Sylas calmed down, but he still wasn’t completely convinced.
“Then, why didn’t you told what was happening to the other kings, they could have formed an army and eliminate Riga when it was still new”.
The first king shook his head, he raised his arm which was starting to… disappear.
“The netherworld vine isn’t an easy enemy to deal with, the last time I confronted it, I was cursed… if I were to ever spoke or give anyone even the slightest hint, then I would truly die”.
Orson doubted before saying.
“Then why are you telling us?”.
Aurelian sighed.
I don’t want to sound rude but all the current main royal lineage has nothing to do with me, they all descend from the usurper so how could I ever trust them, but I’m already tired and I finally found someone I can entrust the task of finishing this”.
He smiled at Sarina and Kana, before continuing.
“Sylas, fate likes to play jokes on us, apparently your wife was somehow related to the only woman I have loved in my life, which means these two children are also part of my family”.
This time Sylas was speechless, Aster on the other hand finally understood why the gatekeeper focused his attention in Sarina and Kana when they saw him back in the entrance of the hidden chamber.
Orson bowed his head.
“I know it might not be enough to atone for the sins of my ancestors… but please accept this bow from me, you have done so much for Prasil and yet no one knows the truth, I will make sure to make public the true story of Luonto”.
“Some things are better to be buried in the past kid, but I accept your bow, perhaps Sylas’s influence created the first main lineage Millefiore who is a decent person hahaha”, said Aurelian while he laughed.
He then spoke to Sarina.
“All my treasures are in this room, since material possessions aren’t worth anything to the place I will go, all of this is for you and your daughter… it will be my last ode to the memory of my wife”.
Aster knew they didn’t have too much time left so he wanted to get some more information about the second king.
“Was the second king able to leave this place? We came here through a portal but I don’t know how much time passed since it was built”.
Aurelian smirked.
“Nah, you have been “blesses by the forest” which means you had some kind of contact with the conscience of the cosmos tree, so it’s easy for you to know that it isn’t too friendly with other people, from the very beginning the second king was nothing but a peon of the netherworld vine, although he managed to open a gate to other place, he was intercepted by the cosmos tree and was erased from existence, karma is a bitch hahaha”.
Alice didn’t find it too funny; she was attacked by the vines which turned out to be a part of the cosmos tree after all.
As the rest of his body started disappearing, the first king spoke to Aster.
“You aren’t related to the conquerors of my quadrant, so I don’t have any problem if you wish to rule this galaxy, just promise me that the people of Prasil won’t be treated like cattle or sacrifices”.
Aster shook his head.
“I’m not going to stop here to play being a big fish in a small pond, and although I do descend from a Heavenly conqueror, I don’t consider him a part of my family… fortunately for you, Sarina and Kana are now part of it, so there is no way I will let others destroy their native planet”.
Aurelian’s body was mostly gone, only half of his head remained but that was enough for everyone to see the big smile that appeared on his face.
“Nice answer kid, in my life I made a lot of mistakes, so at the very least I want to do something good with my death, I wrote a diary with all the things you might want to know, read it and then decide by yourself if you want to enter in contact with the cosmos tree, if not, then just take them and leave I already made the cosmos tree promise me to not interfere”.
“Lastly an advice to all the presents, don’t let greed control your life, because at the end of your days, the only thing you will long for… is to be surrounded by those who you cherish”.
With those last words, Aurelian’s spirit completely disappeared, a former Heavenly transformation realm cultivator, a husband, a father… but most importantly a good man, left this world after protecting the memory of the woman that helped him when he was in need, for more than two million years.
*Clang*
The sound of something metallic hitting the ground made Aster notice that a little key along with a book appeared near the area where Aurelian disappeared, he extended his hands and took them from the floor.
Sylas made a military salute towards the place where the only king that has ever worried about Luonto more than his own life was sitting a couple of seconds ago, Orson on the other hand felt mixed emotions, he became the king way earlier than he expected and to be honest he was still quite immature to be a king, most of his duties were carried by the members of the royal court.
But right now, he felt as if he has found what he lacked, after listening to Aurelian’s story, he decided to become a man worthy of someday using the title of king of Prasil just like him.
Sarina was also still processing what happened, not everyday you get to meet someone that married your ancestor of countless generations ago, just for him to disappear and leave you all his possessions.
For Aster’s surprise, Rya also told him something quite interesting.
“The cosmos pillar tree is not something that should be here, just like the flower from where the twins originated… I’m pretty sure it has gone beyond the heavenly conqueror realm”.
Aster smiled, Rya hasn’t told him what lies ahead of the heavenly conqueror realm but he has already entered in contact with things like that, like Hyperion or the book to which the twins were bind to for example.
After this experience everyone needed to rest a bit, Orson didn’t say anything he just waited outside of the vault with Leister and Milia, while Sarina took all the treasures left behind by Aurelian.
Aster didn’t leave, he was sitting in a corner with Alice next to him and Kana standing behind him, because she also wanted to read the book which was in Aster’s hands.
On the cover, the book said “Memories of Aurelian & Selene”, although it did mention some of the story of how Aurelian met his wife, it was just a distraction, after a couple of pages there was a spirit formation, after he placed the key over the formation, the rest of the pages changed.
The contents of the book basically narrated a more detailed version of the story Aurelian told them, but there were things he didn’t mention due to the lack of time, first both the cosmos tree and the netherworld vine needed a contractor.
The difference was that the cosmos tree wasn’t willing to serve so the contract was only temporal, the netherworld vine on the other hand used a different method, it appropriated the body of the one that tried to use it.
Second the reason as to why any try to create offspring between the descendants or relatives of Aurelian and those from Riga, resulted in corruption was due to the influence of the vine and cosmos tree, they are so against each other that anything that has the slightest relation to them can’t be mixed or it will result in an abomination.
p The second king was the “father” of the first corrupted, when he fled to Riga he stayed there and had children with some of the ones that had received a bit of the power of the netherworld vine, needless to say but the second king planned to use them as soldiers in his war against Luonto but he wanted to secure a way out of the “cage” where he was living which ended up being the reason of his death.
To Aurelian’s surprise, the netherworld vine also despised the corrupted, it was an insult for it to see something that combined it with the cosmos tree, so most of the corrupted were eliminated but some of them managed to escape and hid themselves in the ancient forest, since that moment onwards they cut of any ties with Riga and started contaminating the planet in revenge.
The reason was that if Prasil perished, both the netherworld and the cosmos tree will suffer due to it, the corrupted that survived, created offspring of their own and spread through the ancient forest with mission of destroying the planet, so now there were three players of this battle.
Aster shook his head, for now he had enough of all this, seeing that Sarina finished taking out all the treasures in the room with the exception of one thing, the coffin with the corpse of Aurelian’s physical body.
Sylas carried it on his shoulders, he looked at Aster and spoke.
“He deserves a proper burial, I have already talked about with Orson, we will erect a statue of him at the front gate of the castle, with an inscription… since he didn’t want others to know his story, we will just put an inscription saying “Memory of a good man”, hahaha”.
