The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 330: The Black Cat (2)

Chapter 330: The Black Cat (2)

"Wrixia? But why?"

Hex didn’t expect the one known as the Oldest One to be the one to influence Medina. Didn’t the cat say the tree helped absorb and, as such, contain the Divinities from destroying all life?

For power. What else?

"I still don’t get it. The Oldest One is at the Taboo Stage, it controls the center of the world, has the most variety of lifeforms...what power does it seek?"

Power, no matter how much one has, never seems enough. You believe the Old One has enough power? What about the Godking? Didn’t he have enough power? He helped create everything and ruled everything within creation, yet sought power. Power of eternity. The Gods, the Divine Lord, the Taboos, all seek that same thing. Eternal power.

"So they are afraid to die. Even with a life spanning Ages, they wish to exist through Time."

He summarized the best way he could understand the issue. He had seen plenty of people or creatures strive to live a bit longer. All, so they could fight and conspire to live a bit longer and longer.

You could put it that way.

"And why influence a little innocent girl over such an ambition?"

That baffled him more. Even if he could understand the need to exist for eternity, he still struggled to grasp how a little girl could help achieve a dream that alluded to even the Gods.

Medina wasn’t...isn’t the only one under the influence of higher powers. As far as I know, more than seventy-five percent of all life has been corrupted. Only a few, with a Will surpassing normal limits, have kept the corruption at a minimum.

"To do what exactly?" Hex fired question after question, displaying his confusion. "The Gods are dead."

The cat didn’t reply immediately. It sniffed and looked at Hex with curiosity.

"What?" Hex asked after seeing it eye him with interest.

Nothing. I didn’t expect you to have no influence and no strings of fate attached to you. I realized it only now.

"So?" He shook his head and looked back at the cat. "No, first answer my question and without being cryptic about it."

You are no fun.

The cat seemed to smile as if it had been teasing Hex.

The Taboos and Gods wish to exist for eternity. To do so, they need a great source of energy. Spirits are an excellent source. By granting Blessings to any being, not only Heavens, any of them can transform the souls little by little into a great energy resource.

Wrixia went one step further. It wished to infuse some of the weaker Wills into humans so he could harvest them when the time came.

"But you said a seal of sorts prevents the tree from absorbing the divinities completely."

Blessing of life. And that is what Wrixia chose Medina to remove.

Hex blinked blankly at the cat, who met each blink of his with a bemused blink of its.

"Wait. So the tree wished to remove the Blessing and chose Medina for it. And that brought some changes. But why let her steal? Why not bestow it?"

It all seemed a bit too convoluted. Wouldn’t it be safer to just Bless the little girl without a Blessing? It seemed such a roundabout way to achieve a goal.

It couldn’t. The backlash of the seal would weaken it to the point the other Wills, those of the deities, would overwhelm its Will.

It convinced Medina that the Blessing of life would help her solve her problems.

"And she believed? It seemed a bit too desperate, didn’t it? She never strikes me as someone who reached that point when I read passages from her diary."

Selena, the sister as she was named at birth, was on the verge of losing her Saintess status, so...

The cat didn’t complete the sentence. It didn’t need to do so. Hex understood it.

For some reason, he had yet to uncover if he ever could; Medina would happily take every and all risks to see her sister retain her post and title.

"What happened then?"

She was targeted. Somehow, she escaped. The last I know, she left Wrixia when she learned that an empire on the continent, near the Endless Mountain, existed with a ruler considered the most powerful clan in the world. She even uncovered a secret parchment that pointed at the ruler having the Godking’s bloodline.

Selene, her sister, came to me after some time. Once she learned the destination Medina was headed to, she left in search of her.

"That’s how they reached up north and met the baron," Hex murmured, finally filling the pieces of the puzzle, albeit a small piece of the overall puzzle. The more he learned, the more he understood how fast and long the history of the world was.

Baron?

Hex wasn’t surprised the cat didn’t know his master. From the scrolls, he gathered that his master never visited Wrixia.

"Mikhael Lichtenmane. He is my master and Selene’s husband. He is the one who decided to keep me alive, and considered me part of Selene, which is why he didn’t kill me."

Mikhael? The Invincible Knight? The one who absorbed the Will of the God of Justice and refined it?

The cat’s excitement at hearing the name of his master caught him off guard. Plus, the titles.

He had heard his master never suffered a defeat but he didn’t know his master refined a God’s Will.

"Refined a God’s Will?"

Yeah. Actually, only when Medina heard about his feat from some secret source, did she get inspired to travel to that Empire. She said she had to meet that man to free herself.

"And left you behind? For what?"

Seeing the cracks appear in the cat’s appearance, Hex knew his time was limited. So, he asked, hoping to know what the purpose of the cat was.

Left me?

I belong here. After all, I am one of the remnant Wills absorbed by Wrixia. The Will used to balance the Blessing of Life, as I was the Goddess of Death.