"Useless!"
A piercing roar echoed through the Mantid palace, the Heart of Fear, as the Mantid Empress Shek'zeer berated her Imperial Vizier, Zor'lok.
After the Orcs guarding Mogu'shan Palace and the Tauren forces in the Townlong Steppes were defeated, the troops at the Gate of the Setting Sun had returned to a strength of one hundred thousand. With no more worries behind them, the allied forces at the Gate of the Setting Sun were in soaring spirits. The Mantid had exhausted every means and were now at the end of their road.
Imperial Vizier Zor'lok knelt on the ground, trembling. The only person this Imperial Vizier feared was his Empress.
"Great Empress, please give me one more chance. I can persuade the Klaxxi Council to awaken the sleeping paragons and launch a new offensive against the Gate of the Setting Sun."
In name, the supreme leader of the Mantid was Empress Shek'zeer, but there was also an organization that checked her power: the Klaxxi Council, composed of Mantid elders.
The Mantid elders of the Klaxxi Council oversaw the Mantid's historical and cultural inheritance. Their vision and goals were far more long-term than Empress Shek'zeer's.
While the Sha of Fear had corrupted Empress Shek'zeer and most of the Mantid, the elders of the Klaxxi Council had not fallen under its control.
They opposed Empress Shek'zeer's actions, for her reckless warmongering in an attempt to demonstrate loyalty to the Sha of Fear would bring decline and even extinction upon the Mantid.
The Klaxxi Council had few members and could not compare with Empress Shek'zeer in numbers, but it possessed the power to awaken the paragons.
Over the past ten thousand years, the Mantid had accumulated twelve paragons. Every one of them was a top-tier powerhouse, sealed in amber as they awaited awakening.