Alaric sighed inwardly, he just hoped that Accolon would not go around to pick a fight with Celeste. It would prove disastrous should he do that. Celeste may not be as powerful as she was once, but she was still a lot stronger than any of the younger generations. Any fight involving her had to have collateral damages. That included with the blood thirsty Accolon, the damage would be great. But knowing Celeste, she would surely refuse to fight him. Not that the man would take no for an answer.

"I believe we have discussed..." Alaric trailed off when he heard a buzz of static inside the room. A moment later and Celeste appeared at the center.

This is just great! Alaric groaned. This was unexpected. He was not expecting the woman to appear in this meeting. She would just make things worse with her presence and he did not want to have a headache any time soon.

"Lady Celeste, how nice of you to be here." Isabel was the first to say something while looking at the former commander. She still called her lady out of respect.

"It's always been lovely to crash a meeting and see Alaric annoyed." A smile etched on Celeste's face as she slowly walked towards Alaric. She stood in front of him.

"I heared that a child who grew under your control managed to escape before your very eyes--" Celeste paused when she saw Alaric's eye twiched in irritation, but she just gave the grandmaster an annoying smirk before continuing. "Have you grown weak, Alaric?"

"Mah, Celeste, he had some high class demons to pull him up out here in order to escape from us." Mormont had his usual smile on his face while remembering their confrontation with Kayden. They were unable to do anything because of it. Had it not been for those demons, they would have surely captured the traitors.

"What were you doing while he was parading at the heart of Lukedonia? Have you lost your purpose, little Jorah?" Celeste turned and focused her attention to Mormont who had the audacity to defend the situation. Had they been there instead of playing with the invaders, the battle would never have happened.

"What has happened, happened." The Grand Master's firm voice brought all of them to look at him. "Next time, I will not allow him to escape."

"Alaric, those fools in the Council were killed under your nose. That child made decisions that the Council ought to have been making. And you failed to see that. Because they were orders, you chose to blindly follow them even though you could question them." Celeste shook her head. "You disappoint me again. At least Joram and Jorah were willing to fight for what they believed in. You, on the other hand was willing to even go as far as to punish them. Has following orders robbed you of your ability to define what is wrong and right? You chose to blindly follow--"

"Enough! I will not tolerate this!" With a burst of power, the Grand Master managed to take control of the situation, but Celeste ignored his words.

"Nonsense, those you called Lukedonia's Law. What kind of laws were they if they continued to judge even the innocents? Your age made you even one track minded, Alaric. You cannot do anything other than follow orders. If you cannot define good from evil, you should as well commit suicide."

Celeste's words left the younger Knights speechless. They were not used to this. To be able to talk to the Grand Master like that took guts. There's also the fact that there was some truth in her words. Not all of them agreed with Miriella's execution. It was obvious to everyone that the Grand Master followed Lukedonia's laws to the core.

Celeste took a few more steps and stopped beside him. She could tell that he was holding himself from releasing his power. The man did not appreciate being insulted. But he left her no choice. It was one of the reason she quit the Order in the first place.

"I would appreciate it if you do not say such nonsense again." Alaric narrowed his eye at her. "The position for the Eleventh Squad is open, will you take it?"

"No."

Her answer make the bystanders jaw dropped. How could she refuse it? Becoming a Commander was every Knight's ultimate dream, but she just turned it down like it was nothing.

"I have no interest in becoming a member of this useless Order." As soon as the words escaped her lips, she turned around and started walking away.

Alaric was silently seething. But he knew that picking a fight with this woman was just provoking destruction. As soon as the Council was reformed, he would request the deities to reconsider in allowing her to roam free. Even without her blade, she was still corrupting the younger Knights who were not used to seeing this kind of thing.

He followed laws because they were absolute. It was his way of life and he would never change. He had survived this long while following laws. Celeste had been sealed for over 2000 years because she did not follow laws. She could have been killed if it was possible. Between both of them, he knew he was better.

Roseia stood in Celest's way glaring daggers at her, but Celeste just stared at her impassively. "You are in my way, child."

"Who do you think you are? You can't just barge in here and disrespect the Grand Master, insult the way we do things and called the Order of the Holy Knights nonsense!" Roseia's tone was dangerous. It was unacceptable before her eyes for anyone to do that. She did not care about what she just heard about her. She just could not stand her lack of respect.

"Celeste, that is who I am," Celeste stated flatly, "now, get out of my way, child."

