Naturally before Shirel left, she had to sign her own contract, but besides that she was now free to do as she liked unless her presence was needed for the next conversation that was about to take place.
Now that Armando was part of the alliance the girls could relax a bit as well, but none of them left the room, because they were curious about what Daimon had to say.
For Mellie and the other girls that are native of Neptune, the fact that they now were working with one of the leaders of the Skelefiends was gave them a strange sensation.
Their races… no, their seas have been in conflict for so much time that at this point no one knew what was the reason of why, the bad blood between them simply increased too much for any of the parts to take a step back to end it.
The only reason as to why in recent years things were relatively peaceful, is because at Vincent's generation and the nearby ones, the four seas suffered too many casualties, resulting in the current status quo.
Each sea had two beings that stood at the top of the pyramid, in other words, two Maximum Stellar ranks, with the exception of the Maelstrom Sea which no one knew what horrors its waters contained.
Leaving that aside, Daimon was now interested in the divisions the old Skelefiend mentioned, because it's the first time he hears the term "Bone" and "Flesh" lineages, though it is easy to imagine why they are called like that, what interested him is something else.
"Old man, have these divisions in the Skelefiend race always existed?", he already learned the public information about the four seas, which Annete provided in the form of a book.
But each sea had its own history, which was hidden to the public, when the queen interrogated Shirel she didn't know too much things, but she did mention that probably only the elders of the "council" which are led by her father, should have privileged information as they are the ones that have lived the most, Horrorclaw might be stronger than them with the exception of Armando, but he is younger than them.
Armando wanted to question something too, but he realized that as strange at it seems for a mere Early-stage Mortal realm youth, to be in a leading position in an alliance that now had three Maximum Stellar ranks, he was respected by all the presents, including Aurora and Thea.
Not to mention that according to Aurora, he was the one who frustrated Horrorclaw's plan, so he put aside ranks and seniority and answered honestly, but before that he took out a black worn-out book from his storage ring.
Daimon's eyes glowed behind his mask the moment he saw the book, but he didn't interrupt the old man.
"This is the personal record that the representatives of Snakele had passed down since ancient times, since you have the Matriarch of the Light Palace as your ally, I dare to assume you are aware of the origin of the four seas, in other words the time when the hero of the Mermen Sea and the other three originators lived", said the old man.
Daimon nodded, everything seemed to have started with the arrival of those guys, he could at least confirm that the hero was a system user, but the information regarding the other three wasn't enough to confirm the same.
Aurora's ancestor didn't mention anything about it in the diary she left, but it could be that she couldn't, not that she didn't know about it, unfortunately there is no way to confirm it, since there is too little information available from that time.
Leaving the Elemental Sea aside, he could not fill in some holes in the history with Armando's help, there was also the White's records, in which there should be the last piece of the history which Daimon is lacking, but that could be left for later.
"According to the previous representatives, prior to the ancient war we only were gifted with the capacity to use mana, it was the "Sword" of Snakele the one who brought the power of knights to our side and the first knight in the history of our race".
"In our history, the first knight saw that our race was lacking in comparison with the hero from the Mermen Sea and he asked Snakele to grant us the power of knights, the goddess did so, but only the descendants of the first knight were blessed with the change of being a knight".
"No one knows how many years did the war lasted, but it was enough for the first knight to have children with the most prominent families of back then, among which my Spokel family outstood as the strongest and the first one to support the first knight, Horrorclaw's family was also one of them and there was a third one which was practically annihilated during the last battle".
"Anyway, to answer your question, previous to what I mentioned happening, our race was called "White Walker", because of our unusual pale skin and these characteristic eyes of ours that only appear after we reach the Stellar rank", said the old man as he pointed at himself before continuing.
"But after the first knight and his direct descendants appeared, and since they were the ones who contributed the most, the name of our race was changed to the title that they were given due to their high strength which was "Skelefiend", on their honor".
"After the war came to an abrupt end, out of all the ones who got to meet the first knight personally, only my ancestor and Horrorclaw's one survived, my family has never been able to produce members of the Bone lineage for some reason, so Horrorclaw's family was given the authority over them, while we were in charge of the Flesh lineage, that is the origin of those terms".
"Unfortunately, unlike the hero of the Mermen Sea, there are no descriptions of how the first knight looked, but the Bone lineage which supposedly descend from him have one thing in common and that is, the fact that they only develop flesh as they become stronger, getting a full body after reaching the Stellar rank".
Daimon raised an eyebrow, Armando's race looked human-like, besides their extremely pale skin and white eyes, so he was weirded at the fact that they didn't find the Skelefiends unappealing to the eyes.
'I guess every race had their own sense of beauty', he thought before saying.
"I have good and bad news for you".
The old man frowned but he didn't say anything, waiting to hear what the silver haired youth had to say.
"First the bad news, the so called first knight was either a human or a member of some race that wasn't native of Neptune, and the Bone lineage has no ties to the deity you guys adore, which if my guess is right, already existed before the appearance of that guy, am I right?".
Armando looked confuse for a second, but he nodded in response.
"Yes, Snakele was our deity even before the appearance of the first knight, we were at war prior to that too, and he appeared when we needed him the most".
Daimon chuckled.
'Of course, he did, because he was a damn system user with a mission', he thought.
"Continuing with the bad news, you guys were played by him, the so-called Bone lineage comes from a race called… Nethereals", said Daimon, which made Aurora and the others exclaim in surprise, especially Jasmine and Bell.
While Jasmine couldn't imagine herself becoming like that, Bell was worried about her daughter, Sarah on the other hand didn't seem to worry about it at all, she was just intensely gazing at Daimon like usual.
For Daimon everything connected the moment he got to know that the descendants of the first knight were the first ones that looked like what the Skelefiends are like nowadays.
