Under the calm yet tense ambiance of the Whispering Cove, Moraxor began to retell the old tale that had been passed down through generations, steeped in the trials and tribulations of his ancestors.
"Before the wrath of the Ravager," Moraxor's voice was a solemn whisper, echoing within the cove, "we were in the hundreds of millions. But once he decided that he wanted everything we had, he massacred us till our numbers were reduced to a mere fraction, a million. The only reason he didn't annihilate us and banished us was to satiate his own malicious delight," Moraxor's hands were clenched as even now his veins would rumble whenever he remembered this tragic and cruel tale from history.
Rowena and Asher exchanged glances but didn't interrupt Moraxor. There was no point in arguing which history was wrong and right in a meeting like this.
Moraxor's expression turned solemn as he continued, "Yet, my ancestors realized the hard way that their suffering had far from ended once they were banished and trapped in the Forbidden Waters, where they couldn't even do any quests to strengthen themselves nor get any resources, especially life crystals."
Asher and Rowena keenly listened as his words painted a vivid, horrifying picture of a shadowed world filled with insatiable creatures of the abyss, the Cursed Wraiths, that feasted on their despair and dwindling population.
The once mighty Umbralfiends, unaccustomed to the lightless depths of the Forbidden Waters, found themselves on the brink of extinction within a century or two, which was far lesser than what Asher and Rowena expected.
It seemed as if the Cursed Wraiths were surely quite terrifying to corner an entire race.
They had never seen them since the Cursed Wraiths don't leave the Forbidden Waters, but the ancient tales they knew were enough to know that these waters came to be named so because of these creatures that only know blood and death.
This was the very reason why since the birth of the Bloodburn Kingdom, nobody dared to venture deep into the seas where the waters were not only chaotic but something far danger lived beneath those waters.
Moraxor sighed as he continued, "In their desperate fight for survival, the experts among them decided to split, sending their most powerful off in search of safe refuge. Almost all of them perished, never to be heard of again," Moraxor said, his voice heavy with shared sorrow, "But one among us found something extraordinary..."
Asher, captivated by the story, leaned forward in anticipation, his gaze intently focused on Moraxor, "What did your ancestor find?" he queried, a palpable wave of intrigue radiating off him.
"My ancestor stumbled upon a cave of unfathomable darkness, and in that cave…he found the last remnants of...two Devils, the very transcendental beings who keep our realm alive, " Moraxor said as his eyes rippled.
"You can't be serious…" Asher mumbled with a skeptical look while Rowena raised her brows as her gaze kept flickering, her mind racing with thoughts.
Moraxor gave a blank stare at Asher to show that he wasn't spouting nonsense, making Asher shake his head and say, "I know Devils and Angels exist, but they never physically show themselves in our realm. Even the Chamber of Hell only manifests a part of their spirit and not their true selves. So what made your ancestor think two Devils were physically buried there?"
Asher also knew the folktales and stories in this realm talk about Devils appearing here in ancient times, but there was never any proof.
He felt that, for some reason, they just thought it was beneath them to appear here.
Moraxor didn't take offense that Asher was finding this as nonsense. Still, he answered, "Because there were no mortal remains in that tomb," Moraxor began, his voice resonating through the cavernous chamber, "As per my ancestor, the vestiges of an ancient, powerful presence clung to the very air within the cavern. The echo of souls long passed held the cave in an ethereal grip."
Moraxor's eyes became distant, the dim light of the chamber flickering in their depths, "The spectral remains whispered a greeting to our ancestor, acknowledging his arrival as if it had been foreseen. They spoke of their Master who had patiently waited, affirming that their life essence would serve as a beacon to guide us through the darkness. It's like they sacrificed whatever was left of them so that we could survive" he continued, his words lingering in the air, imbued with a sense of sadness, awe and mysticism.
A heavy pause hung in the room as Asher and Rowena digested the profound revelation, their gazes fixed on Moraxor with unmasked intrigue.
"They didn't say anything anymore and were forever gone. Our ancestor then ventured deeper into the bowels of the cave," Moraxor proceeded.
His hand waved gracefully as he conjured dark mana that took the form of a mystical fountain, to show this imagery to the two, "There, nestled in the womb of the cave, he discovered a fountain pulsating with a fluid that did not belong to our mortal world. A pool of divine essence that he named as the Elixir of the Ancients."
