Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 264: History

Chapter 264: History

As he was thinking, he browsed through the books on the shelf. Information was necessary. He needed to know the inner workings of the gates and why they functioned the way they did. Too busy with Marta and David, he hadn’t been able to do a proper scope of the matter.

Architects.

That was his biggest hint. In half an hour he read through a hundred books. The Greek Kazi found the title "Architect" many times. The term architect was mentioned specifically with Athena and the gods that led the parts of the White Abyss.

’Athena allegedly goes to a gate after it is complete and is able to steal the inventory of dead players.’

Athena oversaw the House of Wisdom and yet nobody had seen her in a long time. Kazi tried to find the specific source for this whole rumour about Athena taking stuff from the corpses of players. He flipped through a hundred more books and journals. Every statement on Athena’s theft traced back to the beginning of the Heavenly Era.

’But reality cannot be denied. The weaponry of old players is indeed recycled. In the Hall of Players, you see the weaponry of some of the dead players. Not to mention there is a huge black market for old weapons in the Underground. So someone is bringing the weapons back and...’ Kazi flipped through a couple pages. ’It might not just be Athena either.’

The Underground was as its named suggested: an underground society in the Nebulous Bazaar that hosted the worst of the worst. Somehow, this place was where half the lost weapons of previous eras ended up.

’We have Thoth’s remarks on Cain and now Athena who is said to bring back inventories for the Hall of Players, which contradicts the black market in the Underground. Either Athena is for some reason going against the Architects, she is allowed to do this which would contradict her personality, or another Architect is selling it. Out of the three possibilities, two times the Architects aren’t on the same page. There’s discord.’

Where there was discord, there were differing ideologies. What was the hierarchy, the structure of the Architects that caused this discord?

Kazi went to books because history was man’s best friend toward understanding.

But for what he thought, history could not help. Though the term Architect was sprinkled throughout history and vaguely defined, it was not a thoroughly-researched either. Names were given: Minerva of the Hall of Players; Toth, Brigid, Saraswati, and Athena of the House of Wisdom; Dionysus, Acratopotes, Rāgarāja, and Du Kang of the Endless Bar; Tvastar and Hephaestus of Tvastar’s Forge; and finally, Michael the Archangel and Týr the God of War of Valhalla’s Colosseum.

Names but not meaning. The Heavenly Games existed and became as it was during the Chaotic Era.

Pick up, read, close. Pick up, read, close.

’The Great Three, the Seven Great Mysteries...so much stuff but so little telling me about Architects.’

Kazi zoomed through dozens of books. History of gates, history of gods written by their cults, history of particular guilds...

Kazi did eventually learn something. In a book that tried to explain the beginning of the Heavenly Games, he learned of a widely accepted scholarly theory.

The gods came together to form the Heavenly Games but...what happened before that? Well, here was the scholarly answer:

’Before the Chaotic Era, before a single tournament was created, every pantheon did their own tournament. Their own games. The first were, well, this part is debated but it was either the Greeks with their Olympic games or the Minoans with their Minoan Games. And then, one day, a god went and suggested the idea of the Heavenly Games to the others.’

The name of the god was not given. But according to all sources of the theory, it was indeed a god. And this claim was confirmed by the first Lord of the Old Mage Tower: Dedi. He allegedly interviewed many gods to gain this information. The books Kazi read cited a specific work of Dedi’s.

"The Heavenly Beginning..." Kazi muttered. That was the name of Dedi’s thesis. Over twenty books mentioned it in various contexts. "It was Dedi’s one and only thesis too. Hrm..."

Something was amiss. The Heavenly Beginning was not here in the House of Wisdom.

’And none of the librarians are here too.’

Thoth left. The others weren’t here either. The players here with Kazi were searching, to no avail. Kazi couldn’t sense them too.

Was this the end then? Was this all he could learn?

Cain. The world’s first killer. Why was he an architect? Architects led the institutions of the Heavenly Tower. What did it mean to be an Architect? What did they create? Did they create at all? So many questions and nothing to answer them...

"Ohhh. It’s you!"

Behind him erupted a high-pitched voice and running steps. It was a young man in his twenties with what Kazi could only describe as a weak aura. His clothes were old, dark, and wrinkly and he was half a head shorter than him.

"Hi, hi!" The mop of black hair bowed down to him. "I’m Riku! I, uh, doubt you remember me, mister, but you saved me during Gate 10! Thank you! Thank you very much!"

Very formal. Combined with his name and appearance, he must have been Japanese. Kazi looked him over. That day, he saw and saved hundreds. Some of them, he didn’t even see. However, this young man, he did. "I do remember you. You were on the shore."

Riku’s smile became brighter. "Yes! I...I just wanted to thank you. You saved me! Not just me, but my friends too! If it wasn’t for you..."

"No need." Kazi figured he wanted to give him a gift or a favour. "I did what I had to do. I couldn’t just let people die."

"Thank you again!" Riku bowed eagerly. "Ah, are you looking for a book? Do you want me to help you?"

"Why not," Kazi said. Then came his smile. "I could use a good hand."

Riku didn’t leave his side for the next hour and a half. Kazi researched and Riku assisted however he could. It was the least he could do, he said. Kazi swept through a hundred more books. History on the Architects seemed dry though.

’Although memorizing the history of gates isn’t a complete waste of time.’

When Kazi flipped through pages, to everyone else, it appeared as though he was skimming. He wasn’t. He was burning every little page into his mind. He rarely employed the skill since he was more of a tinkerer. He did his best to discover new ways of doing things and did not stop until he did. In his old life, he spent much of his off-time fiddling with cars, phones, and electronics with hardware. This lust for experimentation extended toward cooking too. Travelling around the world had given him a unique and open-minded palette.

It also got him accustomed to the looks he got. At the library, at the mall, it didn’t matter. He tended to receives stares. Kazi always tried to simmer down what his friends called "the magnet", which was a combination of smiles and looks that could melt anyone. Politician, king, or a saint, he could go in and convince them to do almost anything.

Kazi disliked his own magnetism so he never turned it on to the maximum, even during negotiations like with Prince Yuzin. There was a huge downside to it. The higher the opinion someone had of him, the larger the crash when his "magnet" charisma left them. It could be days, weeks, or months, or maybe never for the select few; but for the opposing few that did not stick with, the consequences could be dire. In his past life, he met politicians that became downright terrified of him.

So with someone like Riku, he smiled and talked the bare-minimum. He tried to focus on the books he received.

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