There was only Madness
Arthur felt the sudden blow impact the side of his face, and he ignored the trail of blood leak out from his cut lip.
The pain from being punched in the face was nothing compared to the experiences that had had gone through in his previous life. Humiliation, or even disgrace, was sometimes far more painful than any physical sort of suffering.
The breaths of some of the Elders hitched, and even Elder Zarek looked at Niklos with slightly widened eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but found that Niklos had already turned his head towards him, interrupting him before he could say anything.
"Elder Zarek. This Rank 2 Fae Master has requested that we punish him instead of punishing the young man behind him. How do you feel about that?".
Elder Zarek glanced at Arthur, and Dagen before turning back towards Niklos. His outward expression cold, but his thoughts were quite calculating and scheming on the inside.
He narrowed his eyes for a moment, stroking his beard trying to appear more sure of his decision.
"Clan Leader. If just any Fae Master could reject the orders of an Elder, especially when it comes to the life and death of one of our other Fae Masters, then the entire order and structure of the Clan would fail, and nothing but chaos would take its place....
"If Arthur here wants to take the punishment for his friend, student, fellow Fae Master then so be it, however, we shouldn't neglect the fact that Arthur here is an important part of the Clan here as well. Being too harsh would result in us negatively impacting a talented member of the younger generation, while being too neglectful would result in seeing more actions like this being taken by other members of the Clan".
Elder Zarek's eyes flickered towards Arthur, a certain glint could be seen within them.
"I understand that Arthur has found something within the Winter Rain Mountains, from before the beast tides hit. Keeping it all to oneself only benefits one individual, and not the rest of the Clan. If Arthur can share the details of his diary to the Clan, then perhaps everything will be settled..... for the time being".
The various Elders standing on the main stage, and even some of the Fae Masters and mortals in the crowd felt their mouths drop and their faces crinkle at the blatant shamelessness of Elder Zarek!
He had just seen Niklos, the Clan Leader smack his son hard enough to cut open his lip, directly in front of the entire Clan. Such a punishment could be considered light, however to most people in the world, getting smacked by your Father in front of several thousand people could be considered a little bit more than just "embarrassing".
It could be considered almost disgraceful. Even if Niklos was just treating Arthur like any other Fae Master right now.
Elder Zarek knew that after Niklos said to punish Arthur, he couldn't push the matter regarding Dagen or Henrik any further. At least not in public with all their dirty laundry hanging out to dry.
All that the Elder could do now, was swallow his pride and blackmail Arthur into giving up this supposed "diary" of his. It was pretty obvious that Elder Zarek didn't even plan on pursuing this matter further, so long as he could get his hands on Arthur's diary.
Elder Velika and Elder Dagan glanced at each other before nodding slightly, confirming something with each other. Elder Vova turned towards Elder Karl and Elder Jakob and nodded slightly as well.
They knew that Arthur's diary contained at least information on Fae Formula, perhaps even a detailed list of Fae abilities, weaknesses, origin essence expenditures and potentially even compatible Fae.
Not to mention a description of Arthur's martial arts, or at least the martial arts that he had based his own style and techniques upon.
These were all extremely valuable things in the eyes of all these Elders.
Leon opened his mouth to speak, but felt two hands get placed on his shoulders. Arthur's second brother turned and noticed both Dominic and Chensa holding him back, shaking their heads slightly.
They were all Rank 2 Fae Masters as well. Even if they were the children of the next Clan Leader, all they would do was implicate their Father further.
Sure, if Niklos really wanted to, he could force all the Elders to obey him, purely with his Rank 4 Fae Master cultivation, however the political structure and the internal alliances within the Clan would fracture. No-one would be able to trust each other, and all those from Fae Master backgrounds would hoard their power and their resources, without sharing with any other family.
Even if they were all Kovacs, they couldn't be considered a Clan.
Arthur glanced at his Father, before turning towards Elder Zarek and sighing before shaking his head.
"Unfortunately Elder Zarek.... the diary doesn't exist in this world anymore. The moment I learnt everything from it, I destroyed it to make sure its secrets wouldn't be shared with the world".
Numerous Elders, not just Elder Zarek all frowned and glared at Arthur when they heard his words. To be perfectly honest, it sounded like the sort of excuse a child would give them.
Elder Zarek snorted slightly and rolled his eyes.
"Arthur, I understand that the diary in your possession is quite the little secret, but I firmly doubt that you managed to grasp all of the knowledge inside of it. You may be talented, perhaps even one of the greatest geniuses the Clan has ever known, but in terms of experience and wisdom.... you are definitely not the match of Elder Vova, or even most of the other Elders.
"Perception of Laws and Attribute Control Skills are one thing, but you haven't researched the relationships between Fae, and the nature of the spiritual essence of the heavens and the earth. The compatibility between types of spiritual essence and Fae materials, or even the understanding of origin essence and how it can be manipulated.
"Just hand over the diary, and I'll forget about any sort of punishment for you, or your friend behind you. You aren't necessarily losing anything in this deal, I'll even use my authority as an Elder to help you exchange Fae and research materials. Anything you want, we will be able to give it to-".
"No".
Elder Zarek paused, obviously due to being interrupted by Arthur mid-sentence.
The single syllable word caused breaths to be hitched, and hearts to stop beating. The sheer amount of shock on the faces of Alina, Ratimir, Borik, Dominic, Leon, Chensa and everyone else, caused their faces to pale in both fear and unadulterated surprise.
Arthur had just rejected his only way out. No-one else could see just how he could escape from this without any sort of punishment or retribution.
Even Niklos, standing right behind Arthur felt his eyes widen, and his expression turn strange as he gazed down at his third born son.
The most talented member of the Kovacs Clan in several generations. Perhaps the most talented member of the Kovacs Clan ever!
Niklos knew that his son was by no means stupid, or idiotic. But from his perspective, from the point of a Clan Leader, there wasn't anything he could do!? Unless Arthur had something up his sleeve, then his hands were tied as Clan Leader!
Arthur gave Elder Zarek a small smile, taking out a book from his pocket, opening it up to the first page. It was a book, that every human being, regardless of whether they were Fae Masters or not, had read, and practically burned into the memories.
It was closer to scripture than anything else.
Elder Zarek narrowed his eyes at Arthur, frowning deeply as he gazed at the book in his hands.
"What to you mean "no" Arthur? If you refuse to accept your punishment, then the Clan can only gift you with more heavy handed discipline! Do you understand me!? Do you understand me Arthur!?".
Arthur gently licked the tip of his thumb, using it to turn the page in the
The leather cover was black. The pages, the actual paper within the book was black. There were no visible words, symbols, phrases or even a single letter from any known alphabet.
It was just a blank, black book. One.... that was the culmination of Arthur's previous life.
He knew what was going to happen today. What "should've" happened today.
He had already defied the time by travelling back to the past, and the existence of the Boundless Forest Yearning had already changed his fate.
..... So why couldn't he change the fate of another?
Arthur smiled gently, opening his mouth to speak. The words he spoke were strangely familiar, yet unlike any version of the
The one that they were all familiar with was written by Humans, however.... none of them had ever read the version by the other Races before.
"Before there was Life.... before there was even Death. There was Nothing. And before there was Nothing..... there was only Madness".