Chapter 595
The moment their feet met the ground, it was as if a switch was violently flipped. Their eyes, previously filled with the triumphant glow of escape, widened with dawning horror and fear. All heads instinctively snapped upwards, searching the sky. But like a terrible dream dissipating, the colossal mage vessel was no longer there, darkening their world. There was no trace of it ever being there.
Ikenga and Keles keenly felt the moment this "switch" happened. To them, it was palpable—the deceptive memory had ended, and the harsh, unvarnished truth of Kaelen’s reality snapped into focus. And that was precisely what had occurred.
The instant they touched down, the crushing reality of having lived under a profound, years-long illusion became agonizingly clear. With that understanding came another, more immediate memory, and a crucial, terrifying truth that Kairos, for all his perceived brilliance, never found out until this very moment.
The shocking truth slammed into them the moment their feet touched their homeworld: the mages had somehow managed to bring "Mother" down to the planet. With this information, a terrifying knowledge of what Mother truly was, and what her presence meant for them, flooded their minds.
Even the angel, hosted within Vellok, was taken aback by this revelation. In a desperate, urgent tone, it spoke directly to Vellok, urging him to release it now that they were "free."
Vellok, his expression a mixture of profound shock and a hardening resolve, shared this with his three brothers, who were still reeling from the sudden, brutal unveiling of their years-long illusion. But before any discussion could begin, Vellok made his own stance clear: whatever decision they reached as a group, he was not letting go of the angel.
Vellok was no longer the innocent, naive boy the mages had thought they created. While he had been trapped within their illusion, believing he was taking his fate into his own hands, the mages had never truly stopped teaching and influencing him. They had subtly instilled in him knowledge about power, talents, and limitations. And most crucially, Vellok had been meticulously taught about the nature of the angelic being residing in his body, and how much power and how clear his future would be by maintaining his hold on the angel.
Vellok was not alone in his hardened stance. To the angel’s utter dismay, Kaelen and Kairos were also in full agreement, their faces grim but resolute. Even the other goblins who had escaped with them vehemently denied the angel’s plea to be let go.
The angel, hearing Vellok’s words and the silent, collective refusal of the others, was filled with a profound despair. Yet, strangely, its eyes remained calm, almost resigned. It had expected this. It knew what type of being it was—a creature of absolute purity—and it understood the nature of beings driven by emotions, how easily they could be swayed and corrupted. This was precisely why angels cherished children above all others; it was when most mortal creatures were at their purest and brightest, a state Vellok no longer possessed compared to the innocent boy who had first summoned it for help.
It was through this chilling perception of Vellok’s current soul, now tainted by the mages’ insidious influence, that the angel repeated its earlier, haunting pronouncement: "The mages have cursed Vellok with me." The angel now truly understood that the mage, in his vile experiments, had indeed comprehended the true, vulnerable nature of angels, weaponizing their purity against them.
Kaelen’s memory, now stark and unyielding, laid bare the genesis of their profound brotherly division and the deep-seated hatred that would define their future. It took several decades for the goblins to even begin to accustomed to their newfound "freedom," a period steeped in the constant, gnawing fear that the mages would inevitably return to reclaim them.
During these anxious decades, they meticulously explored the Mage Towers—the very ships that had brought them to their homeworld. They delved into the knowledge contained within them, a vast trove of information that was, strangely, incomplete. However, the fundamental basics of the mage and knight system were clear and comprehensible. With these foundational principles, they began to learn, to study, to internalize the very systems of power their former captors wielded.