CG Chapter 125: A Story of the Past and a Step Toward the Future
Silence remained, with not a single leaf moving in the silent void. The only sound to be heard was the dripping of blood and the buzzing coming from the mountain of corpses.
A long time passed, and silence seemed to stretch forever, but just when Aretius was about to move toward the tree to cut it down and extract the world core.
A quickly flickering light appeared before solidifying into the shape of the shaman.
But before it could completely settle, the shaman began to shapeshift back and forth between looking like a dying old woman and a young innocent girl.
As she flickered between these two forms, she once appeared sad, then joyous, then sad again.
This went on for a while, but just when Aretius was about to lose his temper, the shaman's head started to crack in a strange way that was impossible for any living creature to do.
Witnessing this strange scene firsthand, Aretius remained calm in his place, simply letting out a subtle chuckle.
"Were you planning on throwing me away like some dog after I had finished my job? Or were you expecting to reform this world after you had taken your revenge?"
His eyes shone purple as he continued.
"You know, you're an interesting creature, a monster formed by the mix of multiple egos."
The shaman, with its form straightened, didn't say much except one word, but that word seemed to have carried a heavy sense of resentment and the sadness of ages.
"When?"
"At first, I had my doubts, but you wanting to convince me that you are the Heavenly Will while trying to keep it a secret made me almost certain that you were lying. At least, not completely. Am I right?"
Whoosh!
The air turned into a scene of depressing silence, more suffocating than if the two had started to fight.
She was the shaman, but not completely.
She was the Heavenly Will, but not completely.
And she was that innocent young girl, but not completely.
The shaman looked as if she were remembering a long-forgotten memory, as she showed Aretius glimpses of her past.
"Long ago, before the seven kingdoms and the churches of the seven gods had taken control over this world, there were the twelve Zodiacs acting as guardians of this world. But you already know that…"
She stopped, as the heaviness of what she was about to say was almost choking her, forming a hard lump to swallow.
"Back then, I was just a young girl when it all happened, and when my world turned into… the one you see outside."
"The majority of the Zodiacs turned traitorous by promises of false power and immortality. Some of them tried to resist, but by then it was too late, as the Zodiacs had already used their connection with the Heavenly Will to weaken the world barrier. This led to the great fracture of rules and change of heaven and earth."
"At that time, the weakened Heavenly Will had to merge with a living being to continue on existing to resist the invasion of the gods for as long as possible. And that person needed to be someone who had a previous link with it, as it was too weak to form any new links."
At that moment, Aretius didn't need the shaman to continue, as he fully understood what happened, and the shaman's words simply confirmed his suspicions.
The Heavenly Will chose her as the carrier because she wasn't any ordinary girl, but the child of the Zodiacs and carried part of their spiritual essence.
But the only thing he didn't know at that moment was whether she was the child of the loyal Zodiacs or a the child of a traitor.
If it was the latter, then her fate would truly be cruel, to fight against her own parent, and to carry the weight and burden of a lost, hopeless civilization.
Fortunately, Aretius didn't care, as in an instant…
Shessh!
Stretching his chains, similar to the ones that attacked the gods, he attacked the shaman. But this time, they didn't only stop her from moving.
Instead, they dug deep inside her flesh, ripping her body from the inside and slicing her into pieces.
The rusty chains didn't give her any chance to resist as they broke her bones and started to absorb her energy.
To this, the shaman didn't look surprised. Instead, her face simply showed a subtle, innocent smile of relief that her agony had finally come to an end.
"Oh, long-lost traveler, you know I wanted to give it a final try to save this world, but… strangely enough, I only feel a sense of relief that this world is coming to an end by your hands instead of theirs."
Just before a chain was about to dig into her windpipe and split her neck in half, she said:
"Goodbye… beautiful world!"
In her final moments, the shaman chose to die in her true form as the young girl, letting out a single tear from her right eye and a chuckle.
The scene showed the agony of the years and how sometimes people would prefer death over continuing with the harsh fight.
But all of that meant nothing to Aretius, as no matter how hard the road got or will get, he didn't plan on giving up. And even if he fell, he simply needed to use his nails to dig his way out.
That was the resolution of a demon, because the heart of a man with a dream doesn't give up even if the entire world turned against him.
Standing all alone in front of the giant white tree, Aretius held it with one hand while his other hand grabbed at the space behind him.
And from all around the palace, the seven hands and the body of the shaman gathered around.
Now… he could finally complete one of the most important steps in his plan: the forging of a true bloodline that solely belonged to him.