Lone took in the way all of the elders were reacting to his words. The eighth, fifth, and third elder, all looked slightly ashamed and uncertain. The seventh elder looked annoyed, while the rest looked completely unphased.

The seventh elder was the one to reply. "I thought this was meant to be a meeting, not an interrogation. I refuse to participate in such."

"Do you all feel the same way?" Lone asked coldly.

The other elders either didn't answer or nodded slightly, with the exception of the first elder who said, "We should stop this 'meeting'. Your emotions have got the better of you. You are free to peruse our records at your leisure. Now th-"

"Nothing Vortex is what it's called," Lone interrupted.

"What?" First Elder Lelgu was confused, as was everyone else except for Breena and, while not in the know, Gilbert had enough information to not be caught off guard completely by Lone's seemingly random statement.

"It is the Primal skill I was gifted by Void for becoming its avatar. Using it, I killed Lady Carnation, an X-ranker, in less than ten or so seconds. Her being was torn to shreds, consumed by the void. Her existence was erased. All that remains of her is the memories that she ever was in the first place. Gilbert," he stated.

"... He's telling the truth," the guildmaster responded hesitantly.

"I have enough MP to use that skill to kill everyone in this room, and enough resilience to avoid death myself in the process," Lone said. "Gilbert."

"... Again, he's telling the truth," Gilbert answered, as was his duty.

"Your collective hesitation to answer my question was in and of itself an answer but I will not take silence or refusal so peacefully again. These are no longer questions. They are demands. This is no longer a meeting, it is a hostage situation. If I am not satisfied, you will all die today and I will personally go to retrieve those innocent Crimson Foxkin. Trust me, you do not want me to do that, even from your graves. You are all terrified of awakening, and even more so are you fearful of the dreaded few who have awakened to Void. What you hope to accomplish by avoiding answering not an awakened but the avatar of that very Primal is beyond me. Now, do not test the avatar of not only Void, but of three more of your gods again. Am I clear?" Lone boomed.

Could he win a fair one-on-one with an X-ranker, even a weaker one? Probably not. But a life or death fight was very different from a fair spar. A small part of him was hoping they would attack him for his 'arrogance'. The power he would gain through Growth Accelerator with the deaths of eight X-rankers and maybe even two XX-rankers... It was the most tempting thing he had ever been faced with before.

Still, his logical side hoped the smart and innocent members of this council would prevail and speak up. That would be the gateway that would lead to him manipulating the clan into actually saving those 17 kids and perhaps any others he hadn't learned about. That mattered more than his own selfish desires right now.

"I..." First Elder Lelgu hesitated before suddenly finishing, "... understand. It may not be a satisfactory answer, but the few people we have not recovered have not been returned because of the potential political ramifications."

She glanced to Gilbert who nodded slowly. "She is telling the truth."

"So that's it? The clan is scared of backlash caused by reclaiming individuals who were kidnapped and sold into slavery? So what you're tell me is that I can kidnap as many clan members as I am able to do so and so long as I find powerful people to sell them to, you won't do anything about it? Pathetic. Okay then, why have the culprits not been dealt with yet?" Lone questioned.

"You don't get to 'okay then' us after saying something like that!" the seventh elder shouted. "Having morals is well and good, up until it gets you killed. Do you even understand who owns those children right now? It would be suicide for the clan to demand they be returned."

Lone narrowed his eyes. "I get it. It was speculated in the report I received that the clan likely hasn't taken action to get those 17 due to where they are. Eight are enslaved to the Travelling Bazaar, which is owned by a Divine. Five more are enslaved to a triple-X-ranker who claims to be very close to ascending to Divinity. Two more are scattered, belonging to this or that organisation, each of which have loose ties to powerful groups of X, XX, and XXX-rankers. Still what's your point?"

The seventh elder calmed significantly. "So you do understand... Attempts to buy their freedom have been made, as have polite requests for their return, all of which were refused. Your anger is merited bu-"

"Let me reiterate," Lone interrupted as he pointed to Breena. "She was owned by a C-ranked summoned hero who himself belonged to a weak kingdom with only five SS-rankers to its name. One of the remaining kids is enslaved to a D-ranked noble whose mother is an SSS-ranker, and the last one that we know of is the property of an S-ranker. What's your excuses for them?"

The seventh elder was going to respond but was beaten to the punchline by the first elder.

