The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 126

"So, basically ...", she started out again for further clarity. She wanted no mistakes.

"Yes, yes. Basically it means that one world has one way of survival. Now that we combined three worlds into one, instead of needing just one way to survive, due to how crude it was, it needs three ways to survive.

Three ways needed to sustain one world. It just makes everything harder, don't you think?"

Yes, indeed. Now, they have to try three times harder to sustain one world. An unequal pay off. A world with such inequality won't survive much longer. The Grandmaster continued with his tale as he walked through the holograms.

She then saw herself in the hologram gathering a dark ball in the palms of her hand and throwing it away to somewhere else.

"That, my dear keeper is you as you may be able to tell. As the fire wanes, the dark of men is now no longer kept balance. The dark of men that was once balanced and kept in check by the fire can no longer be contained within them."

"Humans again?", she asked. Humans were important to her as she was once one of them but in the grand scheme of things, they were insignificant. Not to mention, here humans were not special in any way.

In Lordran, humans were feared by the Lord of Light. In Yharnam, they were the dominant species under the Great Ones. But here? They were nothing. There exist stronger species. There exist weaker species. There exist smarter species.

They weren't the best although they weren't eh worse. They were so average in this universe filled with thousands of species.

Not to mention, higher lifeforms like the celestials, the Elders of the Universe and the Asgardians. They were literally nothing special in any way. They could all perish and she doubt anyone would bat an eye.

"Yes, humans. They are all nothing special but remember one thing keeper. Here, they are the centre of the world. Maybe not the majority of them but the minority of them. There exists so many special characters amongst these insignificant humans.

Think carefully. There exists special characters in all species but there are a lot more of human don't you think?

Combined with the special characteristics of humans in this world, the dark of men from your world and the hunters of Yharnam, humans have become the absolute centre of this current crude world.

That is something neither you not I can change. It is just the ways things have become. Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes, the dark of men."

The dark of men. It was a concept she has yet to seen before. Even in Lordran, the age of dark never truly bloomed. Nobody has any idea of what it will bring. Did she really tried to prolong the age of fire like Gwyn? She loathed the idea of her becoming like the Lord of Light.

"Oh, don't worry. You did not tried to prolong yourself. When your followers proposed to sacrifice themselves to keep you alive, you rejected the idea immediately. You allowed the dark of men to blossomed while accepting your end.

And that was your first mistake. You allowed to coming of the age of dark."

"Was it a bad thing? Did I not merely allowed nature to take its due course?", she asked Grandmaster. She did not see how allowing herself to die was bad for this world.

"Do you know what the dark of men does, my dear keeper?", Grandmaster asked with sarcasm clearly evident on his face.

"No, I have yet to experience the age of dark even back in Lordran."

"Why would you think it was a good thing then?"

Yes, why would she believe it to be a good thing when she did not even know what it was.

"Let us just say that the dark of humanity bursted within them. It has been contained for so long and now that it is suddenly free, many were corrupted.

They became radicals. Of course they also developed really fast. Building warships capable of destroying worlds. It was so bad you had to banish the dark to other dimensions. But, it was too late. Men had already been corrupted by the dark."

"Say, my dear Grandmaster, how exactly were they corrupted? Did they become undead? Or were they turned into beasts and creatures of the Abyss?"

"No, no. There were some cases of course but this was only for a few. The dark of men gave birth to a new Pygmy Lord. He calls himself the Emperor of Mankind and united humanity into one. Together, they started a Grand Crusade.

Humanity waged war against everything. Even you who allowed there dark of men to prosper. He claimed himself master of mankind and humans were more that content to follow him.

The thing was, humanity was winning. Soon, there will be nothing left but humans and their slaves. Humanity will become the only dominant species with no contender. And you were smart enough to notice it."

"What of Asgard? The celestials? Tyrants of the universe like Thanos? Great empires like the Kree? Other species on Earth like Atlantis? Demons like Chthon? Rulers of dimensions like Dormammu? Were they not more than enough to put humanity in their place?"

She asked once again. Humanity may become so strong as to rule the universe but what of the Celestials and other god like beings? They could destroy reality itself.

"You underestimate the dark of men and just how much of it has been dwelling. The Emperor's sorcery or psychic ability as they called it held reality in its place.

To them, all creatures of this plane no matter how powerful were called xenos and all not from this plane were called the creatures of the Warp.

These powerful beings are not able to appear in the physical world due to the fact that there already exist a powerful being whop practically owns it. It was the Pygmy who calls himself Emperor.

They called the empire of humans the Imperium and thus they waged war all across the universe. Their numbers numerous. Their might unmatched in the physical world. And so, you took measures to contain humanity.

You banished the dark to all other dimensions. And let just say that it also caused some unintended bad consequences. Everything went wrong again. Far too many mistakes."

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This is Chapter 126 and as you might be able to tell, humanity's future is Warhammer 40k.

I could not think of a worse future. Don't worry though as it will only be described and will not be a part of this story like Skyrim. A very cameo if you will.

Tell me what you think about it.