Prime Evolver System - Chapter 79

“Argh… Leader Sera… W-why?” Doing his best to combat the pressure, the middle-aged elder forcefully raised his head, looking with a hurtful gaze at the glowing, angelic sight of the woman.

The faint, colorless glow that her body radiated, gave her a grand, majestic shine. The illusion of a pair of transparent-looking wings could be seen from her back. Her usually cheery, gentle smile was nowhere to be seen, she was looking at the man plastered on the floor with a fierce, cold look.

The others in the room were shocked, frozen in their seats. A grand mixture of expressions could be seen spread out on their faces. Frowns, frightful looks, but most dominantly, a lack of compassion and regret. Most of them still seemed to be holding onto their own little ideas, dreams, not willing to accept an unknown boy that, -from what it looked like- seemingly were picked up from the streets randomly.

For the first time, as the fierce leader was unleashing herself on Elder Warthorn, the rest of the elders turned their attention to the calm and nonchalant boy sitting in his chair without a care in the world.

Still, no matter how much they tried to inspect the boy, they couldn’t see anything special about him. When they tried to extend their senses and scan the boy for any source of energy inside his body, they were shocked to realize that they couldn’t see anything. It was as if they were gazing into oblivion itself, and the endless void was staring back at them.

Such an experience was quite uncanny for them, as no matter the creature or person, they should at least find the seed of their power inside their souls. A pulsating center, either a meridian if the entity was a practitioner, or like a crystalline-shaped object if it were a mutant or supernatural existence.

Though there were other, unique cases, the fact that they couldn’t even gaze into a soul was unheard of. For them standing at the top of the city, the most powerful beings, they were shocked to find that their all-seeing senses had suddenly failed them.

This whilst raised their awareness against the seemingly harmless-looking boy, did not make them give up their lifelong dreams and plans. Over the years, they learned that power, standing was everything in this world.

Though each of them had their own desires, their own goals, they suddenly found themselves united against a common threat. If by perchance what the leader has said was true then they couldn’t waste any more time, needed to act with haste.

They needed to deal with this newly risen threat, and then once he and Sera were finally dealt with they could decide by themselves how to proceed…

—

“So… Little Warthorn, Mikey boy… It seems that the years have already made you senile. Do you no longer respect me? Hmmm?” Sera grinned with a malicious smile as she glanced down at the lying body of the elder.

“N-nooo…” Elder Warthorn grunted with great effort, as the pressure overwhelmed his defenses with surprising ease. “I w-would… I would n-never dare!” He stuttered.

“Hmmm? Really? Then pray tell, why did you want to attack your returned Lord? Did you forget the first commandment?” Looking up, he looked at the passive High Elders in the room, with an eerie grin. “Can any of you… BESIDES, you, my dear…” She waved at Elder Fawkes to sit down. “…recite the commandment to me? What did I teach you kids back then, hmm? It seems that Brother Mikey has forgotten, help him will you?”

The rest of the 8 elders in the room frowned at their leader’s words, showing a variety of ugly, displeased expressions. When a few seconds had passed and none of them seemed to be willing to speak up, suddenly a small shockwave exploded from Sera as her aura descended on the room like a veil. With the exception of Lucien, who seemed to be either immune to her powers or perhaps exempted, everyone else began to feel the increasing weight pushing their bodies down towards the ground.

“Nobody? Have you all begun to rebel against the one that gave you your lives? Did you all decide to force my hand today?!” She growled threateningly.

“M-m-matriarch!” One of them, unable to keep his stance any longer, cried out. “You c-can’t do this to us! W-we are the High Elders, you can’t do this to us!”

“Oh really? And what do you plan to do then, hmm?”

“L-leader! P-please… c-calm down first! Remember you decided to take a step back and gave the control over to us! For all m-matters… we need to d-discuss and v-vote!” Another one, that although was also pushed down from his chair, managed to somewhat retain his cool, spoke. His words, although he had to fight against this mysterious woman’s overwhelming aura, still managed to retain some of the smugness in his voice.

“Y-you!” Sera was about to erupt with anger when suddenly he felt a hand gently touch her shoulders. Startled, she turned at its directions only to be met with the calmly smiling Lucien looking back at her.

“Let it be, Sera. It’s okay.” He warmly whispered. “Calm down, let them go. If there’s a rule, and they want me to prove myself, let them be. We shouldn’t force them…”

His words made Sera’s body tremble with shock. Her heart began to palpitate erratically, as his words made him recall the words of her Master.

Just now, she recalled that indeed, forceful subjugation was not his master’s style. He didn’t like to force his will, his dream on others, but instead gave them the chance to willingly fall behind them.

Although there was a major difference in how life worked in that post-apocalyptic era and this modern, urban, civilized one, she shouldn’t behave like this.

Heaving a long sigh, Sera revealed a bitter smile, as she nodded at the Young Master’s words.

“Y-yes, you are right Lucien. I apologize…” She sighed, as she forcefully calmed herself down. Soon, the pressure began to decrease in the room before it vanished entirely, allowing all the High Elders to stand back up and take their seats.

As High Elder Warthorn slowly pushed himself off from the ground, he eyed the young boy with a vicious look in his eyes for a brief moment, as he silently took his seat.

*Khm* *Khm*

Breaking the ensuing awkward silence, the slick, platinum-haired man coughed lightly, to grab the attention in the room. Looking back at the duo sitting at the helm, he revealed a theatrical smile that was all-too-familiar for Lucien and began to speak.

“Dearest Leader, Matriarch Sera… I believe I speak for everyone when I speak that we all dearly, deeply respect you. We are all thankful for you that you brought us in, and trained us to what we are today.” He spoke, looking around and waited as his peers nodded and agreed to his words before continuing.

“But…” His face suddenly soured, revealing a bittersweet look. “You also have to understand that times have changed. You have long since stepped away from the day-to-day operations of managing the De’Angelis Corp or the clan itself.”

He said, giving a momentary pause. The other high elders in the room nodded at his words once again. Even Fawkes, though she looked at the speaking High Elder with a scowl, could do nothing but agree with his words.

“Since then, almost 20 years have passed, in case you have forgotten. Since then, the world has changed, a lot of cruel, nasty monsters have crawled out from the depths of the underworld. We had to raise our awareness and be wary of the outsiders.”

Once again, he paused for a brief moment, giving a chance for his background support to show themselves.

“Please understand, that I mean no disrespect, or be impertinent when I say this, but we can’t just accept an outsider, an unknown boy that may very well be a mutant or a monster in disguise even if he came with you.”

“Y-you! How dare y-” Sera wanted to jump up and lounge at the slick speaking man, but was once again, held down by the Young Master.

“No, Sera, let them say what’s in their minds,” Lucien whispered, causing Sera to blush and sit back down.

Surprised by her reaction, the standing elder turned to look at the black-haired youngster with a surprised, but appreciative gaze.

In return, Lucien nodded without speaking a word, signaling him to continue on with his speech.

“Still, how High Elder Hawthorn acted wasn’t right either. For that let me apologize.”

His words caused the High Elder Hawthorn to jump up from his spot and call out.

“Pete… you don’t need to-”

Before he could finish, a simple fierce, cold look from the standing slick-haired figure caused him to shiver and plop back down on his seat once again.

“What is it that you are trying to say, Little Pete? Get to it already!” Sera, growing tired of the pointless quibble, urged the man to get to the point already.

“*Khm* What I meant is that, if you are willing, Matriarch, your protegé, the Young Master, could prove his competence and the truth during the upcoming tournament…”