Supreme Magus novel Chapter 3941

Chapter 3941: Snakes in the Grass (Part 2)

"Verhen’s children are under the protection of the Guardians." Salanoth pointed out.

"True, but for how long?" Jorl’s beak curled up in a smile. "Besides, you can always wait for Verhen’s children to have children on their own and possess his little brother, nieces, and nephews while you wait.

"Their Demon form will make perfect practice material until you can access a pureblooded Tiamat."

"Yours is an interesting proposition, Jorl." Uragar’s hardcover brimmed with mana from excitement. "But there’s still a major obstacle to this plan. As you pointed out, the Dead King will soon be unstoppable. Even if he can’t kill me and Solanoth, he can imprison us if we rebel."

"I bet he has already prepared sealing arrays for us the moment we outlive our usefulness." The Ring of Space nodded.

"You are right, and that’s why we need to move now, while Orpal has yet to master the full extent of his abilities and his focus is spread on too many fronts." Jorl replied. "If we wait for him to conquer Garlen before we make our move, it will be too late."

"Are you suggesting we should dispose of the Dead King?" Akhton steepled his clawed fingers, ready to point out the many flaws of such an idea.

"Absolutely not." Jorl’s answer flabbergasted the two cursed objects, but not the Bastet. "Orpal is still the only Vurdalak on Mogar and our best chance at discovering the rest of our Upyr’s bloodline abilities.

"He is also the Horseman of Night and the only one with the ability to produce more Upyrs. As long as Orpal lives, no matter how many Upyrs we lose in battle, we can create more. While the Council needs decades to nurture a powerful mage, it takes us a few months to add dozens of Divine Beasts to our ranks.

"Without him, we are just a bunch of quarrelsome misfits disowned by their respective families. If Orpal dies before we bring the Council to its knees, we will be hunted, persecuted, and killed wherever we go.

"Assuming we can keep a united front, of course. I’ve seen what kind of people we are associating ourselves with, and I don’t trust them farther than I can throw them. We need Orpal to crush those who stand against us, but then he has to go, or there will be no future for us.

"Defeating him together is easy, but killing him is another story. His bloodline abilities make it impossible to imprison him, and if he runs away, he’ll build another army of Upyrs and kill us next.

"Asking Baba Yaga for help is not an option either. After what we’ll do to Garlen, she’ll kill Night and then thank us by slitting our throats."

"Then what’s the point of this assembly? What do you need our help for?" Uragar asked.

"The point is to work together to prepare a contingency plan for after our victory." Jorl replied. "We’ll strike after the Kingdom has fallen and the Awakened Council is broken, but before Orpal can consolidate his authority over the Upyrs by taking credit for our victories.

"The perfect opportunity to strike will be right at the end of the war, when we’ll have earned the loyalty of our troops as generals, and Orpal’s forces will amount to a little more than what each one of us will lead.

"He’s already stronger than any of us individually. If we allow him to gain the numerical advantage as well, there will be no chance of victory. We’ll never manage to get close enough to him to strike him down."

"Strike him down how?" Akhton asked.

"This brings us to Uragar’s second question." The Storm Griffon nodded. "Akhton, I called you here because you are the only other true Divine Beast in our ranks and one of our strongest fighters.

"When the time comes, your mastery over the Origin Flames will create our opening." The Bastet nodded, and Jorl turned to the cursed objects. "Uragar, Salanoth, you two are the oldest creatures I know.

’It’s easy for that bastard to stay calm.’ The Bastet inwardly cursed. ’He’s bound to die anyway, whereas before I took part in this meeting, there was a small chance that Orpal upheld his word and left Verendi to me.

’Even if he didn’t, I could have acted as regent and built my strength until I could claim the independence of my territories. While he wasted his time conquering the Empire, I’d have shared everything I know about his army with Verendi’s Council and prepared for the invasion.

’Now, instead, Jorl has driven me into a corner and bound my fate to his own. The only thing worse than a powerful idiot like Orpal is a powerful strategist like Jorl.’

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify