The words brought not only disbelief but shock to everyone in the room.
Some of them knew well in their hearts that whatever happened was definitely no simple event, but as time passed, they had naturally accepted it to be a worldwide event that didn't affect only them.
The thought of it being the handiwork of a person had crossed their minds, but they were also aware it was impossible for any being to be capable of such a thing, so they had written it off as a natural phenomenon.
But who would have expected that the last choice they had believed was actually the one most likely to be true?
In the end, a being had been responsible—one with a cultivation that they had never even heard of but no doubt far beyond their greatest known peak.
"If I may guess, the Knull appeared not long after you guys were sent here, right?" she followed up as the Dwarven leader's eyes narrowed before he replied.
"The Knull appeared 67 years after the event..."
"That's not that long for a God-King. Now I understand what's going on here..." Aster said, piquing their curiosity.
"The ability to transfer natives of a world to another world is a common ability to a God-King, but it takes energy. Intense amounts of energy."
"But to offset this energy, most God-Kings would go for a Pact Transfer instead."
"A Pact Transfer?" the Dwarven leader asked as Aster nodded.
"Yes."
"It's basically a transfer of a world to another, but under a preset condition which, once completed, will negate the transfer spell and enable the transferred to return to their world."
"This cuts the energy used by half. Something a God-King would prefer."
"So, based on my analysis... you all were sent here to Endertah not by any unnatural phenomenon, but by a God-King—and definitely for a reason, since the energy required was too much for a God-King to waste on sending you guys aimlessly."
"To cut the energy losses, he must have created a pact. And since the Knull appeared not long after you guys arrived, then the aim of the God-King is pretty clear."
"He wants you all to aid the humans in the war against the Knulls. And since you guys have not been able to devise a way back to your original world, then that must be the Pact Vow."
"The vow that if you help the humans—whom I can guess were pretty weak—to fight against the Knulls... once they've been defeated, the Pact Vow will activate and the process will be reversed, sending you all back to your original world."
"Pretty simple, no?" Asteralaxia said out loud but the Ten Leaders were blown away, all with their jaws hanging down.
"Simple!? Simple?!"
This was something their minds had never crossed, yet now, it was all starting to make sense.
This was better than the hypothesis they had formed and believed in their head.
How it had never been so clear to them but had instantly been deciphered by the person before them was something their minds couldn't wrap around.
"Bullshit! We've already fought the Knulls before and won! Why weren't we sent back then?" the Titan Leader, Borin, said with a scoff of mockery as the world turned to him.
Yet, the face of everyone in the room changed as they watched Aster slowly raise her hand and stretch it toward Borin.
In the next instant, Borin grabbed at his throat with both hands as his eyes flashed in horror, and then...
BUUUUURRRRSSSTTTTT!
A splash of blood burst out of his lips as his eyes widened with veins, and the entire group watched as he was raised into the air by an invisible force—his own hands firmly wrapped against his throat, as if preventing something from completely crushing his neck.
"I would watch how you talk to me if I were you..." Aster's calm voice rang out through the room, as everyone's face changed seeing her hand still hanging out in the air toward Borin.
She had been able to strangle his real body from the Projection!?
That was the thought that rang through everyone's minds. But then...
"I apologize for his actions and assure you it won't be repeated, Miss Asteralaxia. Please spare him..." The voice of Sir Azraken rang out, managing to disperse the pressure as Aster withdrew her hand, and they watched as Borin fell on his butt, his hand clutching his throat tightly as he coughed loudly—spewing blood everywhere.
But then he regained himself, an angry expression appearing on his face, and he was about to curse out loud when Sir Azraken warmed his throat—drawing Borin's attention.
His teeth ground together before he reluctantly sat down on his seat, not saying a word.
And once more, the room devolved into silence, with only a single person grinning in satisfaction—and it was none other than MadWhite, who took intense delight from watching the man.
The Hollowrogist had made Borin say shit many times without getting punched in the face for it, but now he finally got his shit handed to him—in such a satisfactory way, too.
"If you ask why you've fought Knulls before yet weren't sent back..." Aster said, drawing back attention to the question Borin had asked, "then my answer is that you never really defeated the Knulls in the first place."
"If I may ask you: what are the terms of defeat of the Knull race?" Aster asked them as Elias replied.
"When the Knull wars begin, they come in through portals."
"Many years ago, we faced them and fought them—up until the 9th portal, which we managed to defeat, and after which they never came in again."
"Some of them on the planet suddenly went into bizarre slumber."
"We had thought we had defeated them, but suddenly we sensed the chaos aura in the world increasing, and a few years later, our sensors picked up a new Knull emergence coming soon. And now, we're in another war."
"But it is clear that we have once defeated the Knulls!" Elia said.
As Aster raised her hand once more, she asked, "What power level was or were the Knulls that you faced in the 9th Knull Gate appearance?"