Kelvin began to ask a series of questions. "Wait a minute. I still have some questions. What was that dream? You said it was a legacy. What does that mean?
Am I the only one who has acquired you since Icon? If not, why did the others die?"
He had so many questions that they all just came bursting out of him once he started.
"Slow down, will you?"
He stopped, so the ring replied, "Let me start from the beginning. The dream was a legacy of the first paragon. It was left there because Icon was my creator and also the only paragon to have ever become demigod. He sacrificed his remaining life to leave behind a legacy and set a requirement for who could be selected as paragons."
"He sacrificed his life?" Kelvin asked with surprise.
"Yes, he did. It wasn't much. He was already dying."
Kelvin nodded and said, "It was not a bad idea to leave behind the legacy, but I must say that I thought highly of him before I knew his side of the story. He is not the great and powerful villain that took the whole world to bring down anymore. He is just some naive fool who was brought down by the Justice League."
"I don't think what he did was foolish. Before he decided to distribute his power, not everyone could awaken. There was a great societal divide between those who had awakened and those who hadn't. The awakened oppressed those who hadn't awakened. His actions rectified that problem."
Kelvin shrugged and said, "It still doesn't change my opinion of him. If anything, you are making it worse."
The shadow sighed and continued, "Where was I? Ah, yes. I was at the legacy."
"So anyway, his legacy explains the true history of the world and gives the reason why Raijin must be killed so that his successors won't have moral gripes with killing the founder of the Justice League."
Kelvin didn't care about the reason for killing Raijin. He would have done it for just power regardless of who Raijin was or what he had done. But he didn't voice that. He listened attentively to the shadow.
"On to the next question. You are not the only paragon I have had since Icon. There have been many, and clearly, they have all died. They died because they were killed by accident or by those who wanted to get me from them."
Kelvin couldn't holb back at this point. He said, "That can't be true. Why have I never heard of the ring of Paragon? Why have I never heard anyone in possession of it? I have read a lot of books, but I have never heard anything about this."
"I can understand the absence of information about the god kings since they are not of earth. But what about your previous wielders?"
The shadow replied, "They kept their identity secret just like you are going to do if you don't want to die."
That reply didn't satisfy him, so he asked, "What are the names of the previous wielders?"
The shadow sighed and told him. But it warned him, "You won't find anything about them on the web."
He went online to search for them. He didn't find anything about them. This made him decide to check their records in the tower of destiny. If he didn't find anything there too, then he would become too wary of the shadow.
He didn't care about the shadow as a threat anymore. He felt that he had to find any proof that the ring of Paragon existed to disprove his suspicion that he was losing his mind. So he sat down by the wall and went to the tower.
He entered without issue. Then he searched for the names of the previous wielders. The tower provided him a lot of information about them. He could watch all of their previous matches. It was an enlightening experience.
He also noticed that all of them had a golden tattoo of a spiked ring on their chest with golden lines extending all over their bodies. It was exactly like the one he has on his chest, but some of them had more tattoos on their arms, legs, or faces.
He was finally satisfied that he wasn't going crazy, but the information he acquired about the power of his predecessors made his heart heavy with fear.
He returned to the real world and asked the shadow, "Invisibility, invincibility, teleportation, telekinesis, and many more. These people were far stronger than me, and they still died. How do you even kill someone invincible? You shouldn't be able to harm someone like that at all."
The shadow replied, "You suffocate him."
"Oh. That's actually reasonable."
The shadow explained, "Right? The issue is that despite their immense power and their abilities, they are still mortal. Without oxygen, most of them will die. You can put almost any mortal in the void of space, and they will die regardless of their ability."
"I was quite fond of the guy that could teleport. But someone cursed him, and he died. You can't escape a curse no matter how fast you can run or where you can escape to."
"The invisible woman was poisoned with a neurotoxic gas. The telekinetic woman who could move an island with her mind was outrightly crushed with overwhelming power by a demigod."
The more the shadow explained, the more Kelvin felt that he was in over his head. Just imagining what those monstrosities who couldn't be captured by a camera would do to him made him feel fear like no other.
He muttered, "I'm doomed."
"No, you're not. You have a good chance here because you can hide your identity. You can literally change how you look. The others couldn't. Anyone who knew what to look for could identify them immediately because of their tattoos."
That encouraged him. He nodded and said, "That's good."
The shadow continued, "That's just your basic ability. What is the second one? I'm sure it is going to be something good."