Chapter 534: The Dormant Calamity

The atmosphere in the hall became heavy, and no one spoke immediately.

Kain’s eyes remained fixed on the floor, Lian could understand what phrase his mind was stuck on.

The Dormant Calamity.

But his own mind was somewhere else.

Nameless in the Father’s records, without chains in the threads of fate, the power of monsters, and for a moment, when he heard the part about the heart becoming complete, the Ruin Heart came to his mind.

Other than that heart, what other heart needed to become complete?

He had a very bad feeling that this prophecy was actually talking about all of his secrets, or was it just paranoia?

Although he strongly doubted it was only that.

Lian stopped himself there, he still did not have enough information, but in any case, he had a very bad feeling about Region One and immediately placed their threat level at the highest possible level.

"What exactly is the Dormant Calamity?"

Kain finally raised his head.

"That is one of the things even we do not agree about."

Orlian had no answer to this question.

"That helped a lot."

The Child of Light frowned.

"Prophecies are not written with explanations."

This time Elara answered, her tone was calm, but the same coldness as before was still there.

Kain looked at her.

"You seem to be a big fan of this prophecy."

"I am not a fan of it.

I take it seriously."

The girl said without changing her expression, and her eyes rested on Lian for a moment.

Lian said nothing, this time he was sure, the girl did not have a problem with him as a person, she had a problem with what he might represent.

After a few moments, Orlian turned his eyes toward his daughter.

"Elara."

The girl stood straight.

"Yes?"

"Prepare the Child of Light for the ceremony."

"What ceremony?"

Kain frowned almost immediately.

"The Return of Light Ceremony, the people need to know that the Child of Light has finally arrived."

Elara gave him all of her attention.

"Can we just make an announcement?"

"No."

"Very well.

At least are you coming?"

Kain looked at Lian.

He wanted to say something, but the Lord spoke for him.

"I still have some things to discuss with your friend."

The Child of Light nodded, and then left with the girl.

The atmosphere changed at that exact moment.

Orlian was no longer smiling.

The calm expression of a ruler was still there, but the small amount of warmth that had been visible in his behavior when Kain was present had disappeared.

Lian remained standing there.

The Lord only looked at him for several seconds, the silence lasted long enough to make it clear that it was intentional.

Then he said.

"No matter where I am in this region, I know this smell."

"What smell?"

Lian’s eyebrows slightly came together.

The ruler of Region Three looked directly into his eyes.

"Why do you smell like the Demon Of Eclipse?"

For a fraction of a second, the young Vorhelm’s mind stopped on that sentence.

Not because Orlian knew the name of the Demon Of Eclipse, that was normal, Silent Light was part of the history of Region Three.

But a smell?

Someone could not recognize the smell of a Demon just by reading a book.

"You know the Demon Of Eclipse?"

Orlian did not answer immediately, he turned back toward the window and looked at his own city for several seconds.

When he spoke again, his voice was slightly lower.

"I am the only human who survived that day."

Lian’s eyes remained fixed on his face, someone had actually managed to survive a Demon?

"When Silent Light fell, I was still a child."

Several priests realized that the city’s defense was going to break, so they picked up the child and moved through the tunnels beneath the sanctuary.

The first one died before leaving the city, the second one died several hours later, the Eclipse Energy destroyed the structures of their bodies from the inside.

The third priest took him to the only teleportation artifact they had left, something that could only take one person away from that city.

And he died right there, but the child was saved.

Orlian pulled his eyes away from the window.

"What remained on their clothes, on their skin, and even inside their blood...that smell can never be forgotten."

He was talking about the Eclipse Essence of that Demon.

Now his eyes were on Lian again.

"So I will ask again, Why do you smell like that Demon?"

He stayed silent for a few seconds, there was no reason to create a complete lie.

In fact, the truth was part of the best cover.

"When I helped Kain free the Sphere Of Witness, we realized that Eclipse Essence was trapped inside its structure."

Orlian showed no reaction.

But Lian continued.

"The Sphere could not become fully active until that corruption was removed.

I separated the black part from it, maybe that is why I smell like it."

Everything was true, he simply did not tell the rest.

The Lord looked at him for a long time, as if he was trying to see through him, as if he was trying to see inside him.

In the end, he calmly said.

"I see."

It seemed that he had not been able to find any lie in his words.

The young Vorhelm gave a small mocking smile inside his heart, because he had not lied, he had simply not told him everything.

The conversation naturally returned to the Demon Of Eclipse.

"That was one of the main reasons your world fell?" Lian asked.

Orlian let out a very short sigh.

"Yes, more precisely, the reason our world fell was because of very special creatures like that Demon Of Eclipse, for a long time, we did not have a name for them, until we learned that they were called Demons."

"Many people who live in this region today, when they hear the word Demon, only think about power.

Because they have never seen one up close."

"Power is not the worst part about them, they were not very different from us humans except for a few small physical differences, and in terms of intelligence, they were even above us."

"If the Seven Divines had not built the shelters, I do not think even one human civilization would have survived in this world today."

He paused for a moment.

"It was not only humans, there were other intelligent races too, some of them no longer exist today."

Lian slowly nodded, he knew about Demons very well, and the Awakened Federation had managed to discover a lot of information about them during the past 250 years.

There had also been many traces of Demons in the former Ruined Realms, and sometimes even important information about them was found.

For example, the Federation had discovered that there were exactly 72 Demons, and their number was not infinite.

Of course, their actual number should be lower now because Awakened had managed to hunt down several of them over the years.

He did not know why, but fortunately, Demons did not work together as a group, because otherwise, even a few dozen creatures with the power of the Demon Of Eclipse would have been more than enough to destroy a world.

Silence remained for a few moments.

Then Lian asked his main question.

"One more thing, before that Region Six commander died, he thought I was the Dormant Calamity."

Orlian’s expression changed slightly.

"I want to know why."

The Lord did not answer directly, he walked toward the table beside the hall and ran his finger over one of the reports placed on it.

"In the report the priest wrote for me, you fought a Leviathan that used Corrupted Light."

"That is right."

"Light that had been changed by Eclipse Essence."

"Yes."

Orlian now looked directly at him.

"And after that monster died, my priest saw you use the same type of Corrupted Light and kill the Region Six commander and his people."

Lian slowly nodded.

Now he understood.

The Lord repeated part of the prophecy.

"The Calamity will not come with one face, what exists within the souls of monsters will echo within him after their fall."

The air became heavy for a moment, and Orlian asked.

"Do you know how many interpretations there are for this sentence?"

"No."

"More than it is worth counting."

The man stood beside the table.

"Some say it means that the Dormant Calamity has several forms.Some say it means several souls or several different bodies."

He paused.

"But one of the oldest interpretations is that the Dormant Calamity can use the power of the monsters that it defeated along, in some form, for itself."