TBOAH!Eruhaben suddenly snapping and scolding Cale, triggered every other adult in the Palantír Hall. Exclamations and chiding were coming from every direction, and then the resounding echo of a sharp clap was heard. Divine power snuffed out their volatile emotions and squashed their protests and complaints.
"That's enough now. Everyone take a breath, and let us continue the records calmly. Cale, if at any point this becomes too much, tell me! I will handle everything else!" She reminded him. Cale nodded to the Goddess, while all the adults grudgingly returned to their seats and quietened down properly.
After less than a day. Cale reached the end of the dark corridor. The corridor did not continue in a straight line. It went at a diagonal at points, there were stairs, and it even went up and back down.
"Beacrox really does make delicious food."
TCF!Beacrox wanted to be happy, but he recalled how little of the food he'd packed for Cale had actually been eaten back then, and those emotions vanished automatically, he began to scowl while repressing his anger and annoyance as it returned.
Cale didn't need to sleep thanks to the Indestructible Shield and the Vitality of the Heart. That was why he was able to reach the end of the corridor faster than the Mercenary King.
"Ho... so, he got there faster... but that means he was in the temple even longer... What the hell happened in there?" Rok Soo wondered with a pensive frown of deep concentration etched upon his face.
- ...Looks delicious.
Cale ignored the glutton priestess and put a whole blueberry pie in his mouth. He then walked out of the corridor.
'Friend, the area with the altar will appear once you walk out of the corridor.'
Cale started to frown. He could see the black altar. He could see the jar with a crack on it on top of it.
'Bring out the cracked jar. That is the ancient artifact.'
Cale had asked Bud a question after that.
'Is it fine to just bring that jar out? Isn't it an ancient artifact?'
'Yes.'
The Mercenary King then continued in a serious tone.
'You just need to return it within three days.'
Returning it was not the issue. The problem was that this ancient artifact was an item with limited usage. Bud Illis had looked down.
'The curse of the wind blades around Wind Island will chase after the person who took the artifact and destroyed it.'
The Palantír then told a different story; it was the story about how one of the previous gatekeepers of the Mercenary King's household had tried to steal the ancient artifact and run. However, the Palantír mercilessly showed how that gatekeeper had been killed three days later. And even how the gatekeeper's family members were all killed except one person to continue their bloodline - the shocking part of this information was that even those who were not on Wind Island were killed too.
TCF!Bud's recollection of the past as well as the Palantír showing this record about that event showed how the wind had chased after them no matter where they were and how that same wind swept up the ancient artifact and returned to its "proper spot". TCF!Bud had gone on to tell Cale that after this event, no one dared to desire the ancient artifact, and many gatekeepers never went to the temple because they were afraid of the curse.
According to the Palantír, some of them were worried that they might get tempted to run away with the ancient artifact because of their greed, while others were worried that they would use the ancient artifact to heal someone and the jar's durability would reach its limit and break - these were two of the most common fears among many that prevented the gatekeepers of the past from taking or even using it.
Cale erased the Mercenary King's nonsense from his mind and reached out. His hand landed on the cold black altar. Cale then grabbed the jar with his other hand. It was only the size of a small alcohol bottle.
Cale heard the thief's voice at that moment.
- 3 Days, plus one day.
Cale picked up the jar. There was a crack on the outside, but it was still fine.
- That is how long the dead mana that fills this black mountain can stand without exploding without the artifact.
Cale flinched at this story that he was hearing for the first time.
TBOAH!Bud, TBOAH!Glenn, and both their counterparts, who did not know this flinched and turned deathly pale. Their shock was even more devastating than when they learned the truth about why the Directory was created by the First Mercenary King.
Three days. The reason they needed to return the artifact within three days was to prevent this black mountain from exploding like an erupting volcano. It was the time they had to prevent dead mana from flowing out of this exploding black mountain.
- This ancient artifact is an artifact for healing, as well as to calm the dead mana.
Cale had a single response once the thief finished speaking.
"Son of a b***h."
'Why am I so unlucky?'
"Now you ask yourself that you damn punk, giving us all grey hair here!" TBOAH!Eruhaben grumbled in a grouchy tone. Cale winced and slouched deeper into his couch, shrinking between Rok Soo and TCF!Alberu to make himself as small as possible.
However, the corners of Cale's lips were moving up. He was not trying to heal a person, he was trying to restore a Dragon's strength and extend his lifespan. It was bound to force the ancient artifact to use up a lot of strength.
- Create a fire over the ocean! Create a true sea of fire!
He ignored the excited comment of the cheapskate. The hand on the altar started to move.
"Break it."
A large stone spear slammed into the black altar.
The explosion shook the video within the Palantír and the sound reverberated through the entire Palantír Hall causing a few people to gulp at the level of destruction a single one of Cale's stone spears could cause, the voice of the Fire of Destruction, also known as the Cheapskate, and his excited desire to create a fire over the ocean was invoking chilling images in the minds of the guests in the Palantír Hall - most of them now knowing that Cale is more than capable of pulling off such a crazy thing.
