Chapter 55: The Shattered Sky (2/2)

Merlin's curiosity had peaked, he hadn't heard anything about a strange phenoe reason, it apparently involved him, he was even more invested Merlin slowed his pace to ave him an expression to show that he was ready to listen

"Alright, well it all started a few o" The elf recounted his story with sadness in his voice, "One day, a deafening boohout the lands, and those outside bore witness to a large hole in the sky It was as if the sky had shattered like glass, revealing an eerie darkness underneath"

"It was pure nothingness, there is no way I can properly describe the feeling, but staring into the darkness h he was afraid "It was in the sky for only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity The temple ordered all the priests to pray for divine intervention, that included me and my wife, so I never sa it disappeared, but e left the teone"

Merlin was shocked that nobody else in the beta stage brought such an event up, not even in the previous ti event would surely be coe, but this was the first ti on was that the elf and Kilo were apparently once both priests, and he found that

"But that wasn't the end of it Strange events continued to occur days, weeks and even est issue was thatto leave their territories and raid our settlements"

"The first attack was just a horde of orcs that had attacked the city of Charisia, which at the time was extree ht it was an unfortunate coincidence at first But hordes ofall the towns and cities on the west side of the region Those closest to the monster's territories were attacked first, but they continued a path of destruction that only ended once the e as built to separate the east and west, but it couldn't be ion" The elf continued, "There are still perfectly thriving towns and cities on the western side of the wall Andin those settlements still retain the lifestyle they enjoyed prior to the incident, while others have enjoyed the new occupation the situation has afforded the"

"But while we do receive news from, and even trade with, the various western settleer reach, or have confirer inhabited One of these settlements we're unable to contact is the fortress city Charisia" The elf finished his explanation of the monster invasions

"So the sky event led to a monster invasion, but what does that have to do with me?" Merlin asked, not sure if he had properly understood

"I'll get to that part in a e event to happen, but what ca bloodlust as he continued explaining his story "We later found out that a great deal of villages and towns hadn't been destroyed by monsters, but rather by people"

Merlin realised where this part of the story was going, but he still listened

"Lycosura was a city southwest of Megalopolis, it was the home of a secretive mystery cult They orshi+ppers of theto keep to themselves and worshi+p in silence, but after the phenoic of soulthethe villagers for taboo experimentation And by the time we realised what they had done, they had already fled, only showing up every so often to raid another town, but we believe they're planning so"

"And one more major event occurred" The elf's voice dropped once more "My wife suddenly left the tehter away, and locked herself in a walled co herself an oracle"

"The temple wouldn't help me when I told the herself Kilo, so I searched through every piece of scripture the te de" He continued to speak, his voice sounding incredibly hoarse "Eventually I was stripped of my title and kicked from the te to let a demon steal my wife from me"

"In my desperation, I involved anisation forhed in self pity, "Can you believe it? A priest who runs a crianisation, how shaht think" Merlin re spies into the coht and bewitched the them into mindless puppets And as if to mock me further, she dressed them up like they were dolls and kept the his fist so hard Merlin could see small trails of blood form "Eventually one of the spies I sent in had escaped, and all we discovered was that she was hunting down a le name"

"Wait, I met with her, why don't you suspect me as a spy?" Merlin asked

"I did, at first But while erously powerful foric, it has a lot of quirks and restrictions And in your case, your status as a lost one, or traveller, is what protected you You cant use that accursed ic to manipulate those without a whole soul, or those with several souls So both you and those vile creatures are safe" He said, pointing back towards the troll hybrid

Merlin realised at that point why he was allowed into the thieves guild, even though he was extremely suspicious It wasn't just the elf's curiosity, but the elf had an agenda and Merlin just so happened to be the perfect tool for the job

"And finally, the biggest event in your life was also e phenoine it is related to the sky shattering, a hole for you to fall in" The elf didn't seem so sure of himself, "That's my theory anyway"

The conversation ended as they reached the end of the tunnel, the elf's downtrodden expression suddenly lit up as though he was happy, but Merlin could tell it was a facade The elf walked off after giving Merlin a final nod of acknowledge a quest notification to appear before him

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[Hidden Epic Quest]

The shattered sky

A strange pheno various world changing events to occur

If you figure out the cause, perhaps you could discover a way to reverse it or at the very least quell so this quest will increase the possibility of strange pheno around you, this could potentially interrupt other quests

• Reward: ???

• Failure: ???

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