A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 220: Minor Conflict

Chapter 220: Minor Conflict

I left the treasury and headed back into the entrance hall and then back into the bright, pristine white brick walls of the Illuminati’s hallways.

When I came out of the treasury, I noticed that the portrait on the opposite side of the room from me, and presumably the entrance to this place, was the same one that got punctured by the pendant earlier.

But... Why is it in here? It’s hung up on the same sand stoney wall as the rest of this place, so it can’t be some sort of secret rotating door wall or something.

I slithered up to it and pressed the ring up against it and the wall trembled once more and I could see a bright light that must be the hall.

And so, I slithered back out into the much brighter halls of the Illuminati, and into a crowd of several hooded figures, the same ones as the one’s I saw on the farm. They were all gathered around here.

The sound of stone grinding against itself could be heard behind me. I turned my head to see the wall that was originally there return. But the portrait adorning it was different.

It was still a portrait of my species progenitor and my personal ancestor, the Goddess Astraa, but it wasn’t the same as before. She had a much more charming and enticing smile, and she had the necklace on in this one as well, which just added to her overall beauty.

Several gasps of awe and infatuation rang out and I turned to see that everyone was awestruck, gazing thoughtlessly at the painting. Even Kronia was here and staring at the painting.

It was a rather enticing painting I will admit. And the fact that it was nude as well probably didn’t help either as all the male figures ogled her features, which kind of upset me a little bit.

I furrowed my brows and coughed to grab their attention. And most of them shook their heads after being awoken from their stupor, but a couple of them were still staring. Thankfully, they were slapped on the back of their heads by the people standing next to them.

When everyone had finally come to, Thalor coughed to clear up the rising tension and to grab my attention so that he could speak.

"So, what exactly happened in there? You were in there for like three days’ worth of time."

"Three days?!" I shouted in shock. I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Was it more or less time than I thought? I don’t know.

"Yes, three days. The world outside is still frozen in time and all, so we have to equate it to how long it would’ve been in real time." He explained in a calm and sophisticated albeit a little unsure of himself after explaining.

"Now, tell us what happened. We know that you received an inheritance, but we need to know what exactly is in there." Thalor spoke, his demeanour having returned back into his stoic and imposing tone, fit for a leader of an organisation such as this.

But I could tell that there was more to what he said by the subtle traces of malcontent. He wanted more than just to know what was in there. I bet he would try and get me to let him enter or bring something out for him.

And because of that, I wasn’t going to tell him anything. So, I crossed my arms responded in a rather haughty tone, "Why should I tell you? This inheritance belongs to me and me alone, I shouldn’t have to tell you anything about it."

Thalor took a deep breath and tried again, addressing me with a kinder and more gentle approach, clearly trying to incentivise and deceive me into getting what he wants. "I understand that, but this inheritance originally belonged to us, the Illuminati, as did-"

I stopped him immediately. "Yours?! This isn’t the Illuminati’s inheritance, it’s MINE! And was made specifically for ME! Or anyone else who happens to carry her blood" I screamed pointing to the painting of Astraa. "And you want me to just, give it to you? Why should I!? Why should I give ANY of it to you?!?" I screamed at their blatant attempts to extort me, no, Astraa of the inheritance that she made, not for them, but for me, or someone like me, who carries her blood.

And here they are, trying to get me to let them in so they can take it all just to fill their pockets. "Greedy bastards." I whispered that last part just loud enough for them to hear it.

I should’ve expected something like this. An organisation of this scale would inevitably be filled greed, especially at the top. I thought they were somewhat decent people with the way they carried themselves, going on and on about protecting the world and keeping an eye on things and all that, but now I see that they just want to control the world from the shadows with an iron fist.

They fell silent and shuffled about slightly, looking over their shoulders at one another, seemingly communicating through telepathy or something.

And that’s when Kronia spoke up.

She started talking with a bit of confusion in her tone, "I-I may not know what’s going on, but I think she has a point. This is, whatever it is, is clearly hers to decide what she wants to do with. Plus, I’m pretty sure that this person is a deity. You wouldn’t want a deity that was a former member of this place to be angry at you now, would you?" But when she finished, I could detect some traces of slyness in there, goading these people into backing off.

Thalor then stepped forward and began talking again, "We understand that, but-"

But I cut him off before he could manipulate me into acquiescing to his desires, "I don’t care what you have to say! Leave this inheritance alone! The Goddess decided to have it handed to whichever of her descendants that held this ring. Which was formerly the pendant you see in the portrait." I expounded as I pointed at the necklace.

"And there wasn’t a single mention about the Illuminati in there at all!" I shouted viscerally.

They were all shocked by that statement.

Morrigan then came forth and inquired, "Are you sure that there was nothing about taking her seat in the upper council?"

And I could see that there was no form of malicious intent behind her question, so I responded in a less aggressive manner, "What seat? What are you talking about." It was still a little harsh my response, but it wasn’t as aggressive as when I addressed them as a group.

She looked back for a couple seconds before answering my question, "Well, you see, a lot of these inheritances from these people were made because these individuals were greatly influential to our cause, so much so that they even had a seat on the high council. Some of which are still empty. We don’t know which seats belong to who as some of them remain empty with no clue as to who they originally belonged to, but we do know they are in an inheritance somewhere in this place. The one’s we do know, which are far and few between, we have no way of unlocking them because we don’t meet the requirements."

That... Was a lot of exposition...

I shook my head as I processed all of that and asked, "Wait, so that means that I have a potential chance or opportunity to join you lot?"

"Potentially, yes. Which is why we needed to know what was in there. You can just not say anything about the rest of the stuff that was in there. We don’t care about the rest of it, we just want to know about the position that she had and if she has given it to you. That’s all."

I pouted, pointing and accusing Thalor for his behaviour, "Well he had more insidious intentions. I could tell, I’m a half demon, not to mention I gained the ability to literally see if someone is lying to me or not, and that has brought down my opinion of you guys."

"But to actually answer your inquiry, I didn’t see anything of the sort in there. I didn’t explore it all after all."

"But-" Thalor was about to speak up but Morrigan cut him off.

"Shut it you." She screeched angrily as she glared at him. "You’ve said enough today, and we just so happened to have found a potential replacement for you after your recent actions."

"Wha-" The man stuttered before shaking his head and rebutting. "No. No, you can’t do that, I am the leader of this secret society!"

"We can do this Thalor. You’ve been getting more and more sinister lately. Trying to find ways to empower the Illuminati for world domination. Don’t think we didn’t see that. And now, you want to use the guise of wanting to find the seat that Astraa once had and any historical artefacts just so that you can get in and steal from it to empower your secret, secret army."

The robed figures then surrounded the man who was hyperventilating now and looking around confused. "H-How d-do you know ab-bout that?"

Morrigan then blew some dust at him which he wasn’t prepared for as he instantly inhaled that stuff and fell unconscious.

She then turned around to address me. "Sorry about him, we’ll deal with our internal issues later, but for now, please allow me to apologise for his behaviour."

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