A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 210: Mana Heart (2/2)

Chapter 210: Mana Heart (2/2)

"Yes, you seem to have heard of hi- ... Why are you crying?"

’I’m... Crying? Why am I crying? I really need to stop doing that so much.’ I wipe my face clean of my tears before I responded, "I... Don’t know."

*Sigh* "Whatever. Diavlo’s the only other person in the world with a Mana Heart, and I went to inquire him about it when he made his, but apparently, he just got help from his mum which didn’t help at all and I wasn’t about to make a deal with him or his mother to know how exactly he did it and just left some time later." Thalor complained as he threw his arms around in anger.

Then he calmed down and continued talking, "But that’s besides the point. Right now, I’m here to ask you the same thing. So, if you wouldn’t mind, could you please tell us everything you know, so that we can get closer to perfecting this method."

Upon hearing everything he had to say, I felt a little bit better, knowing more about this Diavlo character was someone with notoriety among demon kind. At least in the mortal world.

But that still didn’t mean anything in front of this man. I at least knew that I could leverage my father’s power against him if I was threatened, so I had that going for me.

Regardless, I still had to respond to him. "..." But I didn’t know what to say and I hesitated. I wasn’t sure if I should share this with everyone here. So, I asked them, "Why should I tell you?"

And it seemed that they were expecting such a question by their calm and unfazed response as Thalor put his arms together, making his robes magically fuse together as he answered me, "A fair question. And the reason is so that we can give people a better chance at being able to protect the world."

"You people... I don’t even know who you are! You could be lying for all I know." I yelled in contempt and frustration.

"And that’s because we are a shadow organisation that keeps the world in balance. We are the hands behind the curtain, controlling the stage. We control the flow of history both metaphorically and literally." He spouted with exaggerated movements before all the robed figures all raised their hands together in a V shape and chanted together.

"WE ARE THE ILLUMINATI!!! THE HAND THAT CONTROLS THE WORLD! THE ALL-SEEING EYE!! WE ARE THE ARCHITECTS OF DESTINY, AND THE WEAVERS OF TIME!!! In tenebris lumen invenimus, Ad astra, per tenebras, Tempus omnia revelat, Sapientia et potential!!!!!"

The area around us started to change and we found ourselves in a completely darkened room, yet there was some sort of source of light, not that I needed it, but it just seemed to be what the room normally looked like.

Surrounding me was some sort of Tribunal Dias made from thick, large and shiny black bricks with the all of the robed individuals in seats behind the stands, with some on an even higher level behind them, signifying their higher status. And sat all the way at the top upon an ornate throne with a small crystal light of sorts to shine down upon him and him only, was Thalor.

This prestigious man then stood up and boisterously welcomed us to their apparent headquarters.

They then started to prattle on about themselves more, "Welcome, to the Illuminati!!! Here is where we conduct our meetings to decide how history itself should play out. How we direct the world to the best version of itself. And to lock away forbidden knowledge that the world is either not ready for or cannot handle. We are the secret society that influences people to make decisions when they themselves cannot decide. We-"

"Alright, we get, please shut up." I complained loudly whilst throwing my head back in boredom, which thankfully shut them up. It was then that I noticed that Kronia was here with me and was just as confused about everything as I was.

*Cough* "I apologise for spouting such unnecessary details constantly. Now, onto why we brought you here. It is so that you can see that we are a powerful organisation, but also to show you that we demand our secrecy by the way that we hide in the shadows to do our work, and as mentioned before, we are the keepers of forbidden knowledge, which is why you’re here, to share said knowledge."

I stared up at Thalor who was the only one who had spoken directly to me at this point, the rest only being part of that weird chant that brought us here, and it was really tiring on my neck because he was like four rows up or something and that was really high up so I had to strain my neck just to look at him.

"I’ve asked this already, but why should I tell you? I mean, I know you just want to increase the odds of recreating my Mana Heart or whatever, but what’s the real goal behind this? It surely can’t just be to better protect the world. Also, what do I gain by telling you all of this?" I went and rambled on and battered their supposed goals and ambitions.

