Chapter 90: Uncle Elijah (3)
If he wanted to kill him, there was nothing Zaid could do, honestly. Apparently, he was still his uncle—only... very different.
"You know, Uncle Elijah? I finally managed to awaken... It’s just that no one in the family knows about it."
"No one knows? What has little Roger been up to these days that he hasn’t heard about his son’s awakening?"
"Haha... he’s busy dealing with the responsibilities of banishing and killing his own son." Zaid chuckled under his breath with a contemptuous look.
Elijah frowned. "Kill his own son? What the hell did that bastard do?" he asked. He pictured all of Roger’s sons... "Which one was killed, and what the hell happened?"
Zaid pointed at himself after staring intently into Elijah’s face. "Me."
"You?" Elijah blinked several times.
"Yes. I died."
"..."
To avoid any confusion, Zaid explained the whole situation to him—starting with the constant mistreatment and ending with his family’s betrayal on the night of his 18th birthday.
He left out a lot of information that Elijah didn’t need to know, such as the encounter with that Serpent that awakened his talent and, obviously, the fact that his system is different from everyone else’s.
Elijah suddenly exploded with rage. His body contorted, and the black water beneath them began to form waves that crashed against the surroundings, splashing them.
"That damned traitorous bastard!" he roared, his eyes ablaze. "How dare he do that to a member of the family, to his own son?"
"I’m going to tear him to pieces...!"
As his rage grew, the ground shook and the black waters began to crash harder and harder, terrifying the fish and all manner of cursed beasts within.
Zaid had to step in. "Wait, uncle, calm down—you’re going to kill us!"
Elijah frowned and slowly returned to normal. "...That’s what I’d like to say," he muttered with a sigh.
Although Zaid wanted to know what had happened, he realized that Elijah wouldn’t tell him so easily, so in the end he resigned himself to it and began speaking again.
"That’s in the past... honestly, they’ve done me a favor. I’m better off now."
"You’re trapped in a Rank A dungeon with an S-Rank boss. How is that ’doing better’?" Elijah asked with a growl.
’S-Rank...’ Zaid swallowed hard, but said nothing.
"Well, at least it was something I got myself into. I go to the academy, but I haven’t started completing its missions yet. I joined the Mercenary Guild, an open guild that was created in recent years. It’s great. I earn money, take on missions, level up..."
Elijah looked Zaid up and down. "Your level is pretty low, but I can tell you’ve got a great talent."
"I just woke up, uncle. It’s my birthday."
"Wow. So you have incredibly high potential. You’ve reached that level of strength in such a short time? I think you can make it to Rank A or S if you set your mind to it!" Elijah exclaimed, happy for his nephew.
Zaid nodded happily... It was the first time anyone in his family had praised him.
Zaid sighed again, but didn’t show any distress because he knew it would make Elijah uncomfortable.
"While on missions, I met some trustworthy people... Alice..." Zaid thought of Alice, and then of Martin, Finn, and Khan; even though he hadn’t known them long, they seemed quite trustworthy despite their problems.
"And that’s how I ended up here. We were protecting a caravan, and then it turned out that the Church of the Seventh Night isn’t what it seems... I still don’t understand exactly who they are, but they use cursed rituals, strange things, and... they deceive people."
At that point, Elijah clenched his fists, which were dragging along the floor.
"They’re not the same church I knew... They’ve been taken over by some crazy man fanatic obsessed with curses and rituals... Well, it’s not a man—I should say it’s a crazy woman."
Zaid frowned. "What happened, Uncle?" He stared at him. "Why...?" He didn’t finish the sentence because he knew his uncle understood.
"...It’s not good to know those things. But I can tell you one thing. The goddess exists, but she’s been corrupted... Or maybe she’s dead now and someone has taken her place."
"The goddess? You mean the Goddess of the Seventh Night..."
"Yes. She has two angels with her; they’re very powerful."
"Angels?" Zaid recalled the information he’d overheard more than once. "Who is the prophet?"
"Prophet? What prophet?"
"The Prophet of the Seventh Night. They say he’s someone truly incredible."
"There is no prophet." Elijah was certain. "The goddess cannot have prophets because she is personified in the world. Who can speak prophecy in the presence of the god they worship?"
"Huh? Then..."
"Are you saying there is a prophet?" Elijah asked with sudden urgency, as if he’d just remembered something.
Zaid nodded... "I heard it from the bishops, archbishops, and even a cardinal."
"!!"
Another tremor shook the ground for a second, before Elijah calmed down and looked at Zaid.
"Are your friends here?" he asked urgently.
"Yes. They’re upstairs."
"If you want to save them, get out of here and pray you don’t feel a tremor! If you do feel a tremor, run and don’t look back—there’s no escape!" Elijah shouted with such urgency that it sent a chill down Zaid and Valia’s spines.
"H-huh? What’s going on, uncle?"
Elijah quickly stepped aside and leaped toward them at full speed, coming to a stop right in front of them. "You were always my favorite nephew of all, little Zaid. It’s a shame I didn’t get to watch you grow up, and that when I finally had the chance to see you... you were in this condition."
"I know there’s no way to make up for the lost years, but how I wish I could do something for you, to help you... I would have loved to be there when you needed family support. Because with family support, we could have helped you become a strong pillar of the kingdom..."
As he spoke, his body began to ooze black water as if he were losing liters of blood. It was his body’s reaction to the chaos inside him... But what hurt him the most wasn’t what he was saying—it was that he had to say it so quickly that he couldn’t even look his beloved nephew in the eyes.
"Little Zaid, I never got to say goodbye to you, and that’s perhaps one of the things I’ve regretted the most... Now I think I’ll be able to do it. Follow that straight path and you’ll reach the village... Find a way to escape before the eighth one falls... If you manage to do that, you’ll be able to save yourself. I’ll find a way to hold these damned creatures off."
"Run as far away as you can, little Zaid... Leave the country. Forget this place. Forget its people. Never remember your father, and stay away from your mother... If I ever see them again, I’ll make sure to wipe the floor with them—for you, for me, for your grandfather." Elijah felt a lump in his throat that he hadn’t felt in a long time, until suddenly he bolted at full speed, disappearing before Zaid’s words could catch up to him.