Sam and Adriana had just finished their post-battle bath and descended when Ava inford them of a visitor currently being received by Helena, the acting matriarch.
Ava didn't wait for them to reply; she just took a glance at them. Their scents were literally the sa, or it would be more accurate to say that Adriana slled exactly like Sam.
This made Ava blush from ear to ear, and she hurriedly ran away before Sam could grab her hand.
"She is so shy," Sam comnted with a helpless smile.
"Well, compared to before, she is so much better now."
"She was very reserved and always avoided social interaction. She wouldn't even talk to us much, but now she is slowly growing out of her shell in the na of getting close to you," Adriana explained with a smile.
"Don't worry. It won't be long before I remove that shell from her permanently," Sam replied mischievously.
"I believe you," Adriana ruffled his hair affectionately.
They arrived at the guest hall to witness Ava and Helena chatting. An excited expression overca Sam's face when he laid his eyes on his teacher, but what he didn't expect was his teacher, Mia Hasegawa, to return the excited face when she saw him coming in.
Mia Hasegawa inadvertently stood up when she noticed the figure of a man with heavenly charm. His crimson hair was combed neatly, giving him a bad boy appearance, and his deep blue eyes widened as they locked onto her. It made her heart flutter like never before.
'Why am I acting like this?' She shook her head, returning to her earlier position, and avoided looking at Sam while unknowingly side-eyeing him with her sharp green eyes.
Seeing the silent interaction between the two, Adriana raised an eyebrow. 'Do they know each other?'
"Mia Hasegawa, the princess of the fox tribe, greets her majesty, the matriarch Hailstorm," Mia composed herself and spoke in a tone that was neither too loud nor too soft.
She executed a forty-degree bow, showing her respect to the leader of the strongest forces in the Azure Dragon continent.
"There is no need for formalities," Adriana waved her hand before sitting beside Helena and motioning for Sam to sit on the empty side.
"I heard there is sothing very important you wish to discuss with ?"
"Yes..." Mia shifted her gaze from Sam to Adriana. "Have you heard of an organization called the Eldritch Council?"
Adriana tilted her head. "I'm aware of their existence, yes."
"A secret organization? This is interesting," Sam's interest was piqued.
"What is this Eldritch Council? Are they a secret society like the Illuminati?" Sam inquired.
"Yes... it's similar to a secret society, a secretive organization present for a long ti. No one really knows when this organization ca into existence or about its mbers. The only clue about this society is their emblem."
Saying that, Adriana waved her hand, revealing a painting. It depicted eight heads of different supernatural beings hanging together, forming an oval with the heads tainted in blood.
Each face portrayed varied expressions—smiling, crying, smiling with red tears, eyeless, mouthless, skin inside out, a hole in the forehead, and the eighth face with no visible expression, a look of despair.
'It's kind of looks cool, but I don't believe anyone with a good conscience would have this bizarre thing as their symbol to represent their group,' Sam found the picture intriguing in a weird way.
He couldn't fathom anyone with positivity in their mind imprinting this image on their robes.
In his opinion, the person who ca up with this image might have a severe ntal disorder or a case of post-traumatic stress or could have had an abusive childhood.
He once visited a psychiatric hospital during an NGO trip organized by his school, where he saw people with ntal instability drawing weird, inexplicable things.
This picture brought out the sa feeling he got from those.
Seeing the painting, Mia Hasegawa nodded to herself. "The information wasn't false. It's the sa picture I saw on the ones who were after the codex."
"The eight heads on the painting supposedly represent the Eight Mortal Sins," Adriana explained.
"Aren't there supposed to be seven mortal sins?" Sam asked, counting on his fingers. "Pride, sloth, lust, envy, greed, wrath, and gluttony?"
"There is an eighth one—Despair."
"Despair, huh?" Sam nodded in understanding. Then he thought of sothing. "If there are EIGHT mortal sins, shouldn't there be EIGHT mortal virtues?"
Hearing his question, Adriana smiled. "There is. This eighth virtue is sothing I only recently learned to grasp after I t you. It's Hope."
Her eyes were full of love and pride—love for the man she recognized, pride that he was her grandson.
'My mom has changed... after JUST ONE NIGHT!' Helena was curious now.
'It's just like with Alia. Like mother, she too was cold, and after doing it with Sam, she transford into a love-sick teenager.'
