignored the odd reaction and continued.
“Your training starts tomorrow. Every night, after your duty ends as the Twelfth Elder’s personal assistant, you’ll come to the Skyshard Mansion and report for training.
The technique I want to pass down to you is called [Shapeshift] and normally, it takes months to master… but I’ll only teach you the single transformation you need to learn and not the whole move, so it should be much faster.”
“I’ll be here whenever you need me, serving you however you command.” Chaosbringer replied eagerly, as Leo gave him another firm shoulder tap before dismissing him for the night.
—————–
(Meanwhile Dupravel, Planet Frostburn)
Of all the secrets that Mu Fan had gathered about the Elders and the Elder’s Council, the only part that disturbed Leo was their secret annual meeting on planet Frostburn which required knowledge of traversing through a complicated ice-maze to reach the meeting location.
If Leo was going to turn Chaosbringer into the next Twelfth Elder, then this was one piece of information he needed to learn, as according to Mu Fan, presence in that annual meeting was mandatory for all Elders.
Hence, forced into a corner, Leo sent Dupravel to planet Frostburn, to check out this hidden labyrinth and map a way into the meeting room and back out for Chaosbringer to memorize in the future.
*Whistle*
*Woosh*
The cold winds of planet Frostburn bothered even Dupravel as a Monarch, as he couldn’t even begin to fathom as to why someone would choose to hold their annual meeting on such a cold and clearly inhabitable planet.
‘If I’m feeling cold here as a Monarch, then anyone below the Transcendent Tier won’t survive this biting cold.
Let alone finding his way to the secret meeting chamber, the first thing that mortal would need to do is find adequate frost protection.’ Dupravel thought, as he was sure that Chaosbringer could not survive two minutes under these conditions if left to his own devices.
Eventually, he found a cluster of ice caves with several openings leading downwards in what he assumed was the entrance to the meeting hall.
However, to him almost all of them looked identical, and understanding which was the correct route was nearly impossible.
‘Guess I’ll have to explore them all… one at a time.’ he concluded, before starting from the furthest cave to the right, as he let out a deep sigh and dove right in.
The first tunnel sloped steeply, winding deeper into the frostbitten earth before ending in a frozen wall thick enough to be mistaken for the mountain’s heart.
The second caved in halfway, shards of jagged ice blocking the way forward like the teeth of some enormous beast.
The third was more promising, wide and even with a faint breeze whispering from somewhere ahead, yet it led him in a perfect loop, spitting him out into the same cave cluster he had started from.
So it went, hour after hour, day after day.
The labyrinth was no simple warren of tunnels, it was alive with deception.
Sometimes the air grew warmer for no reason, masking the faint mana traces that guided him.
Other times, the sound of his footsteps would echo twice, once naturally and once more faintly from an entirely different direction, trying to lure him off course.
And then there were the traps.
In one cave, a seemingly harmless patch of frost concealed a thin mana thread that would have triggered a barrage of ice needles from the ceiling.
In another, a narrow stone bridge across a chasm was rigged to collapse under weight, the only warning being the barely perceptible shift in mana density along its edges.
Naturally, Dupravel avoided them all, but only because his perception was honed to a razor’s edge, every sense straining for the faintest wrongness in the frozen air.
By the third day, his frustration had dulled into cold focus.
He began cataloging each dead end, marking subtle grooves in the ice with his dagger’s edge, memorizing the unique resonance of each path under his boots.
A sharper echo meant a narrower tunnel ahead, while a muffled step often hinted at hollow ice or hidden pits.
On the fifth day, after countless wrong turns and retraced steps, he slipped through a winding descent that seemed to resist his forward progress, the walls narrowing and the floor twisting underfoot as if trying to disorient him.
Yet he pressed on, weaving around rune-marked tiles and frost-slick ledges, until the oppressive corridors abruptly opened into a vast circular chamber.
Ancient runes pulsed faintly beneath the frost-coated walls, their glow reflected in the smooth black surface of a massive obsidian table at the center.
‘Atlast, I found it….’
Dupravel exhaled slowly, the faintest smirk tugging at his lips.
He had found it, the hidden meeting chamber of the Elders’ Council.
And hopefully, Chaosbringer would be able to replicate his success as well, especially with the perfected map that he would give him.
“I just hope he develops the physical stamina necessary to complete this journey…. Even coming down here is no easy task for a mortal.” Dupravel mused, before making his way back out again, since his task here was now complete.