The Returning Her - I
Upon the colossal circular table, capable of seating thirty, sat not only the ten Dukes who stood at the Empire's pinnacle, but also nineteen others who… without exaggeration, could claim a seat among such esteemed company.
The President of the Alchemists' Association, Pablo Celsus, accompanied by two other legendary master craftsmen; the three most formidable members of the Etheric Academy's Supreme Nine; two of the seven founders of the Zero Explorers; the Terminus Hall, composed exclusively of extraordinary beings who traversed the abyss; the Path of Transcendence, few in number but each at least of the fourth stage; even the Chronos Guild, infamous throughout the Empire for its lethal reputation, had dispatched a representative.
Furthermore, scattered among them were solitary extraordinary beings, unaffiliated with any faction, whose names were spoken of in hushed whispers akin to legends.