Chapter 184: Clark’s Ancestral Lands (3)
The old man stared at him for several seconds, until his ghostly eyes glowed curiously.
"A member of that family who hates the members of that family and wants to exterminate them? Perhaps your curse is to be exterminated by yourselves?" His smile grew to the point that it reached his ears, literally.
Being a ghost, he had no muscles or bones, so it practically covered his entire face, making him look terrifying.
He then approached him.
"If you want revenge, don’t worry. I can help you. I have all the information on what those bastards have been up to all these years. It will surely help you in some way."
"But before that," the old man added. "I’ll answer your previous question. The Clarks, the real ones, are... clergymen." He assured him.
Elliot turned to look at him. "Clergymen?" That word was not unfamiliar to him. They are well known in video games, although lately there are few video games that use them.
But in real life... there aren’t any.
The fantasy that came true when the System arrived didn’t bring any kind of clergy into the world.
That’s mainly because there aren’t any gods like the ones in those fantasy works.
"Family followers of some god?" he asked, confused.
Or maybe clergymen aren’t really what they’re said to be? Maybe they’re completely different?
The old man shrugged.
"The Clarks were never a surname. We’re not a family, we were a group. The largest group of Clergymen of the Age."
"And we were authentic clergymen. Only... we were clergymen of ourselves." As he said this, he looked at the statues. "Clergymen of our own laws. Of our own power. Of our own mandate. Of our own divinity, and we carried our own holiness. We were witnesses to our own power."
He looked at him. "Can you understand that?"
Elliot frowned.
To tell the truth, he couldn’t understand that concept, even though, in a way, it made a lot of sense.
Who can witness someone’s power more than themselves?
But was that possible? Could you be a cleric of your own power?
Shit. Wasn’t that cheating? Although in a peculiar way... Could they use all their god powers?
"Wait..." Elliot frowned and looked at him. "You were gods?" he asked, in shock.
The old man nodded. "God-clerics, more precisely," he replied. "And you dared to steal our name and use it as your surname. That is why your family is cursed. He who steals from fallen Clerics becomes a walking curse. Even more so if the power of those Clerics still beats."
"What kind of curse is it?" he asked.
"Hmm. No one can know that. But what is certain is that at the end of that curse, the blood of that family will cease to exist."
"Will they become extinct?"
The old man smiled. "All of you will."
Contrary to the old man’s expectations, Elliot was not tormented by this. The reality was that one day, he would either die or attain godhood.
All he wanted was for it to happen after he had taken his revenge.
He was not worried about it.
Rather, he was pensive.
Everything the old man had told him so far felt like scattered clues to a big puzzle. How could he begin to put it together? What pieces was he missing, and which ones did he already have? Where did each one go?
Or it could be that he was giving him all the information he needed, and his mind refused to understand it. For one reason or another, it was something that could happen.
He had so many things on his mind that the latter would not be an unreasonable possibility if it happened.
"Now that I’ve answered your previous question, let’s move on to the next topic," he said. "Regarding your family..."
He soon began talking about everything he had seen since they started coming here.
Basically, his family was idiotic.
At some point in the past, the first person to come here after a very long time was a powerful-looking man. He did not belong to the Clark family and called himself "Lee."
He was the first to discover these ruins. He found so much incredible information in those books that, at the time, he had forbidden entry to this place. But he had left descendants near these lands.
According to the old man, Lee himself told him all this. While he was fighting powerful people, those descendants discovered this place and thought it would be a good idea to take the name of this place as their surname. That was because "Lee" had not left them a surname or anything like that, and the other nearby clans that were beginning to resurface seemed to have one.
But they were idiots. Seeing all the statues here that seemed to be worshipped eternally, they thought that by taking the name of this place in their surnames, it would give them enough power to be worshipped as well.
That’s why they started creating statues. Many of them were destroyed the last time Lee came here, but apparently this remained a tradition within the Clark Family at some point in its existence.
The old man didn’t know this, but Elliot was somewhat aware of it.
’It must have happened right after the betrayal of Ancestor Lee,’ he thought.
When he was betrayed, it meant that the Clarks were betraying any possible legacy he wanted to leave them and, therefore, they would not abide by the rules he wanted to impose on them.
Perhaps he had set some rules to prevent them from entering and cursing themselves, but they disobeyed him. And when they made those statues again, the curse fell upon them.
Even so, according to the old man, at that point, they should have been aware that they could be cursed. So why did they decide to do it anyway?
Perhaps just stealing the name "Clark" would not have been enough, but insisting on making statues of themselves... Why?
Even the old man has no idea.
Neither does Elliot. But if he connect the dots, maybe it has something to do with Altarcitus.
Somehow, just from the name, the logo, and what they were looking for, it was clear that Altarcitus was an organization dedicated to using altars as a sport.
Perhaps this has something to do with it.
Elliot looked at the books behind him and thought that maybe it could have something to do with this. The Clan’s greatest secrets are supposed to be stored here. Even the strange ritual that was used on him to steal his power was taken from here.
But for now, he focused on listening to what the old man had to say.
He told him many things and also told him that one or two guys usually come once a week to change the candles there.
As he was telling him this, they both felt a sudden fluctuation of energy appear above them.
The old ghost immediately pulled him aside and hid him behind a pile of books.
"It’s that guy. Is it okay if he sees you?"
Elliot shook his head. "That’s my uncle," he said, recognizing Alexander. "He’s one of the main people responsible for my family’s death. He’s probably the main perpetrator these days."
He nodded. "This would be exchange number 9,993." Said, seeing him. "The ritual says that if it reaches 10,000... something terrible could happen,"
Something terrible was going to happen, but not to or against him. Rather, against those bastards who wanted to believe they were gods when they didn’t even have any power.
Elliot frowned after hearing him and noticed that the man was beginning to change the candles on each of the statues of his ancestors.
But the new candles...
"The candles this time are thinner," he said.
The old man smiled even more. Once again, his smile covered his entire face.
"They’re trying to speed up the process. They’re idiots."
"What happens if it reaches 10,000?"
"Who knows. But something terrible will happen to all of you."
"..."
Elliot remained silent.
He quickly calculated how long it would take them to come and change that with such thin candles and deduced that, by the end of the Leveled Leagues, the 10,000 candle exchanges could be completed.
’Tsk. I don’t know what the hell these bastards are doing, but now it turns out that whatever they do will affect me too.’
Still, he wasn’t worried. If they reached 10,000, so be it. He wanted to see that family destroyed, even if it was the last thing he did.
After a while of exchanging candles, Alexander returned to the place where he had appeared and disappeared in the same way.
Elliot and the ghost finally came out.
"How did he get here through there? I thought there was only one entrance," Elliot asked.
"It’s because of a treasure. The only one that remained alive despite the passage of time. They took it away and surely put it somewhere safe."
"Oh. I see."
"Well, let’s continue with the story..."
This time, he focused more on the curse.
Basically, if you steal from the tomb of a Cleric God, you will certainly die, and it will not be a natural death, but a painful one. Even your entire family is at risk of being wiped out for an entire generation.
Because they are Gods and, on top of that, Clerics. They have power over the sacred, and since they are dead, they also have power over the cursed.
And this time, the sin was that they did not commit theft against just one Cleric God. But against many.
At a glance, Elliot could tell there were more than 50. And they had stolen from the tombs of more than 50 Cleric Gods, nothing less than their names!
And they still thought they were the same, and created statues of themselves and worshipped them!
It is the greatest insult that can be made to a Fallen God, in the words of the Elder Ghost, who is one of those Gods. The last remaining one, who has not yet dispersed, not even with the passage of time.