Chapter 108: The Story

Pandi activated Intangible Spectation, her small frame tiptoeing across the barren lands. She looked around at the empty landscape, her massive sword resting against her back as she wandered without much purpose.

"Grandfather said that I should follow the rules, or else we might not be seeing each other again," she muttered, her expression visibly downcast. "I couldn’t even play yet... That old lizard said it’s not possible to interact with them yet since they’re still dumb or something."

She sighed, only to suddenly spot something fluttering nearby. Pandi immediately crouched down to take a closer look, though calling it a butterfly was a bit of a stretch, considering it had a large head that strangely resembled a microphone.

"Even this butterfly is more joyful than me."

She stared at it for a few more seconds before sighing again. "Well... this sucks. I guess I’ll go back and train."

Pandi deactivated the skill, and her consciousness immediately returned to her room. Her assigned domain was a dark castle filled with bones, bats, and skulls, making the entire place look more like a massive cemetery than a home.

She opened the door and was immediately greeted by the bright light of the enormous chandelier hanging above the round table. Pandi paused for a moment before her eyes widened.

"Oh... Right. I just remembered the rule."

The Pantheons were already slowly gathering around the table, taking their seats comfortably as the evening meal approached. Pandi immediately floated toward her own seat and settled down beside her grandfather.

Moleius eventually stood, his gaze passing over everyone gathered around the table. "It has been a month since we have all been together like this, yet there are still many things about this world that remain unknown to us."

He placed his hands upon the table before continuing. "Today, I would like to share a little story with you. It comes from one of the books connected to the Entity’s knowledge."

Several Pantheons looked toward him with interest.

"As we have discovered, whenever we imagine a book strongly enough, certain books may appear before us. At first, I believed they were merely records of knowledge, but some of them seem to contain lessons rather than simple information."

Moleius paused for a moment.

"This one tells the story of a king and a war that could never be won."

He continued, his voice calm as the others listened.

"Long ago, there was a king who ruled over a powerful kingdom. His army was enormous, yet no matter how many soldiers he defeated, another army would eventually appear before his borders. Kingdom after kingdom came against him, and every battle ended the same way. He would win, but the enemy would return."

"The king eventually became convinced that the war itself was endless. If both sides possessed armies capable of replacing their fallen soldiers, then perhaps neither could ever truly win. So he spent years preparing for the future, believing that one day, the answer would reveal itself."

Moleius lowered his gaze. "Then, one night, he finally asked himself a simple question. Where does the enemy’s endless army come from?"

The table fell silent.

"The answer was not another battlefield. It was the enemy’s kingdom."

Moleius continued, "The soldiers he fought were not being created endlessly by some mysterious force. They were simply people who had not yet become soldiers. Every year he waited, another generation was raised, trained, and sent against him."

"The king finally understood what he needed to do. He had spent years fighting the soldiers produced by the enemy instead of destroying the source that produced them. If he had acted when the opportunity first appeared, he could have ended the war before it became impossible to control."

Moleius looked toward the others. "But by the time he understood the truth, the opportunity was already gone. The enemy had grown too strong, and the kingdom had become too deeply rooted for him to destroy it without sacrificing his own people."

He slowly shook his head. "That is the lesson of the story. The future does not always contain the answer. Sometimes, waiting for the future only allows the problem to grow beyond your ability to solve it."

His expression became serious.

"Some battles cannot be won by fighting harder. Sometimes, the answer is standing directly in front of you, but you become so focused on surviving the battle that you never think to question where the battle came from."

Moleius finally smiled faintly. "So remember this. Do not always rely on what the future might bring. Look at what is happening now, understand the source of the problem, and act while you still have the opportunity."

He sat back down. "Now, shall we eat?"

The Pantheons began eating together. Some remained silent as they contemplated Moleius’s story, while others spoke among themselves with joyful expressions, enjoying the rare moment of peace they had been given.

Pandi sat quietly beside her grandfather, eating her meal while listening to the conversations around her. She smiled faintly as she thought to herself.

This is good... but blood tastes way, way better.

The peaceful atmosphere continued for several moments.

Then one Pantheon suddenly stopped moving.

Pandi looked toward them, confused.

Another head slowly dropped onto the table.

Then another. One by one, the Pantheons collapsed, their bodies falling motionless against the table as if their strings had suddenly been cut.

"What...?"

Pandi’s thoughts froze.

Only moments ago, everyone had been eating peacefully. Now, every Pantheon around her was motionless.

Her grandfather’s head had fallen beside his plate.

Pandi’s eyes widened as she desperately tried to understand what was happening.

Then her vision began to fade. The sounds around her became distant.

The lights above her blurred into darkness.

And before she could even stand up, everything went black. Her body began to tighten, as if she were a fruit being squeezed to extract every drop of juice from it. A sharp ringing sound suddenly appeared in her ears, growing louder as an unfamiliar sensation spread throughout her body.

Pandi tried to move, but her body felt strangely distant from her consciousness. She could not tell whether she was falling, floating, or simply trapped in place as the strange sensation continued to grow stronger.