”Who are you?” asked Michael, frowning. It was evident that this figure is the same one Gaya’s mother was talking about; the dark elf in the tree.
”They should have known mortal arrays are no match for a god” the figure merged with the tree amused,
”I am Elidyr, one of the founders of Order of Death and the man who created the ritual to open the gates to the void realm” the man spoke.
Michael was calm but when he heard what the dark elf said next, he was startled to the core,
”You may know the void realm as Earth”
Michael halted his pace, staying still in shock. No one except Gaya knew about earth and that was because he told her. Except for her, only the system knew his origin.
Michael stared at the dark elf to see how powerful he was which resulted in another surprise as the dark elf was only at the Body Refining stage.
”God of Darkness?” Wilkas gasped hearing the dark elf.
He couldn’t simply believe sixty six is a god as the figure stuck to the tree claimed him to be.
”You know about Earth”
Since the dark elf clearly knew about the earth, Michael did not try to conceal his secret.
”I know everything about you Lucifer. I know you’ve been in war with yourself, a version of yourself more precisely”
Elidyr kept shocking Michael with his knowledge. Gaya remained silent, letting Michael get an answer for his problem from the dark elf. Then, she would inquire the elf about her mother,
Michael on the other hand completely ignored the existence of Wilkas.
He approached the elf and stood a couple of meters before the tree.
”You came here looking for a fix for your problem, didn’t you Lucifer?” asked Elidyr,
”Tell me how do you know about Earth?”
Elidyr looked at him for a few moments in silence,
”Earth is the grandest and most secure prison in the entire universe, Lucifer. It was built to imprison and prevent you from coming here. Yet you are here. All those lives lost for nothing” Elidyr sighed,
Michael clenched his fist. He couldn’t process the information given by the dark elf. His mind was in complete chaos. If what Elidy said was true, his entire life was a sham and those who imprisoned him were punishing him for something he didn’t even think of doing.
Gaya was stunned as her mind went blank. She came to his side and placed her hand on his shoulder to reassure him because she knew his entire world was collapsing.
”What about my parents on Earth? They were imprisoned too?” Michael’s voice stuttered. For some reason, he felt a lump in his throat. It was too much for him to rationalize and process. He even started to sweat. To be honest, he wanted to sit down.
”Have you met your parents on Earth?” asked Elidyr as Michael slowly shook his head,
”You have no parents on Earth. Your parents are from this world”
Michael’s heart skipped a beat.
”Tell us who they are” asked Gaya immediately,
”That’s an answer only time can give you”
Only silence filled the surroundings for a few moments before Michael opened his mouth. His eyes already began to flicker in crimson red,
”Who imprisoned me?” asked Michael coldly. Gaya felt the air around her getting chilly. Soon, the sky started to turn darker and darker. The wind howled ominously warning them about the approaching storm.
“The same people who imprisoned me, Skyhall”
Every time the elf opened his mouth, he stunned Michael and Gaya. It took them several minutes before speaking again,
”Skyhall?”
”You must be thinking the Guardians are the bad guys, cute” Elidyr chuckled,
Wilkas stood alone listening to their conversation. He was pretty freaked out by the sudden change in weather and the crimson red eyes of sixty-six. His eyes were glowing in red as though they were rubies.
”I want to know everything”
Michael’s entire world collapsed in front of him. Everything he knew and believed was said to be nothing but smoke and mirror. He was sick of being in the darkness and wanted to know everything about him and his origins from the dark elf.
”The least I can do for you is give you some answers before I wither away”
Elidyr sighed as he began to narrate everything from the beginning starting from three thousand years ago.
The story began three thousand years ago with Qiu Jin ascending to the throne of Holy Maiden. Michael didn’t know that Qiu Jin, one of the founders of Mazeorth, was the Holy Maiden of Skyhall. She was a 6-star Runemaster and according to Elidyr, at the peak of her power, she invented an array that let her soul travel through time.
Her time travel adventure turned out successful but not without a cost.
The entire Skyhall was thrown into chaos when their beloved goddess returned from the future half dead. She was an Immortal stage cultivator yet something or someone almost took her life. She was never the same afterward. To let the world know about the approaching danger, she built another array with the help of her friends to let the Skyhall see the approaching calamity. The elders of Skyhall and a selected few witnessed a glimpse of the future.
