Gathering Information

He dreamt, and he slumbered. Under the darkness of his eyelids, he saw an entirely different world, littered with stars and angelic symbols, representing the concepts of all.

His eyes were closed, and he could see nothing, and yet, he could also see everything, all at once. This place was so profound that, if not for this place being a mere dream, his body would even become distorted, with the sheer power of these concepts exposed to him.

"Is this… the Realm of Gods?" Cairo asked himself, and, a mere moment later, a heavenly voice answered him.

{Indeed, it is. Far beyond the comprehension of mortals, We exist in a heavenly palace, where We can eat fruit and ambrosia, and dance to the delightful music of the humans below.}

"…Who… wait… this is a dream, right?" Cairo asked, confused, "Why can't I see anything? I can't even talk, and can only think… what exactly is this place?"

{Be calm, for it is only a dream. Just an ordinary dream. But, I am not ordinary, I am what is out of place here. As I am a higher being, who is intrigued by you and wishes to tell you things.}

"A higher being? What do you mean by that?"

{Remember what Primordial Secret has told you. About the Gods. About Us. There are things it has yet to explain, that I shall explain to you.}

{First of all, I am a Quasi-God. Otherwise known as a Tertiary Deity. Us Quasi-Gods rule over the earthly concepts, like lightning, wind, water, thoughts…}

"Wait… what…? You're… you're a Deity… no, a "God"?! How… why is a God speaking to me, someone so lowly…"

{…Such self-degradation is unnecessary. And, it is not "me" who speaking to you, but a vessel of "me", simply telling you information that some humans already know. This world cannot handle the Gods, after all. However, this is knowledge that is crucial to you, so you have no choice but to listen.}

{What must know is that We have chosen you. You are now bound to the Loom of Fate, held by the True Gods, the Primary Deities. But, things are not looking good for you.}

"Why?"

{Corruption has rooted itself in these lands, despite the presence of the True Gods. And especially in the Nation of Spiritsoul, where the residue of a cynical being's power lay dormant. The power that the Secondary Deities hold, over the "characteristics" of the world, like war, has subdued its power immensely, but it seems to have recently condensed into a Seed of Devastation, attracting the attention of evil.}

{So, develop your power, and destroy it. That is the objective that has been set for you. Upon completion, your journey shall start, and will not end, until you reach the Paradise of Gods.}

{And, do not fret, as you will come to know the purpose of your journey soon enough.}

"Paradise…? Journey? What…"

In the dream, Cairo's unconsciousness slowly began to fade, and he woke up in a flash, soaked in sweat, with the Primordial Secret lying on his chest.

He touched the back of his other hand, and, to his shock, it was scalding hot, to the point where it wouldn't be ridiculous if his skin started to melt.

"That… that was a Deity… no, a God…" Cairo muttered, "That felt too real to be false… I can't… I can't believe it…"

Cairo got up while panting heavily, extremely overwhelmed. Then, he noticed that the Runes were glowing.

"…Huh… wait, what time is it?" Cairo said as he noticed the only window in the room shining a faint ray of moonlight, "Ah… it's still in the middle of the night."

"…Phew. I think I've decided, then. I need to head to the library to figure out some things…"

***

After forcing himself to sleep for seven more hours, Cairo headed to the library, near Banken Street, and proceeded to read all books he could find that spoke of anything even related to the Deities, Runebearers, and the history of the world.

By the time he had finished reading large portions of such books, almost eight hours had passed, and it was soon to reach Sunday. This was because Cairo was unable to read for long periods, even since his youth. But, he withstood his dizziness, only so he could learn more information that could even prove to be important.

And, as a result, he found out a few things, including, some of the meanings of Runes, and what "Spirituality" was.

Somehow, in the past century, humans had learnt how to decipher Runes, as they could not only appear on Runebearers but would often also be found on ancient historical ruins and underground chambers. It was eventually named, "Runic Hieroglyphs", which allowed Runebearers to learn about their abilities, and, for the Runes found in historical ruins, identify pieces of the past.

"…So, the Runes on my left hand say, "Fated One", and the ones on my right say, "Spiritual Gazer"…" Cairo whispered, before becoming perplexed, "This should have some hidden clues to the true extent of my ability, but… is it just calling me lucky, and… a watcher? I guess I should research more about this later on."

Ignoring that for now, Cairo also learnt a bit about Spirituality, which was the foundation of the power that Runebearers possessed. Without Spirituality, humans, and all other animals, for that matter, would be hollow shells without souls. This was because, Spirituality, which originated from the Astral World, made up the soul.

The only way to get stronger as a Runebearer would be to increase Spirituality to gain new Runes and that could only be done through regularly entering environments filled with Spirituality, or eating the hearts and body parts of magical beasts, like Mystics.

Since Mystics were unstable variants of beasts uncommonly found in the wild, that innately wielded strange illusions, enchantments and mysticism and were dangerously intelligent, this meant that Runebearers had to constantly put themselves in danger to grow stronger as a result. And, of course, there were great risks involved as well.

"…In the case of Spirituality exceeding a certain bodily limit, one would become a Nightmare. Hideous figures with bizzare features, distorted bodies and abstract abilities, capable of siphoning from the minds of the living to grow stronger..."

"The bodily limit is set by the mind subconsciously, to stop mortals from stepping across the Border of Hidden Light..." Cairo said before he stopped reading, "So, Runebearers can turn into these types of beasts…?"

Suddenly, Cairo was reminded of something.

"Ah… this reminds me! The Deity spoke of a Seed of Devastation, and I believe I glanced upon a similar name in one of these books!"

He quickly began to search for this specific book amongst the library's many shelves, earning a few split-second glances from others due to the little racket being chased. And, in the end, he found it. A grimoire, containing information on evil existences.

He flicked through the book with haste and found the Seed of Devastation and all the information on it that was recorded at the time of its making, which was fairly recent. But, surprisingly, there was little information available.

All that he could gather was that an entity called the Devilish Embryo would hatch out of the Seed of Devastation, and consume evil existences to grow stronger, eventually becoming an Impish Devil, a threat capable of devastating entire cities. However, this was enough information to discern the major threat that the Seed of Devastation could pose.

The Five Regions of the Nation of Spiritsoul were quite ample in spiritual zones, areas with abundant Spirituality, due to the influence of the Patron God. However, due to the influence of the Deity of War, the Spirituality that can be found in the air of the wilderness is correspondingly often more harmful than the Spirituality of other nations. In this way, the influence of Gods could affect Spirituality, and cause it to have both good and bad effects.

Ordinary humans cannot truly feel Spirituality, and only in rare cases would they be able to, but, due to the nature of this Spirituality which has the characteristics of being both harmful and abundant, even they could potentially turn into Nightmares, and the deceased could turn into Evil Spirits.

So, if whoever spoke in Cairo's dream was truly a Deity, and was indeed saying sincere words, the Seed of Devastation, upon hatching as a Devilish Embryo, would quickly be able to cause calamity with the amount of evil entities it could consume.

"Well… it didn't exactly feel like a dream though…" Cairo whispered, "Then, if I'm to face a threat of that magnitude, I suppose I should get to training, huh?"

"Or else I'd probably be crushed under its foot pathetically, hah-hah…."