91 91 - Path of Truth

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"I remembered something!" Mufag said with an animated expression on his little face, apparently satisfied with the information he remembered.

Noah, on the other hand, was afraid of what Mufag might say, since depending on what the little dwarf said, it would only confirm what Noah was already imagining.

"What did you remember, Mufag?" Noah asked, saying it out loud and expressing himself with signs so as not to let the other Blessed Ones know that he understood the little dwarf's language.

Looking at Noah with bright eyes and a big smile on his face, Mufag remembered something. "My father is a Marquis of the Gemturm kingdom, one of the most powerful kingdoms in the Northern Dwarf Empire. Before they asked me to hide, my parents told me that perhaps this was actually being organized by a political enemy of the king who wanted to use my father as a hostage and bargaining chip. So that I wouldn't be in danger, my mother hid me in the luggage rack so that no one would find me." The little dwarf said with a proud tone of voice, both for his father's position in the Empire, and for himself, for being able to remember such important information as this.

While Noah looked at the little boy who was looking at him with an expression that clearly begged for a compliment for the good job he did, Noah on the other hand was becoming agitated from the information he just discovered.

In order not to disappoint the child, he approached Mufag and ruffled his hair while saying things like "You did well", but internally Noah's mind was working at high speed, looking for any excuse to override what he had thought, but so far he had found nothing.

The Blessed Ones had noticed Noah acting strangely ever since Eric commented about the portal not showing up, and a strange possibility crossed their mind. They soon overruled it and just went back to looking for the portal, but seeing Noah continuing to act so strangely, something in the background of each person's head told them that things were not as simple as they had thought.

Noah brought the group together and explained to them exactly what Mufag had said. Hearing Noah's explanation, the group began to despair. This was very wrong; very, very wrong.

"Are you thinking about the same thing I'm thinking?" Jasper asked as he looked at Marcel.

Marcel didn't even have to ask what Jasper was thinking before sighing and answering, "I believe so, even though I don't want to be doing this..."

When hopelessness was reaching the group, a purple portal appeared in the middle of the circle that they had formed near BigBull who could not get up because of the injury.

Some were even already packing up their own things, so that they would be ready to cross the portal as soon as it was open enough. Until a voice removed them from the thoughts of leaving.

"Guys..." Noah said with a strange expression as he stood beside Mufag who looked at the portal with a confused and curious expression.

Seeing Mufag beside Noah, the Blessed froze. Apparently their brains for some reason had just forgotten about Mufag and were clearly ready to leave the portal and leave this Fortress as if nothing had happened. If not for Noah's interruption, they doubted whether they would remember the little dwarf who, for a moment, had just disappeared from their memory.

Looking at Mufag, they showed an expression of guilt and conflict, probably having internal debates about what to do next. Noah, seeing the expression they were making, remembered the warning the system had given him at the Angry Birds Fortress.

As soon as the portal appeared, the Blessed Ones were just happy to be able to leave as if they did not remember Mufag. They hadn't even looked in his direction and were almost ready to cross the portal and leave.

Initially Noah was confused by their actions; the companions he had were not such bad people that they would just ignore a child in the face of danger. No, these people would probably even put themselves in danger just to help an innocent child. But that was not what they were doing now. Noah remained flustered by their actions until he remembered the message the system had once sent.

[As a Descendant of Lucifer, the user is immune to delusions made by minor deities. Nothing they do to affect the user's mind will take effect.]

If what he was thinking was true, his companions probably fell into an illusion or mental suggestion that made them forget anything that was not related to the main purpose of the predetermined Fortress. Probably, if it weren't for Noah, they wouldn't have even found Mufag, or even if they did, because they couldn't communicate with him, they would have just killed the child or ignored him.

Noah's meddling made them notice something that they would not have noticed without someone immune to the delusions of lesser deities, and Noah's interference made them look at Mufag and remember him once again. The confusion was obvious in the expressions of the Blessed. They couldn't understand why they had forgotten Mufag like that, but remembering him, they momentarily put their backpacks on the floor and looked at Noah, who apparently wanted to say something.

"Guys, the portal to leave is open. I believe that if anyone wants to leave, nothing bad will happen, but according to what Mufag said, his family is probably being held hostage by whoever orchestrated all this, so I intend to help him, even if it means triggering a hidden Boss or something like that. I don't know what might happen, but the only option I found for the portal to take so long to appear is that we hadn't actually killed the real Boss of this Fortress, but rather something like a sub-boss." Noah spoke as calmly as he could demonstrate, since what he said was like a bomb in the minds of the Blessed.

They had never thought of a Fortress opening a portal to leave before killing the real Boss. But the facts were clearly in front of them; the only thing they could do was to accept them.

"This is very strange. Since Mufag said he didn't find his parents, I felt something was wrong. When the portal took time to appear, this feeling intensified in me, until when I forgot Mufag everything became even more confused in my head. But now it seems that I am beginning to understand. There is no way for me to leave without knowing the answer to this doubt that is running through me. I will stay with you to know the truth of it all," Marcel said in a convinced tone.

With Marcel taking the lead, soon the other Blessed Ones on the team also decided to stay to understand what was going on and of course, help the helpless child beside Noah, who was looking at the portal with great interest and curiosity. They knew there was something out of place with this whole situation, and as an elite group, they would not let themselves be frightened by the fear of dyin. It had been much better than their expectations to have come this far without dying; to take some more risks would be nothing unexpected.

Seeing their looks of determination, Noah was proud to see their attitude. This was exactly what he expected from the group.

This reminded Noah of a phrase the system had used to describe what his journey would be like after accepting to merge with the system:

[The user will enter the path of truth and true power.]

Finally Noah had come to understand what the system meant by "true power", and now he was beginning to understand what the system also meant by "the way of truth", since from what he realized, there were many things that humanity did not know, many "truths" that they believed which in fact, Noah was discovering, did not make sense and were not so true.

'I will discover the truth behind it all,' Noah thought with conviction.

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