“First, The Council of Beast Emperors do not believe that Ice Emperor will punish the breaking of His Great Flood. He is above such things, and will be merely curious that it is possible. He is certainly capable of putting it back up much faster than we can tear it down, so such an action by us is merely a declaration of unity and strength... something that Humanity has been completely lacking in for thousands of years.

“Thus, the Council of Beast Emperors approved of the deed to break The Great Flood. I received the impression that They have no love for the vast majority of the Sea Imperials, and have had to endure Great Floods many times before. Casually clipping the wings of the Sea Imperials’ invasion of the coasts via a lesser Tribe’s efforts was a fine way to address the matter.”

There were a lot of folks who didn’t like being thought of as a lesser Tribe, but that was exactly what the vast majority of Humans were, after all.

“Second, They will permit use of the areas required for the Ritual Seals, and a Beast King will see to it that those constructing the Seal are not disturbed.” That drew reactions, whispers and clenched fists and smiles of relief. “Furthermore, the areas will remain sacrosanct and They will allow them to be maintained in the event similar Rituals need to be performed in the future.”

That was incredibly good news for Humanity. Fighting to grab the territory and construct the Seal under the assaults of severely irritated and territorial Beasts would have been extremely bloody.

“Third, Humanity will be punished for their arrogance in disturbing a High Emperor. The High Emperors acknowledge who they wish to, and Ice Emperor’s wrath is something we have brought down upon ourselves. As such, it is Humanity who will bear the brunt of His displeasure.”

Well, that didn’t sound good to anyone. The audience was swallowing despite themselves.

“Five years. Humanity may construct the Seals, but will not be permitted to break The Great Flood for five years.

“During this time, there will be no reinforcements from or movements to the shorelines by any force of Beasts. Likewise, Humanity will not be permitted to withdraw from the coasts to inland. Any such withdrawals by the foolish will draw the immediate wrath of Imperial Beasts, and such Humans will be extinguished. Likewise, attempting to draw the Tribes of the Sea Emperors inland to the territories of the Beasts will result in the slaughter of the Humans responsible.

“If you wish to whine about this, know that the average duration of a Great Flood normally exceeds one century, and it has lasted in the past for over a thousand years, although that was before the time of Humanity.”

Throats went dry. A Great Flood lasting a thousand years would wipe out Humanity from the shores entirely. There was no way we had enough ability to breed, grow, and train mages to defend ourselves, unless we took the entire Human population of the planet and focused it on a single territory!

The civilization of magic that had sprung up over the last four thousand years would come crashing down to ruin!

“There will be no succor from the Beast Emperors of the Land for us. If the Imperials of the Sea come... fight or die, it makes no difference to them as to our fate, but we will not be permitted to run to them. We have poked the dragon, the dragon has risen, and now we prove ourselves, or we die.

“If any wish to doubt the words of The Council of Beast Emperors, please feel free to do so. The Beasts have long proven willing to engage in unrestricted massacre of Humans, and Human mages are fine nutritional supplements for discerning Beasts. They have no concept of mercy in this matter: we shall fight, or we shall die. If you try to run, you will become food, one way or another.”

I let all that hang in the grim air for the appalled people to digest. They were just starting to get the nerve up to ask questions when I added, “That means that, right now, the Beast Emperors are watching every tribe of Humans everywhere, and we are not permitted to start emigrating to our inland territories. If Humans try to flee from the shorelines, they will be fed right into the waiting jaws of Beasts upon the Land.

“That means, for instance, that emigration into the lands of Michigan and along the Mississippi River is now Forbidden. Husker and Babe, Princess Karegnondi, and Queen Gichigumi have all been informed of this, as well as every Noble Beast and Beast Emperor of North America. If Humans start trying to flee inland to escape the seas, they will be eaten.

“We will stand and fight, or we will die.”

I watched them swallow again, I watched the fear rising in the air.

“This is how Humanity earns the respect of the Beast Emperors. Barging in on the mightiest being in the world like petulant mice, waving our little paws, and squealing about not being treated as equals? No, that did not and will never work, as asking any damn Beast would have informed the Synod if they had bothered to ask before they tried.

“Respect is earned in blood, strength, and unity. We will have to prove it all to earn a seat at the table.

“For those of you inland, who are now thanking the Heavens you are not on the shore, the Beasts are watching you, too.

“You’ve five years you won’t be touched. No Beast Tides, no raids, no Beast Rulers looking for territory. And then, at the end of those five years, what will you have to show for it?” I let that hang in the air as I looked around.

I went on. “The Emperors are watching. If you are cowards, if you wall yourselves up inside your little safe zones and watch your Tribe get slaughtered on the shores, thinking to weather it out far enough away that the Sea’s Tribes will not reach you... just remember, at the end of five years, the writ of the Emperors will be lifted, and Humanity still needs the strength to break The Great Flood!”

