Prologue 2/2 - The meeting of the Pinnacle

"Ignis...does this man not know what going easy is?"

A man in a black cloak sat in a black and green chair, with a large top, and big, comfortable cushions questioned while looking away from the projection on his Bank.

He looked out at the circular table with six other chairs of similar design but different colours. Five of them were filled. The one empty chair was silver with a crimson cushion and an azure one, Ignis'.

"Now then, where were we, ahh yes, what to do with that child upon his awakening...I propose that whoever's territory they are born into should mentor them - upon removing any distractions - I don't think anyone will disagree that these are fair terms."

~Crackle~

~Boom~

"I look away for five minutes and he's already here, those guards sure are useless, though what am I to expect from only King rank guards *sigh*."

***

Ignis strode through the manor halls, sword in hand not waiting for people to attack first. Indiscriminate in his movements. Cutting down anyone who got in his way in one swing. Maybe two if they were lucky.

"Fucking hell, why won't they just make it easy for me and let me in, I'm not sure why they wouldn't invite me...oh, right: It's out of fear..."

He spoke as he approached the top of the stairs onto the third floor, speaking to himself had always been a habit of his since he was a commoner some 2,000,000 years ago.

"It wouldn't be that door would it?"

He asked himself as he saw the large, black set of wooden double doors on the other end of the landing at the top of the stair case.

"I can sense them behind it, so I guess it is."

He strode towards it a few more paces, sheaved his sword and summoned his Bank, putting his now sheaved sword inside and pulling out a Great bow without pulling out any arrows.

"Pyramancy (lightning-fire) - Hellspark Shot - Destruction Infused"

He chanted while drawing the heavy, sturdy string of his bow, causing a large, flickering, vermillion arrow with blue sparks running along it to appear in place of a normal one. He then released the destruction infused shot. It struck the door in a matter of milliseconds, crackling the whole way along the 200 metre corridor. It then proceeded to explode upon contact with the doors, blasting them inwards.

~Crackle~

~Boom~

He then proceeded to stow his bow back inside his Bank, before proceeding towards the wreckage of the doorway.

"And when exactly were you fuckers going to invite me? Hm?"

"Ahhhhh, Ignis, we were going to invite you, but you see...your senses are a lot stronger than ours, so we assumed that inviting you would be futile."

The man in the black and green chair stated before muttering:

"As well as your insufferable personality."

"What was that you unendurable prick? Well it doesn't matter since I'm here now aren't I. So, let's begin."

Ignis pronounced before heading towards the silver throne with azure and crimson cushions. Putting his now bloodied sabatons on the round table before asking:

"So, what are we doing with the child?"

While waiting for a response, he started to fiddle with the straps on his helmet to take it off and place it next to his feet on the table, revealing a handsome face, with purple skin, hair as white as snow, with an angular jaw and eyes as red as blood.

"Seriously, no takers? Alright then, Shroud, what do you have to say about the child?"

He asked, addressing the cloaked man who was sitting in the black chair with cushions two different shades of green, one lime green while the other the a light green.

The man, Shroud, swallowed his saliva as thoughts of how to get out of this situation started to swim through his head. He started to calculate his chances of winning based on how exhausted Ignis must be after fighting that many King level beings in a row...eventually coming to the conclusion that if he fought, he would be lucky to survive with every bone in his body broken. This was largely due to him not having much combat experience, mostly empowering himself by working for more powerful being by offering his brains and discarding them once they were no longer useful to him, this was definitely the slower method for reaching higher ranks, but it had a higher success rate as oppose to the other, more violent way that Ignis excelled at. There was no way that he, a Ruler in rank alone, could defeat Ignis, a Being with unfathomable combat sense and experience on top of having the largest mana reserves due to his pioneering of the mana drain growth technique by draining the mana storage maximum capacity from anyone who he'd slain and adding it to his own.

Concluding that his highest chances of remaining fully intact would be to go along with Ignis' question and answer truthfully.

"Well, you see, we actually came to a decision of what to do with the child just before you arrived. We decided that whoever's territory they awaken in, that's who will become their mentor. It's fair this way, as all we know is that a prodigy has been born, not what race they belong to, or which territory they live in, and we won't know until their awakening. This way everyone has an equal chance of training them."

"Hmmm, interesting. However, we all know that you are going to try to come up with some way to mentor them despite that, so why not cut to the chase. After they awaken, our non-participation pact becomes void for five years, so from when they're 16 until they're 21, we can fight each other freely without having to find a loophole. No killing each other or anything, and each of us can only contest once. Whoever has the child when they're 21 has the exclusive right to mentor them. That sounds fair to me, and to sweeten the deal, I'll grant all of you one weapon from my armoury, as well as one high grade guidebook on fighting with that type of weapon."

As Ignis suggested this, his Bank appeared in the form of a sphere in shades of silver, blue and red, constantly merging together before six divine grade weapons and a guidebook appeared on the table, causing everyone's eyes to flash with greed and jealousy as they contemplated taking more than they were allowed, as well as realising what it would take for them all working together to get just one of these items. They knew that this was only a small sample of Ignis' collection, as well as that he would've fought for them all on his own in the higher floors of the tower.

They all started reaching for various weapons, before it disappeared and Ignis spoke again.

"Now then, check your greed, we all know that this world is give to take, I've presented my terms, and before even agreeing to them, you all started to try to take my bargaining chips...you're all so greedy."

Shroud looked into the eyes of the other five people sitting at the table, and saw that despite his overwhelming advantage in combat prowess, everyone would accept his terms upon being asked. Probably believing that a divine weapon would bridge the gap in not just skill but also sense. He sighed.

"Well, I'm outnumbered on this, let me be clear: I wholeheartedly disagree to your terms, but since everyone else would agree upon being asked. I guess we accept your terms."

"Good, Now then..."

Ignis waved his hand causing a circle with a pentagram within to appear in the centre of the table, with a line made of runes to appear, leading towards each person sitting at the table, as well as a demon grade dagger to appear in front of each person.

"Now then, us that dagger and cut off your dominant hand and place your now severed hand in the centre of the circle in front of each of you."

Everyone complied.

"Good."

Ignis spoke before waving his hand again, causing the circle to disappear and be replace by the same divine weapons and guidebooks from before - this time without his soul imprint on them, allowing the members here to imprint their own souls onto them, bonding them to themselves.

As Ignis was about to leave through the now repaired doors he stopped and turned back towards the table.

"Oh yeah, now that you have those, don't forget to put on a good show when the time comes, and please entertain me."

Sending a shiver down the spine of all the people in the room as he left the manor and returned to his territory, to prepare his troops for the war that was coming...