Requiem Of A Failed Hero

“Have you heard of Celestials before, mortal?” The man spoke, his voice echoing through the enclosure. “…They are the cosmic counterparts of fiends, created to be opposites of one another. They should never be found together, which is why our planes of existence are so far apart.” The man paused, studying Raith. ‘Hmm… impressive, he can withstand this much.’

“Within the Celestial race, there are different sub-races,” he continued.

“The angels are the strongest, followed by the archons, the guardinals, and the asuras. Fel was an archon, of unknown origin. No one knew the extent of his power, but his beauty was unparalleled. However, he betrayed me and caused unimaginable harm to the celestial plane.” The man extended his arms, revealing his kwashiorkor-ridden body. “And this is the result.”

Raith narrowed his eyes, “You said you were going to tell me about Fel.”

“Do you want to die before your time?”

“Because of the celestial code? Don’t worry, I dealt with that. Just speak, I’ll survive.”

“I don’t know what gives you so much assurance, mortal.”

“Speak,” Raith insisted.

The man had never had someone speak to him in that manner before, and Raith’s persistence was rude. He cut in when the man had not finished talking. But for some reason, the fact that there was no fear from Raith amused him. He looked at Raith keenly and sighed.

“There is a pillar that holds the center of prestige in Achaia…”

“What is Achaia to begin with?” Raith asked, his nose bleeding.

“Achaia is the city of gold, a place that is an intersection of all planes. Don’t mistake it for the boundary. Achaia is a forced convergence. Although I may define it as a place, it is a force field that forces a part of all the universal planes to converge on its point. And it is the mount of gods.”

Uweerrghkk!

Raith staggered and spat out blood.

The level of pain that surged through him after taking such kind of information was as if his intestines were being ruptured, whoever it was that created the celestial code must be unto something huge. If he was to continue like this he would die before getting to hear the whole story but Raith right now didn’t mind. He was so desperate to find out.

The man hesitated to say more as he looked at Raith in his sorry state.

Raith paused and took the timeout to gain himself, it was not as if there was any residing pain– the banging headache in his kept ringing out with time and his insides were crying for help as though they were being purged by flames.

He sank to his knee and rested both hands on the floor before looking up, inquiring the man to continue.

The man looked at him, even though he pitied this mortal and wanted to stop. He was not going to do that, for him this bargain was very important as it might have the potential to grant him liberty after so many years.

“I don’t know how Fel was able to transform himself to an archon but it was clear that he wasn’t just trying to be a celestial. There was something he wanted in Achaia, he wanted the crystal sphere.”

“The crystal sphere?” Raith’s brow twitched at how familiar that sounded. ‘…crystal sphere, crystal sphere, crystal sphere, crystal sphere…’

No matter how many times he repeated the words, he just couldn’t remember where he had heard them from.

“The crystal sphere is an altar of crystal that can only be found in Achaia.”

At this point, Raith’s nose down to his lips and jaw was already covered in red and flowing with blood. But Raith’s eyes didn’t look like they were going to give up just yet.

[Your will has increased by 10]

It was a shocking message but the increase in his will did not let the pain any less bearable, he probably thought that was going to be the case when he first saw the notification pop up– because he had naturally thought that what could allow him to handle the celestial code was his will.

But was wrong, Raith’s intelligence was quite high from the day he was born not because he read books or because he was smart– in fact, he was none of that.

What needed to be questioned was his origins, Ev Zeeyra, the intelligence of gods; it may sound glamorous but it is just a seen truth that places other creations a little bit above the effect of the celestial code. That was what this stranger meant when he said ‘It is what allows one to be able to condone and comprehend such information.

Hence, Raith from the beginning had seen a truth, a truth that he couldn’t retrace back to a particular event or even remember where he had seen it.

But it was a long time ago, even before he met Thard-Harl, no wonder he understood Thard-Harl to a reasonable extent, this could be a question of Raith’s origin or it could have been Hallan Lamar but for now, it was a case to be rested.

A lot more of that kind of intelligence rushed upon him after absorbing the Rodom crystal; a shard of the crystal sphere.

All these were hard for Raith to bring to his remembrance. Generally, his poor decision-making was justified because he had no intelligence whatsoever. The intelligence of Ev Zeeyra only worked for one thing: to condone the pain that comes with hearing such large truths.

This meant for a normal person, he or she would have died ten times over from this little information that Raith heard, yet Raith wasn’t looking like someone ready to stop now.

He gritted his teeth together in an attempt to manage the pain in his head for a short while and continued his question.

“The crystal sphere… I am not sure where I heard about it but why is Fel being after something like that such a big deal?”

“Ah, that is because it didn’t belong there… Achaia is the city of gold and a mount of gods, it is a house to the gods because they were the ones that protected the crystal sphere, they protected it from other entities whatsoever, it is a fruit of the first primordial.”

[You have heard too much]

[You have died from hearing too much]

[You have died from a strange entity]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!] 𝒃𝙚𝙤𝙫𝒆𝒍．𝙘𝒐𝙢

[Level Up!]

…