The man with golden eyes looked at the clone with intrigue as after a while he opened his mouth and said " You are a vampire who has undergone draconification, which faction is doing such experiments? Are you a product of biological mages? "
The clone was perplexed by this question, he had the same memories and knowledge as Max, yet he knew nothing about biological mages.
" No, I underwent draconification by will " the clone replied as the man with golden eyes nodded his head and said, " I believe in equal exchange, since you have answered one question of mine, I shall answer one question of yours "
" Are you Zogaroth? " The clone asked the man who smiled at the question.
" No, master Zogaroth is sealed on basement level 3 of this very mage tower, I'm Arandale, the administrator of this city and the individual responsible for the codex that keeps this city a ' Special ' zone and not a Battle-Zone, the prisoner of my own fate " Arandale replied as the clone relaxed a bit after hearing this reply.
" It's my turn to ask now, and my question for you is what year is it now? Although I'll never be able to see it with my own eyes, I wish to hear some tales about the outside universe " Arandale requested as the clone pursed his lips and began explaining.
Arandale was shocked to know that nearly 5 millenium had passed in the outside world and that the state of the magi in the universe had become deplorable.
New monarchs had taken central stage and the dynamics of the new world were very different from the old one.
Satisfied after hearing the clone's reply, Arandale sighed as he said " Thankyou for your answer, you may ask me two questions in return "
" What happened here? What do you know about the method to seal god's? " The clone asked without any hesitation as Arandale smiled and began contemplating the best way to answer this question.
As a mage with values, Arandale strongly believed that every word he used must be meaningful and every conversation he engaged in must be thought provoking and useful.
He did not wish to talk aimlessly which is why just like all the mages of his era he cautiously organised his thoughts before replying to the clone's question.
" What happened here is that we became slaves of our own creation.
Long ago, this was a flourishing city where abyssal magi with some skill gathered to exchange pointers and information.
It was a safe haven and a secure place to research and grow, but everything began to change once master zogaroth fought the god of death Hades.
Master had created a seal so powerful that even tier8 god's could not scratch it, however, blinded by his own ego, master dared to make the god of death himself his prey and the result was disastrous.
Cursed with death corruption, the ultimate spell of the god of death, the once mighty mage began losing vitality stat rapidly as his HP bar that was once in the millions shrunk from that of a god to that of a tier0 individual within days.
Desperate to survive, master zogaroth bound himself to the Codex, hoping that staying within the special zone would help him survive long enough to find a cure, but while he did survive inside this city, he began losing lucidity overtime.
I was his favourite disciple, and I was at the time also the administrator of this city responsible for the codex.
The burden master Zogaroth placed on the codex was so intense that the divine artefact that was supposed to support life of upto 150,000 individuals, could now only support 5 apart from master so I decisively decoupled everyone from the device except my four junior brothers whom you met on floor 79 and the wind spirit elemental of my master.
The abyssal magi cursed me for my choice to keep my insane master alive when the codex could be used to grant them life and security for their experiments, but I did not budge.
Sealing the gates to the mage tower, I spent 300 years trying to find a cure for the curse of the death God alongside my half crazed master and my younger disciple brothers, however, in the end my masters insanity became so unbearably cruel that I had to seal him in the basement personally.
I opened the mage tower gates back then, but as I took a tour of the city, I realised that there was nobody alive in town anymore, during the time we were researching every other abyssal mage had decided to abandon the city.
Unsatisfied, I sent one of my younger brothers to the outer universe, but to his shock the moment he took a foot outside the city and the protection of the codex, his foot turned to ash.
We never realised it, but somewhere alongside spending time with master, the corrosion of death had seeped deep into our bones as well, as this city became both our saviour and our prison at the same time.
None of us could leave the city alive, and there was nobody left in the city to talk to.
Year after year, we waited for someone to enter until after 400 years of waiting and experimenting my younger brothers started to show signs of insanity.
I created a dream world for them, and linked their brains to a world that seems real, even today they spend their times living normal lives in that dream world, but I never joined them in their endeavour and chose to seal myself on floor 80 of the mage tower, only to be woken up when a visitor crossed the 65th floor mark.
During my long slumber, the master's corrosive aura spread throughout the tower and its immediate vicinity which was like a container for mana resulting in the current state of the tower being as it is.
4200 years later you crossed the floor 65, waking me up from my slumber.
Hope that answers your first question, as for the second one on what I know about the method to seal the god's? Hahahaha- you asked the right individual because I perfected the method that my master never could. "
/// A/N - Chapter 11/20, almost there///
