16. The Council
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"Yes?"

She looked at the civilians and nodded a couple times. Five people, three men and two women, separated from the group and stood sideways between us and the populace.

Only one of them, a male, was an [Awakener].

"We held a census. The civilians were told to elect a new councilor for every twenty-five people of each sex. These are the one they chose."

"What about you and Adam?" I asked.

"We aren't elected, our seats wore given by the Emperor yourself. Until you deem it necessary to replace us, we'll keep our places as First Councilors. We may veto decisions if we agree on it, and each of our votes will always count for one sixth of the total. If any voting ever ties, by your own decision, whatever I voted for will count as the winner."

I had decided no such thing, but she looked beggingly at my eyes when she said that. I smiled. She had tried to be fair, but still didn't shy away from a power grab.

Good.

"So, the council will be a legislative institution?" I asked.

By not saying anything about her words, I implicitly agreed with them.

"Yes. We talked to the Head Warrior whom the Emperor yourself put in power and she agreed to be the executive arm of the Council." I swear I heard the uppercase C in her words. "For now, she'll make sure the laws are obeyed. We'll decide on a justice arm later."

She took a step ahead, getting one step closer to the civilians than me. Bold move. She raised her voice to say the next words, almost yelling by now.

"Emperor, please rest assured, the Council will never vote on any rule decided by you. We immediately turn into law whatever the Emperor wants. If we deem it wise, we will but beg for an audience and present an alternative solution after we set the law."

She was making an obvious effort to call me Emperor and be publicly submissive. So, the Eve that had talked to me wasn't the part of herself she usually showed the world, huh?

"In our first act, we declare negotiating with terrorists illegal. Anyone proven to act with terrorists before shall be killed on sight. Such is the ruling of the Council, by the wisdom of the Emperor himself."

"The Council agrees!" said all other councilors at once.

They had practiced, it seemed.

I nodded. "Excellent. Unless the situation calls for me to address the populace directly, I'll inform only the Council of my wishes in the future. On that note, I have a new rule. Only [Awakeners] will be allowed in the Council." Eve turned to me with surprise in her face. "Yes, it includes the First Councilors too. Unless you are all [Awakeners] yourselves, the social attributes of others will trample all over you. You all have until tomorrow morning to [Awaken] or you must leave the Council."

Eve didn't like it, but she bowed her head. "It shall be as the Emperor demands."

It wasn't just that [Awakeners] had too much of an advantage with 6 points of social attributes against the 1 from common people. Some skills had requirements to unlock. The [Minor Mental Resistance] skill, which would also become obligatory for Councilors in the future, required 10 points of presence.

Not to mention common people were just too fragile. The idiots better realize quickly that they needed to be capable of protecting themselves, at least on a basic level. It was either realizing it or dying a stupid death.

Lastly, Councilors would be mostly non-combatants in the beginning. The only way for them to get to 10 points was by [Awakening].

So, I was giving them both a way to fight other [Awakeners] social attributes with their own, a better survival chance, and head starting them on the path needed to get [Minor Mental Resistance].

The religious groups who were against suicide would complain, but this headache was now for the Council to deal with.

After that, I got back to my corner, sat down, I focused on leveling up my spiritual skill. Eve and White Aegis still came to be bossed around, and I watched as the Council started creating laws and organizing the village better.

The dead warriors were buried outside the village at nightfall. I attended but said nothing. No one did. It was a somber moment and we just nodded respectfully before moving on.

Nothing else required my attention for the rest of the day.

But at the sunrise of the third day, Eve came to me with bloodshot eyes from a restless night. She had a stave on her hand and was followed by the Council.

When she got in front of me, she kneeled and raised the stave with her two hands.

"My Emperor, I beseech you. Please be the guiding hand in my [Awakening]."

I didn't miss that in that exact moment, my Head Warrior was at the entrance, shouting orders about how the newcomers should enter and behave. She even looked at me and winked.

The First Woman [Awakening] right in front of both the existing civilians and the newcomers? What a powerful image about uniting the old and the new under her leadership! What a way to rub her bravery and suffering in everyone's face, to be remembered for days to come!

That made me want to smile.

Maybe Eve wasn't such a big disappointment.

I would do what she wanted and more as a reward for not being stupid.

 


 

Almost fifty extra people had joined the village in the past two hours.

I expected this to be most of the remaining living ones. One and a half days in the wild wasn't healthy for the average person.

They had mixed with the people already inside and everyone was now standing before Eve. I was embracing her naked form from behind. The Councilors and White Aegis were standing a few paces behind us.

My hands were over hers as she held the stave over her heart, ready to sacrifice herself. Her entire body trembled. It would be even worse if I wasn't covering her with essence and doing my best to hold her still.

"Be strong," I whispered in her ears. "And remember, breathe deeply after you [Awaken]. I'll do my best to stop you from doing something you'll regret later, but if you do something drastic, I'll need to make you faint. This would undermine everything you're trying to achieve here."

I heard her gulping. She said nothing, just nodded her head.

"You have their attention already, but don't make them wait or-"

Midway through my sentence, she pushed the stave inside herself.