They jerked in realization of the fact. If they didn’t have enough strength left, The Great Flood would just continue... only now, they’d be sandwiched between hostile Land Beasts and murderous Sea incursions alike!

“Furthermore, the Beasts will know that you are cowards who did not dare to fight. The Beasts of the Land truly do not care about breaking The Great Flood. They have endured the Ice Emperor’s Floods before, and they will do so again. They will come for you, they will fall upon you, and you will be treated with the same callous disregard you have shown your Tribesmen who fell upon the shores.”

Which was all totally true. The Beasts did not care, and a few desperate Sages weren’t going to be able to save them from what was going to happen.

“The Decree of the Council of the Beast Emperors starts today, now that Humanity has been informed. Five years from this day, we may enact the Rituals that will break The Great Flood, and hope that is enough to end the invasions of the Sea Emperors.

“If it is not, pray that we will have earned enough respect from the Emperors of the Land that they will join us in our efforts to drive back the Imperials of the Sea, instead of closing their jaws upon us and ending our civilization.”

I bowed my head, hands upon the podium, eyes closed and waiting as I felt the emotions running through everyone. Fear dominated, but there was an undercurrent there, many from the Coralost students there.

Anger, willingness to fight, pride, belief, hope-!

“There is a fourth matter.”

The murmurs and whispers of conversation dropped again.

“This concerns the level of Ice Emperor’s irritation with us, and indeed, many of the Beast Emperors of the world. The greatest source of distrust and disdain for Humanity among the Great Beasts involves our use of Dark Mana.

“If Humanity wishes to sit at the table of Great Beasts and be recognized and heard, then we will have to wean ourselves off of the Dark Mana. Humanity alone is responsible for introducing more Dark Mana into the world than every other Tribe of Beasts upon the world combined.” The fact made breaths hiss out despite themselves. They’d known and heard rumors of something like that, but to hear it like this-!

“This has not escaped the notice of the Great Beasts, and specifically the notice of the High Emperors! The slaughter of a large portion of Humanity would also stop a massive amount of the Dark Mana from coming into the world, and that is not a coincidence.”

Yeah, the people with Dark Elements had awful expressions on their faces. They could well imagine what might follow from these words.

“This matter is something that has been simmering for four thousand years. From the perspective of some Great Beasts, the best way to address it is simply to wipe out Humanity entirely, which will slow the invasion of Dark Mana to a relative trickle. As the Dark Mana grows, this viewpoint has gained more and more traction among them.

“It is a long-term problem that is starting to reach a boiling point.” I took a deep breath.

“As some of you may have deduced, we have found a partial solution for this. It is more of a bandage than a cure, however, as it does not actually stop the source of the problem at all.”

I waved up a stand and brazier of stone next to me, and ignited a golden Vivic Eternal Light within it before everyone’s eyes.

“Coralost sells a great number of these, and they are well-known for their ability to cleanse the area about them of Dark Mana.

“The Great Beasts themselves admire this discovery, and, well, I have personally delivered hundreds of the things to Commanders, Rulers, and even Emperors for placing about their dens.

“A Light like this Burns away the equivalent of a basic Novice spell in ambient Dark Mana per day. This increases a great deal if Dark Mana is brought into its vicinity by spellcasting, but basically over time, it slowly eats away at the ambient Dark Mana in the world.

“However, this is only a bandage, because Dark Mana is brought into the world far more easily than it is consumed.

“Someone casting a single basic Adept spell takes forty fire-days to Burn away. A basic Mage spell is sixteen hundred fire-days of Burning. An introductory Archmagick? Sixty-four thousand Burn-days to be purified!” I paused as they all went over the numbers. “And, of course, our mages can Cast many such spells a day!...”

Everyone nodded slowly, understanding that. We had made hundreds of thousands of the braziers so far, and one Archmage could undo all the work that they did every day with just a couple spells!

“Dark Mana is not a Mana that is native to our world.” There had been a LOT of debates about this fact, and instantly more half-hearted murmurs of protest arose. “This comes right from The Council of Beast Emperors, don’t be idiots. They were there when Dark Mana first came into the world, and they existed before it did. ALL of them. I speak this fact in Their Names. If any of you wish to call them liars, do so very loudly, and in a short amount of time, I don’t think we will have to worry about irrelevant opinions of minor Human fools as to the veracity of The Beast Emperors any longer.”

Those who wanted to debate this fact clammed up sharply. Thunderbird was listening, after all. If they were strong enough, they could feel His Presence up high in the skies, watching or listening from wherever...

“Humans, via Contracts with the Netherworld and being Awakened to a connection with it, are the primary vector by which Dark Mana enters this world. This is not to say that Beasts cannot be seduced by the power, and some have been. Indeed, Dark Mana has forcibly altered the very nature of both the Blood and Poison Elements, which once were quite pure and had no Dark Elements to them whatsoever.” That drew a few startled whispers. Naturally both Elements had been around long before Dark Mana came here!