The Record of Unusual Creatures

According to Hathaway, the divine artifact in Hercules’ hands was only an inferior shell. The real power of the celestial object came from its core, which was not something mortals could manufacture.

“That is a wand. I think you have read about the description of the wand in other places.” Hathaway stood at the window and told of these ancient secrets in a gentle voice. “But the wand itself is nothing but a shelf, used to bind the real core of the divine artifact, which the Olympians got from somewhere. The powerful core, an essence of the universe, could ruin the whole world. But Zeus and Athena had no idea how to control this power, so they used the dumbest way to make it into a weapon with a combination of red crystal, enchanted metal, and the core.”

The mentioning of the core had aroused Hao Ren’s curiosity. He could not help but ask, “How does the core look like?”

“I have never seen it,” Hathaway said, shaking her head. “Legend has it that those who look at it will be plagued. The thing was sealed inside the crystal on the wand. No one had ever seen how the thing looked like ever since the wand was forged. Hercules once described it as a piece of pure darkness. But that too, was what he heard from others.”

“Was the fighting between Hercules and you guys causing the divine artifact to get of out control and begin to devour Hercules?”

Hathaway nodded. “Yes, but not entirely. After the destruction of Olympus, Hercules fled with the divine artifact. He suffered many crises, mostly because the demon hunters were hunting him, during which he could only depend on the power of the divine artifact to save himself. He became to rely more and more on the wand. But the power of the wand was limited. As he drew too much strength from the wand, changes began to occur in the core. During our last battle with him, the crystal on the wand broke, and power leaked out from the core. Part of it, which was positive, removed the curse of the innate hostility between us. But the negative part of it damaged the mind of Hercules.”

Hathaway paused for a moment, and then she continued. “At the beginning, the devouring was not serious. But as time goes by, the power leaked out of the divine artifact seemed to have found an invisible conduit that eroded the body and spirit of Hercules continuously. We jointly studied this erosion after signing the armistice agreement and found that it did not belong to any magic power known to the world. After a period of fruitless trials and research, Hercules and we reached an agreement: he would live a life of anonymity and try his best to fight the shadows in his spiritual world while we would travel the world to find clues about this evil force.”

“Have you found anything?” Hesperides asked.

“Nothing,” replied Hathaway.

“Why didn’t you just throw away the divine artifact?” Lily scratched her head. “Isn’t that the leaked energy devouring Hercules? Wouldn’t it work by throwing it away?”

“We tried. It didn’t work at all. Some relationships across space and time connected Hercules and the core of the divine artifact. No matter how far we discarded the divine artifact, its energy would appear as a nightmare in Hercules’ dream. So we figured that it would be better to leave the artifact with him, at least he could use it as a self-defense weapon while keeping an eye on the changes in the divine object.”

“Things with curses are basically like that,” Vivian mumbled.

Hao Ren had already figured out the workings of it. “At last, things were getting worse, but your efforts came to nothing. One day, Hercules sent you a message, saying that the situation was out of control. So you came to this place. What happened after that we had mostly learned about it. It seems that though you have not found a way to dispel the curse, you have a certain understanding of the core.”

“Yes,” said Hathaway. “As the force in the divine artifact was getting more and more out of hand, the true nature of the core began to emerge, and our study became much easier as a result. Sivir is a researcher among us. She has discovered a door that could lead to a dark and horrible world. It is the dark side of the universe hidden in the depths of the real world. The reason why the divine artifact has tremendous power is that the artifact itself is a venting port of that world. No matter how great the power of the mortals is, it has no match with the power of the entire world.”

That reminded Hao Ren about the Plane of Dreams.

But it was clear that the Plane of Dreams was not as terrible as what Hathaway described. Other than a hidden hand lurking in the dark and a group of mad guardians, the Plane of Dreams was only a regular universe. How could an ordinary world have such leakage of evil forces?

Did the crack in the core of the divine artifact lead to another world, a truly dark, chaotic universe? Or were Hathaway and her demon-hunter teammates wrong in that they did not understand the concept of the universe and the world barrier, that the dark side of the universe as they described was a slightly larger twisted dimension?

“Aside from the primitive energy, what’s in the dark side of the universe?” Vivian asked, her brows knit together while her voice sounded serious.

“There is also a frenzied will, an evil force indescribable in the real world, without any reason in trying to devour the whole world.” Hathaway could not help herself as her body started to quiver. She had mental trauma. Even after experiencing life and death, and even she had been guarding this place for two hundred years, she still could not calm herself down. “You can’t fight that thing! Even just knowing its existence will make you lose your mind. Sivir is an example: when getting too involved in the research and fascinated by the darkness on the other side of the boundary, she secretly opened a passage to send herself to the boundary and lost her life. Not only that, her action had alerted the monster in the dark about the existence of the real world, leading to the gradual opening of the boundary.”

Hao Ren quickly interrupted Hathaway before her emotion became overly turbulent. “So you all finally built this prison?”

“Yes, we built this place,” Hathaway said. She looked visibly stunned before pointing outside the window. “It’s ironic. We built this place with the power of the divine artifact, which could tear the barrier apart and reshape dimensions. With this, we were able to divide the real world into two. In this parallel universe, we have built a huge cage around Hercules, isolating him and the divine artifact from the real world, so that the boundary would not be able to expand. We have also built a monitoring center to keep an eye on the cage. For this effort, Hercules became the weight of the seal, keeping the artifact in the cage, and nine of our teammates sacrificed themselves to start the ritual. After that, Master Mohabben and I became the watchers in this tower. For two hundred years, Master Mohabben has been sitting in this place watching the inside of the cage while I watch the outside.”

Hathaway’s eyes fell on the old man at the window. The demon hunter was still alive but looked like a dead man. Hathaway, standing beside him, always looked as if she was alive, but in reality, she was dead.

“You have built a prison in the parallel universe, but the real world is feeling the impact,” Hesperides said. “The village—”

“I know,” Hathaway said and nodded gently. “We had a workforce shortage. As the seal was not perfect, the thing had spread out from the boundary. At the end of the ritual, things went wrong. The escaped negative forces drove a few of my teammates in the ritual crazy. Reinhardt burned the ritual site in the real world during which, as Mohabben and I had entered this parallel universe, we could do nothing about the real world already. At last, we could only make some sacrifices; the two of us had to complete the final part of the ritual here. The price we have paid is apparent: I am dead, becoming a ghost; Master Mohabben has aged overnight; and the escaped negative forces have entrenched in the real world, turning the village into a cursed land.”

This was the truth of the whole event.

At this moment, a sound in the pocket interrupted the thoughts of Hao Ren. “Ghsss—”

Hathaway curiously looked at Hao Reny’s pocket. “What did you bring?”

Hao Ren took the bottle out of his coat. The little Malevolence started to went hysterical.

This little guy seemed to be desperately trying to say something. Or maybe she was in a state of heightened excitement. Considering that she had no intellect, the first situation was unlikely.

Hao Ren remembered that when the little guy went hysterical last time, it was when they fell into another dimension. So this time, he was especially mindful.

At about the same time, a boom suddenly came from the village!