Eve gritted her teeth as pain hit her. She left her hands in place. My own were only touching hers, applying no pressure. If I interfered with the stave, her death would be for naught.

I heard her grumbling, but barely. She kept it inside. She breathed deep, fast, irregularly. She held some coughs back. She drowned in her own blood. But she never opened her mouth.

She died.

I used essence to lay her against me and keep her standing. It was hard, the limits of what I could do. When I didn't feel her heartbeat anymore, I started the next phase of my plan.

I clenched her hands with one of mine, pulled them together with the stave, then twisted it to rest just below the hole in her heart. That way, everyone would see it regenerate.

Next, I covered her mouth with my other hand and clenched it hard. Eve didn't want to scream. That was the only way to prevent it.

"Read the system window," I whispered after nothing happened for a few seconds.

An instant later, her body started trashing.

My arms held her upper body in place. One of my hands held her own hands. The other held her head. I did my best with essence to hold her legs too, but she ripped through the essence barrier as if it wasn't even there. I just pulled her a few inches from the ground then.

And so she thrashed. She screamed inside her mouth and her legs kicked me, kicked the air, moved and twisted.

Minutes later, her body fell limp.

It was over.

"Breathe," I whispered. "Focus yourself. Center yourself. Breathe."

She started obeying.

The smell hit me a second later.

Pheromones. She was secreting so much pheromones I felt my body shiver and awaken with desire. Eve had unlocked a class in her [Awakening] and she was a fucking [Temptress].

It only happened to those who wanted for something more than anything else. Who refused the essence seed unless it gave them what they wanted. Who gambled using their lives as coin.

Humanity had researched it before. The gamble didn't pay ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a hundred thousand. Those who said they would rather die than not get what they wanted were stupid suicides.

Eve had succeeded.

It made me absolutely furious.

"You cunt!" I whispered angrily. "You would die on me here? You would refuse the essence seed when I did all this for you? Do you have any idea how this would've affected me? How you dying like this in my arms would mess with my plans?"

She tried to say something, and I removed the hand from her mouth, keeping it in her shin instead. Close to her throat without looking menacing to my people.

Her voice wasn't what I was expecting. It was male and booming.

It belonged to the God of Beginnings.

"Let it be known, the Goddess of Revenge has laid claim to a new Chosen after her two previous Chosen were killed. As this violates Tower Law, the Goddess of Revenge has been slain. Her Chosen is to be killed in the next hour. Failure to comply will have her and everyone in her village hunted throughout the entire Tower."

 The voice died and I immediately after, I felt Eve trying to turn the point of her stave to her body.

"Kill me, please," she said, and I felt tears touching my hand.

Something like this had never happened before! They slew a Goddess just like that? And for Choosing someone when they shouldn't?

That sounded like a dumb way to die.

"Please," she cried. "I would rather you did it. But if you won't, let me. I... This class... I can feel the desire. It burns! It's making me crazy! Please kill me! I don't want to live like this!"

"Shut up," I said sharply. "Didn't you hear me say everything in this village belongs to me? You're mine too, Eve. And no one, not even the gods, can take what's mine."

I hadn't survived for so many resets without learning a few tricks of my own. Looking at the skies, I shouted.

"In the name of the Third Heretic, I appeal against this ruling on my village and its people. As evidenced by the Chosen's resolve to kill herself and words of suffering, she was Chosen against her will. That itself is another violation in the Tower Law and she can't be held accountable for it."

Nothing happened for a few seconds.

Then the voice of the God of Beginnings came from above.

"The Third Heretic has supported your claim. Your appeal has been received. The God of Justice has ruled both sides equally right. Your Chosen may live, but my demand for a life must also be met with interest. Give me the lives of three Chosen before your race steps on the Fourth Floor, or your life will be forfeited."

 

Quest received: Sacrifices for the God of Beginnings
The God of Beginnings has demanded you kill three Chosen for him before your race reaches the Fourth Floor.

Reward:
» Quenching of the anger of the God of Beginnings

Punishment for failure:
» Death

 

I laughed. Did he take me for a fool?

"I refuse, greedy bastard. Don't try to confuse me by stating your personal desire right after the ruling of the God of Justice. Don't push a stupid quest on me! Our claims were deemed equally right; I owe you nothing! Get your own Chosen to do your dirt work for you."

 

Quest refused: Sacrifices for the God of Beginnings

 

"You shall pay for this insolence," the voice said and disappeared.

I was smiling like a madman by now.

"Sorry for calling you a cunt and doubting you before," I whispered in Eve's ears while I deposited my hands on her waist. "Having me get into a shouting match with a god in front of everyone, to protect one of my people? A match I won to boot? This was the gift you could've given me, Eve. Ask for whatever you want, anything at all, and I'll give it to you."

That, I decided, would be my last test for her.

She tensed.

 

We finally got to see the protagonist flex against someone with actual power!

How fast do you think that'll come to bite him in the ass?

Next chapter guaranteed to come out the day after tomorrow (Friday).

I'll do my best to release one tomorrow though. 85% chance of succeeding.

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