"There is only a little left. Soon, we will finally fulfill the wish we have pursued for so long."
The first masked figure spoke from beneath a wooden mask that completely concealed their face. Their voice carried unwavering confidence after years of waiting and working in the shadows, far from the eyes of the world.
The room where they sat had been deliberately kept dark. Only a faint light illuminated the wooden masks facing one another, revealing just enough to distinguish them without exposing any of their features.
"Yes. We are very close now. Soon we will open the box and fulfill our wish of reclaiming our rule over the world once again."
Another voice answered from the opposite side of the dark room. It sounded like that of an elderly woman.
A third voice interrupted, its tone carrying a clear warning.
"But we must be careful, especially while gathering the sacrifices. The other elders in the village have recently begun investigating the disappearances in the surrounding villages."
The fourth figure, speaking from beneath another wooden mask, replied with obvious contempt for the warning.
"Don't worry so much about those cowards. Even if they discover what we're doing, they won't dare to stop us."
The first figure, however, was not convinced. They spoke again, giving their objection greater weight.
"They may not dare to stop us directly, but that doesn't mean they won't leak our plan to the outside world."
They paused briefly, as though choosing their next words carefully.
"Especially to those two cursed clans... the descendants of the traitors."
No one responded.
The silence that followed was one of silent agreement. The two clans mentioned were deeply engraved in the minds of everyone present, serving as a constant reminder of a danger that had to be taken seriously.
The elderly woman's voice spoke once more.
"Yes. That is why we must exercise the utmost caution. From now on, the sacrifices will be gathered from regions much farther away from the current investigations, so the elders won't have any evidence to build a case against us."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Yes."
The council members answered one after another.
There was little left to discuss. Everything that needed to be said had been said, and everything that required agreement had already been settled.
At the same time, in another dimension, Dan sat inside his laboratory, occupied with the final preparations for the enormous inner world project that had taken him many years of continuous planning and execution.
His fingers moved steadily across the blueprints before suddenly coming to a halt.
Without taking his eyes off the drawings, he murmured quietly,
"You truly are the cause of many disasters, Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki."
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