The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 125

The Painter. Certainly not the most intimidating name. But it was a very remarkable one. The painter was more of a title like the keeper. The names lost to history never to be remembered other than the fire keeper and the painter.

But, that was of no concern to her anymore. They were merely names after all. But what she was curious was which Painter was it. Was it Ariamis, someone else she did not know or some she was familiar with.

"What of it, Grandmaster? Do continue with the tale."

The grandmaster sighed and continued the story away. It even seems like he enjoyed telling her about herself. Maybe he simply just welcomed a change after doing absolutely nothing for years. She has a suspicion that he has been practicing and rehearsing.

"Well, according to what you told me, the Painter never dies. She keeps painting new worlds one after another yet soon, they would all die. Do you know the underlining cause of all this?", the grandmaster asked gloatingly as if he wanted to answer.

So, the painter was someone she knew very well. Someone that Gael served. She cannot say that she was surprised. After all, she was the last painter. It appears that she succeeded in painting new worlds although they all perish.

According to what the Grandmaster said, she did painting after painting. So what would be the essential thing for a painting to exist in her world? She was not sure. After all, she was not the painter. But, she still tried to guess.

The painting was done using the blood of the dark soul. That blood belonged to the Pygmy Lords. She still remembered her inscription from before telling her something akin to not let anything out of balance.

The main world of Lordran only had Light and all dark has been banished by the Lord of Light himself. A new world was made with the dark that was banished by the light. So, in conclusion, those new worlds would need light. And light basically meant fire in her world.

"She would need ... fire?"

The eyes of the Grandmaster widened at her answer. He turned around from her face immediately and continued to talk like that. Why? Something she believes she will never know.

"How do you ...", he cut himself of in the middle of it. It seems her answer was spot on.

"Forget it. Anyway, do you know the origin of fire?"

That is something she has no clue on. She may now be the flame and once the fire keeper yet she still did not know where it originates from. Some might simply be tempted to say Gwyn but that would be wrong. It was Gwyn who came from fire. Not the other way round.

"I do not know."

The Grandmaster's head suddenly turned back straight at her. He had a wide smile on his face this time with mocking lights in his eyes. The were gleaming with what seems like a king looking at a slave. Exactly how he was like on Sakaar.

"Well, I will tell you that keeper. Before the flame emerged out of nowhere, nothing happened."

"Wow... what a great explanation. Min feeble brain could never hope to ever grasp that possibility. Would thou enlighten me as to where in this world did thou acquired these ancient wisdoms necessary to come up with this unimaginable possibility."

She responded rather quickly perhaps due to her annoyance. She was starting to look upon that face in disgust.

"Calm down, I'm not done yet. Before fire came, the everlasting dragons roamed your world. There exists no improvements, no pleasure, no suffering, no cold, no heat, no life and no death. Why do you think this is? Why did the flame emerged in this environment filled with nothing?

Well, the answer is that, this world caught 'their' attention. 'Their' mere interest demands entertainment and so, the flame emerged. Something happened in the middle of nothing. It brought property to the lower beings while it deviated the everlasting ones.

After all was finally stable, 'their' interest quickly waned. That is of course until they noticed these residents still continue to pass the fire. This interested 'them'. 'They' do love good entertainment. And so, 'their' interest in the world quickly grew.

'They' begun creating multiple versions of it. Some created it so that it ends in peace and all is well. Others create it so that all is lost. This is the case for your world and so is the case for mine. And also the case for that world of nightmares.

Your painter discovered that they were being used for entertainment. She attempted to escape and so, she combined three worlds giving birth to this chaos. It was a reckless attempt and gave rise to many problems.

The first problem is that this world now needs fire to survive. Yes, keeper this is now the same as your world. It cannot survive without you. But, this is not the only factor. It also needs the dark of men to survive.

An interesting fact about all three worlds is that humans are at the centre of it. No matter how you prevent it, the dark nature of men will always arise in their hearts. No one can stop it. Our creator who created my world is also no more. This is no longer in his hands.

The dreams and the nightmares of the Great Ones now maintain the very reality of this space. Should they truly wake up, reality shall vanish in an instant. Now, keeper, do you understand the mess this world is currently in?"

She understood what the grandmaster was trying to say. it was hard enough to keep up with one requirement to keep the world going.

The easiest one was the world of the Grandmaster as his world only required their creator but the creator is no longer there due to the merging of worlds and so, instead they have to switch to other methods of sustaining themselves.

The flame with is her needs attention from 'them' although she is not sure of the details yet. The flame is needed to keep concepts like life and death, in place. Or else, life will eventually wither. Of course, the dark of men also have issues to deal with.

The last thing was one she understood least. They also need the Great Ones to continue their slumber in order to sustain reality itself. The question was how since her understanding of them was still very shallow.

So, instead of becoming one world needing only one method to survive, due to its crooked nature, it became a chaotic world merged very wrongly while need three different ways to continuing to survive. In short, it has become three times harder to survive.

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This is Chapter 125.

I swear uploaded this thing last two days ago but it is not there for some reason. I will upload a new chapter tomorrow as compensation.

Also, tell me what you think.