When Ronin heard the word ‘Abyssal’, the image of that great big eye-like pit staring back at him returned.

Even the mere memory of it has a pull to him, calling out to him to do vile and murderous things.

He surpressed it by clawing at his own skin. This was not the right time to be vile.

He was not going to be like one of those idiot villains Min Cheng faced that only knows how to cause havoc and attack, not think things through.

He was still in the body of a weak Coal kid after all. Unless he figures out how to be Obsidian once more, trying to be a homicidal psychopathic monster would be more suicidal than jumping off to a cliff with sharks waiting below.

“I brought out a book about it.” Belladonna showed the book she was carrying earlier. “Freja wanted to see the accuracy of the details recorded here.”

Ronin broke away from his reverie when he heard this. What were they talking about again? Right…

“The War of Gods.” Ronin read the title of the thick old tome in fromt of him. “I have read this already from cover to cover. It tells the details of how the gods of the Celestus Realm and the Abyssal Realm fought for many eons for the fate of Magecian humans.”

“That is right, my boy.” Freja nodded. “Whether humans must be slaves and source for sustenance, like food…. Or whether they would be treated like loyal followers that we must supply the needs to.”_.

‘Fascist vs pacifist.’ Ronin immediately thought in his head.

Freja took the book called ‘War of Gods’ and flipped the pages quickly without moving her hands, just staring at it with her deep-set purple eyes. They glow and seemed to even have a swirling pattern within them just like her skin, and soon, she finished scanning the contents of the book.

“Huh. Interesting prose. Some exaggerations and creative interpretations….. But overall, a commendable job to the author.” She pushed the book back to Belladonna.

“Though I wish they wouldn’t have emphasized on how graceful as a swan my fighting style is or how much the gods’ hair were flowing onto the air like ocean waves.”

“Is it accurate?” That was what the Coal boy only wondered about.

The Goddess nodded and set down her cup. “It is. But it was missing one thing.”

“What was life before the war… And what happened after?”

She waved her fingers and…

A small image made of snow appeared inside this pretty bedroom of Belladonna Zafeiri. It was the image of Magecia.

“Ohhh, you’re going to love this part, brother!” Belladonna said excitedly. “Keep your eyes peeled at all times and listen well!”

Ronin did keep his eyes peeled and waited.

Freja gestured to her snow image like a lecturer. “As you can see from this small map that I made, our Magecia looks like the shape of a kite divided into three.”

“The upper part was almost symmetrical with four sides, and the remaining two parts were divided in half equally. The upper part is like a—“

“Diamond within a diamond.” Ronin said. “And that upper part is both the Celestus Realm and the Abyssal Realm under it.”

“Sharp observation. The last remaining two were the Elementi and Mecha Realm. Before, that was the only place humans can live in.”

She then made the image of humans living around on farms, fishing, and just generally living normally like Earth humans.

“Until the God of Creation and Fire gave them Flame.”

Ronin of course knew this god very well. “The only Diamond God, who no longer exists. His name was still unknown, so people refer to him as Diamant.”

“And the gender too, how the Diamond God likes to present among humans.” Freja corrected.

“She could be a woman, both or neither. Diamant is different from us all as well, more like an entity than a person. So it is more correct to refer to Diamant as…..”

“It.” Ronin understood.

‘Just like Kai.’ He thought.

“From Flame, heroes were born. But heroes against who?” She paused, waiting for Ronin to guess again.

And the boy supplied. “The monsters from the Abyssal Realm.”

Belladonna frowned. “I have always wondered why Diamant would create monsters alongside humans, and Abyssal gods alongside Celestus gods.”

“For balance, child. A stone could not metamorphize with fire alone, it needs to cool down. At the same time, the world would be stagnant if there was only beauty and peace. There would be no changes.”

“I have a more scientific theory.” Ronin raised his hand.

“Pray tell, clever boy.” Freja waited and listened.

“Humans repopulate rapidly. Soon, they would crowd Magecia, and Diamant would have to expand it again and again. Create and create, eventually being tired of it all. And so, destructive creatures are needed to keep their population even to the distribution of the land, or at least as even as it could.”

Freja seemed to genuinely consider this as well. “That seems likely as well. But the long and short of it, Diamant had always meant for both Abyssal and Celestus gods to exist. Celestus for the creatures of light to worship, and Abyssal for the creatures of darkness.”

“But one Abyssal god had enough. He wanted to take over all of mankind, despising heroes for slaughtering monsters that were attacking humans as their food.” She made a swirl that turned and turned until eventually…

It turned into the shape of a man with long hair, long robes… and a whip by his side.

“His heart was made of pure Obsidian. The Abyssal God of Darkness and Death. Fausforus.”

Ronin felt an ache in his heart for seeing this image, the same electric ache that he felt when he first had his Flame.

Fausforus. It started to mean many things to him. As he closed his eyes, he knew exactly what his rune looks like.

A diamond turned horizontally, with a dot in the middle, resembling the shape of an eye.

And that could be one of its meanings. ‘Evil Eye’, ‘bringing the darkness of the world to light’, ‘the revelation of the inevitable doom and dread one would face’.

And of course, ‘The End’.

Ding!

[Congratulations, you have received a massive level upgrade.

Level 5 >>>>> Level 10 ]