Dust filled the area along with the explosion. The altar was destroyed. There was no longer a place to put the jar. The wind was roaring wildly outside the temple, but Cale did not know about it.
TCF!Ron and TCF!Eruhaben, who now knew the reason for the changes of the wind that they had witnessed firsthand, had grim expressions upon their faces. TCF!Bud and TCF!Glenn were just as shaken by the revelations that were hitting them one after another.
He just deactivated the silver shield that protected him from the debris before heading back toward the black altar.
- My top's whip!
The thief's excited voice could be heard. The top's whip was located at the center of the destroyed black altar. This top's whip was glowing gold. He just needed to take this as well.
"Ahhh... Dongsaeng, did you like that whip because it was glowing gold?"
"Hmmm... yeah. It's useful too and it belongs to me." Cale replied candidly in a quiet voice. The life seemed to return to his eyes at the thought of gold. TCF!Alberu smiled affectionately at his dongsaeng and nodded, feeling slightly better to see the light beginning to return to Cale's eyes.
Cale looked at the top's whip before starting to speak.
"By the way..."
He now had time to ask something he had been curious about.
"On the image located on the ceiling..."
The image on the ceiling had repeated itself many times as if to brainwash the person walking through. One of the images had been a map of the Western continent. It was quite similar to the present day Western continent even though it was of ancient times. Each of the areas on the map were expressed as different images. The Jungle that had became the black ground, the North, and the fertile lands that were chosen by the person with the sky attribute. Although it was ancient times, all of the images of the Western continent were displayed on it.
The residents of the Western Continent curiously admired Cale's mind as he recalled the current map of the continent as he compared it to the image on the ceiling of the temple. It made it easier for everyone to figure out where their territories were compared to the old map from the Ancient Times.
Cale had thought about something while looking at that.
"Why is the Roan Kingdom not there?"
The Northeast region of the Western continent was drawn on that map. That was the current location of the Roan Kingdom. However, there were no images of it on the ceiling. Everything else, such as the Jungle and the North that were ignored by the person with the sky attribute, as well as the land that was chosen by him, were all depicted. However, the Roan Kingdom was not marked by anything.
"Huh?!" TBOAH!Alberu mumbled under his breath as if he also only now noticed this. TBOAH!Zed and TCF!Zed's expressions turned grave as they thought about the old history stories that were passed down to the heads of the Crossman Family, particularly the one about how the Sun God had told them to go around and around until the God told them to stop, settle in the land of boulders and build a kingdom there... that kingdom, their kingdom, became known as Roan.
TBOAH!Zed turned his head to look down at TBOAH!Alberu in concern before he looked at his counterpart across the hall. However, his expression froze when he saw that TCF!Zed was looking down at his son with an expression of relief and peace on his face. This reaction provoked TBOAH!Zed to look at TCF!Alberu and notice the secretive smile that was upon TCF!Alberu's face as well as the strange unfamiliar L-shaped item in his hand.
TCF!Alberu then let out an dark chuckle and then shook his head while smiling viciously.
"Useless bastard..." TCF!Alberu grumbled. However, he calmed down as soon as Cale reached out and set his hand upon TCF!Alberu's shoulder to comfort and support him. The two of them shared a look, and then TCF!Alberu exhaled quietly and then nodded to Cale.
<Chapter 350: Severance (4)>
Only the continent's northeast region was not drawn out separately.
'Something is weird.'
Cale definitely correctly recalled what the glutton priestess of the Indestructible Shield had told him in the past. There was no way that his memory was wrong. The Henituse territory that was famous for having a lot of rocks, specifically marbles.
The Palantír briefly walked everyone through Cale's thought process as he reasoned and rationalized everything he had learned from the Glutton Priestess about Roan's history and the Henituse Territory during the Ancient Times, for everyone's benefit.
The Henituse territory's slums. The glutton priestess had died there while eating the dirt that had turned black.
"According to the glutton, the Henituse territory area was dyed black as well."
The Henituse territory, and therefore the Roan Kingdom as well, was supposed to have turned black like the Jungle and the North. But that area was not shown in the art at all.
'Why is that the case?'
He could not figure out the reason behind it.
He heard a different voice other than the thief at that moment. The Scary Giant Cobblestone started to chime in.
- The current Roan was a land of boulders in the past.
Cale's eyes clouded over for a moment. The land of boulders. He was familiar with this phrase. He thought about someone.
'Taylor Stan!'
TBOAH!Cage, Taylor, and TCF!Cage couldn't resist smiling when Cale's thoughts mentioned them according to the record. Taylor smiled warmly as he saw how Cale recalled him and TCF!Cage perfectly even though years had passed since they'd had this particular conversation during their first few meetings.
Taylor Stan had said the following as they chatted.
'The Roan Kingdom is the land of 'boulders.' '
That was related to an ancient myth. It was something that Cale, who had only read < The Birth of a Hero > until volume 5, had heard for the first time at that moment.