Just like it happened to Bell and Jasmine's mother, the Nethereals had offspring with the natives of Neptune, Daimon knew what Jasmine was thinking so he added.
"Don't worry, you two won't become like that, there are many Nethereals and they aren't on the same side as well, so your case and this one, are completely different, otherwise more half Nethereals would have appeared in the Elemental Sea".
Aurora let out a sigh of relief while Jasmine and Bell nodded, what Daimon said made sense, unlike the Bone Sea in which a whole new race was created, in their case only they were born, and it was too recent to be related too.
"Nethereals?", the confused voice of Armanado, made Daimon continue with what he was saying, he only mentioned that term before explaining to help Jasmine and the others calm down.
"Yeah, they are the ones we are fighting against, a mysterious race which wants to destroy Neptune, and that tried to infiltrate the Elemental Sea, the bad news is that they accomplished their goal in the Bone Sea", Daimon then drew the Nethereal he found in the black stone corridor, the one which reminded him of a Skelefiend with the difference that it was bigger and it looked way more bizarre than them.
He then showed the draw to Armando whose eyes widened in shock.
"T-That is a perfect illustration of how the "Skelefiends" looked, but how, I didn't mention their characteristics and no one besides me and Horrorclaw can read the ancient language!", he exclaimed.
Daimon pointed at the black worn out book before saying.
"When I was arriving at Neptune, I went through a black stone corridor which had those same characters engraved on it, also I found the thing I drew at the end of the corridor, and I killed it", he casually said.
Armando was in a lost of words right now, something Aurora understood very well, as this is the first time, she hears of this too, but she understood why Daimon didn't mention it prior to this.
He couldn't confirm if the creature he found at the black corridor was a Nethereal or not, until this very moment, so before this the thing was just a Skelefiend that somehow ended up in that place.
Armando had many questions, starting from what Daimon meant by saying "When I was arriving at Neptune", as that meant he wasn't a native, meaning he came from the outside world, which was shocking by itself.
But right now, he was more intrigued on the black corridor Daimon mentioned, as there aren't any remains with the ancient language, the only thing that has it, is the book he always keeps with himself, that's why no one else knew this language, that according to his ancestors was taught to them by Snakele.
'When the first knight appeared, he spoke in the language of the goddess, when only the three leaders of the prominent families knew about it and had previously sworn to not teach it to anyone, that's in part how he earned the trust and support of the families…', thought Armando.
Things were falling in place, an impostor had tricked them, the first knight wasn't Snakele's sword or anything like that, he knew the language as he probably was related to the Nethereals the silver haired youth mentioned, and they fell for it.
Ultimately Armando sighed feeling a headache coming his way, he just learned that their history is all a lie, as to why he didn't doubt about Daimon's words, that is because the contract stated they can't lie, naturally Daimon isn't obliged by the contract, but he wasn't lying anyway.
"What is the good news then?", asked the old man as he tried to not suffer a mental collapse, because many problems came to his mind after understanding everything that meant, that more than half of the current population of the Skalia continent was controlled by the descendants of their now enemy.
Daimon tapped his finger on the table as he gazed at Jasmine and Sarah, before saying.
"The good news is that your family wasn't chosen to become those guys's guinea pig, probably they couldn't overwrite your race, due to your strong lineage concentration, in exchange Horrorclaw's family were weaker so they were easier to alter".
Armando indeed felt a bit better after listening to that, at the very least his family was safe from the external influence.
Daimon didn't know why the Nethereals wanted to mix their race with the natives of Neptune, but he could tell that Jasmine and Bell were the culmination of that project, because they weren't altered despite being half Nethereals.
That could also be the reason as to why Horroclaw and the pirated tried to kidnap them, because the Skelefiends or more accurately the members of the Bone lineage were failures, that were created only to be used as soldiers, in other words, cannon fodder.
'Now the question is, why did they want to kidnap Mellie too, her father for sure isn't a Nethereal, and her mother isn't too, also Rita has told me she isn't like Jasmine whose Nethereal lineage is dormant', thought Daimon.
At first, he thought Mellie's mother might have been a Nethereal, considering her coffin was filled with just water that contained laws, the Nethereals turn into that black mist when their fake bodies die so that the black sphere can escape.
But Rita who after meeting Sarah could tell Jasmine was also a half Nethereal, affirmed that Mellie wasn't like that, she was 100% a member of the Mermen races, what Rita could tell is that she and the queen aren't similar to any of the other mermen Daimon has met, and just half similar to their father, so the race of their mother remained a mystery for now.
"And what do we do now, if more than half of the Skalia continent will be controlled by those bastards", said Armando, not all the members of the Bone lineage were warriors, there were regular people who worked in the farms, or other non-combatant professions.
Just thinking on having to kill them all, made him reluctant, Daimon knew this was going to happen since the moment Shirel explained the nature of her father, but this reaction was also within his calculations.
"Well, their fate depends on you, I won't leave a possible threat alone so that they can come and stab me in the back, first of all we need to make things in the shadows to nor alert either Horrorclaw, the guy behind him or the Nethereals, which are the ones we know are participating on this".
"Which lead us to my first goal here, which is forcing the branch of Black Wave in this sea into submission, call your most influential subordinates here, they will join the alliance, or die, depending on whether they are enemies in disguise or not, after that, I'll take care of Black Wave, while you look for the ones who burned down Snakele's statue", said Daimon.
Of course, he didn't come here without knowing what his next steps will be, Aurora was positively surprised to see Daimon was able to think so far ahead, the silver haired youth was merciless against enemies, but he wasn't reckless at all, even with the power of three Maximum Stellar ranked at his disposition, his actions were well-thought.
'I guess little Jas has a better eye for men than me and Jessica…', thought Aurora as she inwardly sighed.
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