Endless Debt Chapter 1449 - 42: Hunting

Fabien rarely arrives at the Supreme Hub in the dead of night, let alone meets with the Ancestral Council. It’s not that he, as an Order Officer, is careless with his work, but rather that these noble Legislators do not appreciate being disturbed at night, disrupting their rare dreams.

They are aged and venerable, each of them having reached the lifespan limit of a Condenser. As their Extraordinary traits peak, their mortality withers to an extreme, the characteristics of life and death coexisting within their feeble bodies.

Just like many within the Extraordinary Influence, those aged Condensers eventually gather here, becoming the supreme leaders of the All Secrets Order, relying on vast resources to barely sustain life.

Fabien has no objections to this. By convention, when his own lifespan reaches its limit, he too will join the Ancestral Council and become one of these barely living souls.

It’s just... it’s just that Fabien has never liked this way of barely surviving; he doesn’t understand how this prolonged existence differs from being a prisoner.

A heavy metallic sound interrupted Fabien’s thoughts; the elevator had reached its destination, the overlapping gates disassembling, unveiling the path forward.

A beam of strong light swept over Fabien’s head, a branch of the Aurora Path, penetrating the confines of the building and reaching into this deep hall. This place has never had an official name, but every Order Officer and Legislator habitually calls it the Nest Core.

The narrow field of vision widened as Fabien stepped into the vast space of the Nest Core. It was very bare, with nothing inside, leading one to wonder if it had ever been completed. The place was so expansive that Fabien’s footsteps echoed to the end and back.

Raising his head, Fabien saw an inverted triangular structure slowly descending from the tip above.

It was a complex, beehive-like structure, a nesting of interconnected hexagonal spaces. The Aurora Path penetrated it, casting a faint glow within. Through this glimmer, one could see the material of the beehive had excellent transparency, like crystalline clarity.

With such transparency, one could make out numerous curled-up shadowy figures within the Crystal Beehive. They seemed like developing drones hidden within.

Fabien bowed in greeting, his voice neither too high nor too low, reverberating in the empty interior, gradually intensifying, becoming sonorous.

"Legislators."

Fabien’s voice stirred them awake; the hazy figures within the crystal began to writhe, an indistinguishable murmur sounding among them, eventually subsiding into silence, the writhing of their bodies also coming to a halt.

Drip, drip.

A viscous dripping sound shattered the silence again. A figure began to writhe violently; she stretched her body within the cocoon, lifted her head, and met Fabien’s gaze with eyes aglow. She extended her arms, exerting force, gradually tearing away the cocoon enveloping her, emerging from the hexagonal beehive space.

"Ha..."

A clear breathing sound echoed, and Fabien saw her clearly; she was a woman of indefinable age, her skin an unnatural pale from lack of sunlight, her features delicate and without a hint of a wrinkle. Yet her hair was an elderly white, cascading like a waterfall.

She laboriously pulled her lower body from the beehive and landed lightly, like a falling feather. Her naked body was covered in the mucus she brought out from the beehive, which dripped, pooling at her feet.

The woman took another deep breath, expanding her lungs; her chest swelled slightly, followed by a faintly pained groan. Fabien watched her silently, and with that breath, he could precisely sense a slight wrinkle appearing on her smooth cheek.

The woman noticed this too, frowning slightly, but she said nothing more, summoning her Ether out of nowhere. An emerald-green robe appeared, draping over her, while the mucus on her skin rapidly evaporated. She leaned back, and a wooden chair appeared once more, firmly catching her.

"Visiting late at night, is there something you need?" she asked.

"The Order Bureau’s delegation has already arrived in the All Secrets Order, this time it’s Nesanel himself," Fabien recounted calmly, "Nesanel demands negotiations with the Ancestral Council to renegotiate the covenant and requests an examination of the All Secrets Order thereafter to confirm our purity."

Before the woman could react, a series of sharp, hoarse sounds emanated from the beehive above them. Fabien could vaguely make out some disjointed words, but they were difficult to form into a comprehensible sentence.

The woman seemed to understand these strange words, pressing hard on her temples as if alleviating pressure.

"Where are they now?"

"Diplomatic Tower."

"Does he plan to see us tomorrow?"

"Yes," Fabien continued, "but I think we mustn’t let Nesanel reach the Nest Core; it’s too dangerous."

This time, the sounds within the beehive grew harmonious, as if all those huddled figures agreed wholeheartedly with Fabien’s idea.

"I will represent the Ancestral Council to meet him," the woman said, "but I will not waste too much time on him; it’s best to resolve this matter quickly."