The Hall of Heroes

22. - The Gateway to the Titan's Grave

"So... I-i-if all of the worlds were l-l-like, at the s-s-same place, then h-h-how could you even t-t-tell which of th-th-them was your world?"

"We couldn't. Not in the way people do today. For everyone back then, all the worlds were ours."

"I don't think I've e-e-ever seen an-n-nother world." Duzz meditated.

"You have." Crefar corrected her. "Up in that Vietroplach's tower."

"Oh. S-s-so we have w-w-worlds overlapping e-e-even today, then."

Crefar shook his head. "I still don't know exactly what happened there in that tower, but the way I understand it, it wasn't natural. If the world was breaking up the same way as back in my time, things would look very different. This must have been something... unnatural."

"And so... where are you from? A-a-are you even from our p-p-part of the... world?"

"Actually..." Crefar leaned back and took a while before he continued. "I was born in the desert. I guess you could say that it was no different than this world. But my people... my kind - the devlins - we come from that very world we saw hovering over the tower. The hellfire world, the Inferno."

There was a long silence after that. Both of them were watching their counterpart, trying to wrap their heads around the fact that they were actually seeing a creature that in reality looks entirely different.

"In any case," Crefar continued, "it doesn't look like Man Há-Tan can help us."

Duzz frowned and said quietly, "O-o-obviously."

Crefar sighed and without reacting to that remark, he continued, "It looks like his power in this world has been waning greatly and since it is not his power that brought us back, he cannot undo it or influence it."

Duzz raised her head.

"A-a-actually..."

Crefar looked at her suspiciously.

"Wh-wh-when I was falling at the e-e-end of that dream, I-I-I asked him to he-he-help me. And he gave me a vision. A v-v-vision of a giant bl-bl-black obelisk. I gu-gu-guess that is the thing we're looking for."

"A black obelisk? Anything more to add to that? Did you see anything else in the vision?"

"No, that was a-a-all."

They both sighed.

"But we have other leads to follow," Crefar started on a more comforting note. "Like the necromancers. We can ask them about the obelisk."

"W-w-would've been easier i-i-if the god j-j-just told me, wouldn't it?"

"That's not how talking to gods works. They don't tell you why or how, they just tell you what."

"Well, g-g-good for you to f-f-finally have a chance t-t-to chit-chat with your l-l-long lost god." Duzz said sarcastically.

"Talking to him actually made me sad."

Duzz looked at him, actually concerned.

"It was like talking to a tired old man. As Man Há-Tan's power is waning, his consciousness in this world is dissolving and it seemed like it had problems holding itself together." He paused there for a little while before continuing. "And that brings me to my greatest concern. I did tell you of the great Man Há-Tan being the titan of primeval chaos, right?"

"R-r-riiight." Duzz nodded, not knowing where he was going with it.

"Just look at the statue with the relief behind it. You get all kinds of primeval forces. Fire, wind, water, earth. There is the void, as well. He was in command of all that. And because I was drawing on his life-force to create my magic in my lifetime, my magic was as unpredictable as the weather, because he was the master of all the elements. I could never tell whether I was going to spew out flames, or conjure up whirlwinds from my hands. It was all up to the mood of the elemental forces around me."