Chapter 309: Prophecy
"Wait-Wait what? You were kidnapped..."
Dhruv saw as Aurora nodded her head.
’Wait what... -w- what the fuck. The dungeon is not how I seemed it to be. The boss inside of them is kidnapped and then placed inside of it. That’s fucked up man.’ Dhruv thought as he couldn’t wrap his head around this revelation.
To him, the boss of the dungeon was a unique creature, something far above the ordinary. But now... now he was beginning to realize that they were just beings the Cosmos had decided to kidnap and place there.
Forget about being unique; they didn’t even possess freedom. They weren’t even free.
’What more am I wrong about?’ Dhruv thought, realizing how mistaken his assumptions had been. He couldn’t help but question more, understanding that things were not as they seemed at first glance.
No matter how much Dhruv tried, he couldn’t seem to calm himself after the revelation. Looking at her, he opened his mouth, trying to fill the gaps in his knowledge.
"If you don’t mind... can you share what the process was? I mean how were you kidnapped from your kingdom?" Dhruv asked, knowing that as royalty, it wouldn’t be easy to kidnap someone like her.
This time, Dhruv had changed his tome. This time was asking not demanding.
He couldn’t help but speak that way after hearing about her situation. The moment he heard what she had gone through, a wave of sympathy appeared inside him for her.
Dhruv knew very well what it felt like to be placed somewhere against their will. How it felt to be away from home. How it felt to be placed where they don’t belong.
How it felt to live in the unknown.
’I guess she doesn’t want to talk about it...’ Noticing the silence, Dhruv understood it wasn’t easy for her to talk about it.
’Should I ask why she is this calm about me killing her? Or should I not ask this? It doesn’t seem reasonable to ask her this... but I want to know.’ Dhruv was in the middle of his thoughts when words resonated in the room.
"Let’s start from the basics, Master..."
’I guess she is ready to talk about it,’ Dhruv thought, looking at her sighing.
"Start from basics?" Even though he was confused, Dhruv nodded.
"As I’ve told you, neither I nor any of my subjects are from the dungeon. Instead, we come from the planet Cryonix. A planet full of ice, snow, and crystal. It’s a bit cold there, but it is a beautiful place. If fate allows, I will take you there," Aurora mentioned, reminiscing her past.
"Sure, why not?" Not sure how he could travel to another planet, Dhruv still nodded his head.
"The planet is inhabited by many semi-sentient creatures, but the main inhabitants are us, also known as Crystallce... But even though we consider ourselves the main inhabitants, there is something that seems to disagree with it."
Aurora paused, trying to come up with the right words.
"There are some who hate our existence. Ones who went into a killing frenzy just from seeing us. They are truly a monster. We call them Frostbeasts."
Dhruv seemed focused as he was truly keen on learning about an entirely different ecosystem.
"They are monsters who seem hell-bent on trying to hunt us to extinction. Frostbeasts are creatures who have lost themselves to their hunting instincts. They are nothing more than beasts who want to hunt and eat."
’It seems she truly hates them..’ Dhruv understands from her tone.
Aurora paused, looking at the throne. She took a deep breath before continuing.
"Even though they only operate on instincts, they are very powerful monsters. Every single one of them is strong enough to take on ten of the same-tier Crystallce in a fight..."
"Are they that powerful?" Dhruv asked back, thinking how powerful the monsters had to be to take on ten of Aurora at the same time.
"Yes, Master, they are indeed very strong monsters. But there is one thing they lack..." Aurora muttered lifting one of her eyebrows.
"... Intelligence," Dhruv added, looking at her.
With a smile, Aurora spoke, "Indeed, Master. They lack intelligence."
With a smirk, she added, "You see, Master, they are hard to beat... but hiding from them isn’t that hard. We can’t beat them one-on-one, but we can always hide."
’Yeah! That makes sense... if you can’t win, you just have to escape.’ Dhruv added this, hoping to increase his own survival chances.
"And taking advantage of this trait, our ancestors began building settlements surrounded by walls. Walls as thick as a house. And after creating a stronghold, they have enough time to consider everything."
"With enough people and time in their hands, they began making plans to get rid of frostbeast from the face of Cryonix. Instead of waiting they decided to attack the monster on their own."
Of course, they weren’t fighting fairly..." Aurora added a chuckle escaping her lips.
’Wow! Now this is some good thinking. Not fighting fairly... nice one pops’ Dhruv thought, praising her ancestors.
"Time passed, and with the ever-increasing number of refugees, they began to have an advantage over the Frostbeasts. Decades passed, and a time came when the warriors on both sides had enough of the skirmishes... in the end, our ancestors declared war."
Aurora paused, a strange smile appearing on her face.
"The War of Frosts continued for three decades, but in the end, our ancestors emerged victorious. We won the war, but unfortunately, the Frostbeasts didn’t go extinct. They were still there, just hiding in the far corners of Cryonix."
’Well, it is a cool story, but what does this have to do with her situation?’ Even though he was impressed, he couldn’t understand her reason for telling him the story.
"...I know it looks like I’m just bickering, but it will make sense, Master," she muttered, looking at his reaction.
"Of course..." Dhruv coughed.
"So... you see, even though we have won the war the Frostbeasts were still alive. It wasn’t a hidden fact either... everyone knows of this."
" And because of this common knowledge, a prophecy began circulating among the people of Crystallce..."
Looking toward Dhruv she asked, "Can you guess what the prophecy would be, Master?"
"No... I can’t," Dhruv surrendered, shaking his head.
