Karl sat in stunned silence as the Black Dragon Goddess’ Avatar finished her story. He was still a bit shocked to be in the presence of the representatives of the Gods of War and Death, and then to be told that the hubris of the world’s most powerful had been the downfall of the entire world, he couldn’t process it all that quickly.
“So, once upon a time, everyone were Elites, even those of the other species, and it all ended because someone thought that they could take on the World Dragon?” Karl requested, desperately trying to make sense of the situation.
The Red robed man nodded grimly. “Foolish notion that. Nobody ever wins those challenges. But you are correct that every species on this world once had the full powers of the System on their side. Even the beastkin, though some of them insist they were actually cursed by the World Dragon to be used by others as good luck charms.”
Karl chuckled at the notion. How would a beastkin be a good luck charm? Were they like a Holy Stone, and granted a luck buff if you held them? He supposed that wasn’t impossible if the Gods were getting directly involved in the lives of the people.
“What if I can’t activate the Ancient System, and I just am what I am, a Beast Master, with the ability to grow and learn skills like every other Elite?” Karl asked.
The Red Dragon Avatar shrugged. “Then I wish you the best of luck becoming the most powerful Elite in the world. I have no idea if it’s possible, but the path of the Divine Beasts is a good one. In the ancient legends, there was a hero with the Beast Lord class, though they summoned their beasts instead of bonding living ones.
I have never heard of a Class like yours, but I would pay particular attention to the children of the Green Dragon. They are the God of Beasts who don’t have their own Deities, so they will eventually take interest in you as well.”
“They?” Karl asked.
The man frowned. “It’s a tricky question. Nobody really knows if the Green Dragon is a female who uses Divine Power to fertilize her eggs, or a male who uses Divine Power to create the eggs he fertilizes. What we do know is that there is no other involved in the process of creating Green Dragon Demigods, and if they know, they’re not telling.”
All this talk of Gods and ancient treachery was giving Karl a headache. Even if he knew some of the answers now, there was nothing that he could do about it except possibly tell someone who would write it down so it wasn’t forgotten again.
The black robed woman opened a portal on the wall behind them, and nodded toward the Red Dragon Avatar.
“It seems that our time is up, and we must run to another duty. Thank you for your time, and you may return to your day.” The Avatar of the War God announced as he rose to his feet.
That was it, they just walked through the portal, which closed behind them, and then the door behind Karl opened, allowing the Inquisitors entry.
“Brother Karl, welcome back. Did you have a productive interview.” The Inquisitor asked.
Karl opened his mouth to answer, but found that he couldn’t speak at all about anything that had happened in the room. He could remember it, but no matter how he tried to phrase it, he was unable to tell them. The best he could give him was a generic confirmation.
“Productive would be a good word for it, yes.” He agreed.
The faces of the two Avatars were already blurring in his mind, leaving behind a general impression to recognize them by, but not enough to accurately describe them, even if he could speak about the topic.
“That room is for foreign dignitaries of the Church. Anything that happens in there is usually confidential, so we won’t ask you for details.
There is one thing that you should know, though. Six minutes ago, just before you entered the room, the System Stones that your team discovered disappeared. They were in the middle of a test, and then every single one of the monsters in the region, as well as the System Stones, and an entire mountain, vanished.”
“An entire mountain? Now that’s a missed opportunity.” Karl gasped, shocked that nobody had noticed an entire mountain just appearing in the area. How bad were the maps they were working from? Or did nobody actually read them?
The Inquisitor sighed, realizing that Karl hadn’t known anything about it, and hadn’t been informed of it beforehand. The Inquisitor was hoping that even if he couldn’t speak about the topic, there would at least be something in his response that would indicate that whoever he was meeting might have provided him with information about it in advance.
They walked back up to the main floor, and Karl realized that the others were taken somewhere else.
“What were the rest of us called back for? The High Priest said we were all summoned, and that was before the big event would have happened.” Karl asked as they walked.
“Ah, right. There was no time to fill you in on all the details. Your group was called back for a formal recognition of your contributions. I’m not certain what will become of that now that the thing happened, but we are taking you to the others.” The Inquisitor explained.
That was right, they had said that they had a meeting, and then a publicity thing. But if the System Stones had vanished, then there would be no grand announcement to the public, unless the Archbishop had managed to salvage their power somehow.
Karl was led into a room where the rest of his team, along with dozens of High Priests, some from every god that Karl had ever heard of, going by the differences in their robes, had gathered.
They were all waiting for something, and the Inquisitors left Karl to do as he pleased, while they went to join the other Inquisitors who had gathered by the door.
Everyone was waiting for news, and Karl saw Tessa and Lotus’s concern as he joined them at their table up front.
“Have you heard?” The tiny nature priestess asked.
Karl nodded, and the table fell silent again while they waited.
A few minutes later, The Archbishop himself entered the room, and Karl immediately noticed that his unique layered robes with the Gold on the outside were the direct equivalent of the robes that the Red and Black Dragon Avatars wore. That would make him the Archbishop of the Golden Dragon Church, but the Avatar of the World Dragon, or perhaps the Golden Dragons, which were technically a different species entirely and specialized in organization and leadership.
He looked weary as he took his seat at the front of the room, on a throne facing the assembled priests. Only Karl’s group included anyone who wasn’t from the Church, which couldn’t be coincidental. The people in the room were most likely those who had seen the System Stones for themselves, as they would need to know what had happened, and what the official statement would be on the matter.
“Greetings everyone. As you may know, there was an upheaval today. The newly discovered set of System Stones, along with the underground temple complex of the Seventh Dynasty, vanished along with the remains of a monster influx.
There was no warning, and from what we can tell, nothing else was affected. None of the groups who were in the area remember anything out of the ordinary. Only those in this room even recall that there was a temple complex under the mountain.
Only those in this room recall that our team arrived in the zone to study the System Stones. Even the Inquisitors that we assigned to assist the Church Guard elsewhere in the region have forgotten the circumstances behind their deployment.
Why that is, we do not yet know.
What we can say is that while the System Stones were active, dozens of clerics and others gained a new system skill from the anomaly.
Now that they have vanished, we will be treating this incident as a one time trial instance, with no way to recreate it. The contents of the trial are to remain confidential, but the gains will be in your official records, along with the achievements that were made during the influx period.
That will be all for today’s meeting. All other press conferences, meetings and discussion groups are cancelled for the day while the schedule is reworked.”
Then the weary looking Archbishop got up out of his chair and left the room.
