"These wishes are granted by the Guardian Gods whom you can consider as gods, and they are the ones who literally look over the entire plane of existence. They don't interfere in our mortal matters personally, but they also know that we are more than capable enough of destroying the natural order. So instead of cleaning up after our mess, they decided to introduce the Bloodborn Tournament that would let them keep us and our conflicts under close observation while keeping things in balance. The universe is just too vast, and they are too busy to continuously monitor us. Some are even prepared to destroy worlds just to seek an answer for immortality. So to prevent such outrageous events, this tournament will keep them in check," Nyissa explained while wondering what was going through Viktor's mind, seeing him deep in thought.
Viktor shook his head, "Guardian Gods, eh? I had heard about them from Umilia and also the fact that Bamir was once a Guardian God before he became a fallen one. Still, none of you people ever saw them personally, right?"
Nyissa looked up in the sky and said, "That's not really true. Just because we have or can't see them with just our eyes doesn't mean they exist. Sometimes powerful shamans are able to discern the will of the Guardian Gods by using their abilities. They might either see it in a dream or a vision, and the things they see are true as well. There is solid proof and witnesses for that."
"No. I know they exist, especially after I saw a friggin fallen god or whatever he was whom we fought in the Naraka Realm. But what my question is, if they are the so-called guardians who are supposed to protect our universe, which should include the worlds in it, then why didn't they interfere when our world was literally about to drown in hell? Why didn't they get rid of Bamir for us? Why did it have to be us?" Viktor couldn't help but feel pissed that these so-called Guardian Gods were not doing their jobs.
Nyissa sighed as she briefly mumbled her apologies to the Guardian Gods for Viktor's rude words on his behalf and then looked at him as she said, "Viktor…things don't work that way. If the Guardian Gods didn't interfere, then it would mean that they didn't deem it necessary or that they had other decisions in mind which we mortals…" Nyissa briefly paused as she felt confused since Viktor was literally an immortal. But she still continued, "…I mean, people like us won't be able to comprehend."
"In other words, the destruction of our world won't necessarily destroy the balance in the universe. I guess with tons of realms out there, maybe one of them disappearing isn't a big deal for these Guardian Gods. Anyways, forget it and tell me more about this Bloodborn tournament. What is the tournament about?" Viktor asked one of the pressing questions in his mind.
"It is literally its name. A champion or a winner is born from a ruthless, bloody battle. And the most dangerous aspect is that the battle will continue till one of them dies or surrender if possible. There is no easy way out of this. Once you are a participant, then you will have to be prepared to face death. And trust me…numerous powerful people have fallen over the years…even beings we thought had unrivaled power or skills," Nyissa said with a head shake.
Viktor could already picture bloody battles in his mind, though he didn't feel terrified of it, "So this tournament…did it already start or what? And where does it take place?"
"No. It hasn't started yet. Otherwise, things might not seem this calm. There isn't any fixed date or time decided beforehand. When it starts, everyone will know. But we know it's going to start soon, which could be a few years or months or days," Nyissa said in a tone of certainty.
"And how do you know it's going to start soon?" Viktor asked with narrowed eyes.
"Because the Guardian Gods had already started dropping the soul crystals of the fallen champions in all the realms, letting them choose people worthy of inheriting the powers of the fallen champions."
"Soul Crystals? Like the one Umilia possessed or Sue possessed before her soul crystal merged with Umilia?" Viktor already had an idea of what Soul Crystals were, especially since he held one with his own hand.
"Yes. But there are two kinds of Soul Crystals. The one Umilia got is a Pure Soul Crystal directly picked from the river of souls, where the soul is whole in the sense that the complete essence of the true owner of that soul still exists and hasn't been erased. However, because it is being picked directly from the river of souls and in turn creating a break in the natural cycle, even the Pure Soul Crystal won't contain the complete memories or odic powers of the true owner."
"Hmm, I can understand that. I had to help Umilia remember some things of the past, and by this, are you also telling her powers aren't complete too?" Viktor eagerly asked.
Nyissa nodded immediately, "There's a high chance my grandaunt has yet to recover her true powers. I still can't comprehend how my grandaunt got herself involved with a Guardian God to the point she was able to get her soul crystal through them. If only she could remember what happened."
Viktor's eyebrows drew together, wishing that he also knew why Umilia or Sue got involved with a divine being.
"Let's think about it later. But as I was saying, the second type of soul crystal is the Fallen Soul Crystal which wouldn't contain any traces of the true owner of the soul or whatever was left of it. However, it would still contain their odic powers and also remnants of the personality of the true owner or the fallen champion. So these remnants may or may not influence the personality of the new user."
"Fallen champion? You mean these Fallen Soul Crystals originate from the champions who died in these tournaments?" Viktor asked in a baffled tone.
