Hello! Been a while since there was a chapter, but here it is! Sorry about it being late >.

I can't promise regular chapters, but this story isn't dying off, at least not at the moment.

So, there will be updates here and there. ^^

Anyhow, here's chapter 20! Enjoy!

Chapter 20: Glimpse of the Truth

-----

Kyran brought the group to a small room at the back of the ritual chamber. It was pretty dark when they entered it, though the darkness didn’t stay for long as Kyran lit a torch upon the wall. There was a wooden table in the centre of the room, surrounded by enough chairs to seat every member of their small party.

“This is the most secure room in our headquarters, sire. It is where our previous leaders used to hold their private meetings,” Kyran said with a glance at Kha’na. “The diagrams on the walls, as I’m sure sire has noticed, are enchantments that prevent any sound from getting in or out. I hope it is to your satisfaction.”

“Indeed it is, thank you, Kyran. Let us all take a seat before we begin. That includes you, Kyran,” Draygor nodded, pulling out a seat for the old cultist. Kyran hesitated for a second, having intended to simply stand by Draygor’s chair, but moved to take a seat with a bow.

“Firstly, Kyran. For the Royal Advisor’s sake, could you inform us if the Cult has had anything to do with the kidnapping of innocents all around Gar’nashia over the past three years?” Draygor asked. The others leaned forward in their seats as Kyran cleared his throat, waiting for his answer.

“No, sire. We have not involved ourselves with such matters over the past three years,” the old cultist answered solemnly. “It would have been impossible for the Cult to have embarked on a task of such scale anyway, considering our current manpower, as everyone here has witnessed just now. We have not recruited any new members since you graced us with your presence three years ago, sire.”

“As you can see, Royal Advisor, Kyran’s words prove my theory true. The Cult is not responsible for the recent events,” Draygor said, fixing his eyes on Stefan.

“…” Stefan stared back at Draygor wordlessly, his expression still betraying a twinge of doubt. “Very well. All I have seen so far has suggested that it is the truth, and I am inclined to believe it. The Cult is innocent on this matter, though this does not excuse them for their past crimes.”

“Putting that aside, this means that the Abyss, whatever it is, is responsible for the strange events that have been plaguing our kingdom. I don’t suppose you know what the Abyss is, do you?” Stefan continued, directing his question toward Kyran.

“… Yes, I do know what the Abyss is. It will be a long story, if every detail is to be mentioned,” Kyran answered, turning to Draygor for permission to continue, at which the latter nodded.

“The Abyss, to put it simply, is an existence that is greater than the sum of us put together. Greater than the gods, even.” Kyran raised both his arms at different heights to emphasise the difference between them and the Abyss. “To tell the truth, we do not know what it is exactly, though we know that its awakening and rise to power will mean the end of all life as we know it.”

“The Abyss was awakened decades ago, during the invasion of the other world. In all honesty… the Cult had a part to play in its awakening. I was merely a regular member of the Cult then, before it all happened. A few years before the invasion, one of the leaders then discovered a huge, obsidian-black rock, deep in the tunnels of this place. It was a peculiar thing. It was impossible to break, and none of our tools could even nick it. In fact, the tools that were put to test on the rock broke upon contact with it.”

“The leader that discovered the rock was fascinated with it, and would spend days just studying it. He theorised that it was made out of pure mana, seeing that all the mages of the Cult felt extremely sick whenever they were in the vicinity of the rock. It probably overloaded their mana conduits and reserves, though I don’t know too much about that since I cannot use magick. In hindsight, it was obvious that the rock was also affecting those that couldn’t manipulate mana. It played with their minds, and those who had been exposed to it for long periods of time claimed that it was talking to them, that it was Shaitan himself that was talking to them through the magickal rock.”

“Of course, it wasn’t He Who Takes Lives that was communicating with them through the rock. The Mouth, at the time, rebuked their claims and denounced them for having betrayed the Cult, as he knew it wasn’t the words of Shaitan that was emanating from the rock. It was too late, however. The zealous claims of the Abyss’ followers had snagged the hearts of nearly all the members of the Cult. We were nearly thirty thousand strong at the time, with multiple bases in and out of the kingdom. Overnight, those loyal to the Abyss took over the Cult, with those who still believed in the Mouth’s words, like me, imprisoned for blasphemy. Many of the strongest fighters were still on our side, but it didn’t matter. Those that had been directly exposed to the rock seemed almost inhuman, with extreme strength. They smashed thick walls with their bare hands, and fought as if their lives didn’t matter.”