Elidyr was one of the elders of Skyhall who watched the world fall into darkness. Qin Jiu called the future world, the dark realm. There was neither sun nor moon in the dark realm, there was only utter chaos and darkness.
People of the dark realm were stripped of their free will. They lived and died as mere cattle. In the world filled with darkness, only one stood atop and ruled the dark realm with an iron fist and dread, The Dark Lord.
Qin Jiu was terrified of his power. She claimed even the gods left the universe fearing the dark lord’s powers and the only way to stop the dark lord was to imprison the Dark Lord before he reached the pinnacle of his power. Elidyr and the other elders were aware of Earth but they did not know how they created a void universe, there were records of it.
Qin Jiu’s words turned out to be the prophecy and each of the selected few who witnessed the glimpse of the future created a Great Clan of their own to protect the world and prepare for the Great War against the Dark Lord.
What they witnessed pushed the Skyhall to take drastic measures. They scoured the world for the Dark Lord. They massacred anyone who slightly deviated from the path of good in the name of the greater good. After the disappearance of Qiu Jin, the once protector of the world slowly turned into
something they were supposed to fight against.
Some believed Qin Jiu died due to the injuries she suffered during her time travel, some believed she went back to the future again and some believed she ascended to the realm of angels after reaching the Celestial stage. No matter the reason behind her disappearance, it resulted in Skyhall building prisons, mass graves, torturing thousands of people, and wiping out entire races they deemed evil.
Elidyr along with some other elders couldn’t stand and watch doing nothing. They defected the Skyhall but not before Elidyr finished a ritual that would open the gate to Earth. Elidyr and the others saw the Skyhall turning the world into the dark realm without even the Dark Lord. Hence, they worked in the shadows to put a stop to the madness. As time went by, they were called the Order and when the Skyhall found out about them, they branded the Order as the Order of Death.
Although the Order of Death was powerful, they couldn’t stop Skyhall from capturing the founders of the Order including Elidyr. Elidyr believed some escaped but he wasn’t fortunate. The Skyhall marked him as the traitor and chained him to the tree, chaining him with powerful curses.
He was to suffer all the eternity alone.
”And twenty-one years ago, I felt the portal to the Earth open and I knew, they found you”
”How do they know for sure it’s the Dark Lord they found?” asked Gaya. She was burning with overwhelming rage for what they did to Michael,
”Qin Jiu left the Skyhall the means to locate the Dark Lord. Nineteen months ago, I felt the gate to earth open again. Only this time, no one was sent to earth. On the contrary, you came here. This means Qin Jiu was right, it was you who sent to earth twenty-one years ago and there is no mistake, you are the Dark Lord”
The armor of Lucifer had completely covered his body along with the cloud of darkness. He transformed into a complete Lucifer form without his control.
”My parents, what happened to them?” Michael growled. Gaya felt a chill as his voice had never sounded more demonic and cold like this before.
”The ritual required your ties to be cut off. The strongest tie of them all is the bond between you and your family. To cut the bone, your family had to give you away willingly, and since they sent you to earth-”
”They didn’t abandon me” Michael interrupted as the area grew darker. Wilkas was shivering seeing what was happening in front of him. He was in total shock. If he had seen a way to escape, he would have already called for help because it was too freaky.
”They gave me away willingly” Michael looked up at the sky. Tears rolled out of his eyes and seeing the tears, Gaya couldn’t hold back her tears. This was the first time she had seen him shed tears. In the corner of his heart, he always believed his parents didn’t abandon him but forced him to leave him for some reason. His belief was shattered as he realized they gave him away willingly.
”If the Skyhall was capable of genocide, they were also capable of torturing his parents. What if they killed his family?” Gaya asked Elidyr. Gaya would rather hear his family was killed than give him away willingly. She knew how much pain he was going through.
”The ritual doesn’t work that way and killing his family would not cut the ties. The ritual was extremely powerful and volatile, any mistakes or changes would have resulted in a calamity”
”What about Abras? The owner of this body? Is it a coincidence I ended up in him?”
Michael did not ask more about his parents. He got his answers. There was no need for him to know more. They willingly gave him away and as much as it hurt him, at least his heart could be at peace.