Divine Plan

"… Hmm, I never saw eyes like yours young boy!" says the prince, as he closely examined Levon's appearance.

The latter remains silent.

"So, are you one of their spies? I don't ever recall seeing the likes of you, even your clothes are weird. Could it be that the dregs have finally sent some help to their old baby Nathan?"

"Hahahahahahahaha!!!" The rest hysterically laugh at their leader's joke.

'They're talking about the geezer I met underground! He did mention something about being sent by the "elites"… this man is calling them another name that I have no idea what it means… I better know what I'm saying or else I will be considered an enemy.' Says Levon in his mind.

"I don't know what you are talking about, no one sent me here… And I don't even know what is happening in this place." He replies.

The boss' right eyebrow was raised. "Really? You mean to tell me you don't know about the re-capture of the world's most valuable place!? BUAHAHAHHAHAH!! You're a funny little man, aren't you?"

Levon keeps a straight stoned face while seeing everybody laughing in front of him, it was a bit annoying for him though. Suddenly, the big man quickly turns his laugh into a serious menacing look!

"Listen here, you caught us at a good day. As you see, it is a matter of days before we seize control and bring back the glory of old times, One willing. But don't be playing a fool or else you might be quickly done with."

Levon realizes how tight his ground is turning, he looks sideways to the left… But the prince grabs him from the face and looks him dead in the eye. "Who are you?"

Graham hates being touched, but he has no other choice except to comply. "...I am not from here, I stumbled on this place by accident.

This is the… truth."

2 seconds later, the prince removes his hand from Levon's face and turns back to his men, then starts walking. "…The truth you say, I'm surprised there are still some who use this word other than us. But I'm afraid what you're saying is not the truth.

Qays!" He calls on to one he captured Levon. "Give me the sword."

"Yes sir!" He comes running and hands him a refined yet simple looking sword. The prince turns yet again towards the prisoner and approaches him slowly.

Graham's heart is starting to beat furiously!

'This is not good. He seems to be serious about killing me!! What should I do? How can I convince him!??

THINK LEVON

THINK!!!"

…

"You're the strugglers, right?" Levon abruptly asks.

"Yes, we are, so you finally decided to speak?"

Levon. "It is true that I don't know a lot about this war, but I came to know more..."

The prince. "Is that so? Why were you then hiding and watching the base closely?"

Levon. "I was afraid of your reaction if I came walking right towards you, I'm pretty sure you were going to shoot me dead."

The prince looks at his men one by one, and so they did, then he casually says. "These fools were busy chanting their poems, they're shooting nobody these days.

But tell me, where did you come from? You do look like a foreigner, but the reason we suspect you is that the enemy also uses people from other countries against us. We're in fact fighting the whole world."

Levon takes few seconds before he answers this question, he's reaching back to his strong memory, for a word he read on one of the images he saw in the album Elena gave him a couple months ago. '...It is only a possibility, that the name I read below that image was her country's name, but it is my only choice.

How stupid I was, not to search about countries before the natural revolution…' He contemplates.

Tentatively, he says. "Euh, I came from Bulgaria."

The prince puts his fingers on his chin. "Hmm! Bulgaria… Is that where people have different eye colors? I haven't heard much about that place in my life… Anybody else here knows about it?" asking his men.

*Cricket sounds*

"Nobody, I guess. Well, isn't this your good day as well? We can't even check if what you're saying is true. But anyways, what made you come all the way from Bulgaria to Holy?"

Levon. "…Things aren't going very well there either. So, I started traveling from one place to another, until I got here..."

"You're a weird one I must say, I don't think anyone can come up with ridiculous lies like the ones you're saying if they were truly spies. So, I might believe you…

What is your name young man?" The prince gets more and more relaxed, he thrusts the sword in the soil, rests his hand on top of its sheath and listens."

After few questions, which Levon completely improvised answers for that sounded silly yet believable in such context (accidently) The prince decides to set Levon's hands free.

The prince puts his huge arms on Levon's shoulders as if he was his friend and says. "You must be hungry? Our women are preparing some food, it's about time they serve it.

Would you like to join us? I got some things to discuss with you.."

Levon is quite surprised of this offer. "…Why didn't you discuss them with me moments ago?"

The prince. "Well, it wasn't the right moment."

'…I made it past death, but I have yet to make it past the challenge, I realize that the longer I pass time here, the more I am starting to believe this is reality itself… It's quite unreal." Levon thinks to himself.

He accepts the invitation! They started walking towards a large black tent built on a beautiful green hill. Levon's eyes were admiring the landscape, little kids were playing in the field, even domestic animals were casually eating grass and moving their tails…

The prince notices how the newcomer is haunted by the view and asks. "Don't you have them in Bulgaria?"