"You are right. We have no excuses for your companion or those two. They all have, or in her case, had, loose connections to greater powers that are strong enough to be of some concern to us should a war happen over it, but there is a line between sensible caution and selfish fear. I believe we were on the wrong side of that line for those three. I will now propose a motion to my fellow elders that we make new requests for those two children of the clan to be returned to us, and should we be rejected, we reclaim them by force. All those in favour, raise your hand," First Elder Lelgu said, surprising Lone.

Gilbert spoke next, saying, "She's being truthful."

Every elder raised their hands, even the seventh elder, and thus, First Elder Lelgu said, "The motion has been passed. We'll begin our efforts as soon as this meeting ends."

Out of the corner of his eyes, Lone could see Breena had grabbed the sides of her fire-orange cheongsam with shaking fists.

"That's it?" she mumbled.

"What?" the seventh elder said, having not heard Breena's words properly. "Speak up, dear, this is if you wish to be heard."

Lone narrowed his eyes in interest. Perhaps she thought the ex-slave talking instead of him would lead to less pointed accusations being made. He couldn't assume her motives for urging Breena to speak, but regardless, he didn't move to stop her. She had every right to say what was on her mind if that's what she wanted.

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Breena turned to look at Lone, perhaps for permission or just reassurance. He nodded, intent on giving her all the confidence to do and say as she felt she needed. "I'll protect you, so get it all off your chest," he whispered.

Breena took a deep breath and then raised her head. "That's it?"

"What?" the seventh elder repeated herself. "You'll have to be more specific, dear."

"No efforts were made to rescue me when your requests for my return were rejected. You just left me to rot in that place under the control of that monster... because it was convenient?" Breena shook her head. "No... because I was inconvenient."

She stared directly at the seventh elder with a certain hateful coldness if her gaze. "I may have been five, but I knew you didn't like me. You never did. You always preferred my cousin Tiera, didn't you? It was you, wasn't it, great, great grandmother? Y-You got them to kidnap me and y-you made sure the clan never rescued me, didn't you?!"

Confusion filled the seventh elder's eyes. "No. Breena died. I don't know what sort of trick this is or what misunderstanding you're having, but even if you share her name, I was assured my first great, great granddaughter didn't survive the journey to her intended destination. Three girls with the name Breena Redtail were kidnapped that night. You're not her, even if you think you are. I saw her body. Or... what was left of it."

"When did this happen?!" Lossa demanded. "Why was I never told about any of this?!"

First Elder Lelgu glared at Lossa. "Control yourself, Matriarch Lossa. You are known to be prone to emotional outbursts. We feared you would awaken a second time, hastening your death, should we tell you the truth."

Lossa's fury upon hearing this revelation was quite pleasant to witness, Lone found, and he was quite amused given he knew for certain that Breena was, in fact, Lossa's granddaughter and not some poor girl under a deep misconception. 'I'll keep that to myself for a little bit longer though. Nothing like a little bit of infighting to sow dissent, right? Would be rude to step in early. Someone might spill something juicy too.'

"Of course!" Lossa shouted. "Because who would ever in their right mind tell a grandmother that her grandchild was dead?! Of course it isn't her right to know! The stupid bitch has already awakened to Life so we know she can't control herself at all! Primals forbid she awakens to Land due the deep depression she's bound to feel at the news! That's what you all thought, isn't it?! Did you even tell her mother?! You all make me sick!"

Lone was enjoying this a lot but he immediately ignored the entertainment of this all when he noticed Breena looked incredibly upset. At what, he wasn't sure. Perhaps it was because she was being ignored, or maybe she was sympathising with her grandmother.

'She knows she isn't a fake. Her memories are real, after all. And she knows I'd have found any mind-fuckery what with all the times I've recreated her body, so she knows her memories haven't been altered. Anyway, let's put a stop to this,' Lone thought.

He applied his Agility and then unapplied it so fast that before anyone could really register that he was now floating in the middle of the room thanks to a Blood Clone which he'd returned to his bloodstream, an ear piercing screech filled everyone's ears, forcing them to look at him and stare in shock.

After all, the seventh elder was being held in his left hand by the throat. The next moment, he wrapped both himself and the seventh elder in a Bone Armour Fortress Shield and then insulated that with two Blood Clone Fortress Shields.

