Chapter 29 : The Starlit Library

Satoru began to look around the library, which contained very little windows, only a few placed on the highest parts of the wall. 

Checking behind the counters, in the bathroom, for some reason a kitchen and the room behind the counter, he heard someone coming in through the front door.

Hiding behind a large bookcase, he checked to see who it was and it appeared to be an old man with long gray hair, circular glasses, dressed in a brown attire with a book in his hand.

The man placed the book onto the counter slowly and turned to look around the library, as if he had sensed something.

"Who's there.. Come out and show yourself!" the old man said as he slowly took out a knife from up his sleeve.

Satoru walked out from behind the bookshelf and began saying : "It's only me-"

Being interrupted by the older man who acted like he was programmed : "Intruder."

The older man began running at the boy. He was quite slow because he was both old and a librarian at most...

Satoru saw this, sighed and murmured : "Great.." as he vanished from his position and appeared right in front of the old man, sweeping him off his legs and making him fall to the ground.

He kipped up and quickly applied lightning to his hand, making it flicker with the old man saying : "Don't you dare-"

Lightning was applied to his hand and he channeled it all into his pointing finger from his hand and touched the forehead of the old guy.

Immediately he began shaking like he was having a seizure at the same time whilst being struck by weaker doses of lightning.

After a few seconds, Satoru let go and backed away while he laid there no longer moving and his eyes now closed.

"Is he dead?"

Satoru sat down on the chair and waited, gazing at the body for nonstop for the next 20 minutes.

After about that time, the old man's eyes began to open up as he sat up and looked at the boy in confusion.

"What.. What the hell are you doing here?" the old man asked.

Satoru stood up from the chair and helped the man up : "I'm here to gain information from you, Eldric, about the location of the Gods bearing the hollows."

"Ah.. So you too are a believer of the ones above.. Did you know Zeus spoke to me once?! Amazing memory.. Amazing indeed... Unfortunately for you, my information doesn't come for free." said the man as he got behind the counter

"Of course it doesn't..." Satoru said "What are my options for paying?"

The old man pointed at his axe but the boy refused. 

He thought for a second and told him an alternative way : "Well you see... Before the demon eyed clan came here and did their voodoo on everyone, I was on my way to the 'town' square and there I lost a lot of valuable books. You could go fetch them for me in exchange for information." the old man offered.

Without hesitation the boy replied quickly back "Everything is swarming with demon eyes, I can't do that."

The man placed the book from the counter onto the shelf and said : "Well.. If you have 1.5k gold coin I can tell you..."

"Why is this piece of information so damn expensive? It's likely that it's not even accurate or real." Satoru said, not wanting to spend 1.5 gold coins so quick.

The old man chuckled and adjusted his slipping glasses : "It's you who requires my services and information, not the other way around. But I will tell you this, something that no one has managed to win... Another way for me to tell you the info is in an exchange of the same value. Equivalent exchange, if you will. You tell me something that I don't know, and I know everything, including your name, Satoru. And if you managed to reveal to me something so good and something that I do not know, I will tell you what you want to know."

He gave it a thought. About what to tell him in particular, not if he can deliver the good info.

"The Gods..." the white haired boy said : "I've killed them, a few of them. Anubis, Thor, Varuna and Janus."

The librarian began to laugh, not believing in him and asking for proof.

"You know about the story of the white thunder shard that was Thor's then given to Janus by Odin because he feared that his own son would overthrow him from the power he'd receive and could master?"

"I do." said the librarian confidently.

"Well then..." 

Satoru performed a sign with his hands and white thunder began to surround it and flicker from his hands.

"This doesn't prove anything. There have been cases where people were born with an ability of white thunder.." the librarian said, not believing him.

The boy performed the signs and teleported in front of the old man whose eyes widened as he couldn't even see it. 

"Impossible..."

Satoru knew that the old man was beginning to believe it now, almost smiling but remaining his neutral expression.

"Varuna, the Goddess of Insects that was hidden in a hive in Nimbu nations Sighzen's outskirts. Anubis hidden in the lair below Dune nation's Dune village. Thor in a large palace on an island in Nimbu nation and Janus-"

"Okay okay! I find it a high honor that you were able to meet them, but kill them... I definitely refuse to believe that. Even so with what you've told me, I still don't think that's enough." said Eldric

Satoru sighed and sat down on the wooden table "I'm a God too. Took Thor's place and became the God of Thunder."

Waving his head in a sign of not believing him, he looked at the boy and asked him how he was able to do it, to take the place. 

"I absorbed his energy and claimed the title." Satoru said, being sure that he'll believe now.

"Aha!" Eldric exclaimed. "That's wrong! You undergo a trial by Zeus and he gives you the title himself! Nice try, but you can't fool me with that one!"

