Chapter 701 - Shadowheart's Conundrum

Connor Baines stood before the office of the administrator of Vita City-State, hesitating slightly before knocking on the door. He was told to come here by Akainu after he shared his story with them, told that he would meet someone special. 

He did so gingerly, then waited for a response. Soon, he heard neutral 'come in', then entered the office right away. 

The first thing he noticed was a set of red eyes that glowed with a white pulse, like a sonar. Then, he noticed the person possessing those eyes, one of the most handsome men he had ever seen in his life. 

The next second, Connor Baines froze and began foaming at the mouth, his mind crashing suddenly. At the same time, his eyes glazed over and his ears rang with a strange roar, as if he was listening to a waterfall lash the pool beneath. Surprisingly, Connor did not fall down, yet he continued to twitch as if someone had struck him with a taser. 

The Avatar of Draco, who sat there calmly, whipped his head up with shock. He immediately shut down his bloodline emanations completely, freeing Connor from his terrible experience immediately. 

Connor clutched the nearby wall and panted deeply, rubbing his face with confusion. 

'What the hell just happened? What was that feeling? It was like someone tossed him in a pool of electrified water.' 

Connor noticed the Avatar had stood up from his seat and was pacing around him, observing him with a severe frown on his face. This frown became deeper and deeper until Draco asked the key question. 

"How do you have 50% of Ouroboros' origin in your body?" 

Connor froze, now being able to look properly at Umbra's Guildmaster. Before he could give him an answer, he felt his mind shake once more. However, this time it was Ouroboros's doing. The God Serpent, who had been spinning eternally as far as his Inheritor knew, actually paused for an entire second. 

"It's… it's him! It's the Lord! Our Progenitor! By the Laws of Eternity… I never thought I'd see him again…" Ouroboros muttered with a wealth of emotions in his voice, despite his aged and wizened tone. 

The God Serpent sounded like a dog that had finally reunited with its master after years of separation. Understanding who Draco was from Ouroboros' words, Connor calmed down and stood upright. 

"My name is Connor Baines. To answer your question, the God Serpent resides within me. He told me that I was a member of the Lucifer Lineage and I possess his abilities because the progenitor wanted to create a set of capable generals for his reincarnation." 

Connor went on to share his origin and relayed Ouroboros' words straightforwardly. 

Draco's Avatar just stood there, dumbfounded and speechless. He finally understood everything, yet not in the same way Connor did. Draco had always been plagued by his poor control over his minor was the array of God Serpents. 

Yes, Aunt Fyre had told him that every Lucifer Lineage bloke would have a harder time using their minor, since it was tougher and costlier to use, but seriously, think about it! 

Did it make sense that Draco could use his Bloodline Energy to summon a whole ass Black Dragon and even transform into one, but he couldn't even summon a single Leviathan or Orochi? 

There is no logical way that the God Serpents - individually and even together - cost as much as a Black Dragon to use. Draco should have logically gotten familiar with the Serpent God Inheritance by using his minor, before slowly warming up to using the Black Dragon over time. 

Instead, the inverse had occurred. 

Draco frankly sucked at using the God Serpents, yet he had believed that it was due to his lack of skill with the bloodline. After all, unlike Eva, he had not enjoyed years of training in those techniques during his formative years, so he had even trained himself using time dilation in the Inner Universe to make up for it. 

Of course, the current Avatar did not know this, but if he did, he would feel even more pity for Draco. 

Brother, the reason you suck is not because you're unskilled, but because the 'hardware' you were allocated is only working at 50% efficiency. In other words, for once, double his effort would only result in half the typical output. 

This stacked with the Serpent God Inheritance's natural limitation, which was that all those with this inheritance paid 50% more Bloodline Energy to use their minor and only got 30% of the usual effectiveness. 

Tsk tsk, poor Draco! 

The usually OP fellow was actually thrown under the bus and had so many debuffs placed on him! 

It was actually a miracle he could even get as far as he could, really! 

The Avatar shook his head and dispelled all meaningless thoughts. "Since I have 9 God Serpents, I assume there should be 8 more of you." 

Connor shrugged. "I guess so, though I have never met another like me. All I know comes from the mouth of Ouroboros." 

Draco pondered silently and nodded. "We'll work more on this later. Right now, let's get back to why you have been told to come to me." 

The Avatar sat down once more and crossed his legs, folding them with an arrogant smirk. "You told Akainu that you have beef with the Cartel?" 

Connor's face changed, but he did not hesitate as he sat opposite Draco. "Not the organization in its entirety, but one person in it. A woman by the name of Maria." 

Draco froze for a second and then adopted a serious position. "A woman so sexy even billionaires would pay to fuck her? " 

Connor nodded unhesitatingly. He hated Maria sure, but he wasn't clouded of mind. He would not deny that the woman did have a body that could even make over half of Umbra's female core members feel inferior. 

Draco sighed and leaned back in his seat. "This matter is certainly more than just a little troublesome... however, you are now a core member of my guild!" 

"What's more, not only are you a member of my Lineage, apparently you're actually to be my future general, specifically left behind by Lucifer himself to aid me. As such, it is imperative that we solve your hatred ASAP." Draco leaned forward to pat Connor on the shoulder. "You have my full support on this." 

Hearing this, Connor felt a strong sense of security. He had mostly been wading through life adrift and alone ever since that crazy bitch massacred his family. 

