Top-floor Council Hall of the Brass Tower
"Are you ready?"
Tiandao stood before the doors of the council hall and gave Vivian, beside him, one final question.
Vivian took a deep breath, then nodded firmly, her eyes filled with resolve.
"Alright. Let's go."
As his words fell, Tiandao pushed open the meeting hall doors with one hand.
Boom!
Amid the dull metallic scrape of the doors, the full sight of a circular hall gradually entered everyone's view as the doors swung wider.
It was a luxurious hall where classical and modern styles intertwined.
Sunlight filtered through the ornate skylight in the dome, casting kaleidoscopic patches of light across the tiled floor covered in gear patterns.
Around the hall, twelve enormous high-backed chairs cast from special brass stood in sequence, arranged like the markings on a clock face.
Seated upon those high-backed chairs were the Twelve Brass Nobles, who controlled the Steam Capital's "Quantum Hub permissions."
They looked down upon Tiandao and Vivian as they entered the hall, their gazes curious, calm, or languid.
Among these masked Brass Nobles were, surprisingly, three members of the Gear Church and two figures from the Star Envoy Association.
The reason was that the identity of a "Brass Noble" depended not on bloodline, but on whether one held important "permissions" in their hands.
Thus, even those who were not from the Steam Capital could become esteemed "Brass Nobles" so long as they acquired "permissions."
Click.
Once Vivian had taken her place at the center of the "Judgment Platform," Tiandao latched the railing at its edge behind her and retreated into the shadows beside it.
The next second, a spotlight suddenly descended from the dome and precisely enveloped Vivian's slender figure.
The Council President in the seat of honor was concealed in shadow. His hands lightly