The discovery about Central City was shocking, but I soon realized that it wasn't the time to worry about that, I had time for that later, at that moment I needed to listen to what was being said by the Elders and gauge their stance on the invasion and where they stood. So I took deep breaths and started calming myself as I put all my focus on what was happening in front of me.

"Everyone here knows that we are doing this for the sake of the world's balance," Ahlyth answered slowly, "but ever since Central City disappeared, we have had no attacks at all from any Outsiders."

"Exactly Elder Drusilia," Chief Mirodar said, "I think it's about time we accept the theory circling that the Central City found a way to stop the Outsiders from invading our world, but by doing so they had to sacrifice themselves, it might be time to let the world move freely."

Again I got surprised by what was being said, it seemed that not only there were some elves who wanted to let the war between humans and demons be, but it appeared that they even had the backing of the majority, they wanted to have nothing to do with the two. But then, as I watched and as the back and forth between the Elders continued, the weird feeling I had before I got distracted by the mentioning of Central City made itself known again, and I couldn't help but frown lightly, something wasn't right.

Elves were a stubborn and strict race, they would rarely change their traditions and stances on things, and the members of the Council of Elders were even more so like that. So the majority of them being on the side that wanted to go against what they had been doing for who knows how long was already sending a bit of warning my side, but that small warning and uncomfortableness only got worst till it turned to ringing bells in my mind.

The first major sign that something was really wrong was how it felt that the conversation wasn't as free-flowing as it should have been. All the points brought up by Drusilia and the people on her side felt as if they were specifically targeted towards giving the chance to the people on Chief Mirodar and Ahlyth to tear at them and hit back, as if they wanted to be dissuaded or more like, they wanted the listeners to be dissuaded.

And dissuade they were, bringing the second point that made me sure that something was really happening, the Elders started changing their minds way too easily, well not too easily to the point that they made it clear that something was going on, but if you were looking for it, you would be able to.

As I sat there and watched as even more and more Elders seemed to be convinced by what was being brought by the other side, I started thinking about what all of this meant. The whole Council of Elders seemed to be okay with letting the demons invade the humans, which meant that the easiest and fastest way to end this war, the elves' intervention, was out of the window, and that was a painful punch in the guts really, I couldn't even begin to imagine why they would do something like this.

I soon threw all those thoughts aside and watched with my feelings masked as the meeting continued with the voices of opposition becoming fewer and fewer. Finally, only Drusilia was left, and all she did was keep silent once she saw that all the others were on the side of letting the war be.

Chief Mirodar's side seemed to take that as a sign of their victory, and soon, the discussion moved towards how to get the news about the war out, and also how to tell the citizens about their change in policies, and how they won't try to stop the war this time.

Not long after that, the meeting finally ended, with all the Elders standing up and giving a bow, Chief Mirodar waved his hands over a few glyphs and the huge round table along with the Council's members all disappeared. Chief Mirodar remained silent for a long time, just sitting there with his arms crossed before he eventually turned to me and asked:

"So, what do you think?"

"Did the other Elders also bring some people with them to the meeting?" I didn't answer and instead asked my own question, probably the most important one as the answer to it would be even more of a proof that something shady was really happening. After all, the Elders wouldn't put that big of a show just for me, I didn't for a second believe that to be the case, I wasn't that much of a narcissist.

Chief Mirodar lifted an eyebrow as if he hasn't expected me to ask such a question, but he still did answer after looking at me deeply:

"Yes, almost each of the Elders brought one person with them to the meeting," That said, he walked towards me and put both his hands on my shoulders as he continued to the real reason he wanted me to be a part of this meeting, "now you see what I meant by saying the world is changing, things aren't stable out there and you should be working hard on this here, what's coming next won't be easy, and we will need you here."

I had already guessed it, but it really seemed that the reason he had me come there wasn't to have me spread the news about the Council's change of heart, or whatever the other Elders wanted to accomplish by bringing other followers with them. He mainly wanted me there to dissuade me from leaving the city and to take his place as chief when the time comes.

But that wasn't what stood out for me from what he had said, instead, it was what he said at the end, he mentioned that what's coming next wouldn't be easy, and I had a hunch that he didn't mean the state of the world after the war, it felt more like the elves wanted to do something, and seeing how they were pushing for the war between the demons and the humans, I had a bad feeling about that.

"I'll think about it," I gave Chief Mirodar one of Denethor's signature smiles and a standard response. The old elven Chief was used to how his son operated, so he didn't push me and just sighed, as he seemed to know that this meeting didn't have the effect he wanted it to have on me.

"I'll be leaving for now," I said, "I need some time to go over all that happened here and digest it fully."

Well, that was true, I needed to go over some parts of the meeting, but I was sure that the parts I was going to concentrate on weren't the parts he thought about.

I then turned around and headed out with a light nod, feeling Chief Mirodar's eyes on me the whole way, Chief Mirodar didn't stop me though, I soon left the office and then the whole building without any problems. Letting my feet lead me, I lost myself in my thoughts.

Even though the news about Central City was big, and it almost made me just head straight to the city's library and try to find as much information about it as I could, it wasn't the thing I lost myself in, instead, I decided to take things slow and start from the things that I found myself missing in my first day in this world, I needed to go over the basics first now that I had time to do so.

The first thing that I thought I needed to go over was of course the three races' powers. Each one of the three races had some kind of power that let them stand among the other on the same level, or at least close enough to be acknowledged. Those three powers were, the demons' abilities and their bloodlines, the humans' Ancestral Ores and their Inheritances, and finally the elves' Elemental Magic.

I needed to understand those three powers and what they meant to truly understand what I was capable of, and also to see, now that I was in this weird situation, if there was any way I would be able to use the three powers to make something bigger and better. That last one was more like wishful thinking, but Denethor had a tendency to think big and in certain unusual ways, so I found myself putting that as a far-off end goal of some kind.