CHAPTER 68: QUESTIONS

The feeling of death pressed down on Zephyr from every side, nearly corporeal, like he could touch it. It threatened him into utter stillness, making him fearful to make even the slightest movement.

He felt like he was being locked on to by multiple life-ending spells from every direction. He couldn’t see the tell-tale sign of a spell model floating in the air anywhere, but he could feel the effects, all of his senses, even the weakest of them, were blaring alarms, warning him not to make a move. Not that he could if he wanted anyway, his muscles had gone stiff reflexively like it was anticipating an imminent impact.

"What the fuck is this?!" Zephyr muttered through stiff jaws, trying to move his head to look around.

Suddenly, just as it came, the pressure abruptly disappeared.

"Haa!" A collective gasp of released tension echoed through the room as members of the council sucked in deep breaths of air, panting. Some were on the floor like Zephyr, on their knees, or even nearly sprawled, while others like the old man and woman on both sides of Oswald, were still seated on their seats, albeit with varying levels of comfortability. The younger, more talented ones like Veronica and the suave gentleman at the ends of the table were bent over but still held their own, while the older generation closer to Grandmaster Oswald barely broke a sweat— or at least they put on a good act of not breaking a sweat.

Dale and the others had been brought to their knees, a testament to their relative weakness and their methods of getting into the council. Most of those on their knees had gotten in through political means, serving more as pawns for their families to influence council decisions.

"Pardon me, council members," Grandmaster Oswald waved a hand. "I was simply carried away because we were acting so undignified. It doesn’t read well to our guest here..." he pointed at Zephyr’s kneeling figure.

Zephyr took in deep breaths, analyzing what he’d just felt, he wanted to be able to at least move the next time something like that ever happened. That feeling of utter helplessness, fully at the mercy of someone else was very humbling and humiliating.

He raised his head to meet the Grandmaster, who was watching him with a gaze of approval. Zephyr scanned the faces of the others, noting their various states, spotting those who were not as strong as their colleagues but were still on his list previously.

As he watched them, they also watched him with amazement in their eyes, surprised that he could hold his own with his fragile body despite being put under the same pressure they had.

"Looks like Veronica wasn’t wrong about you," the old man seated on Grandmaster Oswald’s left spoke for the first time, nodding his head in approval.

Dale, who had quickly gotten up to his seat, kept mute though he really wanted to chip in that Grandmaster Oswald might have gone easy on the boy.

Besides the fact that he had lost face and was trying to keep what little he had left, he knew he couldn’t say that. Grandmaster Oswald was someone who was known to never pull punches when doing things, if anything, he wouldn’t be surprised to find out the old man had pressed Zephyr even more, that would be more believable than him taking it easy on the boy.

Zephyr caught his breath and stood up in one go, steadying himself.

His quick recovery rate further impressed the council members watching. Even the ever playful, suave gentleman was clearly taken aback. They might all have seemed to be fully recovered and fine, but they all knew it was a front. The human body takes some time to stabilize after being flooded with intense fight or flight signals on the level they were just doused with. So the fact made his recovery all the more impressive.

"I was saying..." Zephyr continued like nothing happened, "I got here on a journey through the void from a Tier 9 rift world."

"Buttress." Grandmaster Oswald urged, leaning forward in his seat.

"I was trapped in a decaying rift world being devoured by the void and was only saved by the presiding Grand Commander who created a construct that was able to traverse through the void stably."

"Lie." Dale muttered, more out of surety than spite. His tone was blunt, like he was stating a mere fact. He stared at the others with the same stark expression.

"Ahem" the old man next to Oswald cleared his throat. "Young man, I would suggest you try to be as truthful as possible. What you’re stating is basically impossible," he shook his head.

"But it is true." Zephyr insisted.

Grandmaster Oswald watched Zephyr’s expression carefully for any sign of wavering, but he found none. "You’ve still not answered how you got here," he said.

Zephyr smiled lightly, noticing the man’s choice of words. He had hoped Grandmaster Oswald would ask another question to get a clearer picture, but he cleverly evaded Zephyr’s childish play with ease.

"We stumbled into a gateway link," Zephyr continued, drawing an exaggerated eye roll from Dale and even unimpressed looks from a few others, "—and for some reason, the Grand Commander made to harm me, but I was able to find a flaw in the construct and escape, falling into the gateway link along with my partner, and ending up here."

Silence

The three oldest people at the table exchanged glances, wearing serious frowns on their faces that caused Dale and a few others, who already had serious doubts, to keep quiet for a moment. It seemed Zephyr had mentioned a few things that struck a chord among the older generation, and only they grasped the full implications of what he had said.

Grandmaster Oswald had intended to point out that Zephyr had talked only about himself and the Grand Commander throughout his story, only to conveniently slot in his partner—Smiling Devil—right at the end. But that concern now seemed so trivial. It was a minor detail compared to the rest of what Zephyr had described.

"So, you’re saying you, a Tier 1 mage, got trapped in a render made by a Tier 7 Lawbearer, found a glitch in the render, and even went further to exploit said glitch all while the Lawbearer was fully aware... and yet you’re alive?" the suave gentleman’s voice cut through the silence from the front. He stared at Zephyr with his brows furrowed in absolute seriousness. It seemed he was the only other person to understand the latter part of what Zephyr had said. Most of the other council members, including Veronica, looked confused, but still waited for whatever was happening to be explained by someone.

By now, Zephyr had begun to question whether he’d made a mistake by telling them what he experienced. Even he didn’t understand what he had gone through back then, he only knew he spotted a glitch due to Aegis’ help and took advantage of it.

"The boy is not lying." Grandmaster Oswald said with a narrowed gaze, tapping a finger on the table. "Even though it’s unbelievable, what he speaks of are too specific to be a lie... I doubt even he understands what he just said," Grandmaster Oswald explained, drawing nods of assent from the two old council members seated next to him. They had come to the same conclusion he had.

"Boy, do you know who Lawbearers are?" Grandmaster Oswald asked.

Zephyr pondered for a bit, but eventually shook his head rather than spouting what he thought the word might mean.

Grandmaster Oswald stood up slowly, walking around the right side of the table keeping his gaze locked solely on Zephyr, "What exactly do you know about your world and how power is defined?" he asked.

"Why do you think people from your world are so valued? Why do you think you’re here? Do you know what origin really is?" he fired with increasing intensity, drawing closer to Zephyr.

"...I’m sure you don’t," he whispered as he reached Zephyr, resting a hand on his shoulder. "How did you do it?" Grandmaster Oswald asked, staring at Zephyr intently, watching for any sign of a lie.

"...How did I do what?" Zephyr asked.

"Find the glitch." Oswald chuckled mirthlessly.

"I can’t tell you that... It’s now my turn to ask a question." Zephyr said calmly, drawing a smile from Grandmaster Oswald. He removed his hand from Zephyr’s shoulder, folding them behind his back. "Alright. Ask away," he laughed.

"Just like you said... I don’t know much about my world, how power is defined, origin..." Zephyr said. "So I’ll start with the first thing you said... How is power defined in my world? Who are Lawbearers?" Zephyr stared Grandmaster Oswald in the eye.