He paused, his gaze sharp on Asher and Rowena, "Just a single drop of this miraculous substance was enough to sustain him for years, to embolden his strength beyond what he had ever known, and to give him the ability to see through the darkness," he said, the gravity of his words echoing around the room, a hint of awe glowing in his eyes.
"Our ancestor also learned that, for some reason, the Cursed Wraiths never approached this cave. He even tried luring one to it, but it ran away. This made him realize the place surrounding the cave would be a safe haven for us, a sign of the two Devils still protecting us," Moraxor explained further, "Hence, it was decided that this cave, this hallowed ground that held the key to our survival, would become the cornerstone of our new world. The birthplace of our resurgence."
"So this elixir sustained hundreds of thousands of your people for thousands of years?" Asher asked with a baffled look before turning to Rowena, "Is something like this possible?" Asher knew Rowena would have a deeper knowledge about the history of this realm and about Devils since he still had a lot to learn about them.
Rowena finally broke her lingering silence. A single word escaping her lips, dropped into the air like a coin in a wishing well, "A Deviar."
Asher had encountered the term before. A Deviar was an ancient item, an anomaly of sorts, wherein an object of any form harbored a mere fraction of a Devil's immense power.
Nobody knows how they exactly came to existence, while some say they came to form upon the birth of this realm or that the Devils themselves left a tiny fraction of their powers here and there to help them.
But nobody knows for sure whether any of this was true.
These mystical treasures held the capacity to endow a person with unfathomable strength, all without the pursuit of perilous quests. The human world also had its own version, named 'Radem', carrying a sliver of an Angel's power.
However, these artifacts were as scarce as they were potent, one could count the known ones on their fingers.
These powerful relics were sought after with a fervor that bordered on obsession, seen by many as a shortcut to acquiring immense power.
Their rarity only fueled the desperate yearning for them, positioning them as unparalleled treasures in the quest for power.
These did not bestow instant power - the energy within had to be absorbed gradually, and that came with the inherent risk of death.
The notion of instant power had allured many, only for them to be met with a fatal end in their attempt to harness the overwhelming energy within these objects.
The iconic Bloodburn Stone of House Drake was a well-known Deviar.
Asher's mind was drawn to Iryna's shocked face upon her discovery that Rowena had fully absorbed the power of the Bloodburn Stone in a staggeringly short span of time - an unprecedented feat.
The question that puzzled Asher was the nature of Deviars and Radems.
The energy they harbored was so minuscule that it could only be contained within one person at a time. On the demise of its possessor, the energy was believed to magically return to its source.
This must have been how Rowena was able to utilize the Bloodburn Stone after the passing of her father.
But it doesn't answer how so many Umbralfiends were able to make use of a Deviar for so many centuries, though this was the first time he was hearing one that was in the form of an 'Elixir'.
Rowena continued as she looked at Asher, "A Deviar like the one my House possess surely cannot be compared to this Elixir of the Ancients," She glanced at Moraxor as she continued with a hint of fascination in her eyes, "If what he is saying is true then this is far more powerful than just the Deviar we know. I don't know if we could even call it one since this elixir is nothing but the blood of Devils themselves. Just a drop of it could bestow great power and new abilities while the combined essence of the two let an entire race survive for thousands of years."
Asher slowly nodded with a distant gaze, feeling that the power of the Devils was truly unfathomable. Still, coming upon a tomb of two such supreme beings was just too much to process. Apparently, those two devils even had a 'Master' and he couldn't even imagine how strong this Master was.
Rowena also was finding it hard to believe that Moraxor's ancestor happened upon a tomb of Devils.
Yet she couldn't think of any other way they could have survived, no matter how shocking this was.
And this only raised a lot of questions in her head just like it did in Asher, who wondered how those two Devils ended up there and how come such powerful beings died so miserably in the abyssal darkness of the sea. Or if they were truly dead since, in their heads, it was hard to picture these divine beings could die.
However, these questions can't possibly be answered by anyone here, so they decided to leave it at that.
And, though enlightened, Asher found himself confused by yet another conundrum. Turning his questioning gaze back to Moraxor, he voiced his question, "I can see how the elixir helped you people survive against the Cursed Wraiths for so long. But how did your people survive so many centuries in this realm without life crystals? Surely, one cannot continually consume the elixir every day? That doesn't seem possible or am I mistaken?"
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