461 Chapter 461 - Too much honesty is maybe not so grea (1/2)

I'm a little nervous. What's the story going to be? No matter what I don't think it's going to be something I like. Don't keep me in suspense, let me hear the damage. Just how bad are things going to be. The three guards remain perfectly still during this time, watchful and poised they don't miss a single movement I make. The three older shapers are a little more mobile, but not much. I get the feeling that these Golgari are a little more attached to stone than just having different varieties of it for skin. They are unusually still when they don't have to be moving, as if becoming a rock themselves.

[You know the purpose of our Cult?]

[Absolutely. You desire for a twentieth ancient to take its place amongst the other nineteen. Something about 'closing the circle' or some such.]

She nods her head in agreement.

[That is correct. We seek to empower a monster in order than it may come to dominate the lower Strata and achieve a tier of evolution on par with the existing ancients.]

I'm a little surprised to hear that.

[Do you actually know what tier the ancients are?] The theoretical maximum tier? I wonder how high it is! Ten? TWENTY?!

[No, we don't.]

Dang.

[To our knowledge there have been only two conversations between the sapient races of the surface and the ancients. During the Cataclysm we now refer to as the 'Time of Rending', the mana level in the Dungeon rose to unprecedented heights. When the tunnels connected to the surface, mana from the centre of Pangera flooded the skies, followed a tidal wave of monsters that nearly washed away any remnant of civilisation on this world.]

Yikes.

[Sounds pretty bad. How long ago was this?]

[More than two thousand years ago. When the mana reached its peak, the ancients themselves were able to come to the surface for a time, devastating all that they found. Tales of the destruction they wrought are legend to this day. Scholars debate the history of these events, for not much that was written during that time survives today, but we do not believe the ancients sought to particularly destroy the surface world. In our Cult we are told that they devoured monsters more readily than they did us.]

[Well why not? That's how monsters get stronger after all.]

[The ancients cannot evolve, nor can they level up. This we believe to be true. So why consume so much? Could it be that they sought to help rather than hinder?]

Giant monsters turn up and eat everything and these people think they were trying to be helpful?! Crazy talk.

[Sure…] I lamely agree.

[During this time, two conversations took place. The one you spoke to before spoke of the 'Red Truth'. This is the name given to the knowledge that was pa.s.sed on from a dialogue between a powerful Kaarmodo Wizard and Arconidem, who rose under their lands. For us, it was Yarrum, the Eternal Worm. A Shaper by the name of Irrin Stelix communed with the great worm before founding the Cult of the Worm in secret.]

[So… what did they say? The ancients, I mean.]

All three of them snap their attention to me.

[That we will not share,] the words are sharp, cutting.

[Sure, sure. No need to get stressed!]