[Time: Evening hours according to Granian Time.] [Location: The Granian Palace—the Council Room.] In the evening hours, a meeting was called for the Council Members by Lord Grim who wished to discuss a pressing issue among them concerning the Blood Mutants, more specifically Ace. After his short duel with the Mutant, he was stunned at how strong he had become to the point where Blood Mutant blockers were becoming ineffective. The Granians knew that a day such as this one would arrive, but never did they expect it to come so soon. Therefore, to come up with a counter for the Mutant’s strength which could be used to either benefit or harm them, Lord Grim sought the wisdom and advice of the council, hoping that he’d be helped in the process. At sunset, the Council Members, Huntress, One Horn, Grand Master, and Lord Grania sat while Lord Grim expressed his concerns. It being a matter that concerned the Blood Mutants meant it was serious and since it was Grim addressing the issue, they feared that something happened to him, to the Mutant, or was waiting to happen to all of them. "Council Members, thank you for adhering to my request," he addressed them with a bow before expressing his concerns. "This matter concerns the Blood Mutants, especially the one known as Ace Underwood." "The male with red hair?" "Red? I thought it was orange?" "Must be a thing humans do. Even the Mutants we had before these ones showed such signs of metamorphosis...if you can even call it that." "Silence, all of you," Lord Grania spoke, having sparked an interest in what Grim had to say. With a wave of his hand, he permitted Grim to continue his address. "I fear that the boy’s learning Eneraflux on his own!" the Council went silent. They never expected this to be the issue with the Blood Mutants in the first place. "How do you know this?" one of the elder Granians blasted spit and drool while questioning Grim. "Humans are incapable of learning Eneraflux unless if they’re fed some directly. Who amongst the four of you has been feeding it Eneraflux?" "Watch yourself," Lord Grania waved his hand, using Eneraflux to push the Granian back into his seat. "Let him finish before you spray everyone with your body secretions. Grim, how do you know this?" "Today, Helda and I wished to duel the two Mutants to gauge how much they had grown in terms of their own strength. For my own safety and Helda’s, I gave them both Blood Mutant blockers so they wouldn’t use their Blood Abilities on us. Amid the dual between me and the boy, he managed to break through the constraints of the Blood Mutant blocker and later on had a red glow around his body." Murmurs, grunts, and mumbles reverberated in the Council room as the Council Members were awed in shock and fear at the Blood Mutant’s sudden change in power. This phenomenon reminded them of how they lost their first Blood Mutants. "This is concerning..." "It reminds us of how we lost the first two...." "Remember, the first ones were Human adults," Lord Grania stood from his throne and addressed the Council Members, hoping to calm them down a little bit. "We all know how easy it is to influence and control the young, especially Humans." "Indeed," Chris and Lily walked into the Council room, giving their view on humans. "I and this Granian behind me were sent on Earth to study the Human ways and customs. The young ones are easily controlled and manipulated. They’re impressionable and most of them would follow silly trends that their older, and younger peers set. The older generations are slightly harder to influence if we find them with already set morals, which explains why we lost control of the older Mutants we had." "However..." Lily started her part of the address, "...since our Mutants are still young, we can influence them into doing what we need them to do. We just need to point them in the right light of our cause, show them why they were created, why we brought them here, and in the end, we might be able to have their complete control." "The two younglings make a compelling point," another one of the elder Granians stood up in agreement with what Chris and Lily said. "If we can somehow point them in that light, it will be possible for us to control them. Sooner than later, they will all become too strong to be controlled by Blood Mutant Blockers. We have to make sure they’re on our side before that happens, otherwise they will overpower us." "Indeed," Lord Grania continued. Weighing the odds in and against their favor, Lord Grania came with a final decision in the form of a long address. "The Blood Mutants are going to have to become stronger than the ones the Ethisians possess. We already know how powerful they were when we controlled them, but as we speak, we do not know how strong they have become ever since the Ethisians stole them from us. In our control, those two had the power to overwhelm our forces on their own, but those were years ago. In order for us to beat them, our Mutants have to become twice as strong as they are to ensure our victory but we must also still be able to control them." Looking at Lord Grim, Helda, One Horn, Grand Master, and himself, Lord Grania opted that the Granians would undergo training of their own. If they wanted to at least control the Mutants, or make sure that they didn’t have any ideas, there needed to be strong enough Granians that would be able to put them down. That way, the Granians wouldn’t have to worry as much about the Humans as possible. "The four of you are going to undergo further training," Lord Grania finalized. "If we are to shift the tides of control in our favor, we must have strong Granians in our ranks that will be ready to put the Mutants down. They are powerful, that we can all agree, but sooner or later that power will go to their heads. Having strong individuals of our own will set a balance that evens out our odds. Strong Granians set in place to deal with the Mutants will keep them from trying anything on us. Does that ease everyone’s tension?" "Partially," Helda got up from her seat, her belly bump being more evident than before. "We still have to deal with the issue of the Mutants using Eneraflux. Remember, we made that system to enable the user to subdue and control everything and anything they set their minds to. What if one day we become the system’s main objective of subjugation? We created a test system and its algorithm once made us one of its targets. For goodness sake, the system shut us out from its interface when on Earth. We no longer have any tabs on it. If the boy escapes, we won’t be able to track him or the system. Doesn’t that raise any concerns?" "It does," Lord Grania spoke and then smiled, "but as I said, our contingency plan will make sure that doesn’t happen. If anything happens, we will be ready to decommission the Mutants. Council dismissed. Let everyone do as I have instructed." ------------------------------ As the Council Members made decisions concerning the Blood Mutants, without involving them, the Humans gathered around Ace who was slowly gaining consciousness. Skyler, Cherry, Anya, and Jim peered over the Blood Bishop’s face, all waiting for him to get up and retell the story of how he killed the Emberwyrm. Upon arrival, Cherry told the others about their conquest, mainly stressing Ace’s powerful exhibition of Blood Manipulation. The first thing they noted was his blood-red hair which was previously orange. The second thing they noticed was his Crimson Blood Harvest Gauntlets. The others felt drawn towards them, feeling the immense energy seeping from them. Even Skyler, the none Blood Mutant, could feel the immense energy coming from the Gauntlets. Further, she sensed a little bit of Eneraflux flowing from Ace’s body. "Rise and shine, Bishop," Cherry teased while the others gave the Mutant room to breathe. "I was just telling these guys about your conquest with that damned beast." "Is it true you killed a High-tier beast?" Skyler asked, having gained a little bit of knowledge about the Planet’s beasts. Since she was hunting beasts of her own with One Horn, she learned a thing or two about the beast types, strengths, and tiers. "Those creatures are incredibly difficult to fight, let alone kill." "He managed to pull it off," Cherry boasted in her brother’s strength. "If we had systems of our own, we could end up surpassing him in strength." Official source ıs 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚫𝙣𝙚𝙩 "Where did you get the Gauntlets from?" Anya admired the tools, wishing for a pair of her own. "Err...they’re just made from Blood," Ace lied. Getting up on his feet, he went over his system’s notifications looking for the notification that confirmed his Conjured Blood Beast. [Congratulations: You have Conjured a High-tiered beast.] [Blood Beast Ember: Level 12] ’Wow!!’ he gasped, seeing the high level the beast possessed. ’It’s much stronger than the Upper-Grade Blood Warriors.’ Without warning the others, Ace stretched his hands and prepared to summon his new beast. Their chambers were exceptionally large so nothing was stopping him from checking it out. "Blood Essence, manifest."