Threads of the Soul

The American leader puffed his chest out more. He was expecting applause or gasps, he was expecting awe and reverence. He was expecting that they would understand how amazing he was, as is natural for someone from the greatest country in the world.

What he did not expect, was laughter. The pompous, self assured smile slowly melted from his face, to be quickly replaced by a grimacing snarl. His eyes dropped from the ceiling and landed on the Russian leader, who was still laughing like it was the most hilarious joke he had ever heard.

Even worse than that, his laughter was spreading. Giggles and chuckles sprinkled from the lips of all those around, even the beasts were getting in on the hilarity of it all. The only one's not laughing was the staff and the Americans.

"Mind filling me in on what's so funny Russky?"

The Russian's laughter quickly faded, although he kept a mocking smirk on his face as he leaned back in his chair.

"What is so funny is that even in the face of all of this, that American arrogance still stands stronger than ever."

The American grit his teeth, "Listen Mister..."

"Captain." The Russian answered plainly.

"Heh, Listen 'Mister Captain', I think as the first Celestial in the world I have earned the right to be arrogant.

I am Xander Chadwell, of Chadwell Incoporated. You might've heard of me. I stood above the likes of you before, and I stand even higher now. Maybe you just don't understand what it means to be Celestial."

The Captain chuckled again, steepling his fingers and leaning on them as he glared at Xander the American.

"I know perfectly well what it means. Let me guess... You advanced less than a week ago."

"Yeah... What of it? How did you know that?"

The Captain smirked again, shaking his head softly, "It is obvious. Besides ignorance, which would be expected for an Arrogant American... what is the term you use? Ah yes, Nepo baby.

Ignorance would be expected for Nepo Baby. But I give you benefit of the doubt. After all, it could just be the recentness as to why your senses are so dull and pathetic.

Because little American boy. You are far from first. I am Celestial, and I know our Chinese friend too. Even the beasts have beaten you to this. That is what is such funny joke."

The Captain leaned back in his chair, smirking at the horrified expression on Xander's face. It was just so delicious, to see the destruction of such a fragile ego and witness it all crashing down at once.

The arrogant leader had barely had a chance to recover from the gut punch before Corvus chuckled himself,

"Well well, Seems we really have been living the easy life, haven't we my Queen? Good to see that life still provides us with good competition no matter what."

Xander's head snapped towards them, his eyes wide and trembling as he stuttered,

"B-both of you? Both of you are Celestial?"

Corvus shrugged nonchalantly, "Of course. I wasn't in too much of a rush, but I would hate to be beaten by her. So I had a little rush in the recent months. It felt about the right time to finally do what I had been putting off for so long."

Of course, Corvus wasn't telling the entire truth, but he wasn't exactly lying either. Mediation had been his final step and he had been quite lax with it, in all honesty. If he had been rushed, he could have probably forced himself into the Celestial rank long before now.

Perhaps that was a sign that peace had it's trade offs. He had definitely become lazy if so many had already reached his level.

However, that fact alone was quite interesting. The beasts could be looked over, they generally had an easier time of advancement. Omelette was already close to Celestial and really only needed to grow up a little more. His age was what was holding him back the most.

The fact of the matter was Beasts were more simplistic in their evolution, especially the Apex predators.

Human's developed mystical powers in all sorts of varieties, but beasts had a lot of convergent evolution. Many of the same species had the same mutation, especially in groups.

Apex predators, those seen at the pinnacle of evolution already, showed that after their initial mutation their paths directed them towards sentience above all else. it was the singular benefit that humanity had over the, and if they too could gain human level intelligence and reasoning they wouldn't just be equal to humanity.

They would easily become superior to them in many ways.

Magic could be turned off, powers could be countered. But a body forged from millions upon billions of years of true evolution, rather than the enhanced rushed version, and refined by survival of the fittest?

That was something humanity was always desperately trying to keep up with. Beasts would always hold that advantage, and it was because of that their paths were simpler and therefore easier to advance down.

Life was truly unfair like that.

Yet the progress of the beasts wasn't what was curious. It was what Corvus had come to expect from the world as it progressed. What was interesting was the other humans who had advanced to Celestial.

By the sounds of it, they hadn't been Celestial for very long. Perhaps roughly the same time as him. It was hard to chalk that entirely up to coincidence, especially when you add this very meeting into the mixture, it becomes all far too convenient for coincidence.

He also knew how difficult a Celestial advancement was. His own required months of mediation for a singular requirement, while Astra had to dive into a sun for one of hers. So either life was once more showing its utter unfairness by gifting these other leaders some easy requirements.

Or they had acquired some outside assistance, just like he had received in the form of the Untainted Tear. That unknown requirement being handed to him by the black dragoness had probably catapulted his advancement.

It should have put him far ahead of everyone else. Yet there were still three other individuals at the very least who were on his level. That was not including Astra nor the leaders who decided not to attend this little tea party.

He glanced towards the demonic maid, who seemed to feel his gaze and made brief eye contact with him before returning her bored stare to the wall in front of her.

People gaining outside assistance just when he was being informed about traitors and the old gods. Yes... far too perfect timing.

"Say, how about we have ourselves a friendly competition?"

All eyes turned to Corvus as he made a jovial comment completely out of nowhere. Xander seemed completely baffled by the idea, or simply on how the conversation had taken such a turn from what he expected. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel•fire.net

It was the Chinese man, who's name Corvus still didn't know, who spoke up first.

"What brought on such an idea?"

"Well, as some of you are aware I am carrying out a little tournament in my country. Nothing special, but unfortunately since I am here I don't get the pleasure of witnessing it.

Yet I still find myself in a competitive mood, so why not have a small contest between us all?"

A woman across from him, with blonde hair and a scandanavian accent, spoke up with a deep frown.

"You want us to fight? I would have to decline. After all, not all of us are this special Celestial rank. Plus, we do not all have combat mutations. I know you, Raven Lord, are someone who would be at a complete disadvantage without your undead minions.

I'm surprised you would even suggest it."

Corvus chuckled and shook his head. Why was it people always obsessed with the undead part? He had done it maybe a few times, yet it was all people remembered. Even with the puppets wandering the streets every day.

It got to the point where he had to have Lea actively fight to keep any mentions of undead out of his little churches teachings, which was now spread all across the country and was steadily feeding him Worship.

Astra snapped her fingers, creating a little spark of electricity between her fingers when doing so.

"Why not use our companions instead? I would exclude myself, of course. But we brought along these people, most of them for protection or something along those lines. It would be a shame to just leave them standing around uselessly the entire time.

Not only does it give us a way to understand the strength of each other's countries, but allows us time to converse in a more casual setting. After all, I'm sure my man here still doesn't know half of your names and that is hardly going to spawn beneficial negotiations."

Corvus let out a nervous laughter as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head. Murmurs spawned within the room once more, as the various leaders considered it. As for Corvus, he glanced over his shoulder at Woe, who was still standing behind him. His head held high and his chest puffed out, as if he was trying to show that he wouldn't disappoint in such an opportunity.