Chapter 347 - Council Meeting

The monthly meeting of the elders was about to begin, Mercury followed after the Word Sharman elder into the council building in the center of Cana, in the lobby, someone called out to the Word Sharman elder by her name

"Rana"

The Word Sharman elder sighed before she stopped and turned to the Wasim clan elder before she greeted him back

"Ridwan, you're here early"

"Haha, of course! Who is this?"

"This is Mercury, he'll be sitting in on the council meeting"

Mercury looked at Ridwan, his grey hair and beard showed his age still there was one thing Mercury felt when he looked at him

'This guy's dangerous…'

As Mercury looked at Ridwan he also looked him over

"Hoo~... Mercury was it?"

Mercury showed a smile and nodded

"Yes"

"Well then, let me ask you, Mercury, what makes you think you are entitled enough to be sitting on the same rug as the elders of Cana?"

Mercury of course noticed the underlying threat in Ridwan's words, he also saw how Ridwan's hand on his curved sword tightened slightly, no doubt that an unsatisfactory answer would result in loss of life or limb, Mercury's smile widened slightly as he blatantly provoked Ridwan back

"My strength, of course, I am giving you elders great respect by sitting in on your meeting and not leveling the entire city of Cana instead"

Ridwan narrowed his eyes slightly, that was the signal as he instantly drew the curved sword on his hip and in one fluid motion that clearly had been perfected over decades of training slashed out at Mercury aiming to directly sever his head from his shoulders, Mercury didn't dodge he simply reached out and grabbed the curved sword with his hand, of course, to the current Mercury that would seem like suicide if not for the fact that he had used his partially reinforced right hand which he instantly had covered by a thin layer of Adamantium, a loud clang sounded out inside the lobby as Ridwan's eyes widened slightly, then before anyone noticed what was happening Ridwan was sent sliding across the room as he had instantly pulled back his curved sword and blocked a lighting fast jab from Mercury with it, Ridwan looked at how his treasured curved sword had been slightly bent and looked up at Mercury as his eyelid twitched slightly

"You…"

Ridwan looked at Mercury for a bit, he clearly felt it, the difference between them, no the difference between Mercury and mere mortals, he looked over at the Word Sharman elder and asked

"Rana did you reanimate the corpse in your mansion..? No that can't be right... Oh is this a new one?"

The Word Sharman elder nodded

"Yeah this is a new one, in fact, I think he's the youngest"

Mercury ignored the two elders discussion and flatly asked Ridwan

"So? Do I pass?"

Ridwan showed a wide smile and nodded

"Of course, you are free to sit in on the council meeting"

Mercury felt a near endless battle will from that smile and showed a smile laced with arrogance back as he spoke

"That's good, see you later then"

Ridwan nodded and spoke with a surprising amount of respect

"Then I'll leave first, see you then, Mercury"

Then he resolutely turned around and walked further into the council building, Mercury sighed and complained

"Being arrogant all the time and flaunting my strength like that is exhausting…"

The Word Sharman elder showed a smile and commented

"If it's so tiring why do it?"

Mercury showed a smile

"Because I know they're going to be telling tales about this day for a long time, so naturally I want to show off… Plus I want to look cool for my women"

"That's awfully arrogant sounding too"

"Maybe… Shall we?"

"Yes, let's"

The two of them walked deeper into the council building and soon arrived at the innermost chamber where the two of them saw Ridwan sitting on the decorated rug with a pipe in his mouth and eyes closed, he was seemingly pondering over something so they didn't disturb him and sat down at the Word Sharman area and waited for the last member of the elder council to arrive, Mercury closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, Ridwan opened his eyes and glanced at Mercury before he seemed to realize something and showed a knowing smile to the Word Sharman elder that nodded back, then Ridwan closed his eyes again as he puffed on his pipe, soon the last member of the elder council arrived, Rasul Shad stepped into the room and glanced over the people present, his eyes briefly stopped once he reached Mercury though they quickly moved on as he showed a smile and spoke apologetically

