Chapter 223 New World (2/2)
”... he's just gonna say I'm not authorized to know or some shit.”
”Anyway, nobody even knows who the First Prime is, or even if there's such a thing, but it's the most-commonly accepted answer.”
”... I'm still having a hard time processing the sheer depth of the world's history...” Lino mumbled as they slowly began climbing massive stairs by jumping onto each new one. ”I mean, I've yet to live even thirty years, yet it feels like such a long time... and for the most of the stuff, we're talking in scales of at least millions of years. I can't even properly process what that timetable means.”
”... nobody who hasn't lived it can,” Hannah said. ”The oldest person in my Sect, the original founder of it actually, is currently nearly two billion years old.”
”Holy fuck!!”
”Oh, yeah, when I first heard, I shat my pants.”
”... literally?”
”Of course not literally you goddamn moron!”
”Uh... sorry. Please continue.” Lino quickly apologized, smiling sheepishly.
”Khm, anyway, I had a chance to meet him once when I was like twelve years old or so, that year when we first met actually.”
”Oh.”
”... he seemed like... just another normal, old guy with bushy beard and white hair. At one point I summoned enough courage and asked him how it was like to live so many lifetimes and he then just stared at me for like five minutes before saying just a single word: 'long'.”
”... so he said nothing, basically?”
”Yup. Gosh, sometimes I really hate old people,” Hannah grimaced, her tone carrying a tint of anger. ”They like talking in these weird, vague ways, like they 're trying to tell you something important but never really saying anything, you know?”
”Yes!! Hell-to-the-fuck-yes!! Finally! Finally someone who understands!! Fuck old people! Seriously, fuck their wisdom, fuck their vagueness and, quite frankly, fuck them whole. They stink.”
”Ha ha ha ha ha... yeah, I guess they do kind of stink. They have that 'old people smell' to them, don't they?”
”... yeah, ha ha. Aah, damn, that felt good to get off my chest.”
”Where are we headed anyway?” Hannah asked.
”Umbra told me that she's around forty miles east off the entrance,” Lino replied. ”Wanna head over immediately?”
”Yeah, let's go and take care of that before exploring.”
”Sure thing.”
Meanwhile, within the depths of the Titan Realm, inside a crimsoned mountain stacked with bones, hollowed on the inside, stood a massive throne of skulls and spikes, upon which sat a massive giant, beyond tall. The giant's pair of eyes suddenly flashed open, deep crimson in hue, flashing in a strange glint. His jaw cracked for a moment, the whole mountain shaking in the process, as Qi within hundreds of miles around the mountain seemingly sprinted toward the throne and to the giant; had Lino been there to witness it, he'd have become gobsmacked to realize that the amount of Qi equaled to him emptying his reserves at least a million times over.
The giant took a deep breath, causing winds to gulf out of the hollow mountaintop which then began spitting out volcanic ash into the sky, cascading down slowly toward the earth. The giant's eyes slowly veered toward northeast, well beyond all the natural barriers which ought to prevent him from seeing anything. The eyes quickly landed on a pair of young humans who were currently taking a casual stroll through the Agdhar's Ruins, moving eastward in the process.
”... so, he cometh at last...” the giant mumbled lowly. ”And with a friend at that...” the voice echoed lowly into the wind yet vanished thinly before leaving the mountain's enclosure. ”I've lived... Father... Mother... I've lived long enough... to carry on your Wills. Watch me... from Valhalla... where soon Your blood shall join you... very soon... my kin...”