Chapter 75: The Secret of the World

"What do you think I found here?" she asked, tilting her head. "I found a kind of barrier that protects the entrance to some place. According to the records, it’s the entrance to the second level of this world... Well, I guess you won’t understand that, so I’ll tell you a secret about this world that few know." She paused, as if to gauge the effect of her words. "Millions of years ago, all life forms managed to break free from their bonds, and an ancestral war of extermination began. All races began to annihilate each other. Rivers of blood ran across the planets, and some planets were even completely destroyed." My gaze remained fixed on her, trying to read every one of her expressions, but her face was a perfect mask. "That’s when the gods intervened. Many of the weaker races were being annihilated and enslaved without being able to resist, so the gods decided to give them an opportunity to prevent the war from being so unbalanced. They adapted this world." I listened in silence, my mind processing every word. "According to the records I found, this world is as old as creation itself and the gods found divinity in this place, but after an event of which there is no record, it became a sterile world. So the gods decided to turn it into a battlefield for all races. With the power of all the gods, they sealed the planets so that each race could grow in peace and tranquility, and they sent their representatives to this world. That’s how the first guilds were born." The origin of the guilds... it was information I had never heard. But the most intriguing part was yet to come. "What I don’t understand is who created the system," she continued, her voice now a conspiratorial whisper. "As I understand it, the gods don’t control the system, they are just like administrators. I’ll tell you this secret, trusting that after hearing it, you’ll be convinced to join me..." She moved a little closer, her voice now barely a whisper meant only for my ears. "A being even more powerful than all the gods is a prisoner on this planet..." She pulled back abruptly, the smile returning to her face. "I won’t tell you more until we make a deal. What do you think, Hero?" Her story made some sense to me, especially the part about the system. I remembered that when the Goddess of the Moon wants to communicate with me, she uses the system. She even once hinted that something was stopping her from doing what she wanted, as if she was bound by a power greater than herself. This Demon Queen was not a liar, or at least not about this matter. The demon queen looked at me with a smile, as if she were about to let out a joke. "You think the gods are omnipotent, but that’s not true... In fact, they can’t hear everything you do or think like they normally lead you to believe. Instead, they use a special ability: they can hear everything that is related to their name... This is as simple as not thinking of their names or their faces." She paused so I could process the information. I remained silent, my mind working at full speed. "I am also a herald of the God of Death, just as you must be a herald of a different god," she continued. "Well, I’ve said all I needed to tell you... this is just an astral image; I didn’t want to start a war against you... Although I’m not sure if I can kill you, I’m sure you can’t kill me either... I have no intention of keeping those little insects under my command; it was just for fun... you can have them all if you wish." The demon queen began to fade slowly, leaving only the sound of her seductive laughter in the air, while the darkness of the night enveloped her completely. I remained sitting on the beach, meditating. I couldn’t believe how easily I had been bewitched. I didn’t know what race this demon was, but she had influenced me too easily. Plus, she was level 97, the same as I was before I lost my levels. It would be too difficult a battle... While I was thinking about everything she had told me, Manaia arrived. "Jax, are you okay? You’ve been gone for a long time and we were worried about you," she asked, her voice full of genuine concern. I told her that the demon queen had come and I told her everything she had said. She was shocked by the information, but she also looked down at the ground, apologizing as she fell to her knees, crying. Her reaction shocked me. I couldn’t believe her reaction, so I tried to lift her, but she clung to the ground, begging for forgiveness. I didn’t understand what was happening, so I said to her, "What’s wrong? Your reaction is scaring me a lot." Manaia first asked me not to be angry with her and then confessed that she had lied to me from the beginning. "When I told you that our clan arrived here by accident, it wasn’t true," she said between sobs. "Our clan had come with a specific mission. Our patriarch, the first leader of the White Stag guild, had come looking for something, but no one knew what. Through generation after generation, we knew that he was looking for something and that he was not a normal person. He was the son of a human and a very powerful demon king named White Stag, and that son had dominated a large part of the world, even building the first empire. He had conquered all the demon kings, even the titan beast and human kings. I was afraid you would hate me for being a descendant of a demon tribe." I calmed her down, hugging her and telling her that there was nothing to hide, that I couldn’t hate her for something like that. Then Manaia continued, saying that no one knows where the patriarch is, since he didn’t die, he just mysteriously disappeared one day, and that the guild had been dismantled. That meant that the leader had done it on purpose, since if he died, the leadership would have passed to the vice-leader...