Chapter 140: The Truth [3]
"And since that day, Fate has never been the same."
I ignored Isaac as I was busy with the bright light that lingered for too long that I wondered how I didn’t get blinded by its intensity.
Maybe it was because that wasn’t reality, but a mere dream. Maybe only Isaac could harm me here.
After a few minutes, the light finally disappeared, revealing a horrifying scene before me.
"G-gone." I muttered under my breath, looking at the aftermath of the explosion.
The battlefield that contained countless numbers of Exalted and Cultivators was now empty — with only a few of them still standing.
They were less than 50, including the golden-haired human, the white-haired elf, the fate siblings and the cloaked man. Shockingly, only the fate affinity siblings were left unharmed.
The other survivors were skinless and their bodies were literally broken like glass, with many of them missing big pieces of their bodies. Some had missing limbs, others were half skeletons, yet they were still stunned in their places.
As for the countless Exalted and Cultivators — not even a trace of their bodies remained. But in some places, pools of blood or some scattered bones could be seen.
As I was lost in this scene, Isaac’s voice returned: "Fate’s heart released some pure mana after it was split. It was a small amount compared to the source of the mana in Eldoria, but for them, it was enough to erase all of them from existence."
"The survivors were only Tier-9 and the lucky ones from Tier-8. Everyone else doesn’t exist anymore. In other words, in one single day, the majority of the Exalted and even cultivators died."
As he finished talking, I finally looked at the heart. Or what was previously a heart.
’It really got split into 2.’ I thought, doing my best to keep my emotions stable so Selene and Glutton wouldn’t try to wake me up.
Even though I couldn’t confirm if all that was true, I still wanted to see more.
The heart now turned into 2 hearts. The biggest one had yellowish-white color and 6 circles surrounding it, and the smallest one had bluish-white color and the remaining 4 circles around it.
The cloaked man was the first to leave his daze as he turned into dark purple mist and quickly approached the elves.
Before they could react, he erased one of them and took Mike away. Instantly, a woman with bleeding eyes hugged them before disappearing in the thin air.
The next moment, all the eyes landed on the humans who still had Alice with them.
"RETREAT!"
The humans ran away as the few survivors of the other races followed them despite their injuries. When they all left the cave, only Isaac and I remained as the dream stopped.
My gaze stayed fixed in the 2 hearts, which both started beating in different rhymes, my mind forming all kinds of theories before settling on one.
"Did the second heart start making anti-mana? Was it the biggest heart?"
Isaac laughed satisfyingly. "Haha, you are quick in understanding the situation. As you can see, anti-mana didn’t come out of nowhere. It was the result of their war, their greed for power, and their greatest mistake. If they didn’t use two immature Exalted for their desires, nothing of that would have happened."
Isaac shook his head as he explained: "But you aren’t entirely right — the anti-mana didn’t come from the big, but the small one. Do you remember what the knulls did? They took over exactly 40% of Eldoria’s land. Even after all these years, nothing changed."
My eyes opened in realization as I sharply scanned the hearts.
The big heart had 6 circles, while the other had 4. If the number of circles was determined by size, then the one responsible for anti-mana was 40% of the overall size.
If Eldoria and Fate were 2 names for the same being, then I could understand how the knulls took over only 40%.
"The knulls were fated to claim this land. So, the war after this is about 2 fates clashing with each other?"
Isaac nodded. "Fate was split into 2. Even though they were originally one, they couldn’t live together and ended up becoming enemies due to their differences. As you know, the anti-mana and mana would kill each other on deep touch, so ironically, they were fated to become enemies."
The scene changed again, showing the people who turned into knulls gradually, but this time, the fate threads were visible.
The orange threads were getting cut by thinner ones, then those thinner threads would attach themselves in the people and accelerate their transformation.
My eyes widened as I realized: "The knulls... they are just the people chosen by the new fate..."
Isaac nodded, smiling brightly at me. "Correct. Additionally, only 40% of Eldoria were turned into knulls. No one could run from this fate, no matter their tiers or positions, and that’s how they got their numbers, knowledge and power.
Isaac snapped his fingers and the scene changed again, showing a bunch of people gathering around a long spear. Suspended on the spear were 2 naked male and female knulls.
"Burn the demons!"
"Burn the demons!"
"Burn the demons!"
Instantly, someone started a fire under the spear. The fire spread slowly before finally reaching the knulls.
They screamed and cried as their bodies burned slowly in the fire, while the people around cheered excitedly.
I sighed. "They don’t know that they are burning 2 of their kind, do they?"
Isaac shook his head, looking at them with a bitter smile. "They were similar to my wife. They fell into slumber before suddenly growing horns, and because the survivors of what caused this didn’t say anything, the clueless people considered the worst."
"After all, it was more believable that some demons appeared out of nowhere and possessed their loved ones than the entire war between the 4 races and the split of Fate."
I rubbed my head as I started to guess what happened next.
Obviously, the 4 races hid the truth about what happened and probably did their best to execute whoever tried to uncover it and erased all evidence.
The knulls, haunted and hated by all races, gathered together and started a new war for self defense. They didn’t lack anything as they didn’t start from the zero when their transformation didn’t reduce their power, but in one way, it strengthened them.
The anti-mana core was like a weaker version of the aether core on how it could be used to enhance like aura and cast magic like mana.
I could also imagine the chaos caused by the sudden changes. It was something if normal people became knulls, but what about the same people in power who caused all this? Now they had to work together with perhaps their former enemies to survive after becoming a new race.
And what about all the people who knew the truth? There was no way that everyone started attacking their loved ones instantly.
’Wait!’ Just then, I remembered the one who stayed with his wife even while watching her turn into a knull.
I looked at Isaac and asked: "Was the Dark Order made by those who weren’t knulls and knew the truth?"
"You are finally getting it," Isaac kept nodding, his white teeth appearing as his smile widened, "Everyone in the Dark Order either witnessed the truth, or just like you, was told about it. Do you think that we are working with knulls because we were paid or something? No, we willingly decided to fight."
For a moment, my mind was very close to getting hit by a shock, thinking that I killed innocent people, but then I remembered what they did.
Cecil, a member of the Dark Order, killed for fun, even the knulls.
And there was the incident that caused the death of my family. Even ignoring them as I didn’t know about their past, there were many children in the hospital that still died.
And I wouldn’t forget that they wanted to kill innocent students in the academy, probably because they were potential threats.
Maybe, just maybe they really were fighting for good, but they were willing to harm innocents to achieve their so-called dream.
The end justifies the means? I didn’t believe in that crap! Screw the end if I had to become what I hated!
But that wasn’t the right time to show my emotions.
I tried to myself down as I asked: "So what are the children of Fate and the chosen ones? What happened to the new Fates? What about the siblings with fate affinity? What is—!"
As I was trying to ask about their goals and’Dream’, the dream began to shake. ’What is happening?’
Isaac seemed as confused, but almost instantly, his expression calmed as he said: "Oh! Looks like someone is trying to wake you up, haha. It must be the dragongirl or your spirit. We will continue tomorrow — and don’t tell anyone about this, even if you trust them, it’s for their own safety."
’Damn!’
Seeing Isaac waving at me, the dream finally shattered as I found myself back into my room.
"Kra!*
[Shake him more. Shake him aggressively! Yes, make his organs blend together!]
"Wake. Up. Wake. Up!"
Opening my eyes, the scene around me blurred as Selene kept shaking me brutally like a doll.
And for some reason, a few parts of my head were numb...
"...."
It was now confirmed that all I needed was someone to wake me up to run from the dream.
Even though because of them I’d need to wait for one more day to know the full truth...
’....At least they did their job, right?’