“Hero Kael, you were the one who first noticed that the Xenthalor Beast was corrupted. What do you think?”
The King questioned as he turned towards Kael.
The instant this happened, all the Council directed their attention at the Hero. Kael was momentarily overwhelmed. Instinctively, he wanted to turn towards Veylara and seek her opinion, but his mind quickly recalled what she said to him while they were riding Inkar.
‘When you are asked a question, never turn towards me to seek my opinion. You are the Hero, your thoughts need to either be independent or be influenced by the King’s words. Do you understand?’
‘So…’
‘If you wish to seek someone’s mental support when everything falls on you, stare at the King instead, wait for his approval.’
‘I understand.’
And Kael did as he was told. The moment all attention fell on him, he stared at the King, and only when Alden nodded, did he nod back and,
“As you all know, my eyes are special. They allow me to see how strong my enemies are.”
He began. The people at the council nodded. All of them were pillars of Drakthar. Even if they hadn’t directly met the Hero, they knew almost everything there was to know about him.
“My ability, however, doesn’t just tell me about my target’s strength. It tells me how fast they are, how strong their defence is, their stamina, their agility, the amount of mana inside their body, charisma, and even intelligence.
My eyes also tell me if the beast is corrupted or not. Not just that, they tell me the beast’s strength, speed, agility, stamina, and everything else before it was corrupted.”
“So the reason you knew that Xenthalor Beast was corrupted was…”
“My eyes told me it was.”
Kael nodded.
“But that’s not it.”
The Hero didn’t stop. Rather, he looked into the King’s eyes and,
“The problem we face isn’t about a beast being corrupted or not. With Tower Head Selene’s words and the way she gave the Power of Corruption a new name, it is possible that the people might not look at corruption in a negative light. And from what I understand from your discussion,
We need people to see the negatives of corruption. We need people to know that we stand on the right side if we are going to wage war, is that correct?”
Kael questioned.
He didn’t care about other members of the Council. His eyes were on the King, and Alden smiled,
“Indeed. That is exactly what we need.”
“So do your eyes show something that can be used against their claim?”
The Grand Marshal questioned as he stared at Kael. The Hero turned towards him and nodded.
“Their intelligence.”
“Intelligence?”
“Indeed. The corrupted beasts I saw in Estwyn were different from the Xenthalor Beast. Their strength, speed, stamina—every physical attribute and mana—was strengthened by a factor of 1.5. Their intelligence and charisma, however, were reduced to almost nothing, which made sense, since the beasts had lost their minds long ago.
Maul was different. The rise in his physical attributes was almost negligible. The amount of mana inside him, however, was pretty much doubled while his intelligence and charisma were halved.”
“If his intelligence was only halved, this means that it is true that he didn’t lose his mind. If the Xenthalor Empire solved the problem of corrupted beasts losing their minds, we need to work on it as well.”
The Archmage spoke up, his eyes shining at the possibility of new research.
“His intelligence was still reduced, Archmage Alaric.”
Kael spoke up.
“The Power of Corruption still affected his mind. A grown-up beast lost almost half of his intelligence. Do you think that poses no problems at all?”
The Hero frowned.
“I never said it was a complete success. Everything has its own advantages and disadvantages. The King and the Hero personally witnessed how that beast overpowered all others in a single move.
If the gains are that overwhelming, then…”
“So you won’t mind if your Bond turns into a dumb beast, as long as he gets a little stronger?”
The Keeper of the Wilds, Sylvara, glared at Alaric. Her eyes didn’t hide her displeasure, but once again, the Archmage shook his head.
“It was never about what I think. I stand at the top of thousands of people. I live a privileged life where I have everything I want. I can go on and on about how much I love my Bond and how he is perfect the way he is.
But do you think common people think that way?
Do you think the common people, who barely scrape by, would miss the chance to strengthen their Bonds just because it affects the beasts’ intelligence a little?
Think of a soldier, wouldn’t he think of strengthening his Bond so he could become a Corporal? What about the Corporal who was outranked by the soldier? Do you think he wouldn’t want to do the same thing?
They aren’t losing their Bonds entirely. Their Bonds will still be their Bonds, just with slightly less intelligence.
How many people do you think can resist such temptation?”
Sylvara clenched her fists at that question. She already knew the answer to that question. The Archmage, knowing that he had convinced others, turned towards the King and,
“Your Majesty, rather than allowing half of our people to rush into Xenthalor, allow me to conduct some experiments and learn what they did and how they did it.
Declaring war against a force that has found a way to strengthen their forces to the point where one beast is now capable of taking down multiple, is foolish.
We will not stand a chance unless we do the same.”
“And where will you find the Power of Corruption to experiment on?”
Veylara narrowed her eyes.
“We have several corrupted criminals that aren’t yet executed. I can use their Bonds.”
Alaric answered. His mind had already come up with multiple ways he could cut open those beasts and extract the Energy of Dawn.
“It will destroy us all.”
Suddenly, Kael spoke up.