"The answer to your question is simple. But it isn't something that can be casually told." The Water Celestial promised Damien, "I will tell you about it when you grow up and become more sensible and strong."
"I understand," Damien said, not nagging him to give him an answer like someone his age should have. He was young, but he had been through a lot. Even a person who has one foot in the grave wouldn't dare say that they faced as many tribulations and tragedies as him. So he was quite sensible for his age and lacked childishness.
"Will you forgive this sinner for missing out on your childhood?"
The Water Celestial asked Damien after a moment.
Without any hesitation, Damien nodded at him, "To begin with, I was never angry at you, grandpa. You didn't have much choice. So how can I blame you? Rather I am thankful that you came to my aid in time and stopped me from getting tricked by it. If you hadn't revealed that old man's true face to me, I don't know what would happen to me. Was that Chaos?"
The Water Celestial's eyes lit up, and his mood brightened when he heard his grandson's words. They came as an unexpected surprise to him.
'He has a sweet mouth just like his mother.' He didn't expect that Damien would not have any hatred for him in his heart and would not hold him accountable for not being there for his family. 'Surprisingly, he didn't just inherit her looks but also her traits.'
"Indeed, it was." The Water Celestial replied to Damien.
He remembered having crossed paths with it a very long time ago. It was before he got injured by the army of the uncharted land, meaning it was 850+ years ago.
What happened then was classified as a part of lost history, but the Water Celestial was an ancient relic, a powerhouse of the ancient era.
Knowledge of that time had been erased from the world as per someone's wishes and had long become a part of lost history, but he had lived through that time and had personally tasted and experienced it, so he knew most of what happened then.
The first time he came across it, Chaos was just an insignificant spider.
It was full of evil even then, so the Water Celestial tried to kill it in order to save the future generation from trouble.
The fact that Chaos was alive even now was proof enough that it survived his assault when it was just a newborn.
He regretted failing to kill it.
That day when he tried but failed to kill it, Chaos was only as strong as a weapon master. But it had many trump cards, and its life-preservation ability was second to none. It escaped from the Water Celestial by creating a portal, which connected the Far West Major World to the Nether Realm. After Chaos went through it, it closed.
The Water Celestial didn't chase after it. It's not like he couldn't endure the harsh temperature of the Nether realm, which was a small world that was a part of the Far West Major World. It's just that he had to go save his friend, Yulran, and didn't have time to waste on an insignificant pleb.
It's just that, against his expectation, that insignificant pleb had grown up to become a force to be reckoned with, a force that terrifies the world!
"Chaos's true form is that of a spider."
The Water Celestial looked at Damien with the intent to share some secrets with him.
"It was only a magical beast when I first fought it. It was a single-sided beating, really. That day, it lacked the strength to put up a fight against me and could only run away like a cowardly dog. But over the past eight and a half centuries, it had grown strong enough to become my equal. Although it's below me by an entire rank, if we fought, there's no saying who will win."
The Water Celestial was injured. His injuries had gotten over time. Because of that, his power level had taken a great hit and plunged by a level or two. He lacked the confidence to confront Chaos. If not for saving Damien and this place being the Endless, he wouldn't have fought it.
The Endless was a unique and mysterious place, as even experts knew little to nothing about it.
Only Realm Lords and those above and equal to them knew that it existed.
It was endlessly vast, and beings like the Water Celestial and so on could access it from any major and small world, as well as the countless fragments of the True Great World scattered in space.
The Endless was partitioned into many parts by boundary walls.
The Endless, accessed through the "Far West Continent," was the biggest, and it was separated from the Endless, which could be accessed from the small realms of the "Far West Major World" by boundary walls.
Chaos accessed it from the nether and pulled Damien's consciousness into it from the Far West Continent, which was better known as the West Land.
The Water Celestial also entered it from there.
Thus, there was a boundary wall between them.
Crossing this wall was something even the Water Celestial didn't dare try when he was at his prime, so he was certain Chaos wouldn't try to step through it either.
Forcing one or two limbs through it wasn't that hard. But forcing one's entire self through it was harder than ascending to heaven.
Because a boundary wall existed between them, he acted like a tiger in front of Chaos even though he was injured to his bone and slowly wilting away like a lily.
"So it started out as a magical being." Knowing more about his enemy pleased Damien.
"Don't mistake it for something as simple as that." The Water Celestial shook his head at him, immediately correcting him, "Its origin is different than the beasts found in this world. They are the original inhabitants of the Great Forest. Meanwhile, Chaos is a vile being that was brought to this world from a distant land."
"These things haven't been told to me before." Damien didn't know that humans migrated to the Great Forest or that Chaos was the thing that disgusted him the most. He didn't know why, but he was born with a great dislike for insects, bugs, and anything that crawls. "I want to know more about it, and I also want to know more about Chaos. But just before you came to my rescue, it told me a minute is all I got to save myself. So, grandpa, help me return to my body with a way to overcome the desperate situation I am in."
The Water Celestial felt pleased to have a grandson like him. He was only so old, but he was quite eloquent and well-learned.
"Don't worry about it." The Water Celestial revealed to the ignorant boy, "It was lying to you to force you to make a decision in haste."
"Time follows trillions of times slower in the Endless compared to the Far West Continent." The Water Celestial explained to Damien, "You might be a millionth of a second away from being harmed by that man called Marty in that world, but it equates to quite a lot of time in the Endless."
"So you mean we can have a pleasant chat in the Endless with no one to disturb us?" Damien looked at him with glittering eyes.
He grew up listening to his stories and admired him a lot.
He was his idol, and he knew that having a talk with him was a wonderful experience that kings and emperors desired but couldn't get.
He would benefit greatly from having a chat with him.
"Mm-hmm." The Water Celestial voiced out his agreement. "Ask me any question you like."
"Did this land really originally belong to the beasts?"
Damien asked the Water Celestial his first question.
"Yes." The Water Celestial gave him an answer, "The truth is, long ago, humans and beasts lived separately. On one side was the Great Forest, called the land of the beasts by the primitives. The other side was occupied by humans. It was larger than the Great Forest and had countless natural resources, enough to awaken tens of millions of people. Because of unforeseen events, they had to abandon it and escape to the Great Forest. The beasts weren't very welcoming of them at first. But after the strongest expert of the human race, the Human Monarch, fought the king of the Great Forest, engaging him in a battle that lasted seven days and won, they accepted his request and bestowed the human race with some land. That land is where the first three kingdoms mentioned in history were established. These kingdoms didn't last long. After them, the five kingdoms came into being. And these five kingdoms were forced to become one by the Glorious Sun Emperor, and thus the Empire was founded."
...
To be continued. See you next time in Dragon ba.... No, Levelling endlessly!
