Earth Ancient II

It wasn't a far-fetched assumption to say that the golem was an Ancient. It shared too much of a similarity to Kies to think that it was not.

'Shouldn't that be obvious?' the golem's voice rumbled in Kies' head.

'So is that a yes?'

'...Yes,' the golem grumbled.

Kies was bewildered and also intrigued. He was face to face with another Ancient. It was something that he did not expect nor would have guessed would ever happen. While this was not his first time encountering another Ancient, it was the first that was not an Aeos.

'…You look like you have some questions to ask,' the golem noticed from the surprise in Kies' voice when it introduced itself as an Ancient.

'I do,' Kies said as a matter of fact. '…You won't mind if I ask you a few things, do you?' Actually, few was an understatement. He had a lot of things he wanted to ask the golem, both personal things and for the elves too.

'I have a feeling I already know what you want to ask. The reason why I am awake and not slumbering is that the place that I was resting in has been poisoned. The poison is a powerful one that can destroy magic. I needed to move or else I would have suffocated. You should know what I mean as you are the same as me,' the golem briefly explained his reason as to why it came here.

Kies told the elf everything the golem said, word by word, and watched as the elf's facial expression soured. His teeth were clenched and he looked distressed hearing the golem's explanation.

"Poison… We received several requests for assistance from a village, asking for Sylvs and informing us of a poisoning case. I didn't think it was this severe," the elf muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

The elf's eyes drifted from side to side, looking lost in thought. After a second or two, he told Kies, "I need to tell everyone about this. Try to get as much information out of the golem as you can in the meanwhile." The elf hurried away back to the tree where he was intercepted by the rest of the elves, waiting for an explanation.

Kies turned his focus back to the golem, who informed Kies, 'I do not know any more than that. You have to learn the rest yourself.' It was in response to what the elf aside the golem knew nothing else about the poison.

'That's fine. I still have things I want to ask you though,' Kies told the golem.

'Oh? That wasn't all that you wanted to hear?'

'I want to know more about the Aeos,' Kies requested of the golem. It sounded dumb since he was an Aeos and he should know more about his own race than the golem should, but he never had a proper chance to learn more. Since the golem was probably centuries of years old, it should know something or at least more than Kies.

'You're asking about your own kind? What a peculiar question, but I will amuse you.' Surprised that the golem didn't laugh at him for asking that, Kies listened attentively to the golem as it spoke.

'At the dawn of time, giants walked these lands. We all found our own territory to rule, and you Aeos had the skies all to yourselves.'

The golem stopped and thought about what to say next before continuing. 'The Aeos had no competition at all. We, who dwelled on land fought to protect our territory. Only the rulers of the skies and the rulers of the ocean had their territory all to themselves.'

The golem took another moment to choose its words and then went on, 'Our fights were destructive and destroyed the very land we wished to keep. To prevent further destruction, we created beings and bestowed them with our powers to fight on our behalf.'

So far, the narrative was fitting in with what Kies had already heard from the Stormcaller. He was rehearing the story again, but it confirmed the Stormcaller's words.

'You Aeos were the only ones that did not create warriors to fight on your behalf. You saw no need to… And that became your downfall. The Aeos were the weakest of the Ancients-'

"-We were the what!?" Kies blurted out, interrupting the golem. He was so shocked by this news that he spoke out loud and not telepathically.

'You Aeos were the weakest out of us,' the golem repeated. It didn't sound like it was saying that to make him angry. The Aeos were really the weakest of the Ancient? That was disheartening to hear, but Kies but his tongue and asked the golem to continue.

'Please go on.'

'The Aeos were free in the skies and had no threat to worry about, but despite that, chose to involve themselves in the war. I do not know if it was foolishness or something else, but your kind fought and died. As you are asking me about your kind's history, I assume that you are the youngest and the last of your kind?'

'I'm not the last of my kind, but I am the youngest,' Kies replied.

'There are other survivors of your race? That number must be few then. I never thought there were any alive until I met you just now.' The sound of the earth breaking filled the air with what sounded like the golem laughing. 'Are you planning to finish what your predecessor set out to do?'

Kies nodded his head, which was not the right response as the golem was buried underground and couldn't see but surprisingly, the golem caught it and said, 'That is no easy task. I wish you the best of luck, but that won't be enough.'

That should have been the end of the conversation but Kies lingered around, holding onto one thing in his mind. The golem took notice of it and pondered Kies about it. 'You still have something on your mind. What is it? I have all the time in the world so do ask away.'

'Are Aeos... Are we really the weakest of the Ancients?' Kies dwelled on that statement the golem made and had a hard time believing that. He was able to call down winds so powerful that they could uproot an entire kingdom. Admittedly, his magic was nowhere close compared to the golem's but he was still young and the golem lived for far longer than he did. Despite that, he was able to crack through its armor.

Kies pointed this out to the golem. 'I blew off your legs, didn't I?'

'That, you did. If I can't convince you with words, maybe I can convince you through this...'

'What are you doing?'

Kies found the answer to his question very quickly. Magic surged from the surroundings and poured into the ground like dry dirt with water. With the amount that was going into the dirt, if it all suddenly came back up at once, it was be more destructive than a volcanic eruption. Everything for kilometers would be gone.

If that wasn't frightening enough, the golem then also told Kies, 'This is just a fraction of my powers. I can't do anything more than this or else I attract the attention of the other Ancients.' The magic dispersed in nearly an instant. All of it happened so quickly that none of the elves caught onto it.

Kies was stunned. He never would have thought that the gap was this big. He had really been a frog in a well. He was unmatched when it came to normal everyday people and even some veteran soldiers, but he was nowhere close to the level of those at the top.

Now that he has seen what the Ancients are truly capable of, he could no longer think of himself as someone strong, not when the competition was that.

'But don't be disappointed. You will reach my level in a few centuries.'

'A few centuries?' Kies couldn't tell if the golem was trying to cheer him up or discourage him even more.

'Though, if power is what you pursue, I do have one piece of advice to give you right now.'

'Really? And that is?'

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