In the illusion, multiple Ancestral Staffs appeared before Gabriel, floating in mid air. Even though it was just an illusion, all the Ancestral Staff looked so real.
Amongst the Ancestral Staff, Gabriel could also see the one he had.
What surprised him the most was the other Ancestral Staffs in that illusion... Although they were similar to the Ancestral Staffs of the other Holy Lords, they were slightly different at the same time. Only his Ancestral Staff was completely identical to the one in the illusion.
"All the so-called Ancestral Staffs that the Holy Lords use are the clones of the real God's Staffs that are used by the Origin Gods."
"You mean they are fake?"
Gabriel was stunned. He used to think that the Ancestral Staffs were what the real gods used once upon a time. But to think that it was all a lie? The Ancestral Staffs that he thought to be a treasure all this time was nothing more than a clone of the real thing?
"You can say that they are fake. They are only linked with the real Ancestral Staffs and can only use a fraction of the real thing's powers," Alion answered. "Didn't you ever feel that the spells you cast with your Ancestral Staff of Necromancy are many times more powerful in the same tier compared to the spells cast with other Ancestral Staffs?"
He further explained, "In other words, if the God Staffs are the river, then the Ancestral Staffs are just a small pond that can never compare to the majestic river."
"Why would there be clones in this place? Who can make clones of a god's item? Also, why is it that only my Ancestral Staff is the real God Staff?" Gabriel had many questions already, especially regarding how different he was from the others.
"What stupid question." The little girl rolled her eyes. Even though her tone sounded like she was looking down on Gabriel, but her childish looks and her cute voice completely destroyed her harsh image. No matter how angry she was, she always looked like a child who couldn't intimidate anyone.
The little girl didn't notice that Gabriel was looking at her weirdly. She just continued, "Of course the gods themselves made the clones."
"Why?" Even though Gabriel had a rough guess that it was the work of the gods, he still didn't understand why they would do something like that.
Just what did they receive by doing this? Why did they create the Holy Lords? Why did they share their powers from generation to generation? Why were the Churches created? The questions just kept on multiplying.
"More than why they did what they did, I'm curious about why you have the real God's Staff. And that too, something that belonged to the most frightening of them all?"
The little girl was so fascinated that she subconsciously reached out her hand to touch Gabriel's Ancestral Staff.
She was so fast that before Gabriel could even react, the little girl's hands were already on his Ancestral Staff.
He wanted to move back, but before he could, he felt something strange. It was as if a strange power inside the Ancestral Staff had awakened on his own. The power felt scary and dangerous, yet it didn't hurt him.
The same couldn't be said about the little girl though. As soon as her fingers touched Gabriel's staff, her face turned deathly pale.
Her body flew back on its own, falling in the distance as if the little demigod who could scare everyone with her mighty strength was nothing more than a powerless doll in front of an item that belonged to a true God.
Blood came out from the little girl's eyes, ears, nose and lips. Her face was still pale and her body was weak. Just one touch was enough to injure the little girl.
Fortunately, the little girl was strong and didn't die from the backlash.
Her breathing was rough yet she gathered herself and stood up, wiping blood from her face.
Gabriel assumed that she was going to be angry and was going to attack him. However the little girl instead started laughing...
"Hahahaha! As expected of a crazy god's item! It doesn't even let me touch it! Just a single touch and I felt like my soul was going to be ripped into pieces! No wonder Karyk was the nightmare of all the gods!"
Instead of being angry, the girl appeared more excited. For a moment, Gabriel even wondered if there was something wrong in the little girl's head or if she liked getting hurt.
"Are you alright?" Gabriel asked. The girl didn't have any visible wounds on her body, yet her eyes, nose and ears were still bleeding. Despite that, she still wasn't phased in the least.
"Why won't I be fine?" The little girl asked as if she really had no idea why Gabriel would ask something like that.
Gabriel could only scratch the back of his head, wondering if the little girl was an idiot.
He pointed toward his own eyes, as if signaling the little girl that her eyes were still bleeding.
Unfortunately, the little girl still didn't understand. She just looked back at Gabriel, wondering what he was trying to say.
"Your eyes are still bleeding, idiot." Gabriel couldn't take it anymore and blurted out. "Are you sure you're fine? I know some healing spells if you need my help."
No matter how childish and stupid the little girl appeared to be, she was still a Demigod level powerhouse who didn't seem to have any bias toward Karyk or people associated with him. If only her enmity with Alion could be kept aside, she could clearly be a good ally for his trip inside the city of gods.
"Oh? Only this? I thought something big happened." The little girl shrugged. "This will heal on its own. My self healing isn't much worse than the healing spells."
"Anyway, you still didn't tell me why you have Karyk's real staff? And why didn't it reject you in the first place?" she asked again. That question was still plaguing her mind.
"Even though I've never seen or come in contact with the Death Star, I've heard a lot about him in the past. Let alone an ordinary mortal from this place, even gods weren't capable of controlling something that belonged to the Death Star. So how could you do it?"
"The real staff of Karyk?" Gabriel glanced at his Ancestral Staff.
He already believed that this staff was what Karyk created and used in the past. He thought the same for all the other Ancestral Staffs that he saw before. However, to find out that only this was the real thing? That was shocking even for himself.
