One by one, everyone touched the orb, with Isabella being the last one. Going by their changing expressions they were now all afflicted with the same grand and terrible knowledge.

  It was the knowledge of an ancient people lost to time. Peerless in their grandeur, they supplemented their unparalleled magic arts with highly advanced technology.

  And even though Gaius concluded his interaction with the orb without getting any insights into the inner workings of their disciplines, while his hand was pressed to the orb, he understood them fully.

  Existing before the continents drifted apart and shed their lush jungle greens for the temperate browns, these people achieved every feat imagined. They knew no poverty or disease and their every whim was catered to be either mystical apparitions or machines made of metal.

  Even the furthest reaches of the cosmos revealed their secrets to them thanks to their grand observatories peeking beyond the veil of stars.

  But despite all of that, they weren't content. For all their achievements, they were still cursed with a human's lifespan. Their understanding of undeath was vast, but the tradeoffs of turning into the living dead were unacceptable to them.

  And so, they began their biggest undertaking. They attempted to change their very nature. Their ambitions crashed upon the shores of reality when they discovered that certain things weren't so easily changed.

  They could extend their lifespans with medicine and technological enhancements, but those were years, decades at most. They wanted more.

  Then came the experiments. Attempts to create a perfect, timeless being. Alefs were an early prototype, designed to combine the easily pleasurable flesh with sturdier materials. Creating an automaton like this was easy for the ancient people. Imbuing it with consciousness has proven to be beyond even their ability.

  An idea that connected lifespan to certain physical attributes was popular for a time and resulted in the creation of the shorter and sturdier races like dwarves and goblins. Their natural lifespans doubled those of a human but fell short from the ultimate goal.

  By then, the research had been going for generations and was a source of infinite frustration. In a mix of anger and desperation, the ancient scientists turned outwards, towards the stars.

  For centuries, they've been observing a phenomenon there they simply named the beast. A vast formless mass of matter most disturbing, the beast thrived within the cold void and went against the ancients' understanding of the natural law.

  Every object the best encountered, be it a star, asteroid, or planet, was irrevocably changed. I took on some of the beast's unnatural qualities, becoming an extension of it.

  The sheer astronomical distance separating the ancients and the beast meant that it posed no direct threat to them. Its ability to defy nature sparked great interest when every other attempt at immortality failed.

  Upon the death of an elder beloved by many, an arcane conduit pierced the universe, opening a window to the beast. Its energy was harvested and used in countless experiments.

  Anything affected by those energies was altered in unpredictable ways. Simple, harmless creatures were transformed into nature-defying monsters. But in time, the beast's energy was tamed and directed to produce desired results.

  Thus, the elf was created. A better human with an unlimited lifespan, inexhaustible physique, and eternal beauty.

  A creation like this required a great deal of energy. More than the beast could be made to part with. A compromise was made and elves received their biggest flaw – a complete lack of ambition. A still mind that had no taste for progress. It was an easy and painless tradeoff for the people who had achieved everything and were preparing to retire and leave their advanced world to the new generation, one that would last forever.

  But even so, the creation of elves needed more of the beast's energy still. To that extent, the arcane conduit was widened in what turned out to be the single biggest mistake of the ancients.

  Their conduit grew large enough for the beast to finally notice their efforts. Its consciousness, alien beyond recognition, reached back through the universe-spanning portal. It was happy to spread a part of itself to a place so distant, but it demanded something in return.

  The beast was seen as merely a cosmic force at the time, and its subtle alteration of the deal went unnoticed. It was able to freely exchange its energy for that of the ancients.

  And what for the beast was but a tiny morsel, ended up being the ultimate price for the old ones. They paid for the creation of elves with the entirety of their collective life force. In an instant, their civilization was turned to dust. Not a living soul was left to guide their new creation.

  Without the ancients' influence, and lacking in any ambition, the elves retreated from the vast cities and took up residence among the trees where their descendants remained to that day.

  Eons passed, continents drifted apart, and all the ancient cities were gradually swallowed up by the march of time. Their machinery was outstanding, but even it couldn't run forever. Their vaults opened up, releasing the simpler creations that were preserved in stasis even when their masters perished.

  The young sentient races thrived in this empty world they had to tame once more. They built their towns, created their kingdoms, and clashed with their neighbors. Over time, this ensured that none of the first elves remained in the world, and so even the faintest memory of the ancients faded.

  And it was at that time when even their more advanced stasis fields gave up, releasing those few of their own kind deemed too dangerous to walk the world.

  Among them was Major, whose crime was spreading the ideas of undeath among his people. He didn't mind the drawbacks of undeath when put against eternal life. And for that, he was imprisoned. Forever, if there had been anyone left to maintain his cage.

  When he came to - the world's original lich - and saw the world as it was, he wept dust from his empty eye sockets.