Finding it hilarious, Satoru chuckled a little bit and told him that he's wrong, handing him the axe even which he couldn't even budge just like everyone else.

Being surprised by it, he decided to offer something new to the white haired boy.

"250 gold coin and I will give you the info. My interest has been piqued by what you've told me!"

"Deal."

He handed him 250 worth of gold coin and he accepted it, took a piece of paper and wrote down what Satoru wanted to know, but of course not all went according to plan.

The doors of the Starlit library began to open and the boy quickly and swiftly vanished from sight, up onto the bookcase and hid himself.

3 demon eye wielders walked in and approached the library owner. Eldric didn't break character. They asked him about if he had blueprints of multiple nation's villages and seeing as he's under their control, or so that's what they believed, he had to give them with no word or expression.

Underneath the expressionless face he upheld, he was fuming with anger from giving out stuff for free. They began to look at the maps and left, saying how it'll please Ishoki that they've obtained more.

Satoru dropped down from the large bookcase and went to Eldric once more who continued writing the info down and murmuring, though Satoru could clearly hear him. "Damned fuckers... If only someone just killed them already.. You know what the worst thing is, Satoru? It's the fact that all my memories remain of what I gave them, the free information I simply had to give... And that Mage too-"

"Wait, what Mage?" Satoru interrupted him out of curiosity, remembering that a rogue mage was in fact helping and working alongside, if not for, Ishoki.

The old man began to write the last name on the piece of paper : "I didn't get a good look at him, but from my knowledge, which is rarely ever wrong of course, I could swear that it's Mirazora's most hunted rogue Mage, Varek."

"Mirazora is the place that Elara mentioned where Mage's are taught magic. If one can avoid the entirety of Mirazora and remain a rogue that must mean he's strong.."

"I see" said Satoru 

Eldric handed him the piece of paper and Satoru quickly checked it to see what was written down.

"Hephaestus, location unknown, last rumored to be seen 200 years ago in meet with Hades."

"Poseidon, Haze nation, in Murkside Village near a cave where he openly greets followers"

"Hanuman, Ember nation, Blaze village, he likes to swing and collect fruits there at dusk"

"Hermes, really unknown, rumored occasionally in Larkspur village with Tithonus"

"Tithonus, often in Larkspur if not unknown, with Hermes almost all the time."

"Amphridite, Poseidon's wife and also in Murkside, mostly by his side."

After reading it, Satoru thanked Eldric who offered something else as well.

"Wait up... The white thunder shard may be giving you a good, versatile and useful ability but you can always expand your arsenal with it. I could give you a manuscript dropped from the Gods themselves!"

"Okay that sounds good and for how much?"

"Only 3000 gold coin" said the old man as he smiled

Satoru was baffled when he heard that price, even raising his left eyebrow thinking it was a joke but it wasn't. Instead of declining, he negotiated.

"How about this.. I'll give you 150 gold coin BUT I'll also have this entire village freed from the demon eyes and have this entire conflict regarding them stop and cease to exist. I only ask for 3 weeks time." the boy offered him.

The old librarian thought about it and decided to add another term. "Deal, but if you fail to do so, I will let the entire world know your secret."

"Deal." Satoru said.

The old man pulled out the folded manuscript which looked really old, similar to the papers Karoi had in his cave lair with Korama. He went to take it but the old man still held onto them. He looked him in the eyes and saw the unwillingness to give it so he pulled slightly harder and took them, giving him 150 worth of gold coin.

"I sure hope it's worth the hassle losing another 150 gold... Not even that, I hope that this manuscript actually is real and not a scam. I guess we'll wait and see."

Thanking him once more, he told Satoru that there's an underground exit from the library's bathroom into the village's cave's beneath it that lead out of it. 

Eldric showed him the way and Satoru left, following it and emerging out from a very small cave entrance which could be mistaken as a tiny coyote den entrance.

"He wasn't so bad. I'll contact Karoi and Elara, tell them about the Mage and that they need to free this village."

"After that I should set my sight on a God to kill first."

He took out his shinphone and dialed Karoi, who answered quickly.

There wasn't much interesting conversating going apart from him telling him that he has obtained the information and that he should transfer the information to Elara about Varek as well as told him about the deal he made with Eldric about the village's liberation.

Karoi told him that he'll get to it quick and that it's actually not just useful to Elara, but to him too about the Mage that's helping Ishoki.

Closing out the transmission, Satoru began to head away from the village and did eeny, meeny, miny, moe on the list, landing on Hanuman and deciding to go after him first.

With that now chosen, Satoru used the bifrost to head to Blaze Village to go kill the God of Monkeys.