The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 6 - Chapter 61 - Chat Between Progenitors

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't mind this fluff. It's so that free readers can't read half the chapter.

Click the following link if you want to read this chapter on a googledoc with formatting:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VTzdZSKtJe3m7mFPxgnubxauhyq9kfwI7fRFEPZc9Do/edit?usp=sharing

Or just keep scrolling down to find the chapter further down this Patreon post without formatting.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those of you who are reading this on a website that is not Patreon, please stop. You're reading a pirated version. Instead, if you would be so kind, please click on the table of contents link below and go to my Patreon instead. Or even read it off of Royal Road, which is free.

Discord Invite

Table of Contents

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wolf

I look the progenitor up and down for a moment before walking over and sitting at the counter of his bar. Following which he goes ahead and passes me a cocktail. One that I try as the man starts talking. Only after checking it for poisons, and more importantly, curses, of course.

“You have my condolences for everything you have been forced to experience thus far, young one,” Beelzebub states while wiping off a glass. “Grim nor his System had any right to copy a progenitor and place them in the dungeon. And everything he has done to you has been cruel ever since you first entered his ‘Administrator Dungeon’ creation.”

A faint smile stretches across my face at his words.

“But unwilling or not, a reputation must be upheld,” Beelzebub suddenly says, his many eyes narrowing a little. “Therefore we must fight, as I will not allow someone to kill me, clone or otherwise.”

“Understandable,” I respond with a nod of my head. Then I ask while looking him in some of his eyes, “So how do you want to go about doing this? It’s been obvious that you’ve been training me ever since I entered this floor.”

Beelzebub nods his head at that and says, “Correct, because you were nowhere near the level of power necessary to stand up against my clone. But now things are different.” He places the glass he’s been wiping down on the counter. “You have nearly grown strong enough to match my clone-limited physical strength when using your armaments, and your elemental energy is nearing my clone’s purity to match that. Therefore I will limit my domain usage to just a little above yours for our battle.”

Well that’s kind of disappointing. That he’s going to have to hold back.

But I’m not exactly complaining, seeing as I’d most likely die otherwise.

I haven’t really been able to expand my domain whatsoever after all.

Anyways, I tense up while preparing for our battle. Only for the progenitor to shake his head and say, “Let us speak before combat.”

That surprises me a little, but I slowly sit back down on the stool I was sitting on. Following which he moves another drink in front of me.

Then he snaps his fingers, making everything glitch out around us, with me catching a brief glimpse of the audience before sight of them fades away.

“We now have privacy without those spectators, so please speak freely,” Beelzebub says, surprising me with how easily he apparently blocked out the livestream and viewing room. “Not even the other progenitors may listen in without my knowledge.”

I stare at the progenitor for several seconds before grabbing my drink and asking him, “Why exactly do you think Grim created the System in the first place? Was it really just for his own amusement and for his Voided Karma?”

Beelzebub nods his head as he answers, “That is correct. Grim was always the thrill seeking type, and he would find his thrills in the most twisted of things. But he would never do something as work intensive as creating his System without a reason. And his conflict with Titania was all the reason he needed.”

I think back to the people fighting on Grim’s side in the war on the battlefield for no reason other than the Voided Karma they’ve built up over the years. The Reaper’s variant void element that forces people to pay back their karmic debts to the user.

“What do the other progenitors all think of Grim?” I ask while taking a sip of the drink in front of me.

The Progenitor of Curses and Insects narrows all of his eyes on the table and says, “Before his recent actions, we respected him as a progenitor even if he crossed a few lines.” His gaze moves towards me. “But after what he has done in recent years, respect for him has dwindled. And it has crashed entirely after what he did to me. Now he is to be eliminated by a majority vote by the Progenitor Council.”

Wait, what?

“That’s the first I’ve heard of that,” I tell him with a frown, mostly from surprise. “I thought it was nothing more than some progenitors taking his side and others going against him.”

“That is part of it, but he has crossed a line with his cloning of myself,” Beelzebub answers with clear rage flowing out of him in the form of curse energy. “Those who wish for the knowledge of how to clone progenitors have left the council and joined his side, while those who do not wish for that knowledge remained. And with his supporters gone, a war with Grim and his forces was inevitable.”

Ah. That explains it.

When his new allies left the council, it left the council full of nothing more than people who dislike and don’t respect Grim. So them declaring war, especially now that there isn’t anyone left to support him, is to be expected.

“But wait, wasn’t it the System that copied you, not Grim?” I ask with a frown and a slight tilt of my head.

“Who did it doesn’t matter,” Beelzebub declares without a hint of backing down on that statement. “Grim created the method to clone a progenitor in the first place, regardless of who pulled the trigger.”

Guess he has a point there. If Grim didn’t create the method for it, the System never would’ve been able to do it.

“I do not care if he ordered the System to do it on purpose or if he was simply lazy and gave his System too much power, leading to it acting on its own,” Beelzebub says while as the bar around us and the drink in my hand all disappear, leaving us floating above the platform with Beelzebub starting to float higher and higher into the air. “His actions led to a clone of me being made against my will, and he will pay for it.” A faint smile spreads across Beelzebub’s face. “But first, your debut to the council shall be made, young one.”

I blink in surprise while looking at him fly higher and higher into the air.

 “And what better debut then through a duel with another progenitor?” Beelzebub finally grins with his terrifying mouth, showing me rows of razor sharp fangs in the process.

I get ready for battle immediately upon hearing his words.

Because this will most likely be the most difficult one I have ever fought.