Chapter 185: Clark’s Ancestral Lands (4)
At a glance, Elliot could tell there were more than 50. And they had stolen from a tomb of more than 50 Cleric Gods, nothing more and nothing less than the name!
And yet they still thought they were the same, and they 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.
Somehow, Elliot felt anger growing inside him the more he listened to the story, and later, he read some books from this place as well. But between the story he was told and what the books said, it took him quite a while.
In the end, he had learned several important things.
First, thanks to the old man who seemed to have incredible enthusiasm for Elliot’s revenge, he was able to find the writings about that ritual.
It is a forbidden ritual that should not be performed, but it existed in the tactics of the clergy, because every good thing must have something bad.
There is no such thing as something that is 100% good; there must be something bad for it to exist, because everything must have a balance.
That is why there were so many forbidden techniques in this half-destroyed castle, but there were also many that were good. Now, the problem with the good techniques here is that they are used only by the clergy.
Those who profess the power of a God.
And, coincidentally, although there are "Gods" in this world, none of them have a power that can be professed, because their power comes from statistics. From the abilities given to them by the system and from the system itself.
That left one question open: What kind of gods were these guys, that the power they had could be professed?
For now, it was an unanswered question.
Meanwhile, evil techniques are counterparts. They don’t necessarily need the power of a cleric to be activated. They simply need forbidden elements.
Blood, for example.
That’s why forbidden techniques caught the Clarks’ attention. And apparently, it’s not the only one they’ve been using.
He is unaware of many more, but he believes they have been used at least once outside.
But there were too many books to read and too much history to tell.
The Ghost Elder wasn’t very effective at telling stories, so it would take him a long time to hear it. Besides, Elliot wasn’t fully present, as he kept remembering that Jenna was waiting for him downstairs.
So, after the required number of hours had passed for it to be Sunday morning, he decided to leave.
"Is there any way to bring Jenna here?" he asked, putting the books back.
The old man looked at him, a little confused, but then a glimmer of understanding dawned on him. "The girl downstairs?"
"Yes. She’s my girlfriend."
The old man nodded gently. "If you’re going to marry her in the future, I can let her come, since, whether I like it or not, she’ll be taking your last name. But right now, the castle is restricting her, so there’s nothing I can do. You’d have to leave and come back in to move her out of there before the castle restricts her."
Elliot nodded. "I understand. Then I’ll do as you say. We still have four days off, so we’ll go out for something to eat and then come back."
Somehow, this old man seemed too nice, to the point of being suspicious.
Although in reality, he was only being nice because he wanted to be alive for the moment when those Clarks fell victim to their own curse.
They had sullied the place he had created alongside his brothers/great friends. A worthy Pantheon of Gods.
How could he not hate them? If it weren’t for the fact that he couldn’t wield any kind of power, he would have killed them long ago.
But unfortunately, he can’t do that.
So he’ll help whoever says they can do it. Anyway, even if he doesn’t help him, he’ll still find out everything in the books here, so it’s not that different.
The old man then turned around, went to his statue, and took some things from who knows where. He then gave them to Elliot.
"This will help you remove that restriction on her and return to where you entered. I don’t know if people will wait for you, so be careful. In addition to that, use it when you re-enter. That way, I can ensure the castle doesn’t affect that girl."
"All right."
Elliot went back downstairs.
Jenna was bored and lying on the floor. She managed to lie down there with great difficulty.
When he returned, they were able to leave without any problems.
Luckily for them, no one was there, so they were able to return to the city without any major issues.
Upon returning, Elliot met with Ilsen again and gave him some important information he had discovered, so that he could work with it and obtain the information they were looking for.
They needed a way or something to report Clark and the others to the Court, and information to cut off all their escape routes.
That was exactly what they were doing this week, while also clearing out other minor positions held by other guilds allied with the Clarks.
After that, they ate and visited Steward. They talked a little and then visited Andrew, who was busy with his creations.
He spends almost the entire day creating things with the blacksmith’s tools, and at this point, even Steward has no idea what level this youngster has reached with blacksmithing, although they were invited to see him in three days.
Apparently, he was going to do something amazing.
After that, they returned to the Clark Ancestral Lands. Jenna was not trapped by the castle this time, as the old man did something to prevent it.
Thus, they could both go up to that place to continue reading, and the old man continued telling stories.
That old man really had no idea how to talk about important things. He started by talking about the 400 years he had been watching Clarks.
Yes. He started talking about random things, going off on tangents. Talking about his lonely moments here, just waiting for those old people to arrive...
He went off on every tangent he could think of and covered all the topics he hadn’t thought of yet.
It got to the point where it became stressful, but he kept talking, while Elliot and Jenna read a lot.
Besides, it made sense in a way. He didn’t understand the passage of time here, so for him, a ghost, maybe not too much time had passed.
Until he finally reached the final stages.
Here, things got interesting.
"According to what the few who come here to confess nonsense in front of their statues have said, there are several things they are planning..." he said.
"First, there is a big plan involving people they call ’Sacred Elves’. Mass kidnappings of corpses and people seem to be the least of it; they could even be distractions. The reality is that they were planning the kidnapping/murder of a certain group of people."
"I heard there were... around 10. Among them were a blacksmith and his son. There was also a family of four. A woman with no talents, a baby boy, whose talents were stolen, and a girl whose insane talents they couldn’t steal. This was in addition to the disappearance of a man, the father of the family, a man described as burly and quite heroic."
"The idea they wanted to convey to the outside world was that an internal dispute would cause them to disappear, but the reality is different. It is believed that the blood of those four is special. I don’t know why, so don’t ask me. But, according to those guys, that blood is crucial to awakening a..."
"An elf they called God. Those who worshipped him most were other elves who also came, and apparently, they were the leaders. I don’t know much about them, since I couldn’t leave the statue when they came, because they were powerful and would have discovered me."
"What I am sure of is that the elf they want to revive..." Finally, he paused and looked at one of the books lying on the floor. Immediately afterwards, the book opened and the pages turned quickly until they stopped at one of the final pages.
"It reminds me of the one that man described," he said.
Elliot and Jenna looked at each other. They both walked over to where the book was.
They didn’t have to do much to understand what he meant.
At the top, in black letters, it said: Bloody Elf.
That elf again.
The problem was that it revealed many hidden things from both of them this time.
The fact was that this elf wasn’t dead. Well, at least not permanently.
’No, wait,’ Elliot frowned. ’He doesn’t necessarily have to be alive for them to perform rituals like this. He could be dead, and they could simply want to perform a ritual to bring him back to life.’