Book 4 | Agent 34 and the Last Gem

Chapter 46 | The Vote

Braunick had managed to hand over Calvin's training to Sarah. He was hesitant about it due to her being the most naive and newest member of his army, but let her due to how much power he gave it. It was a lot.

He had been reading The Past and Current Gods of Renya and More for three straight days now. It truly fascinated him to an extent that lesser people would not understand. He read the most on the part about how to open the portal and summon them. Braunick wanted to summon them and was tempted to actually do it, but held back due to his unknowing of the consequences.

His desire for power had grown after reading the ancient book. Braunick, after reading of the God's powers, his desire for them grew more and more. To him, the Gods had all of the powers that you could imagine, even though they didn't. The fact that they restart all of Renya with the snap of their fingers grew Braunick's interest more than ever.

The giant metal doors swung open, Deathbringer flying inside with a torn cloak and a scorched body.

"What the hell happened to you," Braunick asked quickly.

"Some kids came and posed as the Traverials and said they were looking for the gem. Long story short, they kicked my butt,"

"So they found the gem?" The king asked sternly.

"Unclear. All I know is I killed off one of them, the one posing as Linx,"

"At least you got one," Braunick sighed. Normally, he would have been raging and killing off whoever had failed their mission, but Deathbringer was different. He was his friend, not just a loyal subject to him. They had managed to overthrow the Old King together and gave Braunick the crown.

"Yeah," the tattered man noticed the book in Braunick's lap. "What are you reading?"

He looked down at the thick thousand page book and back up towards his friend. "This? You really wanna know?"

"I mean," he shrugged. "I guess,"

"This book here," he patted its cover. "is going to be the key to my power. This here is a book about the Gods and how to contact them and summon them and everything! It's amazing isn't it?"

"What...what do you plan on doing?" Deathbringer asked uneasily.

"Why, I'm going to open a portal to the Gods' Realm," The tyrant ruler told him. "I will go in and get the power of them and I will become a literal God myself!"

"Don't you think that's a little," He shifted a bit. "Dangerous?"

"Dangerous is my middle name," Braunick replied with a smirk.

"Shut up, I'm being serious,"

"And so am I. A little God can't hurt someone as powerful as me,"

"I wouldn't do a deal with any type of God, Braunick," Deathbringer warned him.

"I'll be fine," the king reassured. "I'm Braunick. Nothing bad can happen to me. I will not die,"

~ ~ ~

Thad sighed as he called the Zena meeting to order. All of the Zena soldiers and Ar'guals gathered before the newly constructed building and in front of the late Wímad's statue. The short dwarf stood at the base of the statue, calling out to the men before him.

"Alright," he called out to the crowd. "As most of you know, there have been rumors of leaving Renya. Forever,"

Murmurs appeared among the crowd, soldier talking to another. "The rumors," Thad said, getting their attentions back to himself. "are true. There is talk of leaving. It seems physically impossible to beat Braunick at this point. We lost one of the few people who ever had the slightest chance of winning this war for us. There's no more point in fighting," He looked across the crowd, examining each and every soldier. "but, we will not leave this continent without your permission. We need to take a vote from you all for this issue,"

The dwarf gulped, gripping his collar of his tunic. "We will be placing a voting box outside the entrance to the Zena. It will be guarded twenty-four-seven so do not try to put false votes in. One vote per person. We will leave it out for twenty four hours or as long as it takes to determine our plan of action. Good luck,"

Thad walked away from the group, looking down in worry as he went into the twisting maze of corridors that was the new and improved Zena the Ar'guals had spent so long constructing.