We had decided to hold a meeting with the Grimalkin elders, Neso, Emi, and Kuro were all present as well.
This felt like an emergency meeting with everyone involved.
The room suddenly got very quiet
I had some questions and needed some answers, after Neso had told me everything about how the Grimalkin evolved into a complete version of themselves, and how only a select few had that honor, a thought occurred to me.
Why is it that the elders are not in their evolved form?
Why is it that the whole village is not brimming with an evolved version of the Grimalkin, I had to look into it. And could only come up with one conclusion.
Zomearon had to be involved.
There was also the question of how exactly we going to release the sun god so that its mana fused with the actual celestial body.
But first.
"Elder - please tell me something," the elder perked up his ears and listened closely.
"Zomearon has this village under his control, not just forcing you to pay taxes, but also holding you hostage with some type of curse or magic spell," Kuro was left aback, Emi touched her heart and Neso bowed his head. The elders followed suit.
What's going on, why are they suddenly reversing towards me?
"That's right -" started the elder. "Zomearon holds us hostage and curses us, not allowing us to evolve unless it's by his command, Kuro and Neso are exceptions," Kuros suddenly got teary eye.
"Neso is like a big brother to me, he protected me from Zomearon by becoming his slave, I was the one who should have been under his control," the elders sighed, Kuro said all of that becoming emotional. Where had the cool guy gone?
"Not anymore - " said Neso putting a hand on his back.
"Huh?!" Kuro said perking up and stopping his crying.
"What do you mean? What happened at Corocona Pass, you still haven't fully reported to the council!" screamed Emi standing up.
"I mean - this little one broke my chains with Zomearon,"
"You mean you're not under his control?" asked Kuro
"I haven't been able to feel his presence in quite some time now, I've finally been able to sleep, this little one helped remove the chains, he has an affinity for earth magic,"
"Earth mana!" spoke the elder. "That's wonderful, truly wonderful,"
Then Emi sat back down, and Kuro sat on his knees. They both took a deep bow towards me.
"We are in your debt!" they exclaimed and bowed for more than I feel comfortable admitting.
"Please, please, I only did what I could," I said hoping they would look me in the eye once more. I was just getting the vibe that Kuro and Emi could be somehow related to Neso.
Dragan looked at me with a wholesome smile. He almost looked proud of me.
"Wait a second !" spoke the elder. "Did you break Neso's chain, or purify them out of existence," said the elder.
"I wish I knew the difference," I said with a smile.
"Did the chains appear as a material object, did you cast a spell or did your emotions cast through it?" said the elder.
I thought about it for a moment, going back to that moment before the Herokin appeared thanks to Zomearon summoning it from the void.
"I guess I did have a strong desire for Neso to be free, and never actually cast any spells," I said. Sybil after all didn't speak during that moment, so I'm guessing it was all me.
"That settles it!" said the elder. "It was some sort of purification magic, since that type of magic can only be accessed through emotions, so you must have felt strongly about Neso as a teacher," continued the elder.
Yeah, I guess something like that.
Neso just smiled with his eyes closed, like he wanted to keep our friendship between us.
I complied.
"Ah you must be blessed by the Sun God," said the elder.
"Um… Dragan and I captured the sun god back in Tarragon Village," there was a moment of pause, then there was another beat, and then the silence crept in on me, had I said something funny?
Suddenly everyone exclaimed in uproar!
"You - You captured the Sun God?!" said Neso with a shaky voice.
"It's my fault," said Dragan trying to pass it off like it was nothing. "I thought it would be good for some extra mana, never thought this little one would be able to make him submit to his demands, I was as surprised as you guys,"
So that's what it was? I thought looking wry. Neso looked at me like he was trying to maintain his composure.
"We have something to talk to you about the sun god," said Neso calming the floor. "We found a way to solve the Dragonkin problem, we'll release the sun god, merging its mana with the actual celestial body," said Dragan. Then there was a beat, and there then was another pause, and once again another. The awkwardness crept in.
"YOU WANT TO DO WHAT!?" everyone exclaimed in an even bigger uproar.
"That would solve the Dragonkin from a lot of future problems," said the elder. Everyone turned to him in shock. "Even more so if the fusion is tailored towards Dragonkin specifically, they would make them receive the mana blessing just by walking into the rays of light," said the elder.
"That does make a lot of sense," said Neso as everyone sat back down. "But wouldn't anyone who knows about it be able to commune mana from its rays as well?" asked Neso, a valid question.
"We were thinking of keeping it a secret within the Grimalkin," I said.
"In theory, it could even bless us with enough mana to pull the village out of Zomearon's control," said Kuro. Neso agreed. Emi was having a hard time keeping up, her head was boiling. I wonder if she knew that this was going to happen already. Since Emi was the one who opened the portal with the moon ritual.
"And we think it might be the reason how we got here in the first place," I said.
"Wait - what ?" said Emi confused. "How did you guys get here in the first place?" she asked, her question seemed serious. Did she not remember she was the one to have opened the portal?
"So would you let us do it?" asked Dragan interrupting my train of thought.
"Of course, we'll let you do it! How much time do you need to prepare?" said the elder.
Uh, Sibyl, how much longer on that parallel processing?
>45 hours remaining.
"Uh more or less around 45 hours," I said
"That's less than two days," then the elder sat up and went towards one of the walls where something like a calendar stood there. "It's exactly during hours of our spring equinox ritual," he explained.
"Spring equinox?" I asked.
"It's part of our festival celebration, we rejuvenate the land with magic through this ritual, but this year it'll be different," spoke Kuro.
I'm assuming because of our sun god liberation.
"Well no time to waste," said the elder, and everyone got up seemingly knowing exactly what to do. "Dragan can I ask you a favor," said the elder moving his hand for him to get closer, Dragan stood up and moved towards the elder, crouching down to listen to his whispers.
What were they saying? Dragan was good at keeping separate his listening from his thoughts and his words. So I couldn't hear anything. I had been in my slime form this whole time.
Then they finished and the elder walked towards the rooms in the back.
Dragan grabbed me and took me towards the back as well, in there a sort of throne fit for a Gramalkin sat there.
"What's this now?" I asked.
"Just for the rest of the month," said Dragan. "Special request from the elders," he said.
Placing me on the throne, and grabbing a flower wreath from nearby, placing it on my head.
"You're the Grimalkin king, just until we get back home, decreed by elders just now," music started playing and Grimalkin maidens in black and red appeared from the sides.
A million questions ran through my head, but I guess I had no choice but to go with it for now.
Like what exactly was the void? And what other evil deeds had Zomearon done? He had imprisoned a complete race just for his amusement. What other evil deeds had he done, and had gotten away with?
But for now -
The Grimalkin were crowning me their honorary king, just for a bit it seems.