"How old are you boy?" Magnus asked after a moment, an unconcealed hope in his eyes.
"Twenty-one, but my body was made younger when I was transported to this world. Ikaris answered honestly, seeing no reason to lie to a dying man. "The biological age of this body is only about 15 years.
"Oh, so you are an Otherworlder, that would explain some things." The old man laughed before quickly coughing up another mouthful of black blood. After another coughing fit, he murmured weakly, "That means someone nearby has an Elsisn Stele. If you can get it, you can even create your own empire."
"Excuse me, but what do you mean?" Ikaris frowned as he thought of a certain item. "There is indeed a wooden stele standing on the village altar that looks like an ordinary slab of bark. Every morning, Otherworlders are captured in the jungle near the village and brought to the altar for the daily sacrificial ritual. The new prisoners must all spend their first night outside in the dark, the majority falling prey to the Crawlings while waiting for the Guardians to take them out. Is this the kind of stele you're talking about?"
As he uttered his question, Ikaris realized that he wasn't sure who the Guardians were. Malia and Grallu were obvious choices, but they had never formally said whether they were one. Even last night he had fled the village and had not been able to fight alongside them.
"...By Veel's mustache.!"Those aborigines really deserve to perish." Magnus whistled at their stupidity. "Using an Elsisn Stele to maintain the population of a doomed settlement by sacrificing its loyal population to feed the monsters that threaten them. Was it worth refusing the rule and duties enforced by the Confederation if the price of freedom to pay is even worse."
Ikaris bugged on a word.
"Loyal?"
Magnus looked at him in confusion, but his eyes curved up with delight as he understood the boy's baffled reaction. Having now realized that he was dealing with an ignorant country bumpkin, he set about teaching him the basics.
"You may not know it, but there is a reason why the Elsisn Steles are so valuable in our everlasting war against the Glenrings." The old man recited in a teaching tone. "To tell you the whole history of the Forsaken Lands and what led to our current plight would take too long, but know that these Glenrings have been our enemies for a long time. A very long time.
"They are a hive-like species, with castes and an atypical growth process. Their individual strength is a major threat, but the real threat lies in their reproductive abilities. You've probably come across the ones commonly known as Crawlers or Crawlings. These are the newborns. They grow up hunting and competing, but they are brainless beasts that don't exceed the intelligence of a dog, except for the older ones.
"The Crawlings remain Crawlings until they are 20 years old, whereupon they produce a cocoon within which they hibernate for several months. Upon emerging, they become Glenrings, a humanoid evolution. This second phase is the equivalent of childhood for humans and they will remain so until they are about 150 years old. Their intelligence and talent for magic equals or exceeds that of humans, thanks to their powerful bodies, which allow them to recover quickly.
"In addition, unlike the Forsaken Lands, they are not affected by the Curse that afflicts our Divine Sparks. In other words, they do not age prematurely as they develop their Divine Sparks and can afford to take their time and specialize in their desired Arcana without any pressure. At this stage, they do not yet have the ability to reproduce, although they have the genitals to do so.
"When the Glenrings reach maturity, they form a new cocoon that they will remain in for several years this time. Depending on their life experiences, the prey devoured and the Sparks developed, their next evolution may take different paths. The most prevalent is that of the Narvath. Their appearance is akin to a regression as they bear a strong resemblance to the Crawlings. They are immortal and their growth never stops. Their Soul Strengths are terrifying and they can communicate their orders through the hive mind over thousands of kilometers. Depending on their size, they can vomit several times their weight in eggs daily and the incubation time is only a few hours. For a young Narvath of about 7 or 8 meters long, that's about 10,000 eggs a day..."
Seeing Ikaris' gloomy face, Magnus had lost his smile, but he had every intention of seeing his lesson through. With a grim face, he revealed gravely,
"The creature that destroyed the Great Wall just now was a specimen a little over 5000 years old. Among Narvaths this is a pretty standard age. The millions of Crawlings that laid waste to the Barren Bush last night and routed the Confederate armies defending the wall were spawned late yesterday afternoon..."
Ikaris felt his head spin as he registered the shock of the news. Did they stand a chance against such a wickedly proliferating race? Even if adult women contributed one child every nine months until they reached menopause, it wouldn't be nearly enough to sustain the war effort.
No wonder the Confederation was forcibly conscripting the population of the various Kingdoms and Empires to defend the Great Wall and fight these invaders. In comparison, the aboriginal tribes who lived peacefully in the jungle and refused to integrate were absolute egotists, if not outright parasites living off the sacrifice of others.
By swearing that these aborigines deserved to perish, Magnus was actually being rather polite. If it were Ikaris, he would have kicked them into line long ago.
However, the boy also realized at that moment that the old man still hadn't answered his actual question.
"What does this have to do with the Elsisn Stele?" He raised an impatient eyebrow.
"Cough, I'm coming to that." Magnus grunted as he coughed up black blood again. He was struggling to open his eyes.
When he did, he stared at Ikaris and whispered, "Since the Free Races cannot match the Narvaths' egg-laying abilities, the Elsisn Stele was invented, or more accurately granted to us by the great Elsisn, one of our twelve Major Saints. This divine artifact serves as the core of a civilization and only recognizes the authority of the one who shed his blood on it first. As long as his territory, his kingdom, exists, the Elsisn Stele cannot be stolen.
"The Stele and its capacities evolve with the host's territory, the Stele's primary function being to gather Fate, a precious resource in this world that is no doubt completely foreign to you. The second main function of the Stele is to lure the wandering souls of Otherworlders. No one understands how this works, but as your kingdom grows, more Otherworlders will be summoned to your land every day.
"But as you can imagine, there is a catch. How can you guarantee that these Otherworlders are not enemies? This is where the third function of the Stele comes in. It allows the owner to gauge the loyalty of his subjects, but more importantly it guarantees the initial loyalty of all new Otherworlders. Even if the lord asks them to commit suicide, most will not be able to resist. The fact that you never realized this matter proves how abnormal your Soul Strength is."
Ikaris froze. Now that he thought about it... Weren't all these prisoners a little too docile? After surviving the first hellish night, none of them had considered taking revenge on Malia. The other aborigines also accepted her authority without protest, never questioning her orders as if it were the natural order of things.
It would have been so easy at sunrise to kill them while Malia and Grallu were sleeping. Their cottage had no door, so all they had to do was block it and set it on fire.
Toby did seem intent on taking over the village, but did he ever mention that he was going to rebel against the young woman? It was just his ambition as a soldier. In truth, he just wanted to prove his worth.
The teenager immediately saw the problem.
Besides, even if Toby really did have the ambition to take Malia's place, that didn't invalidate Magnus' words, since his Soul Strength was also almost five times above the rest. So maybe he could resist this subconscious influence at least a little bit.
Then Ikaris remembered what the old man had just said and realized that a golden opportunity had just presented itself to him. Malia was unconscious and the village was in ruins. Becoming the new Stele owner had never been so easy.
When Magnus saw the boy's golden eyes twinkling with mischief, he sensed that the boy had understood what he was getting at. Alas, as he probed his paralyzed body, a saddened expression clouded his features. The poison had spread throughout his body and he was now beyond saving.
"My boy, I am going to die." The old man announced with no hard feelings before giving a cheesy smile. "I want to give you a gift before I die and I want you to do something for me in return. But to give you this gift, I need a little more time and blood...
"But first... CAN YOU please remove this tusk from my chest?"
