Joelle blinked. "Has sir never heard of the War Head Race before?"
Grey shook his head. "No, I haven’t. Should I have?"
"The War Head Race is quite famous, Sir Paladin. They are part of the Warring Races that appeared following the Savage Races and ushered in an era of endless battles and wars until they burned themselves out.
"They’re a people who do not do well with peace, and even when there is a lull in battle, they often find themselves manipulating in the background to start the next one. That is what they do, and they became extremely powerful in doing so.
"Their curse is also their strength. They often grow depressed and there are many cases of their minds breaking when their battle lust or need for manipulation is not properly sated. However, when they are in the throes of battle, they are truly one of the most fearsome races there is."
Grey raised his eyebrow. Warring Races?
First the Dark Kin, then the Savage Races, now the Warring Races... but somehow Grey felt like these groupings were less about the actual relationship between the Races and more about the eras they represented.
What connection was there between a Gnome, a Witch, and a Goblin? None at all, as far as Grey could tell. But they were still all collectively known as the Savage Races. That was peculiar.
If Grey thought about them in terms of era, that made more sense. It also made Grey wonder something else...
Maybe the reason they were divided into Races instead of era was because of the eggshell black hole at the center of the universe.
What if every iteration of man that it produced and then swallowed was significantly different from the last, so much so that the principles of evolution that dictated their growth were different enough that they were grouped into a single Race?
That might make sense.
Of course, that was just speculation, Grey didn’t know for sure.
"They don’t seem that strong," Grey eventually commented offhandedly.
Now that he thought about it, maybe the great danger that Amunet’s treasure was trying to warn them of was actually the sinkhole. Because as far as Grey was concerned, killing the Rotting War Head hadn’t been all that difficult at all.
Joelle coughed a bit awkwardly. Some of the Holy Knights around her also looked a bit embarrassed as well.
Clearly, they had been trying to kill it for a while. But when Grey picked up on that, he couldn’t help but be confused.
If they knew this would happen, why did they want to kill it so bad?
Well, actually, that might have worked out for him. Clearly, they were ready and had a contingency prepared. Otherwise, they would all be at the bottom of the sinkhole right now.
"Of course. For Sir Paladin, it is not much. And it is also the case that the Rotting War Head didn’t have access to all of its abilities. For one, it was possessed by a Spirit that didn’t quite understand how to use it. And second, it was in a rotting, deathly state where it was frail and weak.
"This is the only reason the likes of us thought we had a chance against it, Sir Paladin. Under normal circumstances, all instances of the appearance of War Heads are steered clear of. They are too strong."
Grey nodded. "I see. What are the usual abilities of War Heads?"
"War Heads very rarely fight themselves. Their two greatest assets are their intelligence and their conjuring. They are most often summoners who control beasts, the living dead, or warrior spirits. We speculate that in its death throes this Rotting War Head attempted to take control of the Spirit that eventually consumed it and failed.
"However, even aside from their intelligence and conjuring, War Heads have a very large energy capacity and can often output extremely strong elemental or neutral energy-type attacks that are of extreme difficulty to deal with."
"Got it. But what does that have to do with the sinkhole?"
"Although the War Heads are slotted amidst the Warring Races, we have good reason to believe that they are and have been siding with the Dark Kin, sir Paladin.
"Much like the Dark Kin and the Savage Races and many others, they have fallen to the wayside of history to usher in the era of the Genesis Races.
"The Old Ones of the Dark Kin have been interested in the manipulation abilities of the War Head Race for a very long time, and there is news of a possible successful attempt linking the two together."
"The Old Ones?" Grey asked.
At this point, Grey knew that the more questions he asked like this, the more suspicious they’d be of his identity. But at the same time, if he was really a Dark Kin, why would he need to ask questions about the Dark Kin?
Hopefully they would just think him to be someone who had his head in the dirt somewhere. He was also pretty young too, so it was helpful with getting away with things like this.
If he had to fight it out in the end, then they’d just fight it out and he’d probably die... again. Oh well.
There was an odd flicker in Joelle’s eyes, but she answered nonetheless.
"The Old Ones are known as some of the most powerful conjurers in history. It is said that only the witches and the War Heads have ever been close to their match in this regard, but even they are inferior.
"The trouble is that the Old Ones have too many restrictions. They cannot see the sunlight, and they are incredibly susceptible to being on the surface. The War Heads, by comparison, are very interested in bridging this gap because they want to understand what makes the Old Ones so powerful to take it for themselves.
"The sinkhole... we do not have the full story, but we believe that the Rotting War Head was a key of some sort. And now that it is dead, the gate it was protecting has opened wide."
Grey’s eyes narrowed.
Not a lick of this made any fucking sense.