“After the Cult’s leadership had been replaced, the new leader, the one who had first discovered the rock, announced that they would attempt to summon their god through vast amounts of sacrifice. The Abyss had apparently taught him a way to traverse between the worlds of the universe, and he announced that they would invade another world in its name. He spoke of universal dominance, that they would offer all lives up to the Abyss. We didn’t even know there were other worlds before that! With that plan in mind, the Abyss’ servants marched to the south of the kingdom, where their leader opened a portal to the other world. I cannot tell you how it is done, for the rest of the loyalists were left behind to starve when the dogs of the Abyss departed on their crusade,” Kyran snarled as he mentioned that, his face contorting with anger as he recounted the memory.

“Fortunately, we managed to escape our shackles before we starved to death, though it was too late for us to attempt to stop our traitor brethren. I’m sure everyone know what happened from that moment on. The Abyss’ followers were killed by the White Death, and thousands of innocents were massacred in the war between our people and the Ely. Of course, the old Queen officially blamed us for the incident. We didn’t rebuke her accusation because, well, she was right. We were to blame for not stopping our brethren before they were led astray, and we felt extremely guilty for the children that had been left homeless and orphaned because of our negligence, and thus we took them in to give them a chance to live,” Kyran gave Kha’na a glance full of sorrow and regret as he mentioned that.

“We trained them to be strong, so that they could fight the Abyss if it ever showed again, though we made a mistake by kidnapping you three years ago, sire.” Kyran paused with a resigned chuckle. “It seems we have only made mistake after mistake since we failed to keep our brethren in check. We tried to locate the source of the evil, the black rock, in order to seal it off for good, but we were unable to find it even after scouring the tunnels. I believe the Abyss’ followers managed to find a way to transport such a huge rock on their crusade, though I cannot fathom how. I can show you the previous location of the rock later on if you’d like, sire.”

“At the time, we thought that the summoning had failed, that the world was safe from the Abyss’ clutches, though it seems we were wrong…” Kyran finished with a sigh. The table was quiet as everyone processed the story with mixed expressions of fear, shock and anger. Draygor sat lost in thought as well, pondering the new information.

“T-this... this has serious implications!” Stefan shattered the silence by slamming the table, his voice shrill with anger. “The Cult is responsible for all those deaths, for that senseless amount of death during the war because of its inability to control its own members, and now you’re saying that we’re all doomed because of the Cult’s mistake?! I would have all the surviving members killed, even if they were not directly responsible, but your lives are not enough to make up for everything that the Cult brought upon us!”

Stefan was right. Draygor couldn’t fault his way of thinking; the Cult’s discovery of the Abyss was the precursor to everything that was happening now, and Stefan was justified in his anger. Though, most of the current survivors of the Cult were victims of the war, and had no part to play in the Abyss’ awakening.

“This is no time to play the blaming game, Stefan!” Lukas shouted over Stefan’s angry rant. His expression betrayed his hatred of the Cult’s actions as well, though he was calmer than his old friend. “What’s done is done, and nothing we say or do now will change the fact that the war happened, and that the Abyss was awakened then. We must look toward the future! What we must do now is to find a way to prevent the Abyss from fully awakening, and if possible, sealing it again!”

There was a tense pause as Stefan attempted to calm himself down, his fists clenched as he glared hatefully at Kyran. He knew that what Lukas said was the most sensible course of action, though his anger and hatred was clouding his judgement.

“H-how are we supposed to do that? Didn’t Kyran say that it is stronger than all of us put together? That it is greater than our gods?!” Lah’ra muttered softly, her complexion pale from shock.

“I do not know – ”

“I will do it. I will seal the Abyss again,” Draygor suddenly spoke up, interrupting Lukas. All eyes around the table turned to look at him in surprise. His eyes were blazing with determination, and for some reason, everyone felt that he had the ability to do so, despite the absurdity of his words.

“Master, what do you mean?” Kha’na asked after a short pause, her head cocked to the side as she looked at him curiously.

“Trust me,” Draygor replied, infusing his voice with mana. As soon as the words left his mouth, images began to flow into the minds of everyone in the room. Images of an Ely with pale skin and immaculately white hair. Images of blood and gore, as the white Ely cut down the enemies of his people. Images of his death by the hands of his own people, and finally, an image of Draygor’s current self, with the white scale placed snugly upon his forehead.

Everyone’s faces became paler than before as they connected the dots, their gazes focusing on the white scale on Draygor’s forehead. He had grown other scales all over his body since, but the one upon his head stood out from the rest.

“But that cannot be… you are dead…” Stefan whispered in disbelief. He had noticed the similarities, but didn’t believe his suspicions until now. As far as everyone knew, there was no life after death, and yet, there was a living example seated in front of them.

“I was dead, but I am here now, in this form,” Draygor affirmed their thoughts with a nod. “I was personally responsible for the deaths I caused in the war, but I seek no forgiveness now. I was protecting my people then, and I will protect my people now. The Abyss threatens all, and it seems to be far stronger than anything I could handle now. But, the gods have spoken to me. They tell me that it will be a long time before the Abyss regains its strength, and that when it happens, I will have to be the one to put a stop to it. In order to fulfil that, I must become stronger.”

“I… am definitely not at my strongest now, not with this immature body. It will be a while before I regain my previous strength, and even then, I do not think that it will be enough to battle the Abyss. I will endeavour to work harder and become stronger, however, and to do that, I will need all the help I can get. I do now know yet what exactly I have to do, but I will do it. Will everyone here assist me?” He asked humbly.

“Of course, master!” “Of course, sire.”

Both Kha’na and Kyran answered almost immediately, while the others took a moment to process what he had said before expressing their agreement, though they seemed in shock as they did so.

“Grandfather?” Lukas visibly recoiled as Draygor addressed him, clearly still shocked that the White Death, the one that had caused so much wanton death during the war, was now his grandson. “I may have been someone else before, but I am your grandson now, and you are my grandfather. I… did not have much family before, and I do not lie when I say that every single person in our family now means the world to me.”

Lukas seemed to calm down as Draygor said that, and he pushed the thoughts of the fearful Elias away, focusing his gaze on his grandson, Draygor, instead. With a small smile, he nodded to Draygor wordlessly. It would probably take a while for Lukas to come fully to terms with it, but it seemed that the relationship between grandfather and grandson would be fine. At least, Draygor hoped so.

“Royal Advisor, Kyran. I believe that the Cult should work together with the kingdom to weed out the followers of the Abyss in Gar’nashia. I know that there is enmity between both sides, but don’t you agree that the Abyss is a much greater threat?”

Kyran simply nodded his consent to Draygor’s suggestion, while Stefan stared at Draygor in thought. He seemed to have calmed down from his previous outburst, at least.

“There will be no forgiveness for the Cult’s, as well as your actions, but I agree that there is something greater that we must unite against. I will speak to the Queen about the arrangements, but understand this: it will not be a public co-operation. The people of the kingdom despise the Cult, many more than I do, and should such an alliance come to light, have no doubt that there will be civil war. If we do succeed in banishing the Abyss sometime in the future, expect no gratitude,” Stefan reasoned, turning to glare at Kyran as he spoke the last sentence.

“Of course, Royal Advisor. Secrecy is key. We do not know how far the hand of the Abyss stretches now,” Draygor agreed.

“Very well then. For now, Draygor, you will focus on increasing your power. I do not like the idea of relying on a single person for the final battle, but there seems to be no other choice as at the moment. As for you, Kyran…” Stefan narrowed his eyes as he addressed the old cultist. “Await my news after I have gained the Queen’s approval. Be prepared to recount everything you have said here to the Queen. We will meet again soon.”

With that, the group rose to depart. Without hesitation, Draygor grabbed Lukas’ hand, holding it tight to prevent the old man from pulling away. “Let’s go home, Kha’na, grandfather!”