"Unhand me, you vile abomination!" she wailed loudly enough to almost burst his eardrums.

He stared into her eyes and said, "You are weak. Be silent. Answer me only when spoken to. Do otherwise, and I'll kill you. Struggle, and I'll kill you. Attack me, and I'll kill you. Do you understand?"

Perhaps as a result of the shields that she likely knew even War Leader Clari struggled to penetrate, meaning her rescue would take longer than Lone would need to kill her, or maybe as a result of some instinctual self-preservation method within herself, she shut up and nodded.

Lone smiled. "Good fox."

He didn't have any sound magic as of yet, which was unfortunate, so he instead used some freeform force magic to amplify his voice as best as he could. "To the remaining seven council members and our two hidden observers, if you attack my Fortress Shield, I won't hold it against you, but I will kill the seventh elder and then leave this place. I can do both of those things with ease. Gilbert, confirm that for me."

A couple of seconds later, he spoke to Soph. 'Did he?'

Soph replied. 'Yup. It's kinda hard to listen to sounds with Mana Sensing, but yeah, he said 'What are you doing, Son?... He's telling the truth.' By the way, will Breena be okay? Don't you think this was rash?'

'She'll be fine. They have no reason to attack her or anything, and no, this wasn't even remotely a rash decision. I have more than enough information to confirm this woman was the person or one of the people who allowed the kidnapping to happen a decade ago. These women are too cautious to attack me unless I actually kill her. I reckon the suspected XX-ranked observers are even more cautious. I'd bet good money they'd sooner allow the entire council of elders to die before they would risk engagement with a wildcard like me,' he replied.

'Okay... They're bickering about what to do, by the way,' Soph said.

Lone chuckled, terrifying the X-ranker whose neck was warming his palm. "First thing's first, let's set the record straight. The Breena Redtail underneath me is actually the granddaughter of Matriarch Lossa. I have the world skill Full Body Diagnostics, I've used it on both of them previously, and I've confirmed that they share the same DNA and the same blood to a point of closeness that could only belong to close relatives, not a distant member of the clan."

'Gilbert's confirming your words. Lossa gasped and put her hands to her mouth. She's, uh, crying too. Ah, she's rushing to Breena to... hug her? Breena's backing away. Lossa looks hurt, but isn't saying anything or trying anything else. The elders are arguing. The observers aren't doing anything. I felt them for a second when you grabbed the seventh elder but I can't feel them anymore... again. They're too sneaky... I couldn't see them in the void, by the way,' Soph explained, being Lone's eyes and ears in this moment.

'Huh. Gotcha. Keep me posted,' Lone responded.

He then projected his voice via force magic again. "Tell me plainly, seventh elder. Did you orchestrate the mass-kidnapping a decade ago? Yes or no. Anything else, and you die."

He made sure to focus his freeform force magic on her as well to ensure everyone in the hall below his Fortress Shields would hear her answers.

She looked like she wanted to resist giving a clear answer but obviously, she could see the lack of mercy in his eyes so she reluctantly said, "... No."

The seventh elder was a bit shocked at the volume of her words but she didn't comment, clearly quickly picking up on the fact that it was Lone's doing.

'Gilbert said she's telling the truth,' Soph relayed.

Lone frowned. 'Well, that's a bit unexpected.'

"Okay, let me ask this instead; were you aware of the attack before it had happened?" he questioned.

The seventh elder looked fearful and extremely hesitant. "Yo-you have to underst-"

"Yes or no," he interrupted, squeezing her neck, resulting in a violent fit of coughing. She still seemed reluctant to say anything so he spoke instead, saying, "I will kill you in two seconds if you don't answer. Silence is nothing more than an unwilling yes. You understand that, don't you?"

"... Yes... Okay, yes. I was aware, but you have to under-"

Her words were cut off again by Lone reaching into her mouth with his free hand and ripping her tongue out rather violently. He then dispelling his three Fortress Shields. He no longer needed them.

The other seven elders looked on in horror as he slowly floated back down to Breena's side with the seventh elder still in his grasp, flailing madly, screeching like a banshee, and bleeding profusely from the mouth.

"Nothing like a bit of honesty, huh? It really brightens my day when I get to the bottom of a good ol' conspiracy," he said with a chuckle, addressing the elders. "Now, I wonder who else in here might have been aware of the attack from a decade ago..."