This had led him to close himself up and become aloof. He hardly got close to anyone nor allowed anyone to get close to him, and his base disposition was to be silent and neutral. 

He hadn't always been like this. Once upon a time, he had been a socialite young master, as his nuclear family had been extremely well off. It was how he had even met Maria at the ripe age of 14. It had been easy enough to seduce the pubescent boy into her bed. 

This was the same Maria that had created today's fuckboy Draco, so you could imagine how Connor should be had he not suffered trauma. Now, though, after his encounter with the sexual predator, he was mostly uninterested in women or men, or sex in general. 

His interests lay in keeping himself intellectually abreast with all interesting fields of study, and this game's magic had become his recent favorite. As for his other goal, it was to amass wealth in order to return to his socialite life, or rather, the life he had before. 

That was why he had even bought the bloody helmet. He had seen the earnings others were making playing this game and knew that given his skill and bloodline, he was destined to easily surpass them. 

One thing led to another, and Connor Baines was here, at the pinnacle moment of his life so far, sitting before a reincarnated version of his supposed Progenitor as he promised to help him in every regard. 

The members of Umbra, as well as Gentle Flower and Noble Soul, two people Draco was 'merely' affiliated with, yet look at them. They were now the top 1% of players in the game as well as celebrities in the real world. 

How much more someone that Draco promised to help upfront? 

Connor Baines had no idea how much his life would change from this one promise. Right now, though, he was grateful to Draco for his consideration. Avatar or not, he had enough sway to decide these matters in the real world, while the original was out and about. 

"Now, you've probably seen everyone you've spoken to react to Maria with either fear or seriousness, even myself. It has nothing to do with her sexual prowess, but her reputation and her backing as the Queen of the Cartel." 

"That nickname isn't for show, she is the only daughter of the Cartel's leader, Juan Carlo. As such, he had pampered his little princess stupidly. Cross her, and you will have the full force of the Cartel against you." 

This revelation stunned Connor, as he clutched his armrest tightly. He had researched into the Cartel because of Maria, so he knew what kind of power and reach this group had. 

Just when he was deep in ponderance, Draco smiled playfully. "As impressive as this might sound, the Cartel is nothing to the current me. My group Purgatory is affiliated with an organization named Supernatural, and the Cartel is one of their puppet organizations. Maria's backing is therefore useless." 

"So I can make a move?" Connor asked tentatively, feeling that things wouldn't be so simple. 

Draco gazed at Connor's skepticism with praise. "You are insightful and not quick to rush to conclusions without hearing all the details, which is good. There's more." 

"While it is true that her Cartel backing is trash to us, she does have another superior backer which is someone far more fearsome." Draco began taking a deep breath for suspense. 

"I wasn't joking when I described her as someone so sexy that even billionaires would pay to fuck her. The list of them is pretty long, and there's one among the list who is persistent and devoted." 

Connor frowned. Mere billionaires were not enough to stop him, not with the power he had. They were lucky he found it distasteful, or he could easily have broken into the mansions and raided them top to bottom with ease. 

"The Fifth Councilor." Draco revealed in an almost whisper. 

This time, Connor's face changed greatly, and his breath got caught. He displayed horror for the first time since he got here, and he began to sweat when he considered the magnitude of his wish to get revenge on Maria. 

As one of the 9 councilors of the World Council, that man had the power to rule the world more firmly than that shabby United Nations ever did. They were the ones with real power, a real army, and control over every government. 

The 9 councilors were appointed after the end of World War 3, when the World Council was first formed. They swore allegiance to no countries, and they had full executive, judicial and legislative power over the council. 

So where did they come from? 

There had been a time where people had joked about how there were 'hidden families' in the world that controlled governments from the shadows. As it turned out, those people who had spread those 'conspiracy theories' had been right all along. After the world had been completely overhauled, they had decided to come to light and fully embrace their roles. 

As such, they had appointed one from each of their families to take the spot. 

First Councilor - James Rockefeller of the Rockefeller Family. 

Second Councilor - Li Jian of the Li Clan. 

Third Councilor - Yuuto Nakamoto of the Nakamoto Clan. 

Fourth Councilor - Franklin DuPont of the DuPont Famile. 

Fifth Councilor - Nathan Rothschild of the Rothschild Family. 

Sixth Councilor - Rosa Astor of the Astor Family. 

Seventh Councilor - Metro Van Duyn of the Van Duyn Familia. 

Eighth Councilor - Leero Onassis of the Onassis Family. 

Ninth Councilor - David Collins of the Collins Family. 

These 9 fellows decided the fate of the world in many matters, but usually never went overboard. However, to corporations and organizations of the world, these 9 were like fearsome God Serpents gazing down at mere beasts. 

To individuals, they were just a bunch of rulers who didn't dare to make their lives difficult in this new era. 

The Fifth Councilor especially was the most terrifying, and his family name alone told why. Such a person was willing to actually marry Maria as his official wife and induct her into the illustrious Rothschild family! 

The only reason this hadn't happened was because Maria was a pedophile who loved raping extremely handsome young boys like Draco or Connor. 

She definitely did not want to end up with an old fart who probably had to use drugs to get it up. 

However, if she was pushed to a corner, the Queen of the Cartel would naturally flee into the arms of the only one who could save her.. Likewise, if she was harmed, Nathan would stop at nothing to hunt down the perpetrator.