The Innkeeper

Chapter 2478: Forbidden History I

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder why you’re free and I’m not," said Bastet as she lay on the ground looking up at the countless stars within the sky above her. Beside her, Falak merely glanced at his mistress but did not comment.

The fact that she had been asleep for over a hundred and fifty years, and then just lay where she sat for another fifty years after waking up may have held the reason for why she wasn’t free! The answer was that she was just too lazy to pursue it!

The two of them would probably spend the next few centuries sitting on this hill, not doing anything at all. He didn’t mind. He had long learned a technique to put himself in stasis, allowing him to not feel the passage of time. How else was he supposed to survive? Even Demi-Dao Lords could get bored!

Just as Falak was about to enter stasis once again, a Henali guard came to call them.

"The Governor is summoning you. It is a little urgent, please make your way to him immediately," he said politely.

In truth, Bastet and Falak were political prisoners, but they’d been given a lot of freedom. At least they weren’t deprived of energy like they were back on Earth.

Falak immediately adopted his original form - that of a bull - so that his lazy mistress could sit upon his back and be carried to their destination.

Thus, a black cat and a white bull followed their guard all the way to the Governor’s mansion.

Within, they found that the mansion was not empty. In fact, the governor had summoned many other Demi-Dao Lords as well.

Falak immediately noticed what they all had in common, though. They all were born in the earliest days of the Origin realm. Heck, two of them were even surviving Mythical beings born at the creation of the Origin realm - specifically, the Golden Dragon Vaelgorith, and the Holy Doe, Aurelia.

"It seems everyone is here," said Hiran with a pleased smile as he looked at the group. The Origin realm was in the middle of its tribulation, but it would surely succeed. What they had to do now was take advantage of this opportunity to finally begin working on the true reason that the Henali had conquered the Origin realm so long ago.

"Bastet, how have you been?" asked Aurelia, her voice sweet and gentle, causing any who heard to feel utterly relaxed and at ease - anyone besides Bastet!

"Imprisoned," Bastet responded lamely. "First by my father, and then by the Henali. Sometimes I thank the stars that my mother was more of a concept rather than an actual being, otherwise I assume she would have imprisoned me too."

Instead of being surprised by Bastet’s reaction, Aurelia chuckled softly.

"It is good to see that you haven’t changed. There are so few left who can cause me to reminisce about the good old days."

Bastet looked at the Holy Doe - basically a doe with a white, glowing light all around her - with a strange look.

"You call that the good old days? Do you remember what happened to Ophelia?"

Aurelia shook her head, as if disregarding what Bastet said. She no longer mourned the losses of days so long passed - it was pointless.

"Everyone, please, pay attention," said Hiran as he clapped his hands. "I have just been informed by the Divine Ruler. The maturing process of the universe will last anywhere between five hundred years to a thousand years. That is a very small window in which we must operate.

"If we can successfully gain control of the Glatictus Necropolis, and carry out our plan, the Origin realm may become the one and only realm across the universe where true, genuine reincarnation may become a possibility. Yes, that’s right! Life after death may become a possibility within the Origin realm!"

It seemed none in the room shared the same enthusiasm as Hiran - perhaps because they didn’t believe as strongly as he that they could succeed. Hiran smirked, as if predicting that they would react like this.

"You all don’t believe it because you’ve been hearing stories about reincarnation for billions of years. Time and time again, various forces have tried to discover what makes the Origin realm unique, but have been unable to discover it - and you yourselves may have searched as well.

"You all probably feel it better than anyone else. The Origin realm is not normal. There is something different about this place. It has something to do with Glatictus Necropolis, you’ve all figured out that much, but you don’t know what exactly. Well, today, I am going to tell you all at last."

All the Demi-Dao Lords paid attention, if for no other reason than to finally understand why the Henali had been after the Origin realm for so long. They had faced no shortage of opposition in the process - they knew that better than anyone else.

The number of wars fought over control rights of the Origin realm were not few. The actual natives of the realm had long accepted that they could never take control of it, and thus they had all allied themselves with the Henali who treated them fairly.

"Long ago - long before the Origin realm even existed, and long before the Age of Dreams even began, there was a war," said Hiran as he chose his words carefully. Some things could not be revealed, but certain things needed to be explained. In truth, Hiran himself did not know much. All he knew was what the Divine Ruler had told him.

"Vaelûn, our universe, was invaded by another, dying universe known as Pentagal. Or, to be specific, certain forces within Vaelûn summoned Pentagal in the hopes of devouring it and speeding up the growth process for Vaelûn. Little did they know, their actions caused the growth of Vaelûn to slow down tremendously.

"Regardless, that doesn’t matter. Pentagal was dying anyway, and it was eventually destroyed. Vaelûn devoured much of Pentagal, but ultimately it was a new universe and could not completely process it properly, resulting in various remnants of Pentagal to be left in the universe - various treasures, laws and artifacts that do not belong to our universe, but to a universe that had already previously entered maturity."

There was a fire in Hiran’s eyes as he spoke, and enthusiasm and excitement rolled off him in waves. In fact, even the Demi-Dao Lords who were listening could not help but get infected by his excitement as their minds raced to understand the implications. Did that mean that the artifacts of Pentagal contained fully formed, fully matured laws?