“What are we waiting for, Celeste?” A council member asked Celeste with a heated passion. “You know that the final warning comes right before the attack, the other nations each sent theirs already.”
“Why are you asking me to act on it?” Celeste answered with the same heat. “He doesn’t allow anyone near his lab any more, not even me.”
“The joined forces of Agartha would devastate our land completely.” Another council member said. “We have to convince him to go to the trial.”
“You know that you are all a bunch of hypocrites.” The head of the council looked around the council room. “How do you demand that he faces the trial and we don’t?”
“He went too far.” A young council member adjusted her tiara. “Going after the city of Akakor is what caused all of this to happen.”
“You were all cheering him up even as he devastated the land from here to Akakor, he didn’t go for this atrocity without your cheers and urging on.” Celeste stood. “I was the only one who tried to stop him, but he was deafened by your cheers and adulation.”
“Cheering someone for defending his own city state is not a crime.” The young councilwoman said with indgnantion.
“Sometimes it is, if you support abuse of force and extreme violence.” The head of the council said.
“Why are you bouncing the blame for what happened on us?” An elderly council man stood and waved his arm at Celeste’s direction. “We have to give the man responsible to spare Atlantis, even then who knows what they will do with the rest of the city?”
“The final warning demanded only the one behind this atrocity.” A councilwoman at the end of the room said aloud. “He has to be given to them.”
“How dare you?” The head of the council shouted at them all. “We, we are responsible for the atrocity, the final warning meant all of us to stand trial. Do you think they will settle for any less?”
“We didn’t build that horrible weapon.” The same woman at the end of the room shouted back. “And we didn’t use it on Akakor, we are innocent of that crime.”
The head of the council started to laugh, and his laughter went on for some time that caused all the other members to squirm in their seats.
He suddenly stopped laughing and faced them with a vicious smile. “Then go and say this in front of the comity that will try Atlantis for what happened.”
“Are you trying to insinuate that we deserve the same punishment as he does?” A councilman stood and shouted.
“Yes.” The head of the council shouted back. “If you have a single gram of consciousness, you will realize that we should face the very same punishment.” He threw his arms in the air. “We all share the responsibility for this, and we all have to be tried.”
Silnence fell over the entire room for an entire minute.
“Then Atlantis shall fall and her people shall be slaves to the other nations of Agartha.” John entered the room with around twenty of his assistants, all were carrying the handheld demolishing ray device.
“We don’t have to wait for the final warning to come.” He paced around the room looking at the terrified faces of the councilmen and women. Then his eyes settled on Celeste, who shook her head slowly.
“We have three options to answer their final warning.” He stood in the middle of the room and signaled for one of his assistants to come forward.
The assistant had a sealed scroll in his hand, which he opened and let it to roll out.
“The three options we are bound to select one of are, to fight, to flee the city to the surface world.” He paused for effect. “Or to evolve and adapt.”
The councilmen and women just watched the intricate drawings on the scroll in silence.
“Is that one of the hounds in your scroll?” The elderly councilman pointed to the drawing of man with several hues of aura around him.
“Yes, you are absolutely right.” John nodded. “There is a part of our population, that you call the hounds, willing to give their lives for our race to persist and survive.”
“How?” The councilwoman at the end of the room asked.
“Aura and gene transmutation.” John declared.
The entire room exploded in debate.
“Blasphemy,” someone shouted. “Impossible,” shouted another. “But how?” shouted a third.
“With the same machine I built, I already made the necessary modification.” John walked around the room. “A single ray will change the genes and aura of all our people. Three of the hounds agreed to submit to the transfer and sacrifice their lives for the sake of all Atlantis in the process.”
“You have been doing all of this, without our knowledge, how could you?” The head of the council said.
“You have been in this room for days, and you didn’t reach a single decision during this time.” John shouted at the top of his lungs. “I am a patriotic Atlantian, I had to take matters in my hands to save my Atlantis.”
Agian silence fell over the room.
“Can we vote on a which route we will go from now on?” Celeste asked John with a plead in her eyes.
“Certainly.” John bowed to her. “You have until the dragons’ final warning arrives.”
He looked around and smiled. “So, I guess you have around two hours to reach a final decision.”
He turned and started moving towards the exit. “See you in two hours.”
If you liked this serialized story, be sure to check the other parts: One, Two, Three, and Four.
Be sure to check our published books: Through The Storm, The Green Boy, and The Trinity’s Dream.
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