"Sorry I am late friends"

Behind Rasul followed two people, one a woman and the other a man, when they stepped into the room Mercury opened his eyes and glanced at them

'Those two are… Heh'

Mercury's eyes flashed with slight disdain before he closed them again, they were about ¾ as strong as Ridwan and even though Ridwan might be the strongest person in Cana and the two bodyguards would probably be able to take him together it didn't matter much to Mercury that would be able to take 5 people of Ridwan's level at the same time, Rasul noticed this faint glint of disdain which Mercury displayed once he looked over his bodyguards and after two seconds of thinking he stood up from the rug again and spoke

"I am sorry, somethings come up, we'll have to postpone this meeting"

Rasul was a sly merchant and an old one at that, his sense of danger was high enough to see that he was at a disadvantage here, just as he had taken the first step towards the exit Mercury spoke

"Stop walking and sit down"

Rasul froze, that's when arrogance got the best of him and he snapped back

"Or what?"

Mercury opened his eyes and looked at Rasul

"Or I annihilate your clan for the crimes you have committed… If you face your death with some spine I'll swear that I won't touch anyone but the guilty"

The two bodyguards kicked off the ground at once, but before they had made it halfway across the room Mercury disappeared from view, when he reappeared he was gasping the necks of the two bodyguards, then without changing expression he squeezed slightly and two snaps sounded out in the room as both the bodyguards went limp in Mercury's hands, then he threw them aside and began walking towards Rasul that yelled

"This is an affront to the elder council!! Rana, Ridwan would you do something!?"

Ridwan was about to stand up when the Word Sharman elder spoke

"This is your own undoing Rasul, by using the Superweapons without the council's approval and razing Ode you have doomed yourself"

Ridwan raised an eyebrow at the Words Sharman elder's words before he sighed and muttered

"So Ode was really razed…"

Mercury kept walking towards Rasul as he spoke

"I spent over a week digging through the rubble of Ode, the number of survivors of the once-great city was less than 50 when I was done digging, I didn't connect it to you before you attempted to kill me with the same Superweapon once more…"

Rasul's face hardened, he knew he was out of options and therefore he decided to throw away his pride and yelled out

"Save me!"

Mercury showed a smile and spoke

"Who's going to save your so---"

[AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's not quite a shill voice, but I guess it counts!]

The voices of thousands of children overlapped and speaking as one appeared inside the head of everyone present, in fact, it appeared in the heads of every single person in Cana, as it did 'something' broke through the space above the city, like a mirror space, shattered and broke revealing a dark endless void behind it, Mercury could not see the scene directly but as every warning bell inside his head went off at once he yelled

"MOVE!"

A few seconds later a black smoke purred out of the crack and crashed down into the council building causing the building to collapse onto itself, Mercury appeared outside the building carrying the Word Sharman elder that had passed out, Ridwan appeared a few moments later covered in dust, the two of them looked up at the black smoke that slowly condensed together and formed an oriental dragon, its entire body was made of tar-black smoke that morphed and shapeshifted in between twisted visages of horrified children letting out soundless screams, the eyes of the oriental smoke dragon was a sinister shade of red as they gazed down at Mercury the creepy overlapped voice once again appeared in the heads of everyone present, like a snake whispering into one's ear

[There you are! AHAHAHAHAHAHA FINALLY I WILL BE IMMORTAL, COME MY VESSEL!]

Mercury tighten his fists and just as he was about to lunch into his life's toughest fight a cold female voice resonated in his head

"Step down, this is above your paygrade"

"Victoria?"

Just as Mercury asked the blade of a pale sword appeared next to him, it had ripped through the fabric of space and soon slashed down and ripped open the void, as it did loud music sounded out from the spacial crack

"Back in black I hit the sack I've been too long, I'm glad to be back Yes, I'm let loose From the noose---"

Then the figure holding the pale bone sword stepped through and spoke out casually

"What's up?"