"…No, we don't." Graham answers without shifting his eyesight towards the prince.

After a moment of silence, he expressed himself even further, something he rarely ever does! "…where I came from, it's mostly grey and gloomy… the buildings, streets, even the sky is that way."

He may not be describing Bulgaria as it truly is, but he sure was describing where he came from.

"That is depressing, no wonder why you look emotionless…

But I'm not surprised to hear so, this is what the world has come to be. Humans are so far detached from anything natural, they only care about money, pleasure, and themselves…" The prince calmly says.

Only then, Levon looked towards him for few seconds.

"…Let's enter, food is on the table."

Inside the tent, it was a different setting than any other Levon has seen, no seats, no couches, no technology… only the ground gave him a similar sensation to the one he felt back when he visited King Axel in his twin tower castle. the sides had pillows scattered on the ground, and the tables were too small and low compared to the ones he is accustomed to.

As he didn't know how to act, one of the strugglers took him by the hand and showed him where and how to sit.

Everyone sat closely to one another, Levon, the prince, and another man gathered around one table to continue their discussion.

"I guess you won't know how to eat this, so just mimic my movement okay?"

'…He's eating it with his bare hand, using another piece of food… I never seen that before' Levon expresses his amazement internally.

"This is called bread. We use it to eat pretty much everything hahaha! It's a bit tasteless on its' own, but somehow it makes every other food taste better.

Try it man, you'll not regret it."

Graham imitates him, he looked clumsy trying to catch the food using bread, even a super genius like him won't be able to learn that on the spot. But at least, he gets the job done as it reached his mouth.

"So how did you find it?" The prince asks.

"…Great, I find it great!" Levon looks quite impressed, he never tasted something like this.

The prince. "I'm glad you like it. Anyways, you said you came here to know more about the situation here, right?"

Levon, with a full mouth. "Yes, I did."

"Well, I'll give you a brief history. I'm still not sure how you don't know these things, it has been an international issue for more than a century, but anyways…

Once upon a time, our ancestors ruled this land, and they ruled it with power, justice and divine authority. But sadly, our powers got weaker due to different reasons I can't tell you about now. Due to the significance of this land, several other nations had eyes on it… I must put to your notice that it is the land conquered the most of every other place in the world. Its' value is not measured by material goods, in fact it provides little concrete advantages, yet wars and lives were put on the line for it, it's something beyond human comprehension…

Long story short, the world plotted against us, those who were once enemies became friends so they could just take our land and call it theirs, when we welcomed them before peacefully as our guests. They invaded us, claiming it's originally theirs, killed our grandfathers and destroyed our grandmothers' homes one by one… while they built their own on the graves of our martyrs. It remained the case for more than a hundred years, until our father had enough! The strugglers from all over the world were united once again, and we swore to take what is ours and remove the injustice inflected upon us.

And this is only the beginning, we won't stop until the whole world is under the rule of the One. This is our goal, earth today has reached its utmost level of corruption, there is no salvation for humans except by doing this. I believe you understand what I'm telling you, you're a living proof of what the human condition has turned into under their imperfect, oppressive, and straying rulership."

Levon was attentively listening, though the food was so delicious he unconsciously didn't stop eating from it. But there are many questions going around his mind yet again.

"…It sounds like a big plan, will be you able to accomplish that? Especially that you mentioned how the whole world is your enemy. And why are they your enemy if you're trying to help them?" He questions.

The prince smiles. "Sometimes we ask this ourselves, but you must know, that only very few are able to know the Truth, and even fewer of them can accept Truth for what it is.

And regardless of how many of them stand with us or against us, it doesn't matter. We're not doing this for ourselves, we're doing it because it is in fact, the Truth.

Truth, can never be wrong."

Only now, he could not eat while hearing such words enter his mind. '…Is this what truth really means? How come that something can never be wrong? It is unconceivable to me, everything is falsifiable. What we thought is right was constantly proven to be wrong, this is a never-ending cycle.

Yet…' Levon gazes at the prince's determined black eyes. '…why does he look so sure when he says that?'

The prince finishes his meal, licks the tips of his fingers, and then…

"Well, I was going to propose something to you Levon. You look quite young and healthy, though you might use some muscle training.

Wouldn't you find it worthwhile to join us?

Become part of us, the strugglers, who will free the world from the shambles of darkness."

…

..

.

Right at this decisive moment, the watch gave its signal!

This challenge is over.

The imagery froze, and the question manifested itself in front of the cultivator…