We made a contract...
From that wall painting, they only saw the god helping humans build the Ascension Altar. It looked like pure help with no strings attached.
But if it's a contract, that means it's not just one-sided aid.
"That god is called the Twilight Star Spirit. He told us we could gain huge power through this Ascension Altar—a power that would keep anyone from hurting us. We used the altar to change our life forms into what we are now, and we easily beat the armies chasing us."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"If that's all it was, it would have been great back then, but... after we got that power, we started feeling more and more restless inside, quicker to anger. We, who had shared hardships together, ended up fighting each other over small things!"
Number One held back his anger as he spoke. "In the end, huge splits formed among us. Fighting broke out because of those splits. Nearly half of us didn't die in the war or from being hunted by armies, but at the hands of our own people!"
"Was it that sun disk that caused it?" Rayleigh asked without thinking.
The golden disk brings to mind something holy, while the black one links to evil. If the disk was golden when it first gave them power, turning black now proves it's been tainted.
"You could say that, and haven't you noticed...?" Number One pointed at the figures on the wall. "This is your second lap around, right? The people inside... they're different from the ones you saw the first time, aren't they?"
?!
Number One's words made Roger and Rayleigh's pupils shrink. Of course they hadn't noticed the changes in the wall painting figures, because the overall story hadn't shifted. Who would pay attention to every single person changing?
But because of what Number One said, Roger and Rayleigh couldn't help but look at the painting seriously again. They compared it to what they remembered from the first time, and sure enough, they spotted the differences!
The story was the same, but every person was different from before!
Noticing the change in their expressions, Number One added,
"What happened to us has repeated itself countless times in history. That's why the outside of this altar is called 'the great serpent devouring its tail, the cycle of fate.' Every lap you take changes the content of the wall paintings. Each change marks one more time this has happened."
"So far, I've walked more than a hundred laps around the Ascension Altar, but I still haven't found the end. It's like it goes on forever, never repeating."
"It actually... turned out like this." Roger came to understand from the repeating yet different wall paintings. He frowned and said, "What exactly is going on here?"
"The truth is, that Twilight Star Spirit isn't a god—it's a demon." Number One took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. He nodded, confirming Rayleigh's guess, and said,
"The Ascension Altar isn't for gaining the power of a heavenly god. It's for turning people into demons. And once you become a demon, when someone dies, their soul returns to this disk and taints it black."
"When the black turns back to gold, it means everyone who made a contract with the Twilight Star Spirit from before is dead. That ends one cycle, one set of wall paintings, and the next one starts over."
"And those fallen demon souls... who knows where they end up? Probably swallowed up by that demon called the Twilight Star Spirit."
"So you're staying here to keep others from using the Ascension Altar again?" Roger asked.
"You could say that, but actually, we only figured out the true nature of the Twilight Star Spirit's scheme because we got something left behind by an old tribe—or demons—called the 'Pandora's Box.' With that box, we could talk to a powerful demon lord."
Number One kept walking forward as he spoke. "He told us the truth about the Twilight Star Spirit and the Ascension Altar, but in exchange, we had to free him from the depths of hell. My people agreed, and under the demon's corruption, they grew even crazier."
"I don't want demons back in this world. I told the others several times, but no one listened to me in the end. I had no choice but to leave the group and come to this Ascension Altar, so no one else could use its evil power."
"It's turned out like this..." Roger said in a low voice. "And now, your people have successfully summoned that demon?"
That demon...
He's very strong, but what does he have to do with the Twilight Star Spirit? He knows the truth about the Ascension Altar and wants to destroy it. Is he another victim of it?
Doubts swirled in Roger's mind, while Number One went on. "It's probably just one last step away, but if he comes, that's actually a good thing. At least he can truly destroy this so-called Ascension Altar."
"Why don't you destroy this place yourself?" Roger remembered Number One saying he'd prepared traps ahead of time to blow up the Ascension Altar.
"If the Ascension Altar is destroyed, the dark demon souls stored inside will be released, causing huge disaster. That's something I'd only do as a last resort."
By now, Number One had led them full circle, and when Roger looked at the first painting again, he saw the figures had changed once more.
This was also the effect of the Shikon Jewel shard—altering some wall painting content wasn't hard at all.
So Roger kept asking, "That demon Aatrox... does he have any connection to the Twilight Star Spirit? Why does he want to destroy this place?"
Number One shook his head. He stopped and looked again at the black disk, saying with some emotion, "We don't know. Aatrox isn't a demon you can talk to normally. Most of the time, he's full of hate for everything in the world."
"So I only have some guesses. Do you want to hear them?"
"Telling me won't cost you anything." Roger grinned. "I love hearing stories from others!"
"A long time ago, in the demon world, there were eight great demons—the strongest of them all. Aatrox was one. But Aatrox didn't just wipe out humans. More often, he went on killing sprees in the demon world, constantly attacking other demon lords' territories."
Number One said calmly, "I suspect the Twilight Star Spirit is one of the eight great demons too. Aatrox is a demon he created with the Ascension Altar, so that's why he has some obsession with the Twilight Star Spirit..."
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