Chapter 226: Battle for regents
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"You're too kind, friend. I am only a newly ascended being. There's no need for too much praise."
The pavilion sat raised like a skyscraper above the grounds below, open to the sky on all sides, wind moving through it steady and cold. Standing at its edge, shaking hands with a line of royals and royal guards that showed no sign of shortening, was a well-built, bulky man with red hair and the particular ease of someone who had learned to perform modesty without actually feeling it.
Grand Regent Inkous of the Dual Moon Institute.
He moved through the line without rushing. Firm grip, eye contact, a word or two for each person. The kind of social fluency that didn't come naturally to most and looked effortless on him.
Because of the special circumstances of his ascension, this was simply his life now. Negotiations, social events, political discussions scattered across the universe in no particular order, each one requiring him to show up ready and leave having said nothing that could be used against him. He had gotten good at it faster than most expected.
But since his primary alliance sat with Gaia and the ice kingdom, missing the hunter games was never an option. He was here because not being here would have meant something.
"Don't be modest, friend. Maybe someday I'll come to Galafray's Rune City to place an order."
One of the divine beings from the royal guard said it while shaking his hand, the words carrying the particular weight of someone who meant them genuinely.
Inkous hadn't been joking around these past few months.
He had established Rune City as the capital of the planet and moved quickly after that, building vital infrastructure around it piece by piece. The most notable was what he called the Heavenly Smith Gallery, a special extension of his wonderland where he could produce any weapon or device he wanted without limitation. The scope of what came out of it had started drawing attention from beings who didn't give attention easily.
All the divines of Gaia wanted to visit.
"Haha. We will welcome you."
He shook the hand and let his gaze drift naturally across the pavilion as he did. A few figures in the distance caught his eye. He finished the remaining pleasantries without rushing, then peeled away from the line and crossed to where Master White stood looking out over the platforms below.
They shook hands.
"Have you seen the kids?" Inkous asked, scanning the grounds below.
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The main bouts for leadership positions in the hunter games were about to begin.
The structure was straightforward enough. Three generals, eight commanders, seventeen regents. Each general could take twenty people under them drawn from the five groups. Each commander could take ten. Each regent could take five.
Two hundred and fifty-three people total, competing for a hierarchy that would shape how the entire games played out from this point forward.
"It's the regent fights." Master White looked down at the platforms without particular urgency. "I doubt those three will be participating at that level."
He wasn't wrong.
These positions weren't going to be distributed evenly. That wasn't how any of this worked. If one side swept the leadership roles the hunter games stopped being a competition and became an execution, with one faction dictating the terms of every engagement that followed.
Simple as that.
"That's the fourth." One of the royals nearby muttered it without looking up, fanning himself slowly with a feathered fan. "The prince of the right is doing well."
The royals operated as their own distinct category. Though most of them held membership in one faction or another, the Freedom Party, the Royal Frost Alliance, others, they identified first as royals and second as everything else. When Talos secured a win, they noted it as the prince of the right gaining ground, not the Royal Frost Alliance. The faction was secondary. The bloodline was the thing.
Only those without firm royal backing still standing, like the daughter of the dark emperor, leaned on their faction more than anything else. When your name carried less weight than your title, you made the title count.
"Four regents. If he keeps this pace, the prince of the right might actually be looking at a win."
And true to that, Talos coordinated well. His people moved efficiently across the platforms below, picking their moments, and by the time the regent fights concluded he had claimed six seats total.
Second came the Sword of Dawn with five.
The others distributed unevenly behind them, three seats here, two there.
Raven finished with two.
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Both of hers were worth noting.
The first was a young man with eyes that sat perpetually at the edge of a daze, unfocused in the way that sometimes meant nothing and sometimes meant everything. A soft glow moved around him when he shifted, something like fairy dust, catching the light and scattering it in ways that didn't quite follow the rules.
The second was a young woman with the same facial structure as the first. The resemblance was immediate once you looked. At her side, a flying reaper sword drifted in slow idle arcs, never settling, never still.
Anag and Anog.
Twins.
Both from the Freedom Faction, both carrying the bloodline of the dark emperor, though through a different branch than Raven. The dark emperor's legacy was wide and deep and spread across more lines than most people kept track of. These two were a part of it the same way Raven was, connected but separate, each carrying something of that inheritance without carrying the same version of it.
Raven had two regent seats.
On paper, that looked like a poor showing.
The royals with their feathered fans noted it that way, moving on quickly to more impressive tallies, already calculating what six seats meant against five and whether the Dawn Sword faction had the coordination to turn numbers into actual control.
Nobody spent much time on Raven's two.
Which was, most likely, exactly how she wanted it.
The young man's unfocused eyes drifted upward for just a moment, catching nothing in particular, then settled back down.
The reaper sword kept its slow idle rotation.
Below, the platforms cleared for the next round.