The Raven's POV-Chapter 33: Council talks, Rowayne shocked

In the council room.

Only 6 seats were filled, 4 Elders were sent to reinforce the battlefield while 3 were weeding out spies.

Elder Wong broke the stalemate between Elder Zephyr and Elder Norman

"Why don’t we look at the thing before deciding Elder Zephyr"

He turned to Elder Norman

"And if the council is not convinced even after that. You will retract your vote, how about it?"

An attempt at peaceful compromise, one which both ultimately agreed upon.

Time was precious, most Elders were completely uninterested in the topic, they each had their duties, they were the overseers of this realm.

Every minute they spent arguing was a minute they wasted, and wasting time was not something someone in their position could afford.

Many things required direct supervision of an Elder, ofcourse not every Elder had such duties, as not every person worked well with crowds or had the ability to effectively command the masses.

But these Elders also had crucial roles they fullfilled, like Elder Norman who was incharge of monster research, He prefered working alone, though he did have subordinates they all did their own tasks in groups, these tasks did not require Norman’s immediate attention nevertheless he was informed.

Or like Elder Hinobi, who was a Runesmith and runes required focus and steady hands among other things and yielded better results when done in a quiet room and no disturbances.

"So, umm who is changing their anchor for this?"

Elder Cecil made himself known at this point, it was a rhetorical question, every Elder in the room had already made up their mind to single out Elder Norman.

All eyes fell on Elder Norman, they seemed to be saying, ’ Can’t you do this much, after stubbornly wasting our time?’

Of course Elder Norman couldn’t refuse.

Inside a realm space was more prone to rupture which made using teleporters dangerous, a single malfunction could claim many lives.

To solve this, the academy used trains as the main form of transport, but that wasn’t a viable option for someone like Elders who worked far away from one another, but had to be present for council meetings.

One of the founders of the academy solved this by splitting their soul and imbuing it into the council room in their later years.

The fragment of soul contained his gift, a gift that allowed him to mark doors, marked doors which connected to each other regardless of the distance as long as they were on the same realm.

The gift adapted to the room, making it an artifact, expanding its capabilities.

Now, there stood 13 doors, each behind a chair, each one connected to a different location.

But this method also had its downsides, one being that changing a door’s destination will cause that door to go dormant for a certain period, a sort of cooldown.

Norman offered his own door, meaning he would have to physically travel back to the meeting room every time a meeting will be called until the door becomes active again and destination can be changed.

Though everyone present had overlooked one single thing in the heat of the moment–

That Norman skipped 3 out of 5 meetings. And they were handing him the perfect excuse to skip more.

"Let’s go"

Norman said while grinning inwardly.

***

Rowayne looked at the familiar figure in the distance.

"You have made it this far, overcoming many challenges, I commend your spirit."

The figure spoke.

"BUT to claim this mind realm, you must prove yourself worthy"

The figure put its arms behind its back, leaned inwards and said in a voice that felt like a whisper but was heard loud and clear

"So, are you ready?"

No. Rowayne was not ready, he didn’t have a slightest clue about what was happening.

One moment he was barely holding onto his sanity in the chamber, next he was here in this unfamiliar place, the figure referred to as the ’Mind realm’.

He didn’t know what challenges the figure was talking about, he had faced no such thing in the past 6 months.

Entrance was not that hard either.

So unless it was talking about the hardships Rowayne endured while learning to cook, drive or follow the map.

Which Rowayne was pretty sure it wasn’t, then the only conclusion remained that the one standing before him was delusional.

A lunatic.

Then without any warning, one of its tentacles shot forward, it steadily accelerated as it covered the distance.

Rowayne stepped to the side in a hurry, the place he had been standing on mere moments ago was hit by the tentacle.

"Oh, you dodged that?, Well I expected that much"

The figure then lifted its obsidian hands and pointed its sharp knife-like finger at Rowayne.

"Dodge this."

All its tentacles burst into a storm of activity, some shot in the straight line, some went up in an arc and some hid in the black sea of liquid darkness.

Rowayne’s eyes went wide as he hurried to dodge. They were slower than before, it was barely manageable, constant side stepping and running wore him out while tentacles kept coming.

The ones coming down from above struck the ground mini meteors, splashing dark water everywhere.

While the ones he could see straight ahead, were like speeding vehicles.

He kept dodging and dodging and dodging, he couldn’t close the gap, couldn’t widen it either.

He was stuck, in a dance, a deadly dance where one wrong move meant dead, then the tentacles hiding underneath erupted.

They were hardest to dodge, he could barely guess where they were from the waves, the same waves which were muddled due to his constant movements.

Sometimes he would miscalculate which resulted in unnecessary movements, unnecessary openings.

It couldn’t stay this way, something had to change, he would force it to change or else he would die.

First he needed to reduce the number of tentacles, he needed to cut.

He turned around dodging yet another tentacle that erupted from the below.