Roseia scoffed. "I am not a child! I am the Commander of the Sixth Squad and the current head of the Techno Corps!" She gritted her teeth. How dare she call her a child. She was one of the most powerful female Commander yet here was this stranger, berrating her being like she was some brat! Roseia no longer cared if this woman is as old as Alaric. She was way beyond the line. She then felt anger consume her thoughts to her very core. Her skin begun to boil like lava in anger as her ears released an illusionary steam.

Celeste simply opened her right palm facing Roseia. This action caused Alaric to open his eyes. He had been with Celeste long enough to know that she was going to do something harmful to Roseia. He was not going to have one of his subordinates die needlessly.

Before Celeste could do anything, he released a larger portion of his power. "Celeste! That is enough!" His tone was on the edge. It was clear he was reaching his limit and should he be pushed further, he would explode.

Celeste narrowed her eyes at the Grand Master before looking back at Roseia. She suddenly disappeared from her front and appeared behind her.

Roseia stood frozen. It all happened in a blink of an eye. She did not sense nor see anything. How was that even possible? And to think that she specialized in speed and agility.

Celeste was not even facing her when she spoke, "learn your place, child."

Celeste then narrowed her eyes on Alaric. As much as she did not want to take part in this mess, she knew that she had no choice for the moment. "I will help with this little party you have failed to stop." With that, she disappeared in a buzz.

"Ah, my, she's extremely fast!" Mallard grinned. He already liked the blond. "And a goddess of beauty that's for sure."

"During her prime, there was no one faster than she was. Not even the Grandmaster can compete with her in speed."

Isabel's soft voice sounded like a thunder in Roseia's ears. The revelation almost knocked her out of balance, but she held her ground.

"Lady Roseia, I suggest you don't do something like that again before her. You can if you want to die." Alaric sighed defeated. "This is why I felt happy when they finally sealed her."

His voice was just loud enough for everyone to hear, however, no one gave a comment. They were too busy proccessing the event that took place.

"You are all dismissed!"

All of them left the room in silence with much to speak about. There once was a woman who was as ancient and stronger than the Grand Master. Now, she has returned and is not afraid to state it loud that she disliked Lukedonia's laws.

For Mallard, the meeting was quite refreshing. He had known that the blond beauty was said to be cold and ruthless, also never fearing to voice out her thoughts: not to the Grand Master, not to the deities and not to the Council. He had never seen anyone like her before. But, hearing all that, he could understand why she was sealed. If she had been so powerful to defeat the Grand Master and create her own dimension, what more could this blond beauty do?

An intriguing part was that he could not sense any trace of power from Celeste. There was nothing coming from her. It was like the she possessed no power at all. This of course made him curious. As far as he know, the woman was godlike. Could it have something to do with her absorbing the Grand Master's power? Possibly. Or perhaps it was an evolution. Anything was seemingly possible with that woman.

Another interesting factor is that the Grand Master said nothing about the woman's choice of words. No one possessed the will to have said something like that in front of the Holy Knights. Moreover, the Grand Master would never allow anyone to say something like that without a punishment. Yet Celeste said all those things, and called the deities fools. Was it because their past relationship?

If the deities knew this woman would act like this, why unseal her? As the Grand Master had said, the woman had no interest in Lukedonia's matters. But still, unsealing this woman had a major risk. He had no doubt that the whole Order of the Holy Knights combined could tackle Kayden and his subordinates. But he did not know how it would be possible with that man now that he possessed the Blood Stone.

Could it be that the deities had no choice, but to release her? She had escaped from being sealed once, it was possible to do it again. If the deities were not forced to release, then why? Could it be that they had other objectives? They had taken precautions when dealing with her. He could say that sending Callus was to short fused her. There were a lot of questions around Mallard's head, but he had no answers to them.

He knew that the Grand Master was one second away from releasing his power. He had never seen the old man holding himself just so he could not release his powers. He knew that there would be a collateral damage to the Grand Master releasing his full power, but when has that ever stopped the old man before? If anything, Alaric looked reluctant to stop Celeste. Could it be that he feared doing it because he know how strong Celeste was?

That begged a question: Celeste had her sword taken, but Mallard knew that it was not the only thing taken away from her. No one can stop a woman like her just by taking away her sword. The woman could win a war without drawing out her sword. He had a feeling that there was much more power that was taken away from her. He assumed that even Alaric was aware of this. Still, even with the huge deductions of her powers, just how strong was she?

Yes, she could not be powerful as she was back then, but he could not forget that the woman was immortal and the only way to deal with her is to seal her. But as it had been proven before, normal seals just don't work on the her.

Sighing, Mallard looked at Mormont who was talking. "Mallard, come by at my place if you have time, we will have some sake and catch up with the other Commanders."

The former Commander just nodded with a smile while praying to the deities for some answers to these questions.