With the Essence of so many demons flowing into my body, Cor Telluris was working overtime, and I could feel its rotation accelerating as well as new channels being recreated inside my body, the pain of this transformation was uncomfortable, but I knew that this was a sign of progress, and I welcomed it, because it was better that I felt this kind of pain than the other kind.
So many changes were happening within me, but I stubbornly refused to acknowledge my status screen; it felt almost as if that would mean I was dancing on the corpse of the fallen even before they became cold, and the awareness that they would return to life when I died did not make their deaths any easier for me to handle.
Logically, I knew that there must come a time, if I experience it enough, that their deaths no longer hit me as hard, but somehow I was doubting that this would be the case.
And one reason for this was my soul.
My soul was different, stronger; it could be regarded as superior to what I had ten times over, and I could beat my chest that for now, I was the only one with a new soul; however, this soul did not just give me power, it also enhanced my mind and my memories.
This was a good thing, but you see, the mind and especially memories are blades with two sides. I benefited from having a sharp memory that would aid me in all aspects of my life, but it also meant that every trauma I suffered would be felt at its greatest peak, and I would not be able to easily forget them.
I fear that this problem would only compound the more Earth Gates I opened. If the trend continued, that I gained higher variants of Anima with each higher gate, then my memories would only get brighter, and there was a chance I would never be able to look at my friends without seeing their bodies beside them.
"Future Elric, you are a pitiful bastard, and I will not want to be you."
The Pyramid released a foghorn, and I turned towards it, aware that this meant that a seal inside had been broken, and now the foghorn was no longer an unknown sound; it was language, and I understood it.
"Warning... Warning... Warning... Second Seal Loosened. Silithra, the Pale Matron, awakens."
My eyes widened in shock a moment before the ground shook, but the vibration was mild, at least when you compared it to the massive pale tentacle that began to rise from the earth.
It just kept going and going, and for something so massive, there was hardly any sound as it tore its way to the heavens above, and the clouds fled from it. It was almost as if this tentacle was both real and fake, but something told me that if more of these seals were broken or loosened, the Pale Matron, Queen of the Swarm, would awaken.
It was then that I finally understood what this damned pyramid was: it was a prison.
These structures fell from the heavens ten thousand years ago, and in all that time, no one knew what they contained, but that should not be the entire truth; at least one person knew from the Conclave, the so-called Master.
This Master had been around for at least ten thousand years, which would make them either a god or a Sovereign. Before now, I would not have imagined that anyone could live that long, but I was so wrong.
Hearing the warning from this pyramid made everything I heard in the last loop from Orath and Rel make much more sense to me at this moment.
Orath had said, "The Queen will not breach the inner sanctum. The Conclave Arcanists below have been containing her for three centuries. They will contain her for three more hours. They are close, Commander. The harvest is nearly complete."
Rel had replied, "Three centuries... And now, when we are so close, the surface is lost. The demons are pouring out faster than we anticipated. The Conclave’s timeline did not account for the... intensity of the eruption."
Then Orath had said, "The Conclave’s timeline accounted for everything except the pyramid’s resistance. But all of this has been accounted for, and we just need to keep the passage open for the Arcanist below to finish their work."
These words I had just heard now made so much more sense, and gave me a somewhat broad picture of everything happening around me.
Let me see if I had it correct in my head. These pyramids were prisons, and they fell into our world ten thousand years ago, at least this was the version of the story that we all knew, only this Master, who was here ten thousand years ago, would be able to know what truly happened.
At this time, there was no way for me to know the truth about this, so I placed it aside for now. Clearly, this master must have had access to or understanding of the pyramids because he was able to secretly infiltrate them, even Caelith Mourne here on this continent.
There were thirty-one known pyramids in the world, roughly scattered around all seven continents, and if my dream/vision/hallucinations were real, then there was a hidden thirty-second pyramid, but I don’t know how that tied into whatever was happening here.
This infiltration and this eruption were for what Orath called the Ascension Ceremony, which, from what I could understand, may be because the Conclave wanted to ascend many of their mages to a higher stage.
Orath had mentioned the Queen, so the Conclave knew of the demons and knew that they would be releasing them into the world, but in return, many of their mages would gain great power. Orath had promised Rel that she would easily become an Arcanist from the Harvest.
Okay, I think I understand all of this, and I could now understand when Orath said they had underestimated the resistance of the pyramid, and hearing the warning that the pyramid was making, I knew that it was actively fighting the Conclave that was loosening the seals inside of it.
I was not surprised that there were people who would do anything for power and personal gains, but I was surprised at the lengths they would go.
You know, I hear words like I would burn the world to get what I want, and I always thought that was a figure of speech, but I was so wrong.
With all of this in mind, there was one final piece that would complete the puzzle, and it was inside me... the Hollow Avatar. It knew about the pyramid and the demons, and now it was time for it to tell me the truth.