But with the same calm and composed tone of voice, Thalor responded, "It’s only natural that you would want something of equal worth in return, and we will give you something, but it only depends on the value of the information provided."

Then, out of nowhere, Kronia spoke up, "Hold on a second! I still don’t understand what’s happening!"

"Kronia... You speak as if you have no ears. You have heard well enough what our intentions are, and it is nothing more than that. And to answer what we really intend to do with this information? Honestly, not much. I doubt it will be enough to actually increase the odds of success."

"You want this information even though it doesn’t help?" Kronia screamed in bewilderment, her eyes bulging out of her sockets in disbelief.

"Forgive me, I misspoke, it won’t help much now, but it will be useful for the future, because it will increase the success rate, provided we can replicate some of these things."

"That said, are you willing to tell us this information or not?" Thalor looked back and addressed me with an intimidating aura, "Because if not, you will forget everything you saw today regarding us."

I tensed up upon feeling Thalor’s aura focus solely on me. It was incredibly powerful, and yet, I could feel that this was just a small portion of his strength. So, with no other choice, I decided to tell them everything I knew in chronological order.

Starting with Kronia teaching me how to make a Mana core, that made a few of the people before us shift slightly as papers appeared out of nowhere in their hands and they began inscribing stuff on them.

Then I explained how I idiotically chose to put it directly in my heart, which hurt like hell. I wasn’t quite sure why it exploded when Kronia stopped me and explained why.

Apparently the toll of creating my Mana Core the way I did it, where I did it, and how powerful I managed to make it had put its toll on my body physically, and when I relaxed, my body wanted to expel the foreign force that caused my body such distress, which caused it to explode, killing me in both body and soul as the spatial flames annihilated all traces of my soul.

"Wait, but you’re alive right now. How could you have possibly survived such a thing?" One of the other robed members questioned. It was a woman with a mature allure to her, yet there was a slight grittiness to her voice that spoke of her age and possible experiences.

"Well, apparently, deep within my soul are two entities of extreme power and origin." I revealed, my voice rather silent as I wasn’t sure how they’d react to that information.

When they heard it, they all stopped what they were doing and looked directly at me, which, with how powerful all of them seemed, was really terrifying.

"This... Isn’t unheard of..." A deep, gravelly yet scholarly voice called out from a larger framed figure.

"Right... Tell us little serpentine, what are the names of these entities?" The woman from earlier asked, referring to me as a serpentine as I hadn’t actually introduced myself formally yet, and Kronia hadn’t spoken my name yet either when she gave her explanation just a few moments ago.

I gulped down my fears as the pressure from their expectations were palpable. And after taking a deep breath, I told them their names.

"Nachash and Ouroboros."

They all went silent and their aura’s retracted completely back into themselves as they heard those names.

I continued speaking, "I-I don’t actually know anything about the latter other than their name, but I know a bit about the former from my father."

"..." They didn’t say anything as they all seemed too stunned by the names I had said before.

I then saw Thalor shaking his head before he spoke up, "Let’s... let’s ignore that for now. Please continue with your explanation." This got everyone else to snap out of their trance as well.

"Okay..." I said somewhat meekly as I continued to explain how I woke up inside my soulscape where those two resided inside of me, and how they, or more specifically Ouroboros helped me survive that ordeal with my unique skill [Death Resistance].

"Wait, wait, wait, wait... You have a Soul Scroll?" One of the other robed figures with an indistinguishable voice due to how distorted it was cried out.

"Umm... Yes?"

This robed person then took a very deep breath before he just ushered for me to continue.

So, I did. I went on to explain how Ouroboros used the power of the spatial flames that should’ve killed me to guard my soul somehow and accidentally used the remaining power along with the shards of the shattered Mana Core still within my heart and used the remnant power to fuse it all together.

I also told them how Ouroboros said that without the power of my bloodlines, my heart wouldn’t have been able to survive that process.

And when I finished, the room became dead silent.