Chapter 793
When Jin suddenly bowed his head in respect, Ameris, seeming momentarily perplexed, coughed awkwardly.
Hedo followed Jin's lead and bowed his head towards Ameris.
[Ahem, yes. As expected, my eyes didn't deceive me. After all, you're not bad.]
"Allow me to introduce myself again properly. I am Jin Runcandel, the leader of the Vamel Alliance and the young patriarch of the 59th patriarchate of Runcandel."
"I'm an... executive of the Vamel Alliance? Jin, am I really an executive?"
"Sir Hedo, if you're not an executive, who would be?"
"Well, that's true. What's my exact title then?"
"Well, you can consider yourself the Chief of Staff."
"Alright. I am Hedo, the Chief of Staff of the Vamel Alliance and butler to Sandra-nim. As I mentioned before, I have no surname."Ameris smiled at the two, finding them adorable.
[Sandra, huh? Sounds like a name for one of the kids outside the pit. Is she the mischievous one or the quiet one? Surely not the cat, right?]
"It's the former."
[I bet it wasn't easy. Thanks to that girl, you didn't succumb to corruption despite having so much power.]
Hedo nodded without fully understanding the meaning behind those words.
There was a moment of silence.
Ameris seemed lost in thought, recalling faint memories.
[... Then I should introduce myself. It took me a while to recover my memories. I am Ameris, an immortal born with an unfortunate destiny. When I was awake, mortals used to call me the Great Serpent.]
"You're not a dragon, I see."
[I am not entirely disassociated from Dragons. They are like distant descendants of mine.]
"...Did you say distant descendants?"
No one knows the exact moment when dragons appeared in the world.
Not even the dragons themselves knew their beginnings.
They only knew that they were created by their respective Gods.
According to Ameris, Jin and Hedo had just learned one of the long-kept secrets of the world.
[Yes, now that we've introduced ourselves, there's something I want to ask. You mentioned that you are in a position opposed to the resurrection of the Sun God, so why did you seek the underworld that I protect?]
"There is a sect called the Sun God religion that is currently gaining momentum in the human world. We are in conflict with them, and we recently obtained information that there might be a gateway to the Demon World here. May I explain the current situation we face?"
[Go ahead, I'm listening.]
Jin proceeded to explain the situation in the human world to Ameris.
The content was about the 'monsters' that began to appear since the Sword Emperor Castle War.
He continued with the appearance of the evil god after Gliek's death and an explanation about the Sun God religious sects, suspected to be behind the incidents.
Naturally, he also included information about the power dynamics of the major clans.
As she listened attentively to Jin's story, Ameris occasionally groaned in intense pain, experiencing severe headaches.
It was the result of memories reappearing, mixing, and sinking chaotically.
"...So, we carried out the excavation simply to confirm its existence. Since there is very little information about the Sun God, we thought we should find out something to respond more flexibly to our enemies. Honestly, I didn't expect anything, but that's how we ended up meeting Mrs. Ameris."
After finishing the explanation, Ameris slowly nodded.
[I see... I understand your position roughly. It may not be comparable to before I fell asleep, but it seems the human world is in quite a chaotic situation.]
"When exactly did you fall asleep?"
[I don't remember the exact moment either. However, you mentioned earlier that it is currently the year 1803, and you said that the Tribe of Legends, which played a significant role in the slaying of the evil god, perished 5000 years ago. Solderet barely managed to seal 77 of them and keep them alive.]
"That's correct."
[It's evident that the time I fell asleep is much before 5000 years ago. Because when this world was split into two halves, I was given the destiny to protect the boundary between the underworld and the surface world.]
The "destiny to protect the boundary" mentioned by Ameris wasn't simply to prevent those seeking the underworld.
Her destiny was to ensure that the underworld and the surface couldn't mix.
[The world was split into the surface world and the underworld after the death of the Sun God Kinzelo. The beings sent to the underworld are what you call demons, and those sent to the surface include humans and other creatures.]
"Why shouldn't they mix?"
[It's because it's the new order. The Sun God has died, and the perfect world he oversaw has disappeared.]
A perfect world.
The Sun God religious sects that Jin had encountered so far believed that if the Sun God resurrected, this world would become perfect again.
Jin and Hedo continued listening to Ameris's story while considering that point.
