5.7

[Alexander's POV]

Prometheus' men drove us through the city, and out of all destinations, I certainly did not expect Buckingham Palace to be ours.

Was the British Monarchy part of Prometheus?

Soon, Mary and I were left alone in a lascivious room, and as I wondered whether the Queen herself would be coming to see us, Mary leaned over and whispered, "Did you have to do that to your eyes? They are already scared enough."

I paused, wondering what she was talking about, before getting up and approaching one of the silver decorations. It was shiny enough to allow me to see a distorted reflection.

And although it was hard to clearly see the shape of my eyes, their color immediately struck me.

I originally had blue eyes, before God's game that is. Then, they went through a bunch of changes, turning yellowish with the influence of the dark side, and before entering this mission they were green as I started finding a balance between the Light and Dark side of the Force.

Yet now, even through the distorted reflection, I saw purple eyes staring back into mine. And although I couldn't see it clearly, my pupils appeared to be slits.

Before I could ponder on the change however one of the doors of the room were opened, and a butler walked in, his back straight and his chin high as he looked at Mary, before looking at me.

Our eyes met, and despite being an ordinary man, he did not flinch or show any fear as he only stared at me for a moment longer before turning back to Mary, and saying, "The Council will be seeing you."

Mary and I followed him, and we were led to an underground room, where seven people seated in a half-moon circle. There was one empty chair, which was quite striking.

I could also feel several presences hiding in the shadows of the room.

I looked at the seven people sitting, trying to see if I could recognized them, but none of them were familiar to me.

One was, as expected, dressed in Royal garb, but it was not the Queen I expected to see that I saw. I didn't know who this was, but she looked younger than the Queen, yet at the same time she had a wisdom in her eyes that only came with experience.

The rest were of different ethnics and dressed in their own ceremonial costumes, hinting at their influence being global.

And they all shared one aspect, they looked young, yet felt old.

The red haired woman dressed as a queen spoke first, addressing Mary, "You look good, child. God's Game must have been rough. Pity Helena did not survive, she was a good seed."

So they do know about God's Game… and that's quite the warm greeting to someone who killed one of their members.

If Mary felt any shock, she did not show it. Instead, she calmly replied, "I did not beat God's Game, if that is what you are asking."

All seven of the people around the table reacted as an Asian man scoffed, "The only way to return from the game is to buy Return to the Origin for 50000 Points. Buying it means beating the game."

The others nodded strongly, but the red haired Councilwoman squinted her eyes, looking over at me, and asked, "Before sorting this out, let us address the elephant in the room. What is a Devil doing in our world?"

A Devil?

Not really sure of what she meant, I remained quiet, and let another of the Councilmen to add, "The pact is still in effect, so I can't help but wonder, how did you breach our world? Does it have something to do with the ongoing invasion?"

Another one added, this time deliberately not letting me reply, "Yet, yesterday, we recorded two beings fighting with the influence. An internal strife, perhaps?"

Mary immediately asked, understanding I was going to remain silent, "What makes you say he is a Devil?"

One of the Councilmen scoffed, "We know much more about God's Game and our reality than you do, child. Anyone returning from God's Dimension will lose all their powers, as you certainly experienced yourself. Only beings of other dimensions may retain a part of their power on Earth. And as it stands, the only two dimensions connected to Earth are Hell and Heaven. Since he is clearly not an Angel, then he can only be a Devil. A particularly potent one, too."

The red haired woman gazed down at Mary with authority and exuded a regal aura as she asked, "Did you somehow arrive here by making a deal with this Devil?"

Mary, who was usually very composed and didn't easily let her emotions show, had her face change as she replied with an uncomfortable expression, "I-I did not."

Seeing how this seemed to make her struggle, I spoke up, "I was the one to ward off the invasion attempt a few years ago, so I wouldn't mind a thank you."

The red haired woman, who stood out as the only woman within the Council, and seemed to be the leader, scoffed, "Don't play games with us, Devil. It wouldn't do you any good either if Earth was invaded by a new dimension."

She added, "Since you are already here, then you might as well help us."

She looked back at Mary, and informed her, "We conducted an investigation an Nodeo, following your warning. And many things do not add up, be it with their company, or with your story."

Another Councilman, probably from Africa, and the one who looked the oldest of the group, said, "Nodeo seems to have existed for decades, yet there are some small incoherence we found with them that suggest they were only created several days ago. This most probably means the invading dimension has already partly altered our world."

Feeling alarmed at the revelation, I internally checked my memory. I felt that I had always known Nodeo, but as I looked into those memories, and searched for something amiss, I noticed something.

If I didn't know about it, I probably would have never seen anything, but now that I looked back, my memories associated to Nodeo were a bit blurry, and felt different from most of my memories.

Although I felt shocked at the revelation of such an insidious manipulation, I forced myself to look composed.

"The name itself is a clue already. Reverse it, and you get Oedon, an old Great One that transcended physical form and which travels between dimensions to subjugate them. Along with some of our knowledge, everything seems to point out at the game Bloodborne."

The red haired woman suddenly smiled, and leaned forward, and I felt some sense of danger come from her. She was capable of opening the Genetic Constraint, I realized. And more than one.

"The real question now is, how did you know about it?"