Chapter 27: (an unknown era) 1,999,999 Years Before Zero : the god who shares his power [2]

"Finally, the god is giving away his power!!"

The cheers of the humans echoed through the wooden hall lit by flames hanging from the ceiling and mounted on the wooden walls.

The humans even pounded on the wooden tables to make the joyful atmosphere even livelier.

Van could only sigh. His cheeks were already stiff from repeatedly denying that he was only awakening the potential of those with strong will, not handing out the power of a god.

Kalula whispered to Van amidst the increasingly uncontrollable cheers.

"I’m glad I learned the human language..." One of Van’s eyebrows rose as he looked at Kalula, while Kalula simply laughed while covering her mouth. "...I didn’t know everything could be this funny."

Van shook his head and looked at the wooden ceiling above them.

’It seems I’m really the only normal one here...’

Van clapped his hands loudly in the middle of the noisy cheers, speaking in a louder voice this time.

"Alright!! Listen carefully!! I will awaken your potential... and those whose potential has already awakened will be able to awaken the potential of others too!!"

The humans cheered, while the other races simply listened as they tried to understand the humans’ power system.

Van took a deep breath and shouted again.

"Not everyone can awaken their potential...."

Van began explaining how someone awakened their potential. He explained how that potential awakened from the story of a person with a strong will, one that belonged to one of the seven great branches of will. He even gave examples from several stories behind the potentials he now possessed, stories the old man had told him.

Slowly, the humans who had been extremely excited became calmer. They listened to Van carefully, because the longer they listened, the faster their hearts beat and the hotter their blood became.

In the reflection of their eyes, it was as if they were watching Van delivering a divine revelation. Every word he spoke made their breathing grow heavier and their palms colder.

Van smiled faintly and stretched out both of his hands.

"You understand, right? Then... form a single line!! If the children want to, they can line up at the very back!!"

The humans immediately formed a line. They did not want to waste the chance to have their potential awakened by Van, whom they regarded as a god.

The wooden hall gradually became lively again. Van nodded several times as he watched them lining up, while the other races stood on both sides of the line to watch.

One of Van’s eyebrows rose as he remembered something, and he spoke again.

"Ahh, there’s one more thing!! This is the phase when someone with a strong will has already achieved that will.... For example..."

"...humans are creatures that keep changing. As time passes, their will also changes, whether they manage to fulfill that will or not... but once they reach that point, the point where that will finally fades or shifts to another will..."

Van shrugged.

"...their potential will weaken... or even disappear completely."

The wooden hall, which had been noisy just moments ago, instantly fell silent. They looked at one another.

Van scratched his forehead.

"Yeah, that’s certainly bad if you’re in the middle of dealing with something... but isn’t that just the same as returning to your original state? I mean, becoming pure again like a baby..."

The humans had already formed a single line, with the prince standing at the very front.

Van stretched his body, while the sound of footsteps came from behind him together with the sound of rough breathing.

Van glanced slightly to the side. Bartaz was walking toward him with one of his horns broken.

"What kind of will is your potential from?"

Bartaz’s question made Van frown, while Kalula, Elena, Bong, Cheetah, and Ryu, who had all fought Van before, also looked at him curiously.

Van scratched his slightly itchy golden hair.

"Ahh... I don’t have a strong will. I don’t have any potential..."

The expressions of those who had fought Van became strange. Even Bartaz looked confused.

"Then what power did you use to fight us? You clearly have many abilities."

Van scratched his cheek.

"Yeah... those are potentials, but they’re other people’s potentials..."

Van sighed and decided to postpone awakening the prince’s potential for a moment so he could explain things a little to the people he had fought before.

"That’s basically it... don’t ask too many questions anymore." Van pinched his sore cheeks. "Good grief... my jaw might fall off before I leave."

Kalula, Elena, Bartaz, Ryu, Bong, and Cheetah looked at one another. Finally, Kalula raised her hand.

"Wait, wait... you said you studied potentials, then used them, mastered them, and maybe even unlocked their hidden potential...?" Kalula pointed at the humans standing in line. "Then that means you can study their potentials too?"

Van nodded while bringing together his index and middle fingers, channeling the energy of his will from the pit of his stomach, while Elena spoke.

"And then you’ll live for two million years?"