[However, there were those who couldn't bear the feeling of loss as they transitioned from perfection to imperfection. Naturally, they couldn't accept the new order. Birth and death, beings exceeding their given destinies, the disruption of causality, and the collapse of the old order, all these factors led them to gather in one place, yearning for the resurrection of the Sun God.]
"So, that's how the Sun God religion began. Mrs. Ameris, you played the role of preventing those people from reaching the underworld."
[That is correct. However, not everyone acted that way. Among the heads that were part of me, some dreamed of the resurrection of the Sun God.]
Ameris revealed that she originally had nine heads.
A mysterious entity commonly found in the myths of all continents: a great serpent with nine heads.
[I had to fight against those heads as well. I personally killed many of those heads, I believe it was five. And the Tribe of Legends killed another. I'm not sure about the remaining three. They either perished or are beneath me, since I haven't felt their presence.]
"So, what about the other heads that oppose the resurrection of the sun..."
[Four heads, including me. I stand before you, two of the remaining heads were slain by the Tribe of Legends at that time. It would be good if the last head remains somewhere underground.]
From Ameris's perspective, her heads were divided into a form of good and evil.
The five heads who desired the resurrection of the Sun God were considered evil, while the four heads who opposed were considered good.
There are three evil heads and one good one that might be alive.
[The beings you, mortals, call dragons were formed from the death of my heads. With those fragments, the new immortals born at that time created dragons.]
"New immortals? Wait, does that mean Mrs. Ameris... has existed for longer than the beings you refer to as gods today?"
[Recite the names of the gods you know.]
When Jin listed the names of the gods he knew, Ameris shrugged.
[All of them, except Solderet and Klam, are immortal beings I don't know. Well, my memory is not complete, so there may be some among them that I know.]
"So, we have awakened that Mrs. Ameris..."
[Hoho, wielding weapons fearlessly at the tip of my nose. And to tell you a little more about Solderet. He was an immortal who taught me swordsmanship.]
Upon hearing those words, Jin realized why Ameris's swordsmanship felt strangely familiar.
It was because he unconsciously felt traces of Solderet in Ameris's swordsmanship.
"Solderet taught you swordsmanship personally... Were you close to him?"
[He was an immortal who adapted to the new order of the world. Naturally, he must have been very close to me. When you awakened my joy for the sword, the memory of that joy remained vivid. You said you were his contractor, right?]
"That's correct."
[Perhaps your encounter with me today was not a mere coincidence, but destiny.]
"Then I hope that's the case. Since our goals coincide from the start, there will surely come a time when we need to help each other. However, Mrs. Ameris."
[Speak.]
"There was one part of your story that was hard to understand. It's about the Tribe of Legends."
[You are curious about why they killed the heads that had different intentions?]
"Yes."
[It's simple. The Tribe of Legends at that time... you can think of them as the ancient Tribe of Legends. Like all other mortals, they were divided into factions: those who sought to resurrect the Sun God and those who tried to prevent it.]
"That seems reasonable."
[The ancient Tribe of Legends were the only beings capable of freely traversing between the surface world and the underworld at that time. Of course, I had to engage in battles with them every time they did, but sometimes even I had to avoid conflict. They were mortals who had been bestowed with immense power.]
Although Ameris didn't directly explain her own power, Jin could clearly speculate that she possessed abilities far beyond what she was currently displaying.
Even her training session with Jin and Hedo was just a glimpse of her true capabilities.
"Bestowed... Does that mean someone else bestowed power upon the ancient Tribe of Legends?"
[The Sun God Kinzelo. The reason the ancient Tribe of Legends was so powerful was because the Sun God's greatest ideals were instilled in them. Consequently, they were divided between those who sought to resurrect the Sun God to gain even greater power and those who accepted the new world.]
Even the current Tribe of Legends in Lafrarosa had no knowledge of that information.
There was a forgotten and severed history between the ancient Tribe mentioned by Ameris and the current Tribe.
[Perhaps you and the Tribe of Legends who became your brothers are descendants of the latter group. If the former group had survived until now, the surface would have turned to ashes long ago. Mortals imbued with the Sun God's ideals naturally lead to the destruction of the surface. However, there are also beings like Hedo who have resisted corruption and temptations]
“Mrs. Ameris, are you saying that the ideals of the Sun God are also instilled in me?"
[Where do you think the tremendous power you've possessed since birth came from? If you had grown up poorly, you would have become a notorious villain in the history of the surface. The Sun God's ideals drive the bearer towards madness and the destruction of the surface. It's to find the underworld and the altar beyond it.]
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