Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 470: Outstanding People Emerge
"Your Majesty, this is roughly what the elders meant--" Gulag pushed the summary of the memorial in his hands in front of Kalelius with both hands, bent his old body and bowed deeply, then returned to his second seat with the help of the waiter.

Court deliberation - this system originated in the Golden Dynasty and was used by the royal family and the great nobles to negotiate important matters. It was learned when the new dynasty of giants was just established. Although the Council of Elders looked down on most human cultures, it was happy with any system that could strengthen its own authority.

Just like now, on this giant round table with a diameter of one hundred meters, the giant king who was once so powerful that he could not even breathe could only be confined to a narrow corner at the very end.

The members of the Council of Elders were all sitting several meters away, surrounding the vacant chief seat at the very top. Many sharp eyes indifferently examined their former king, turning a nominally bottom-up "persuasion" campaign into a condescending judgment.

Earlier, the high priest forced the guards to take Amotia downstairs to recuperate on the grounds that she was seriously injured. Amotia wanted to kill someone on the spot, but was held down by Callelius, who ordered her to go downstairs to recuperate as soon as possible.

Therefore, right now in this temple, only Kaleris is facing the 128 elders of the Council of Elders alone.

The dust has settled and the winner has been decided.

Looking at Kalelius silently reading the memorial, most of the elders naturally had this thought.

"Hand over all military command, including that of the King's personal guards, and all the King's seals. During your convalescence in the Holy Land, you may not go out without the permission of the Council of Elders, and you may not meet with any of your subjects in private. All military and political affairs will be temporarily handled by the Holy Son, and you will be assisted by the High Priest Gulag and the Council of Elders. You will retain the title of King."

Calerius read out the contents of the memorial one by one, without any anger on his face. It was not until he finished reading the last line about temporarily retaining his throne that he smiled faintly and said, "Is this what the high priest meant, or what all the elders meant?"

Gulag's empty eye sockets drooped, and he sighed, "Your Majesty, why do you ask when you already know the answer? Since the memorial appeared in the court meeting, it must be the opinion of the entire Council of Elders."

What he could not say was that the day before Kalerius arrived at the Holy Land, the Elder Council learned through the scouts of the Royal Guard that his injuries were far more serious than expected, and had reached a level that could not be healed without reinjecting fire.

As the news reached the temple, the entire Presbyterian Church was in an uproar.

All the elders who had previously been afraid to express their true thoughts publicly out of fear of Kaleris's accumulated power now denounced the tyrant's evil deeds with deep sorrow, and decided not to tolerate them anymore. For the sake of the survival of their race and country, they put those proposals that had been hidden in their minds for a long time on the conference table for discussion.

Amid the surging public sentiment, even the high priest Gulag was powerless to stop this carnival of dividing the royal power. After another night of careful and rigorous discussion, this new music list was produced, which was much more rigorous than the first version.

In the memorial, the Council of Elders no longer hesitated to conceal their naked desires, and they were ready to take away everything from Calleris - the only remaining title of king came from the high priest's insistence. Considering the high elder's face, the elders had no choice but to temporarily give up the plan of achieving success in one fell swoop and choose to take it step by step.

However, this result was completely acceptable to most of the nobles of the Holy Land. The throne was not theirs anyway. After Calerius was dead in name only, whether the Son of God ascended the throne earlier or later would have no impact on their rights. In fact, it might even help them gain more support from the Son of God if it was later. "Is that so?" Calerius gently closed the music sheet, rubbed his burning brows, took a deep breath and said, "Then what about the source of fire?"

"To be honest with you elders, I am seriously injured and it is difficult to recover. I must enter the forbidden gate again and inject fire again to suppress the sword wound caused by the destined death. The memorial only mentioned that everyone hopes that I will stay in the holy land to recover, but there is no mention of the three elders who are in charge of the seal of the forbidden gate. I wonder what your plans are in this matter?"

“Kalelius!” The Third Elder, one of the seal controllers, stood up and slammed the table, his hair and beard standing up, saying: “You are worthy of mentioning the source of fire?!”

"At the beginning, we did not ask about your origin or status. We not only gave you the fire, but also gave you a chance to absorb the fire behind the forbidden door. You wasted the most fire among all your compatriots, but failed to comprehend any of the ten forbidden spells. It was only because the high priest loved your talent and saw your extraordinary potential that he recommended you to temporarily take over the throne. But how did you repay us?"

"We were defeated at Guntherfred, then at the Watcher Fortress, then at Slovens, then at Torrinio, and in the last battle east of the Sacred Forest, we lost 200,000 elite soldiers, and Marshal Rexar's Central Regiment also suffered heavy losses! The Elder Council not pursuing your crimes is the greatest forgiveness, and you actually dared to try to get your hands on the source of fire again. Why, do you have to waste all the legacy of our ancestors on you before you will stop?"

"I have said before that only fire can heal my wounds. Only when I recover can the royal court face Lucia Sanx head-on." Kalerius felt his head getting hotter and more painful, but he still suppressed his temper and explained, "Without me at the front line, how can the elders of the council deal with the ancient dragon?"

"Your Majesty, you are overestimating yourself." Beside the high priest Gulag, the second elder was a skinny old man. Although his words were not as violent as the third elder's, his tone was more sinister and cold.

"I think that things on the battlefield change rapidly, and a temporary defeat is not worth mentioning. However, the Third Elder is right - Your Majesty has not mastered any forbidden spells so far."

"Since the opening of the Royal Court's treasure, everyone in our clan knows that the ten forbidden spell abilities correspond to the ten forbidden prayers, each of which demonstrates the peerless power of the Giant King. The ten ancestors are the ten end points of the Giant's evolutionary path, and they also correspond to these ten abilities."

"Your Majesty has not yet acquired any forbidden spell abilities. You have ascended the throne only by virtue of your adaptability to fire and your ability to absorb fire sources. You must know that every fire seed and every source of fire is a precious legacy left by our ancestors and is the foundation for the survival of millions of giants!"

"Your Majesty was the one who failed to live up to the legacy of your ancestors and wasted the power of the source of fire in the battle against your destined death. Now you want us to open the forbidden door again without saying a word and gamble the future of countless people to pay for your Majesty's mistakes. Is this the way of a king?"

"I know that Your Majesty has led the army and fought bravely. So Your Majesty should understand that when it comes to the fire source, our people are united and all are equal. We cannot open the door to convenience for Your Majesty alone. Even if we have to reopen the forbidden door, we should first heal the wounds of the ancestors. As for the fact that Your Majesty can't fight the new king of the dragon clan, I think there is no need to worry about it."

The second elder stood up and straightened his sleeves, looking around proudly and said: "Since ancient times, our dynasty has produced many heroes. In the past, there was the initial king Saint Heteniris who gouged out his eyes and became a god, laying the foundation of faith for future generations. Later, there was the high priest Saint Hellengard who killed the dark stars and protected hundreds of millions of people in the forbidden war. Even when we were in a desperate situation in the war of annihilation twenty years ago, there was Saint Hellengmur who created the method of fire and sacrificed himself to lay the foundation for the revival of the giant race!"

"Your Majesty, why are you so arrogant? You know that all the heroes have come before you, but you still have the audacity to claim that no one can stop Lucia Sanx after you? I, as an old minister, can guarantee with my life that if any foreign enemy dares to invade, there will surely be another hero who will draw his sword! On that day, no matter what his background is, we will give him everything we have and use the strength of our entire clan to kill the enemy chieftain on the battlefield!"

(End of this chapter)