The heavy oak doors of the private chamber shut with a dull, echoing thud, sealing out the relentless roar of the crowded plaza below. Inside, the air was thick, suffocating, and completely devoid of the festive cheer that had taken over Azure City.

A single large iron chandelier hung from the stone ceiling, casting long, erratic shadows across the massive mahogany table where the three settlement masters sat.

No one spoke at first. The silence in the room was so heavy that the rhythmic ticking of a mechanical clock on the wall sounded like a countdown to an execution.

Garrick Ironvein slammed his thick, calloused fists onto the table, the heavy impact causing the silver wine goblets to rattle violently. His face was a mask of envy.

"A Mystic Mage," Garrick growled, his voice vibrating deep in his broad chest. "And nine Grand Mages. Nine! How in the name of the ancestors did that old woman pull this off? A month ago, she was practically at death’s door, coughing up her own mana heart. Now she expects us to just sit tight while she reshapes the entire political landscape of the north?"

Lady Xu Yan did not look up from her jade smoking pipe. She slowly inhaled, the tip of the pipe glowing a soft, venomous green before she exhaled a thin, elegant stream of herbal smoke into the chilly air. Her narrow eyes flashed with a sharp, calculating light.

"It is not just about the landscape, Garrick," she said softly, her voice dripping with cold reality. "It is about survival. If we do not do anything within the next seven days, our ultimate fate is already sealed. We will become nothing more than secondary branches, subordinates of the Azure Lotus Sect. Our mining rights, our medicinal gardens, our independent trade routes, everything we have built over centuries will be systematically absorbed into their ledger."

Lord Harald Wintermane leaned back into his large fur-lined chair, his fingers tightly interlocking over his chest. Despite his muscular build and legendary reputation for strangling wild beasts, his expression was filled with profound skepticism. He let out a long, heavy sigh that seemed to age him by a decade.

"And how do you propose we stop her, Xu Yan?" Harald asked, his tone flat and tired. "Did you not feel that pressure in the plaza? That was absolute authority. Mystic rank is not just a title; it is a completely different tier of existence. If she wishes to crush Iron Ridge or Frostwood Hold, she does not even need to march an army. She can simply fly over our walls and dry up our mana cores with a wave of her hand. Going against her right now is pure suicide."

Garrick leaned forward, his gray hair falling slightly over his forehead as a wicked, terrifying grin slowly spread across his rugged face. The raw panic that had gripped him during the sky-blooming ceremony had completely vanished, replaced by an ugly, burning wave of absolute ruthlessness.

"We do not go against her directly, Harald," Garrick whispered, his voice dropping into a low, conspiratorial register. "We use the environment. We use the laws of the untamed lands."

Harald frowned, his pale blue eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Speak clearly, old man. We do not have the luxury of time for your riddles."

Garrick tucked his hands inside his heavy leather sleeves and leaned over the mahogany table, his eyes locking onto the other two leaders.

"The Dark Elves," Garrick said simply.

The reaction was instantaneous.

Lord Harald and Lady Xu Yan almost jumped clean out of their wooden chairs, their faces turning completely pale in a matter of seconds. The ambient temperature in the room seemed to plummet into a freezing baseline.

"Are you completely crazy?!" Harald shouted, his hand instinctively reaching toward the hilt of his blue crystal spear resting against the wall. "You want to bring those abominations into this? I would rather be a human’s subordinate, I would rather bow my head to that old hag Lotus for the rest of my days, than team up with those disgusting monsters!"

Xu Yan slowly lowered her jade pipe, her lips tightly pressed together into a thin line. For the first time since entering the city, her calm, aristocratic composure completely fractured.

"Harald is right, Garrick," she voiced, her tone laced with deep disgust. "The Dark Elves and their necromancy are a line we cannot cross. They do not merely kill; they trap dead souls into their summons, forcing them to remain conscious while their bodies rot away to fuel their magic. It violates the natural cycle of death and reincarnation. It is a taboo recognized across the entire continent. If the greater human settlements find out we associated with them, we will be hunted down by the central empires before Azure Lotus even gets the chance to enslave us."

The hatred toward Dark Elves was deeply rooted in every human child from the moment they could read. They were viewed as the ultimate parasites of reality, entities that treated the sacred transition of life into the afterlife as nothing more than a customizable energy source for their immortal skeleton and beast armies.

Garrick did not blink under their unified glare. Instead, the vicious, toxic light in his eyes grew even brighter, reflecting the flickering flames of the iron chandelier above. He let out a dry, mocking chuckle.

"Who said anything about teaming up with them?" Garrick questioned, his voice dripping with absolute malice. "Do you honestly think I would shake hands with a pointy-eared corpse-weaver? Don’t insult my intelligence."

Harald slowed his breathing down, though his hand remained firmly gripped around his weapon. "Then what the hell are you suggesting?"

"Think about it," Garrick explained, tapping the mahogany wood with a single thick finger. "The logistics train from Grand Anchor Bay was ambushed just a few days ago. The official reports claimed it was a random monster swarm, but my hidden spies inside the MSFRM archives uncovered the truth. It was a coordinated strike led by Dark Elf scouts. They are lurking inside the Whispering Ravine, and their numbers are increasing every single day."

He paused, letting the weight of the information sink into their minds before continuing.

"The Dark Elves are aggressive, territorial, and completely blind with rage after what Sect Master Lotus did to their main fortresses decades ago. They want her head more than we want our independence. We do not need to sign a treaty with them. We simply need to leak the exact coordinates of the Eighth Peak Annual hunt to their scouting networks."

Lady Xu Yan’s green pipe hovered mid-air as her sharp mind instantly began to dissect the underlying logic of the strategy. A slow, cold realization dawned upon her.

"You want to bait them," she murmured, her narrow eyes widening slightly.

"Exactly," Garrick grinned, his teeth flashing in the dark room. "The moment the Annual hunt begins in four days, thousands of our young mages will enter the unshielded zones of the Eighth Peak. The Dark Elves will see this as the ultimate opportunity to slaughter the future core of the human settlements and harvest thousands of fresh, high-quality apprentice souls for their runes. They will deploy everything they have to crush the mountain."

Harald shook his head, his chest heaving with righteous anger. "That is still insane, Garrick! Our own children, our most talented descendants, will be right there on that mountain! Darius Blackforge, Freya, Shen Yu, they will all be trapped in the middle of a massive necromantic war zone! You are using our own family members as live bait!"

"They are mages, Harald! They knew the risks the moment they accepted their tokens!" Garrick snapped back, his voice turning cold and unyielding like the iron he mined. "Besides, have you forgotten what the Sect Master showed us today? She has the territory core of the Eighth Peak trapped inside that crystal ball. That means the mountain’s defensive barrier is completely down. The land consciousness cannot protect itself."

Garrick leaned closer, his whisper turning into a razor-sharp blade.

"When the Dark Elves launch their massive assault, the situation will descend into absolute chaos. The grand elders and the Azure Lotus Sect Master will be forced to intervene to protect the sect’s reputation and save the participants. A Mystic Mage cannot ignore an army of necromancers attacking her backyard. She will be completely occupied."

"And while she is busy fighting the Dark Elves..." Xu Yan trailed off, a rare, terrifying smile slowly curving her pink lips.

"We just want her attention away from the main palace for a short time," Garrick finished, the vicious light in his eyes reaching a boiling point. "While she is unleashed on the frontlines, burning her mystic mana against the elven kings, the defensive wards surrounding the inner sect vault will be at their absolute weakest. We will slip inside, locate that crystal ball, and take her territory core for ourselves."

Silence returned to the private chamber, but this time, it was no longer the silence of despair. It was the heavy, calculating stillness of three predators preparing to stage a coup against a tyrant.

Harald slowly released his grip on his blue crystal spear, his breath escaping his lips in a long, shuddering cloud. He looked at Garrick, then looked at Xu Yan, realizing that the wheel of fate had already started turning. There was no going back.

"If the core falls into our hands," Harald whispered, his skepticism completely melting away into a cold, dark resolve, "Azure City loses its foundational shield. She will no longer be a ruler. She will just be a powerful mage without a home."

"Still..." he paused, "a homeless Mystic is still a Mystic."

"Not when the abominations from the deep lands gets a whiff of her scent," Garrick laughed as he took out a...