  His attempts to contact others like him bore no results. He attributed that to their frail bodies not withstanding their prolonged imprisonment.

  Truly alone, he began watching the world from within his domain that was the very facility that made the initial pact with the beast.

  The faulty but still somehow functioning machinery kept running through the cycles established by Major's people. And for this particular facility, that meant producing alefs and making regular contact with the beast.

  Every full moon, the conduit briefly opened, letting through an echo of the beast's energy. Every living thing it afflicted was disfigured and driven mad. For simple creatures like alefs, it meant ravenous fury and senseless bloodlust.

  For a while, Major watched as alefs poured out of his facility into the world and clashed with a young kingdom that sprung up on the ashes of his people.

  For all their boundless arrogance, his people were not devoid of kindness of a sort. Their experiments were often unpleasant and frequently failed. And so instead of subjecting their kin to them, they engineered lesser humans. Kept in stasis with all the other creations allowed these lesser humans to survive the end of the world. When they emerged from the vaults, they quickly evolved into their modern counterparts, overcoming the limitations bred into them.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Major observed these early humans, early Caladonians, do battle with the alefs again and again, sustaining bloody losses but holding their own. He couldn't help but feel a kinship to these once primitive creatures.

  He reached out to them and offered his help. Whatever little resources he still had at his disposal were enough to contain the alef threat and elevate the burgeoning Caladonian society above their wildest imagination.

  His boons allowed them to resist the expansion of the Old Empire, just Empire at the time, and gave them a real feel for Major's power. Inexhaustible in their voracious pursuit of knowledge, they wanted more.

  This was when the beast made its appearance in Caladonian lore. Major justified his reluctance to keep teaching them with his fear of the beast.

  For the Caladonians of that time who knew nothing greater than Major and his artifacts, something that scared him could only be deific. The beast was integrated into the Caladonian pantheon but hidden from all but the newly-formed Order of the Moon that was tasked with keeping the existence of the beast and its corrupting influence a secret. To aid them in their task, Major provided the order with their signature pendants that were sure to defend them from all but the most grievous of attacks.

  Time went by and there appeared those who would disbelieve the beast's very existence and see their lack of access to Major's inner sanctums only as capriciousness of a dried-up corpse. This eventually led to a clash between those loyal to the order and those who wanted more.

  Gaius saw an image of two lovers embracing with savage passion. Only the moment their robes and pendants dropped down, a knife found its way inside a back, the hand clutching it extended its grip into eternity as a goblet spilling poisoned wine lay overturned on the floor.

  Horrified with this development, Major decided to step away and allow the world to develop more before showing his face again. And with that, his existence was forgotten, his artifacts treated as gifts from the heavens, and his facility, now hostile to any intruders, was mentioned only as a scary tale.

  The written story of the beast was picked up generations later by a few young priests. Treating it as an allegory, they re-established the order. This new order relegated the beast to an agent of destruction fighting against their goddesses and their cycle. Its new purpose was to protect the kingdom and its faith from corruption of any kind.

  Hundreds of years later, this started the chain of events that set Gaius and his group on their path.

  Lucius, inquisitive and sharp, posited that the ancient texts were perhaps not as metaphoric as others thought. That allowed him to figure out how to get past Major's defenses.

  Here, Gaius felt that Major's orb kept a few details back to spare him the headache. It completely skipped past the tablets and their role in accessing this place.

  Truth be told, Major welcomed the company after all these years. He congratulated Lucius on his ingenuity and grew hopeful that perhaps the world was now ready to imbibe in his knowledge. But Lucius had other plans. Or rather, his stubborn nature drove him to ignore Major's warnings and venture to the forbidden part of the facility on his quest to stop the alef threat once and for all.

  Used to ages of quiet introspection, Major was too slow to act. He wasn't able to prevent Lucius from reaching the engine room where a pentagram of ancient sigils was tapping into the planet's molten core, endlessly transforming that heat into arcane energy. That energy was used to sustain the machinery connecting the facility to the beast, as otherwise its very presence rendered any piece of technology useless.

  Every full moon, that machinery opened up a portal, letting through motes of the beast's power and sending alefs into their frenzy.

  Major had only limited access to the facility's systems and wasn't able to shut this cycle down. He had hopes that Lucius would help him with that. But instead, the ever-curious Caladonian headed straight for the engine room where there was enough residual energy to alter his being.

  His form and appearance changed. He was blessed with ancient knowledge but cursed with a madness that made him see alefs, these mindless shells, as the true inheritors of the world. He used his new knowledge to wrestle control over a section of the facility away from Major and barricade himself there.

  One of the ancient machines he had at his disposal allowed him to leave his hiding place as the Shadow of Mallia and work in this way towards his new goal of elevating alefs to what he saw as their rightful place.