Van clicked his tongue, but he nodded. He then pointed his fingers toward the prince’s solar plexus, but Cheetah’s words stopped him.

"Doesn’t that mean you can study different potentials for two million years?"

Everyone looked at Cheetah, but then they all looked at Van, who had suddenly frozen with a blank expression.

He looked at both of his hands.

’Shit! That’s right! Good grief... does that mean I’ll have to write another notebook after I’ve learned more than ten potentials?’

Van shook his head to clear his thoughts. He did not answer Cheetah’s question. He simply began touching the prince’s solar plexus through the small opening in his clothes.

Elena suddenly laughed as she brushed her white hair back. She looked at Van, who was wearing a gray shirt, shorts, flip-flops, and whose golden hair had become slightly oily.

"He might really become a god after two million years..."

Van’s ears twitched when he heard Elena’s words. He heard another sound. He clicked his tongue and turned because his concentration had been disturbed, but when he turned...

Everything disappeared.

Van stood in the middle of a white space that had no smell and no sound. He looked around in every direction, searching for the people who had suddenly vanished. He opened his mouth to shout, but even he could not hear his own voice.

Van’s heart beat rapidly. He tilted his head slightly.

’What is this? The old man never mentioned anything like this when awakening someone’s potential.’

After some time passed, Van felt a gust of wind brush against him. He searched for its source but could not find it. Meanwhile, the white background around him slowly became stained with other colors.

A painting gradually appeared, showing the prince speaking with a pair of parents who resembled him inside a room far more magnificent than the wooden hall.

’Huh?’

Van could not hear what they were saying, but strangely, he felt heat spreading through his own body together with the veins bulging on the prince’s forehead.

The painting eventually changed as the prince left the room. He met several soldiers Van recognized. The prince led them on horseback and left the palace. They rode their horses all the way to the outskirts of the city.

However, the group came to a stop when their horses became uncontrollable. The entire city shook at the same time, and the prince looked up at the sky because something had caught his attention.

In the clear daytime sky, a massive object was falling while engulfed in flames.

The prince, together with the entire city, was swept away before the massive object even struck them.

In an instant, the city disappeared.

Van scratched his head even though it did not itch. The painting was erased once again. Then it began painting a place Van recognized.

Van was inside the painting. He was speaking with the survivors on the first day they had met.

’That was when I told them about the Artium becoming the God’s marbles?’

The prince cried inside the painting. He lay on the ground while clutching his chest, which felt unbearably tight.

For some reason, Van felt exactly the same thing—the same suffocating pain that would not go away.

The prince curled into himself. His mouth did not move at all, yet strangely, Van could hear a voice that sounded just like the prince’s.

"I... I will kill the god who owns those marbles..."

Van held his head with both hands. His mouth hung wide open, and his eyes did not blink for several moments.

’Good grief...’

The painting changed again. Now it showed the prince standing in the middle of a forest. He walked slowly through the bushes, his eyes fixed on a deer hiding behind them.

Suddenly, his eyes became those of a tiger. The prince’s fingernails lengthened into claws, and fangs slowly appeared afterward.

Van carefully observed the transformation. His gray eyes captured every detail of the prince’s changes.

Then, the transformed prince in the painting suddenly leaped out like a tiger that had hunted thousands of times before.

The prince bit into the deer’s neck, and fresh blood flooded his mouth.

Van froze as he watched. He swallowed hard while sweat soaked his back.

’He said he wanted to kill a god? All I see is him hunting a deer...’

Van stood there silently for quite a while before a pat on his shoulder made him turn in surprise.

His gray eyes widened.

Now, reflected in his eyes, Kalula stood in front of him looking at him, while the surrounding sounds, colors, and the scent of the wooden hall all returned together after having disappeared.

Van tried to breathe greedily, while in front of him the prince collapsed, cold sweat pouring over his entire body.

Kalula shook Van’s shoulders.

"What’s wrong? You were just standing there frozen..."

The wooden hall became noisy again after the incident. Van shook his head in response to Kalula. He then crouched down and patted the suffering prince’s shoulder as cold sweat continued to pour from him.

"Do you want to kill a god?"

The prince looked at Van with his exhausted face. He did not answer at all, making Van swallow hard.

"...It’s not me, right?"