Chapter 283: Chapter 274: A Line Once broken, Unknowingly Remade
The sounds of light taps resonated down the hall. An otherworldly-looking woman of deceivingly short stature walked down the hall, a large beaming smile on her unblemished and perfect face. Skin as dark as the abyss, eyes as golden as the morning sun, and hair so richly colored it could be mistaken as gold itself.
Madoka Nana, the Matriarch of the Renmai, the Dream Shifter.
Two attendants followed down the hall alongside her, Madoka's nine sunlight-gold tails trailing her as she swayed from foot to foot.
Eventually coming to an ostentatious door, donning a silver base, with the last of the Obsidian Dwarven made Orihalcum left within the multiverse.
Madoka waited, her attendants grabbing the silver handles as they wrenched the door wide for their master to pass.
"It took you quite some time to arrive…" A voice said from across the room, irritation dripping off every word.
Madoka waved the voice off, "We all know we are waiting for that bag of bones to possibly arrive. From what I hear he will not even show up," she said, pausing and looking around the room, "I'm told he is having too much fun in the new sector…"
Across the room sat a large table made of a white wood that looked almost petrified, but emanated such life and mana it became almost blinding. The wood of a World Tree, of which tree she didn't know, but the woman sitting at the head of the table had many things in her possession that were of the rarest kind.
They eyed each other for a moment.
"Fine, I apologize for being late. I was playing with my great-great-grandchildren," Madoka sighed, waving a hand and growing several feet in height, filling out the white and gold dress she wore, "The next time we meet in a few hundred years it will not happen again, Mir'phyra."
The old dragon Matriarch gave a sneer that could still melt the hearts of mortal men back at Madoka, Mir'phyra's two sons on either side of her.
"These meetings are important. We must maintain the verse through measuring how much the Titans have advanced as well as their locations. Have you forgotten why we made the decision to convene a council such as this?" Mir'phyra scowled.
Madoka shrugged, looking around at the other Primordials at the table and their attendants.
Ignata Gulfar, the Eternal Ember, Immortal of the Primal Elementals. Seras Endlaire, the Mother of Nature, Matriarch of the Kirins. Aliwi Vernelis, the Sword of Spring, First Tree of the High Elves. Azrael, the Pureblood Reaper, High Arc Angel of the Risen. And finally, one empty seat, with two skeletons on either side, draped in ragged clothes.
The seat reserved for Vandalieu, the Lich King, Undying Ruler of the End.
Taking her seat, she tapped her long gold nails on the table, small sparks of mana released from each brief rap.
"Then, are we here to talk about what happened with your respective tutorials?" she asked.
A pulse of aura filled the room. Everyone suddenly flexed their own to combat it.
"Do you happen to mean the tutorials that you also were a part of? And allowed valuable, priceless, and purposefully regulated skill stones to go back into circulation?" Mir'phyra said coldly.
Madoka smiled back, "Do not forget that Seras also allowed those stones out, not to mention, someone's little fresh green-horned daughter happened to give several and the most problematic set to leave your vaults."
The table cracked down the middle and Madoka vanished, her two attendants struggling in the air, their hands around their necks as they gasped for breath.
Madoka appeared on the other side of the table, her hand draped casually around Mir'phyra's eldest son, Trit'rea.
"I seem to have been dealt the better hand Mir'phyra."
"You will regret threatening my son, Dream Peddler," Mir'phyra sneered back.
"Or what? You will place the Renmai on your little hit list? We all remember how that went," Madoka snickered back, a bright smile creasing her face.
"May we move on from this dribble?" Azrael sighed, four large golden wings bristling slightly.
"I must agree. We are all busy with our own affairs and having titans possibly approach our sectors is not helping," Aliwi added.
Mir'phyra lowered Madoka's two attendants, both dropping to the floor in a heap. And Madoka removed her own from her son, flipping her long golden hair.
"My daughter has been significantly reprimanded, her Rank reduced and her authority to rule a border planet revoked. She will be forced to be re-educated and climb the Ranks once more," she said with a displeased curl of her lips.
"That isn't the half of it dear Mir'phyra," Madoka said, shrugging and shaking her head.
Mir'phyra's delicate eyebrow rose, "Legendary stones have slipped through the cracks before, this time is no different. We will have our fun and the order will return to normal."
"This time is different," Madoka said with a smirk, her eyes shifting to daggers of brilliant ruby.
"You speak of the boy on the new planet…" a smoldering deep voice said, Ignata finally speaking up.
She nodded, "The new sector. A descendant's branch family has established one of their auctions there. All of the stones that we have lost are on that planet. Including the Asuran and the Titan's."
Mir'phyra waved her hand, "We knew this months ago. We also know that they are all Dual Class Lunatics, save the Titan boy. They will simply go insane, or we will deal with them as we always have."
"Yes," Madoka nodded, her eyes thinning, "I remember our contract so many years ago. But these ones feel… different."
As Madoka finished her thought, the doors to the room swung open. A gangly skeleton in tattered robes, jewelry adorning every inch of his body, strode in. If the ivory-colored skull could smile beneath its hood and crown, it would be.