  An image of the future, one where alefs flooded the surface, too numerous to be stopped, concluded Major's vision.

  Silence descended on the room as everyone processed this new information.

  When Gaius raised his eyes towards Major, there was no longer a young man, but a leathery cadaver barely covered by nearly disintegrated rags. Major's empty eyes were burning with ominous flames, but his askew jaw was still regaling them with an approximation of a friendly smile.

  The understanding of what he'd just seen was already fading from Gaius' mind, but the knowledge remained. The others were similarly afflicted with this implanted memory that teetered at the outskirts of their minds. It was shrouded in mist and unclear, like a dream you've just woken up from.

  Gaius understood the futility of trying to hold onto this knowledge, so he let go, and focused on the now.

  "I hope this little demonstration answers most of your question," Major bellowed.

  Esven was trailing right behind Gaius with his ability to disregard the huge revelation. The captain squinted at Major and asked, "Why the masquerade, then? I must say, your new look is way less creepy than that enthusiastic twerp."

  "My people saw undeath as dangerous for our society. Yours tend to see it as evil. And there's great value in not appearing evil, regardless of whether or not you are," Major replied.

  "This guy gets it," Alessia said. The witch, used to dealing with otherworldly beings, was quick to shake off the shackles of her mind-shattering enlightenment.

  "Well how about you wear some green then," Esven barked. "You know, like herbalists tend to do."

  "And thus accept the ignorant judgment of the commoners? No, thank you."

  Beyond even his new understanding of the world around him, Gaius was amazed how his companions were so quick to return to their usual banter.

  He coughed and addressed Major, "With all you've shown, why do you even need us? Why haven't you dealt with Lucius yourself?"

  It was difficult to read facial expressions of the undead, what with them lacking in the muscle department, but it seemed to Gaius that Major was hesitating.

  "Lucius has managed to firmly integrate himself into this facility's systems, and there's not a lot I can do about it from where I'm at," Major admitted. "He blinds me to what transpires within his domain, but at least, I'm returning the favor. He doesn't know you're coming, and that should give you the edge you need."

  "But why wouldn't you simply go and challenge him directly?" Victor asked. "Sir," he added out of a mix of habit and irreverence.

  Major's jaw moved slightly, bestowing a wider grin on him. "I see your predicament. In your time, liches are deeply intertwined with sorcery. You can't become one unless you possess a certain level of power. This was not the case for me. My magically-inclined assistants prepared all the necessary arcane energies. This left me free to pursue my scientific research without distraction. This singular dedication had its merits, of course, but it also very much limits what I can do." Following a slight shift in Major's position, an intricate vial appeared in his bony hand. "I could easily make him into a lich, but I suspect that would make matters worse. And apart from that, I'm no warlock, and neither am I a fighter. Without this facility's defenses, I'm powerless against him."

  "What's stopping my old boss from using those defenses against us?" Esven asked.

  Major's gaze fell upon Gaius. "The place recognizes you as authorized visitors. There are safeguards in place to prevent it from attacking you. You'll simply have to deal with Lucius, and whatever alefs he may have guarding him. And I've seen how you deal with those."

  "Hold on a second," Gaius squinted. "Just how much can you see from down here?"

  There was a burst of deep laughter emanating from within Major's throat. "Let's just say you should be glad that my current state makes me entirely disinterested in the pleasures of the flesh."

  Covering Victor's mouth to prevent him from expanding on that line of conversation, Gaius said, "I think we've wasted enough time already. Lead the way, Major. We'll see if we can make the rumors about the captain here murdering his way up the ranks a reality."

  Just like before, images of Major streaked across the walls and guided Gaius and his companions to Lucius' domain.

  Several turns and corridors later, Isabella finally found the right words within herself.

  "You founded my order," she said, instantly regretting the simple banality of those words.

  Major didn't mind. "In a way. An older version of it. Yes," he said from the walls.

  "I have so many questions." Isabella's eyes lit up. "About my order, my faith, and my place in all of it."

  "I'm sure you do," Major agreed. "But you must understand. I may be older than any mountain you know, but I'm still merely a man. I wanted to help guide your ancestors, but that all went to shit fast. And truth be told, even without my direct guidance, you didn't do too bad. Keep doing what you've been doing, and you'll be fine, I say."

  "But what about Nova and Mallia? What do you know about them? How do they really relate to the beast?"

  "These are questions of celestial nature, my dear," Major said. "And the truth is, there are certain things we mortals are simply not meant to understand. We just have to believe we're doing the right thing, and let the divine remain divine."

  This brief exchange placed the group before a sliding metal panel Major's facility used for doors, but this one refused to let them through.

  "I'm afraid you'll need to bust through here, and afterwards, it's all up to you," Major informed his visitors.

  Story Facts - Chapter 34