Inside the Lightning Manor, the Custodian, the Starlight Queen, the Myriad King, and Shang were waiting for further orders.
Naturally, Shang wasn't actually really waiting for orders. He kind of was just here because he happened to be the one that "found out" that Queen Primordium had died.
Shang wasn't sure if he should just leave or wait here.
In the end, he decided to wait like everyone else, even though he didn't really fit in with the three Mage Kings.
None of them knew what was going on.
They had been waiting for several minutes with nothing happening, which could mean anything.
Whoom!
Suddenly, a portal opened up beside them.
BANG!
The air in the hallway blew to the side as a person arrived there at insane speeds.
The person stumbled and nearly fell before they turned around and smiled awkwardly into the portal.
"Let's catch up later, okay?" they said.
"Stop-"
And the portal closed before the person on the other side could say anything.
The person that had arrived in the middle of the hallway cleaned the sweat off their forehead with a nervous chuckle and looked at the people gathered around them.
The three Mage Kings looked at the new person with intense eyes.
The newest person was a man with blonde hair, wearing the typical purple robes of the Lightning Manor.
Shang had seen an image of that person before.
It was Amarius, the Dawnlight King, the leader of the Diplomacy Department.
Amarius looked at the others and just laughed bitterly. "Well, either I have to go to the Judgment Palace all the time from now on or not at all. Depends on the outcome."
The Custodian looked at Amarius. "I presume the Ancestor is near the Judgment Palace right now?"
"He sure is," Amarius said with a cough. "He just killed two of their Mage Kings."
The Myriad King took a deep breath, the Starlight Queen's eyes widened, and the Custodian's expression turned solemn.
"So," Amarius slowly said as he looked at the serious Wester. "Are we sounding the alarm and preparing for war?"
Wester fell into thought, and the other Mage Kings looked at him.
With the Lightning Emperor not present, Wester was the highest authority.
Shang also wanted to hear Wester's call.
"Who's that guy?" Amarius suddenly asked as he looked at Shang.
Sarah and Jonathan looked at Shang for a second.
"He's the one that informed us regarding Vana's death."
"Wait, what?!" Amarius suddenly shouted in complete shock. "Vana is dead?!"
Jonathan nodded. "That's why the Ancestor is so furious."
Amarius' expression fell.
One of his closest friends…
Dead…
However, that also explained the Lightning Emperor's actions.
"Speaking of," the Myriad King said as he looked at Shang. "I don't think you need to be present."
"He stays."
The Mage Kings looked at the Custodian, who had just spoken up.
He should stay?
The others waited for elaboration, but Wester didn't say anything as he continued thinking about how to proceed.
In the end, the Mage Kings just looked at each other.
Suddenly, all four Mage Kings looked upward with shocked eyes.
"Did you feel that?" Amarius asked.
A moment later, several Mage Lords shot out of their offices and inspected the hallway with their Spirit Senses to see if something had happened.
"Never mind, I got my answer," Amarius said.
Shang hadn't felt anything.
"What happened?" Shang asked the Myriad King.
"The Space Mana has changed," Jonathan answered. "That usually only happens when Abominations explode."
Jonathan sighed. "I only hope this isn't related to the Ancestor."
"How could it?" Sarah asked. "The Ancestor isn't an Abomination."
"I know," Jonathan answered, "but the timing is too coincidental."
"I made my decision," Wester suddenly said, eliciting looks from the other Mage Kings.
"We are not sounding the alarm," he said. "The Ancestor is potentially in life-threatening danger right now."
"All of us are not powerful enough to help."
"Most likely, the Ancestor will return, and he will tell us what to do. This is something that he has decided to do, and he left without telling me anything."
"This means that he didn't feel the need to tell me, which means that he is confident that he will return alive. We should trust the Ancestor and await his return," Wester said.
The other Mage Kings looked at each other.
It was so strange to hear Wester talk about the Ancestor's survival. After all, talking about survival implied that there could also have been death.
The Ancestor?
Dead?
It was such a foreign concept.
But now that they had already thought about the Ancestor's potential death, they couldn't ignore it anymore.
"What if he dies?"
Everyone looked at Sarah, who had just asked the question.
Silence.
"Then, nothing we can do will change anything," Jonathan said with a sigh. "We might be Mage Kings, but in front of Mage Emperors, we are still helpless."
"I agree with Wester," Amarius said from the side. "Sounding the alarm would make it very difficult to present the new circumstances to the masses in a palatable light, and it also wouldn't help in case of a war."
Whoom!
Another portal opened beside them, and they looked over.
"Do I need to be here? Is this a mandatory meeting?"
No one stepped through the portal, but the Mage Kings could see a woman sitting on a luxurious couch through it.
It was Emilia, the Heartdevil Queen.
"No, it's not necessary," Wester told her through the portal.
The other Mage Kings threw a glance at Wester.
"Oh, okay," Emilia said with a chipper in her tone before closing the portal.
Sarah gritted her teeth, Amarius smiled hopelessly, and Jonathan acted like he hadn't seen anything.
Wester tried his best to hide it, but Shang could feel annoyance, rage, and disgust coming from him.
Emilia really wasn't popular amongst the Mage Kings.
Shang could also tell that the other Mage Kings didn't trust her with sensitive information.
In fact, they probably trusted Shang more with keeping sensitive information than Emilia.
"Should we inform Kiran?" Jonathan asked Wester.
Wester could only sigh. "For now, no. We should just wait for the Ancestor's return."
The other Mage Kings weren't sure if that was the correct call.
Nevertheless, they followed Wester's decision and waited.
And a couple of minutes later, the Lightning Emperor finally returned!
