The recording of the Ancient Elf architect continued unabated even as its listeners attempted to process its information. Echadir put a hand to his face as he grumbled with realization, "Damn it all, I forgot one more. There are, in fact, five total keystones, not four. Atlas Pillar is the most recent of the five, made by mortals. Yggdrasil and the World Core make up two of the three original keystones. The third original keystone is, in fact, the divine power that a deity possesses. As long as an Andorian deity exists, that keystone will as well. The fifth and final keystone is the only one that came from before Andor Plane was born. I cannot disclose its information per the High Priestess's orders despite it being the only one of the five keystones that even Krazius fears. Suffice it to say that the fifth keystone is a living being that we Ancient Elves have termed 'Watcher' or 'Guardian', as that is its role."
"Now that I've managed to correct my scattered train of thought, back to what I'm supposed to be recording. With the construction of Atlas Pillar, we achieved one of the goals that we considered vital to our race's survival. We Ancient Elves are, in fact, refugees of a plane conquered by Krazius some millennia ago. Of those that escaped, the High Priestess is the only one from the original generation of refugees. In order to guide our race, she gave herself both a curse and a blessing: she tied her soul's existence to that of our race, causing her to reincarnate at the end of her lifespan ceaselessly until her mission is complete." Echadir sighed, "Five thousand years for any mortal is enough to break them, but our High Priestess chose to bear it all for her people..." He shook his head slightly, "Doing it again, going off track. Bloody hell, Echadir, you're going mad... Thanks to our High Priestess and the Atlas Pillar, Andor's world will accepted us as 'immigrant citizens' and allowed us the same privileges as the natives in return for our assistance in protecting it."
"Once Atlas Pillar and Skyhaven Fortress were completed, we followed our High Priestess's commands, migrating all but a fraction of our population what was once an enormous peninsular region on the west coast of the Andor continent. With the aid of Andor's world will, countless mages and the High Priestess, we separated the peninsula from the continent and opened a pocket dimension that would be our new home. By the time this recording will have been found, it's likely that at least three generations of Ancient Elves will have occurred, and I am likely dead. However, know this, children of Andor, we Ancient Elves are not gone. We are only biding our time, waiting for the perfect chance to strike down our greatest foe." Echadir's fists balled as he gained a ferocious expression, "I hope that you, children, are what our High Priestess foresaw, but I must give you my own, rather minor, aid. Within Atlas Pillar's library, which I left accessible via key, there is a mosaic of one of my kind. Beneath it is an inscription in our language, though unimportant. The inscription is actually a seal to open a keyhole. Place the Pillar's key into the hole and it will reactivate its sealed ability to unlock the rest of the Pillar. From there, go to the top floor. You'll know what to do next when you get there."
With a proud grin, the Ancient Elf man laughed, "Well, that concludes my message. Once again, I am Echadir, the architect of Atlas Pillar and Skyhaven Fortress. Thank you for listening to my recording and, from the bottom of my heart, good luck." Then the recording ended, as did the memory.
As silence enveloped the table, Luca spoke up, "In my original experience, the Pillar's key and its bearer ended up falling into a spatial rift during a heightened and turbulent defensive siege against the demons, not one year later, making the use of Atlas Pillar's secrets mostly impossible. With the Outlanders, my former self included, that disadvantage was evened out, but that disadvantage has returned thanks to the Demon Emperor, or rather, Demon God Krazius's interference. As for what the Pillar's secrets are, nobody knows, as they disappeared with the key. The greatest speculation that came around was that Atlas Pillar was the way to reach the sealed-off Ancient Elves, who could have assisted us in protecting Andor, but we lost our chance. Hopefully, with my memories of what is essentially the original timeline of the future, we can move early and prevent such great loss. Skyhaven was built to hold almost a quarter of Andor's population and still have enough space left over to support it. There are even pocket dimensions specifically for agriculture. The mountain itself is also chock full of ore veins that, via the world will, can theoretically last forever. The problem is that it hasn't been operational for centuries, so many of those that escape to its sanctuary will starve."
For a while, after the Dragonborn lad spoke his piece, no words were spoken, as those present had delved deeply into contemplation. Norani experienced the hardest hit, as she had been enraged by the lack of assistance from the Ancient Elves, and rightfully so after her experience. However, knowing that a legendary five-thousand-year-old planeswalker that had already experienced her homeworld being annihilated had prophecised Andor's future with unerring accuracy after having bound her soul to her people, she felt that she was no longer worthy of her status as a Pseudo-Sage or a war hero. Compared to the High Priestess of the Ancient Elves, she felt rather mediocre by comparison. After all, Norani had only lived for a fifth of the legendary Ancient Elf's existence in Andor alone, not to mention her homeworld still existed.
Luca shifted in place before speaking once more, "Most of the rest of my memories aren't as important, as it went about as I had said before. Eventually, fallen deities gave their powers to mortals, making them into powerful heroes that turned the tides of war in favour of mortals. Countless Andorians battled for the sake of the world's survival without hesitation." He then shook his head slightly, "Without the Ancient Elves, who we suspected had a true key to ending the Demon God's advance, we could not do anything more than seal him again even if we were victorious. On top of that, the Snow Elves refused to interact with us without the word of an Ancient Elf. Even when Lady Dreamwalker attempted to get involved, she was easily repelled by their guardian Pseudo-Sage, who I should add is capable of hiding his existence from other Pseudo- and true Sages."
As the legendary Dreamwalker began to experience both shock and anger at the actions of the Snow Elves via Luca's portrayal of them, the boy spoke again, "However, she did not pursue the matter after the Snow Elf Psuedo-Sage gave her a message from her son that simply said that he had failed in gaining the aid of the Snow Elves, but he was rescued and welcomed after having barely been rescued from a frosty death. With his mother's blessed genes, he still lived, and he had raised a small family with the one who had saved his life." Luca knew that the reason she had left was that she had finally found closure on her son's fate, taking a monumental weight off of her. This gave her a massive burst, pushing her up until she touched the threshold of a breakthrough into true Sagehood.