It's not that disturbing that Alia beca like that, but who was Adriana? She was tens of thousands of years old. Why is she acting like a love-sick teenager?
'I will make sure he gives the sa kind of fucking he gave them,' Helena silently promised to herself.
Mia Hasegawa narrowed her eyes. 'There is sothing going on between them; I can feel it.'
"Anyway, back to the matter at hand."
"The goals of their organization? It's still unclear. There have been a lot of incidents caused by its mbers, random and erratic, most of the ti for self-serving intentions. Then there is one particular incident that might be worthy of your interest. There have been reports that wild beasts from random places have been going missing for so years.
It is suspected that the Eldritch Council is behind it," Adriana continued while the others observed the picture.
"How did you co to that conclusion?" Sam asked.
"The places from which the wild beasts were going missing were all densely populated with powerful wild beasts. These places are heavily guarded to keep the beasts inside. When the guards sensed the disappearance of the wild beasts, they investigated and found a robe with this emblem on it," Adriana pointed at the painting.
Then Mia spoke, "So ti ago, a secret group infiltrated our treasury and stole a particular artifact. We suspected that the Eldritch Council was the culprit, but we couldn't conclude our suspicion because we didn't have any evidence to tie the incident to them."
"Then why did you suspect them in the first place?" Helena asked.
"A couple of years back, a person tried to steal from our tribe's treasury, but he was captured and apprehended. He was wearing a robe with the emblem of the Eldritch Council on it. It had never happened before, so we believed it was them this ti around too."
"Did you get any information from the thief from the Eldritch Council?" Adriana asked.
"We couldn't. Physical torture, ntal torture, nothing worked on him. At one point, he killed himself, exploding himself. With him, he took three of our people's lives," Mia said in disgust.
Composing herself, Mia continued, "Just a month ago, my subordinates acquired a piece of information about an ancient artifact being transported to the mortal world."
"At first, we didn't believe it because why would the Eldritch Council go so far to steal sothing so valuable only to send it to the mortal world? But the person who leaked this information sounded too confident for us to ignore."
"My subordinates followed through and blocked every transportation point, but we couldn't find the artifact. However, the mysterious person gave us another piece of information—the location to where the artifact was headed."
"It's a place owned by a man nad Dorian Sterling."
-----
[Master: Sam Hailstorm]
[Status: Healthy, Evolving]
[Titles: Master Of The Codex Of The Supre Immortal, The Hailstorm Clan's True Heir]
[Age: 18]
[Inheritance: Inheritance of the Eternal Dragon Monarch, Will Of The Immortal Shadow Emperor]
[Cultivation: Supre Nascent Soul Realm]
[Body Cultivation: None]
[Race: Celestial Dragon]
[Bloodline(s): Frozen Abyssal Dragon Bloodline, Crimson Inferno Dragon Bloodline, Primordial Chaos Dragon Bloodline (Assimilation: 98.78%)]
[Spirit Vein(s): Nine-Heavens Spiritual Veins]
[Bloodline Abilities: Cryokinesis, Pyrokinesis]
[Physique: Mystic Voidheart Harmonic Physique, Soul Sanctum Imbibition Physique]
[Divine Powers: Divine Charm, Immortal Body (Stage-2), Exquisite Rune Heart]
[Innate Abilities: Devour, Rumination Clarity, Shadow Extraction]
[Racial Abilities: Dragon Transformation ]
[Skills: Eclipse Shadow Slash(??? Grade), Darkfla Incantation(??? Grade), Shadow Emperor Incarnation(??? Grade), Dragon Fist Strike, Hundred Mountain Palm (Sage Grade), Frozen Abyssal Fang Strike (Sage Grade), Unending Sword Torrent (Great-Sage Grade)]
[Bloodline Techniques: Absolute Zero]
[Cultivation thod: Nine Celestial Revolutions Sutra]
[Body Cultivation thod: Samsara Flesh Rebirth Art]
[Storage: Vial Of True Essence of Progenitor Of Vampires, Vial Of true Essence of Progenitor Of Lycans, Vial Of true Essence of Progenitor Of Dragons, Vial Of true Essence of Progenitor Of Qilins]
-----
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[A/N: If you enjoyed this chapter, please consider supporting it with a few Power Stones. And if you absolutely loved it, you can even contribute a Golden Ticket. Your support ans a lot to ! Thank you very much! - Arigato! 🙏]
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