Mage And Wolf
Chapter 226

Chapter 226: Chapter 226

Messengers start popping out every few seconds, giving their message to the Nephilim King and then leaving again. The general sentiment of the messages is all the same, this planet is being depopulated. My arrival was simply convenient timing, the Divine Council had been tracking the progress of Elder Song and Karl, and decided it was time to act when they found out the Cult had become brazen enough to attempt to assassinate a High Priestess to achieve their goals based on the words of an oracle.

The Dragons on the council found this intolerable, the Seraphim and Nephilim went along simply to see the upstarts put in their place, while the Lycans representing the other shifters are simply always up for a good hunt.

They chased down the leadership, from the sounds of it across a number of worlds in the Immortal Plane, while the others systematically wiped out the Cult. At least they thought they did, going by the information Lelou has given them, there are probably other cells on other worlds at various stages of advancement.

By the time night falls, a mighty army of Divine Realm Cultivators has assembled at our location. Six individuals, five Lycans and a Seraphim have been honored with a spot at the high table next to the Nephilim King and a Red Dragon Lord known as Birney.

Birney has a serious crush on Lelou, which everyone but Lelou finds hilarious. He’s a young Lord, barely a hundred years old and raised in the Divine Plane. Lelou is good friends with his grandmother, who also runs an Orphanage, but on a world in the Immortal Planes. The age difference is no obstacle to the young romantic though, and Lelou is a good looking dragon, plus a High Priestess, which puts her social status in Dragon society on par with his.

The close friends of the guests at the high table are seated at a long curved table next to the dignitaries, putting Lelou only a few meters from her ardent admirer. Birney is trying to coax his love interest over to his lap for snacks before the speeches and meal begin.

"Aren’t you going to rescue your friend?" Beta John asks quietly from his seat on my left side.

"I asked the Goddess, she says it’ll be funnier if I don’t." I tease John and the Seraphim guest of honor beside me spurts coffee out his nose trying to stifle a laugh.

"Sorry, High Priestess. Living among Seraphim we forget how the Death God’s followers are. You can call me Merle."

"Katrina. It’s a pleasure to meet you." I shake his hand and notice the Nephilim giving us a strange look. Oh yeah, most Seraphim are uptight about the part Demon thing, even if it’s just a result of my cultivating technique. Or maybe especially in those cases, because we chose it.

"Surely she won’t kill him?" One of the younger Lycans asks, worried.

"Almost certainly not. Though she might maim him if he doesn’t watch his hands." I say a bit louder as he’s trying to subtly move closer to Lelou. He tries to play it off like he wasn’t doing anything, but now even Lelou is smiling at his aborted attempt to gain her affection.

"If we’re done picking on the dignitaries, I shall begin the speeches." The Nephilim King says, standing up and using some sort of talisman to enhance his voice to carry across the entire assembled force.

"Welcome back everyone. Thank you all for coming today, and on behalf of the council I would like to say job well done. Final investigations are still being done, but it appears we have totally eliminated the Divine Transfer Cult on this planet. As many of you know, we identified seven Divine Realm cultivators for today’s hunt. We had a double capture, the only two left alive of the seven, by the Gamma of the Royal Pack DeShawn. Truly a fine feat."

The crowd gives him a loud standing ovation for the double capture, because taking targets alive is usually the hardest option.

"We had confirmed kills by Shayne, Maria and Beta John, all of the Royal Pack. As you can tell, they dominated the high value targets today, as expected. But they didn’t make a clean sweep. Merle, of the Seraphim Ruling Family claimed his spot as today’s youngest honoree."

Merle looks shocked, clearly having believed I was younger than him. But while I’ve lost track of the actual date, I should still be twenty four years old, and he’s younger than that, plus a Divine Realm cultivator.

"Finally we have the High Priestess of the Black Dragon, Katrina. She was the first Immortal Realm cultivator to score a kill in many years, and as many of you saw, she took it in style, defeating her opponent in single combat."

There’s a lot of laughter, cheering and cultivators reenacting the fight for those who didn’t get a chance to watch. It takes quite a while before the crowd calms down enough to continue.

"While she is also a Lycan, she’s not officially part of the Royal Pack. So we can’t give them the extra point, giving the Royal Pack five of seven priority targets today. Give it up for the stars of today’s hunt." with that the Nephilim King returns to his seat and the castle servants who discretely gathered around the head tables come over with food while the rest of the crowd gets served from one side to the other, everyone waiting until all the meals are served to begin eating.

I’m not sure what a lot of these dishes are, but they’re doesn’t seem to be anything Beta John or Elder Song won’t touch, so I’m assuming it’s all safe to eat for all species. Merle seems to be doing the same thing, testing the few dishes he’s not familiar with.

Lelou has found the most ingenious way of getting rid of her potential suitor, she has set one of the Dragon kin Acolytes on him. She’s a Red Scaled Dragonewt who doesn’t seem to be familiar with subtlety, or taking no for an answer. Poor Birney seems to be weak to flattery, and Lelou has almost got him convinced that what he needs is an energetic young acolyte in his life. If he wasn’t so taken with her Dragon form he’d have already caved.