Chapter 306 The Truth
In a vast, dimly lit throne chamber, colossal obsidian pillars supported the cavernous ceiling. At the far end, a massive dark throne stood, upon which sat a breathtakingly beautiful woman, her legs crossed, and beside her, a man in a tuxedo stood.
Both individuals had their gazes locked onto an ethereal screen hovering mid-air. The screen displayed a handsome man standing beside an otherworldly beauty, her eyes filled with worry as she nodded.
"Lady Enigma, If you don't mind, can you tell me what happened with the previous Ruler and how Ahrimon became the person he is today."? Zero inquired, his tone carrying a hint of curiosity.
"Zero, You were assigned this world only recently, long after the whole mess happened, so you don't know anything about Ahrimon and how much of a monster he is, so let me educate you on him,"
"You should know that members from the Devourer Race can cultivate devourer beasts that gather and refine dark energy for their consumption that they use to progress their strength."
"However, what do you think are the restrictions that the universe has placed on them against their broken ability to use other life forms to grow endlessly?" Lady Enigma questioned.
"The pure-blooded Devourer females could only bear offspring once in a millennium, and even achieving a successful pregnancy among them is a rare occurrence."
"They are very low in numbers on a universal scale, and they have an endless hunger for consumption, so they are never satisfied, which makes them not likable by any species, and they can't utilize mana or cosmic laws."
"But these restrictions are nothing much compared to the broken gifts they can utilize, as the pure-blooded Devourers could grow endlessly without needing to learn or master any laws by just devouring."
"They could naturally wield the law of Nothingness as they grew stronger,? they live long lives, and overall, they are one of the most gifted races, which is the reason they are also called Apocalypse Bringers, the race that would consume all life forms and bring an end to life," Zero replied. "What you, or at least this version of you, are not privy of is that A pure-blooded devourer can only give his legacy through his bloodline, and the higher the Rank, the harder the criteria are set by the cosmos for someone to gain that bloodline,"
"Obtaining a Devourer bloodline is a matter of pure luck and fate, whether it blesses one with its gifts and slowly turns them into a pure-blooded devourer or condemns them to a slow demise."
"Ahrimon obtained the bloodline of a Devourer King, which he did more than a century ago from the Ancestral Blood Ground, but because he didn't meet the criteria, he immediately began to suffer the consequences."
"These consequences included his inability to harness worldly laws and a gradual, relentless drain on his life force, which should have ended his life weeks after he acquired the bloodline, but he is still alive only because of the monster he is." Lady Enigma said with a rare cold smile on her smile.
"I don't know what happened in Ancestral ground, but I know that Ahrimon was an intelligent man, and he should have quickly realized that as long as he could recover the siphon life, he could avoid dying in just a few weeks and with his new bloodline, he had the means to acquire that life force."
"After spending a decade in the Ancestral ground, Ahrimon came out, and he was a changed man, and rightfully so, as who knew how many years he had spent devouring creatures for their life force."
"The time in the Ancestral ground changed Ahrimon forever, as the man who was willing to sacrifice his life for his brother was gone, and what came out was a cold, ruthless monster whose only desire was to live, and he was willing to go any length to do it."
"Ahrimon smartly tricked everyone into believing that he had acquired the legacy of demons with his ability to use the law of nothingness while he slowly manipulated Ahura to find information about the Devourer race."
"In the next decade, Ahrimon found out a lot about the devourer race through his brother and even discovered ways he could use to lift the penalties placed on him by the cosmos and be free from his eternal agony."
"He even secured a Second transcend Rank barrier from his brother that could hide him from the worldly law eating away his life force, which to this day is keeping him alive and making him spend his days consuming life force."
"Time passed, and no one found out about Ahrimon intentions or his true nature, but he could only hide for so long because as his strength grew, he needed to consume more and more life force, which was not possible as he needed to consume the life force of multiple individuals of similar strength to him,"
"So he moved to cultivate devourer beasts on desolated islands while staying inside the law isolation barrier, keeping his plans as secretive as possible, but unfortunately, one of the guardians luckily found one of his farms, and shortly after that, I found out about it."
"I was surprised by the presence of devourer beasts on a barren island, and it was evident that it was a farm, so I instructed Ezekiel, who had discovered the island, to keep a close watch." "Despite encountering a few challenges, Ezekiel managed to find the culprit, Ahrimon, responsible for the devourer beast, and after that, it did not take long for me to understand the whole story,"
"I understood that Ahrimon was very clearly a monster preparing to take the best option where he would receive the best of benefits while also lifting his penalties."
"The first way Ahrimon could have lifted his penalties was by fulfilling the criteria set by the cosmos, which was not happening, or by replacing his bloodline with a cosmic grade bloodline, and that was also impossible to do in this disconnected world."
"The last option was for him to devourer an individual recognized by the cosmos and acquire his traits, meaning someone who had reached the pinnacle of strength in all three major Rank, meaning a Zenith Mortal."
"It was extremely rare, like one in millennia? thing, to find an individual who could reach a peak in all three major Ranks, and then devouring such a monster on the same Rank was as close to impossible as it could get."
"Because when a devourer consumes a creature, he not only consumes their physical body but he also consumes a remnant of his soul, and before he could do so, he needs to subdue his target soul,"
"All Domain Rulers received assistance in reaching the state of Zenith Mortal, and Ahura was no exception. Ahrimon, having a perfect target, had the intention to use his brother's love for him to manipulate him and achieve his goal." Lady Enigma said as she sighed deeply, shaking her head, and after a few moments of silence, she continued.
"I told Ahura everything, but that fool's love for his brother was too much; he never believed his brother, who sacrificed so much for him, would have such intentions towards him."
"I couldn't convince him to change his mind, nor could I have gone against his wishes and had his brother killed as sooner or later he would have found out the truth and potentially become a fallen,"
"After that times passed and one day, Ahrimon took Ahura to a desolated island where Ezekiel and Nurvyn accompanied him, and having come prepared, he sealed the island, and the battle began."
"Ahrimon, even though backed by multiple demons and devourer fiends, was no match for Ezekiel and Nurvyn, and he would have died that day if not because of the stupidity of Ahura,"
"The battle was stretched for too long, and thousands of demons and devourers were killed, with Ahrimon only keeping his life because Ahura was hell-bent on reasoning with his brother."
"They didn't realize how the barrier that kept them was feeding on the soul energy of the dying, and when it was ready, Ahrimon unleased its power, which in turn made the trio experience great damage to their soul,"
"Ahura, seeing that there was nothing left that he could do to save his brother, accepted his death and used the last of his soul energy to pierce the barrier and send Ezekiel and Nurvyn to safety while he himself burned his soul to end his life with his last words being."
"Big Brother, I would be waiting for you,"
"He was a great brother, no doubt, but a very incompetent leader, so he was never fit to be a Ruler," Lady Enigma said in her emotionless tone.