The room chilled as he took his seat and Madoka returned to her own.
"Pleasant as always Vandalieu…" Mir'phyra sneered.
"Do not sour my mood, Mir'phyra. I am having my own fun among your lots mistakes," he replied.
She gave him a scathing glance, "Not so much amusement to be a problem, I hope?"
"Bah. I will do as I please. I have been a part of this Primordial Counsel since its conception. Before any of you were thoughts in your father's nether regions. Back when the fighting was constant and plenty. Not this castrated dross."
The whole table collectively grimaced, but they couldn't reprimand the Lich for his words. Making an enemy of the undead was a fool's errand. Their empire spanned several sectors already and had only ceased due to Vandalieu's wistfulness.
"Be that as it may, we must deal with the new Titan soon. We all realize how vital it is to relocate them before, he is forced to," Mir'phyra explained.
The table nodded as she continued.
"There is also the matter of the Welcoming Tournament. It is a great opportunity to test the fledglings and put them on the fast track to break through the E-Rank."
Aliwin spoke next, "There were only two planets created in this initiation. Many of us dealt with tutorials of only one of them. But we do know that there is only one legendary class on the latter planet. They will not be competition, of this I am certain."
Mir'phyra closed her eyes and sighed, "Yes, I am sure one of our candidates will win again. And from the reports I have collected, we expect it to happen within the 10-year timeframe if not sooner. Due to meddling…" she added in a displeased whisper.
Vandalieu clapped his bony hands together, pleased.
"Oh good! I get to witness a new war between planets and find prospects for a wonderful new undead. This century is turning out to be bountiful indeed. When was the last time I had a proper convert… Maybe I will add another Asuran to my collection, or possibly a Silver Wolf? It has been centuries since I've added an Obsidian Dwarf!"
"The Asuran boy, is my business Vandalieu!" Mir'phyra reprimanded, "I gave him his stones and I will recollect them when the investment has reached fruition."
Vandalieu tapped his fingers against the table, "Are you going to stop me? Little Mira?" he asked, power resonating with his voice.
Pressure weighed down the surroundings again, this time a result of Mir'phyra's skills, not just her aura.
"Do not use that name. We are even, Vandalieu. My debts are paid and I will not tolerate you taking from me what is mine!"
Vanalieu continued to tap his fingers on the table casually, as if the pressure of Mir'phyra's skill and aura were but a light breeze on his bones. His red hollow eyes looked at her as if gauging whether or not the fight was worth it.
"Fine," he conceded, "I will just have my fun elsewhere."
"Great," Madoka snickered, getting up from her seat, "I think we're done here. I'll be going back to my domain. Politics always makes me sleepy."
The other Primordial leaders nodded, getting up and filtering out with their attendants one by one, leaving Mir'phyra alone with her sons and thoughts.
Different…? She thought, a deep suppressed memory rummaging up in her mind, like dirt stirred at the bottom of a pond. A thought of the man she once loved and lost, a thought of a line once broken.
"No. It is impossible, I killed them all. Down to the last child," she reminded herself, "There will never be another."
—--------------------
Madoka walked through the door, space folding around her as she stepped through. Her heels tapped against the polished wood each step resonating through the hallway until she came to a empty open room, save a woman kneeling in front of a table.
Bright yellow hair, and seven tails swayed lightly back and forth against her kimono, the faint scent of burned tobacco in the air.
"Talyia, dear, what brings you here? Have you not already informed me of your dealings?" Madoka hummed, her attendants taking her cloak from her as she sat at the table.
"Yes, Grand Ancestor. I have done as instructed to place the boy onto the path. And I have looked back," she said, looking up to meet Madoka's eyes, her own turning a reflective yellowish silver, "But I am unable to determine his past. My mana is simply not enough."
Madoka raised a brow, "Is that right? Are you saying an A-Rank descendant of a primordial on the cusp of reaching S-Rank does not have enough mana to observe the past of a mere fledgling F-Rank?"
A deep smile crept onto Madoka's face, "Then… that means?"
Talyia nodded, "Yes, the fact I am unable means what you suspect is true. He bears protection of an S-Rank Primordial if not more. The time on his home planet of Earth that I observed is brief. And I am unable to look back to his conception, it is as if he appears from the void."
Madoka placed a hand on the table, a glass of red liquid gently placed there by an attendant.
She stirred the glass gingerly, a glowing smile and eyes of deep gold humming with excitement.
"And the Dragon Princess?"
"The information I have gathered has told us she was reduced down to the bottom of E-Rank. The planet she governed, an outer world once held by the Asurans. Given to her younger brother. It does not look good for those people…"
Madoka scoffed, "I didn't ask about their wellbeing. The girl, Talyia. I only have so much free time."
"Yes. She is currently being secluded to one of the System Towers. We unfortunately do not know which."
"I see… The Asuran boy. Will they cross paths?"
Taliya paused for a moment, and then rose, "Fate is ironic is it not, Ancestor?"
"That is not what I asked, sweet girl," Madoka sighed.
"I believe it goes without question such a fate is theirs."
Madoka's eyes thinned into crescents, "Good."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone