Chapter 189: Enigmatic – Part 2

Chapter 189: Enigmatic – Part 2

"Can you sense anything different?" I question Roxanne as we stare at the dark clouds.

"Well, indoor clouds aren't normal..." she cheekily replies, and I just give her an unamused frown while I chuckle internally, but she still milks the comedic timing for a few more seconds before she gives me a serious answer. "Yes, I feel something different from the previous times she's made storms. It really feels a bit 'wild' and maybe even similar to the Lord's energy."

"I'm glad she seems to be improving," I reply a bit too loudly, and I see Chesa glance at me, but the way her head-tail wags shyly tells me everything I need to know.

Maybe it wasn't too loud...

Oritiki appears at the golem factory as we wait, so Alissa hands off the investigation to her and returns to the core room. Now that everyone is here, I feel completely calm again, making the sleep deprivation bearable, but before joining us, Alissa has to first relay to Belind what happened at the factory and that her brother is fine.

"Oh, it's starting..." Roxanne quietly remarks.

And we all turn to the storm. The first lightning bolt strikes the Lord, but nothing happens. Then we wait a second before the next one falls, but still nothing. Then two fall at the same time, then six, then twenty-...

"SHIT!" Chesa swears.

Then we're blinded by a wall of lightning followed by a hoarse roar, "GRAAAAAAAH!"

Our ears cry as we go deaf again, but it also comes with a big headache that makes us grit our teeth. Then Ciel immediately starts the [Heal] treatment, with Alissa coming first.

Still, the big weird bird is awake, so I watch through the golems' eyes while mine recover, and I witness the Lord writhe as a coat of dark clouds and purple lightning covers its skeleton again. Its human-like characteristics immediately become even more prominent, especially its face, which is like an old man's, with a beak-like nose and a weirdly wide mouth.

Not pretty, but definitely fearsome. The purple lightning effect, coupled with the smokiness of the dark clouds and the lightning skeleton that's faintly visible underneath it all, makes for a very cool sight. It's almost like a Mufasa cloud.

There are still some Hau-Hou royals nearby, and they're leaving us alone since this is part of my "divine quest," but the sudden lightning has them spooked as their guards pull out their weapons, and the blades glow with the pale blue light of Kanal metal. I'm kinda envious that they have Kanal for their bodyguards because they're too expensive to equip our whole Lordsguard with them.

And the tension in the air quickly dissipates as everyone recovers their eyesight. The Lord also makes no movement aside from standing up on its claws, so an awkward silence immediately settles in.

This is my quest, so I step forward along with my wives and guard girls. Then I call out to the big smoky bird, "Greetings! Are you the Lord of Storms?"

Their head slowly "turns" to me, but the way they do so is actually quite unsettling. It seems like they become smoke while moving, and then their body reforms when they stop, so the Lord doesn't really "turn."

Then their mouth moves, and a hoarse but surprisingly gentle old man's voice full of static comes out, "I was given the name Atmostrapi, but I accept the Title of 'Lord of Storms,' even though I have no humanoid divine Blessing to hold it." It's a decidedly male voice, so I'll call him a "he" for now.

"Sounds like old Andraste," Alissa remarks through [Bind], and Lina agrees. One is well-versed in old stories, while the other is in old history, so they know what they're talking about.

And I politely continue, "The Gods sent me here to rescue you, but they didn't say why, though I'm curious how you ended up being captured by the monsters in this dungeon."

He cocks his gigantic head to one side as his gaze becomes cloudy (heh). Then his eyes focus on me again as he calmly hums, "Ah... my mind is clear now. I was fighting with an abominable construct and lost, then fell through my skies and into the maw of this dungeon. They used my essence to fuel their fortress across the sky, and now we're here..."

Alright, first things first. "What did you say you were fighting?"

He lowers his head to the ground to talk at (almost) eye-level with me, basically folding his chest in half into a very weird position, but what's really awkward is to be stared at by his huge face. "A construct, a vile patchwork of life and death, and a bastardization of Hauhuri glory..."

Lina's Reminder: Hauhuri is the old Chimera empire.

Then he raises his head again. "But I find it unpleasant to talk about it. I was merely protecting my acquaintances from an invasion of my territory, but I lost due to my own hubris."

"Perhaps we could help? We're powerful ourselves, and we have our own army," I eagerly suggest.

But the old bird man's response is very negative as he frowns and his tone becomes icy while the purple lightning inside the dark clouds becomes a lot more frequent. "Stay away from my territory. Have you humanoids forgotten what happened the last time you tried?"

We've stepped on a landmine, and Yunia now puts a filter on my mouth to make sure that I don't make things worse.

Then I very diplomatically clarify, "We're not sure who you're referring to. I'm Wolf Ryder, King and Crown Lord of the Eastern High Forest, a land far from here. I doubt my predecessors had much contact with you."

He slowly nods in his uncanny, smoky way, and then his tone softens a bit. "Indeed. The elves visited me once, but still, even though I thank you for saving me, I trust not your kind. This isn't the first time I've been captured, and it's because of how unreliable your 'Sins' are."

And Yunia interjects, starting to feel frustrated with his attitude, "Hold on, there's a lot of history between you and humanoids that we're missing here. Most of us think you don't even exist anymore."Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

He snorts softly, and his gaze loses focus for a second. "Ah... so it's been that long. Still, nothing's changed."

I immediately become excited again, but that didn't work out well last time, so I breathe in deeply and more soberly declare, "Something has changed. We convinced the Emperor to enact an Edict stating that the Sin of Torture also protects monsters."

But his stern expression turns into a smirk as he scoffs, "An 'Edict'? Hah, that's not enough." Then his tone gradually becomes colder as he leans forward. "Your Sins are merely decoration, a leash to wrangle your most unruly. But when the power is too great to ignore, when the unbounded 'progress' that you worship is threatened, the Sins won't be enough to save me."

Holy shit...

"The Gods must be seeking forgiveness, for they sent us here specifically to save you!" Ciel exclaims, starting to become exasperated.

The Lord raises his head even higher, stretching his body as he leans back, and his old face wrinkles further in bitterness because he can't deny the fact that we've saved him. "Fine, I shall trust your generation. What do the Gods want with me?"

"We don't know, actually, but we're curious about the foe you fought," I cautiously state.

"My territory is vast; the invader could be anywhere by now," he evasively replies.

I suppress a sigh and offer, "We could search for it."

But again, his answer is negative, "No... the shadow of the Hauhuri still lingers..." -he suddenly "turns" his head to the Hau-Hou as they watch from a distance- "and I shall not accept the greed it brings."

Well, this Lord of Storms is quite a difficult character...

The light-blue deer Princess I want to put my dick in is also watching, but I'll have to sacrifice that fuck in the name of our future.

And Yunia guides me as I diplomatically answer and attempt to get through to him from another angle, "We're not looking for treasure; we wish only to seek out potential threats to the Realm. Also, we have sent a gigantic Cloud Snake called Pua to live in the Broken Skies since their home in the ancient dungeon they used to live in was going to disappear. They're a passive being, and we wish for them to be able to live in your territory."

"Hmm..." he lets out an annoyed hum that's so loud it annoys Alissa, but then his purple lightning irises subtly shift, and I realize that he's now staring at Gify, who's on my shoulder.

And the little white griffin puffs up her chest, then bravely defends our family, "Guh gah gus geh."

The Lord makes a brief, annoyed frown, but then he returns to his usual aloofness. "Very well, I shall seek out this 'Pua,' but I'll deal with the invader myself."

HNNNNGH! THIS DUDE...!

And Ciel very sternly states out loud, "Something is likely going to happen to the Realm one day. The Gods have summoned multiple Gifted here specifically to free you while we feel the presence of heretics stalking us from afar."

He seems to enter deep thought, so I follow up with a more neutral tone, "We've met with Gecynd, and my Thread reacted when I first saw her in person, something that has happened again with you."

And he makes a grunt full of static that kinda sounds like a tired exhale. "So it's 'Fate,' then. I shall keep this in mind and owe you a favor, but that's it."

Then his wings wrap around his body, which turns into a tornado of clouds. I wanted to talk more, to convince him to actually fucking describe what that construct was since it sounds suspiciously heretical, but the sudden wind drowns out my voice. Then a huge bolt of lightning strikes the cloud, and the dark clouds disappear into nothing.

He's gone, just like that...

"'Game-like'? What...?" Belind suddenly asks out loud. I forgot she was here with us.

"It's an Earthling concept that's a bit difficult to explain right now," I kindly explain.

And she's content with that for now. "Oh, I see."

Then I turn to the Titan and continue, "{What about that energy your 'God' used? It felt truly divine, so how did he get it? Was it from the core}?"

"{Why should I answer your questions}?" he tiredly replies and raises his upper lip in a sneer.

"{We can negotiate. Is there something you want}?" I calmly suggest.

"{Death...}" he immediately answers with a dark, bitter tone. Then his mouth moves again, and he attempts to say something, but the words don't come out. He then turns his eyes away as he seems to become conflicted.

"{Say it. You have nothing to lose}," Hana gently encourages him.

He snarls but still spits it out, "{We're very proud of our civilization. I want to preserve it}."

"{I can easily take some of the city islands with me}," I state.

But he slowly shakes his head. "{No. I want you to take some of us}."

The girls and I share a look, but there's an obvious concern, "{Now that is no small thing that you're asking, especially since your kind will still try to kill us on sight}."

He sits up properly, making his shackles tinkle loudly in the mostly empty room. "{We have a group of 'broken' that broke free from the Shackles, but they rejected our God, so they were exiled}."

And Aoi perks up at that.

"{Are you fine with 'heretics' surviving to represent your civilization}?" Yunia curiously questions.

"{They may be faithless heathens, but they were gifted what we desired, and we can't deny that}," he answers soberly.

So I shrug and accept, "{Very well. If they really are peaceful, I can bring them to my territory}."

"{May your Gods curse you if you go back on your word}," he grimly grunts.

Well, I don't plan to, and I'm sure the Gods are closely paying attention to this, so I just nod and move on, "{Do you want to show us where these exiled are}?"

And he actually scoffs in disgust. "{No, I can barely stand your stench from this distance, so I might seriously kill myself if I'm forced to travel with you. I'll just describe the location}."

I'm too tired to react to that, to be honest...

Anyway, the location of the exiled is a bit far, and we don't know how long we have until the portals stop working, so we'll have to send a golem in the beat-up Super Raki, but it'll take some time to get there.

"{Put me back to sleep. I don't want to wait}," the Throat bitterly requests, and we accept because he's a bit insufferable.

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