'If you look into ancient texts, there are a lot of stories about this land being connected to, 'boulders,' even before the Roan Kingdom came into existence. One of those stories is about how there is a boulder-like guardian over this land.'
A boulder-like guardian.
TBOAH!Dodori and TCF!Dodori lit up and started to squirm in their seat. Even though they were both sure that these records were going toward a terrible direction, at the mere mention of their idol, the pair of Pink Dragons couldn't help getting distracted and excited.
'They say that this guardian was able to protect everything no matter what attacked. He was said to be the person who defended against the darkness in the front when the continent descended into darkness.'
The myth Taylor described and the missing land in the ceiling art started to come together in Cale's mind.
'The guardian is said to have stood as firm as a boulder even when his entire body was breaking down. That is how he protected this northeast region's lands and its people.'
TCF!Dodori and TBOAH!Dodori turned in eerie unison to smile at Taylor, since he appeared to be someone who actively researched their idol, both Pink Dragons were very interested in what else Taylor knew about the Boulder Guardian.
"Marquis Taylor Stan do you know lots about the Boulder Guardian?" TCF!Dodori asked with an exaggeratedly innocent and benign smile on his face.
"We should talk later, Marquis Taylor..." TBOAH!Dodori eagerly added.
Taylor smiled politely and bowed his head.
"It would be an honour, Dragon-nims!"
Cale started to speak, "...Was it you?"
The Super Rock responded back.
- I died with my entire body breaking down.
TCF!Choi Han grit his teeth and clenched his fists, he didn't like hearing this, he knew about how the Ancient Heroes of the past had died thanks to the information hidden in Korean within Choi Jung Gun's journal.
However that also meant that TCF!Choi Han was aware that Cale with all his crazy self-sacrificing in the name of his slacker life, had suffered more than anyone else in this room while pushing himself and his body to the absolute limit. Just thinking about it made TCF!Choi Han angry and caused his aura to fluctuate ominously around him.
A moment later, that unsettling feeling vanished as Grigori's power soothed his temper and calmed his mind, TCF!Rosalyn also reached out and lightly patted his shoulder. Silently and supportively reminding him that this was all the past and they had all lived through everything.
Cale closed his eyes and then reopened them.
"... F**k."
The man who always told him not to sacrifice himself had sacrificed himself and died. Cale's insides were starting to boil.
'Why are there so many unlucky people like them?'
He called out the name of the person in his memories.
"...Taylor Stan."
Taylor Stan had said something about the boulder guardian.
'He is probably not well-known. I only found out while investigating ancient texts for information on ancient powers.'
Cale subconsciously started to frown.
Taylor and TCF!Cage now smiled at each other because on the Palantír, Cale said that he needed to meet Taylor. It made them happy that even though they were not strong or powerful like all the others who followed Cale around. They were still able to be useful to him in the roles that they were assigned. It made them feel like they had purpose and that they weren't merely forgettable side characters in the Akashic Records of their world.
However, Cale still had a question he needed to ask. It was related to the results of the past.
"How did you defeat the person with the sky attribute if he was so strong?"
Cale could feel the gold top's whip vibrating at that moment.
Neither the people outside the island nor Cale inside the temple could tell what was going on. However, the wind inside Wind Island was starting to roar even wilder than normal. Cale did not know about this as he heard the Super Rock's voice.
- A large number of people with ancient powers gathered together to fight against that man. Of course, there were some people with ancient powers who chose to be on his side.
Power versus power. A large-scale battle had occurred.
- The majority of the people with the powers now called ancient powers were a part of that battle. A large number of people fought against him.
We fought and fought again.
- That battle took over twenty years. We died as a result of that battle while barely managing to kill him as well. My body was destroyed as well.
Everyone from the TBOAH!World gulped and vividly recalled their own twenty-year war against the White Star and how they had eventually failed to kill him and lost the war. Then they all looked toward their counterparts who had succeeded in less than a quarter of that time thanks the help of Cale Henituse and Kim Rok Soo's sacrifice.
The Super Rock calmly continued.
- You could say that it was a draw because we defeated him in the end, however, the sacrifices were too large.
Everybody had died in that battle.
- The ancient times ended after that.
Cale could not imagine this ancient battle that would have continued for tens of years.
Would their battle against the White Star be similar? Cale started to think about the Western continent.
The citizens of the Western continent were already suffering from many wars, starting with the War against the North that had happened at the beginning of the year. But they needed to fight for tens of years more?
"Haa, that crazy bastard." He could not help but curse at the White Star as he sighed.
However, Cale quickly clenched his fists.
- The past is different than right now.
He could hear the Super Rock's voice.
- That person had gathered the sky attribute, as well as all five natural attributes as well.
'What?'
Cale could not believe that the ancient villain did not only have the sky attribute. Wind, water, fire, earth, wood, and sky. He really would have been no different than nature if he controlled all six of those.
TCF!Eruhaben's eyes widened as something occurred to him - the Ancient White Star had already balanced his plate, and that's what made him such a formidable enemy. At this realization he glanced toward the people from the TBOAH!World and tried to select one who could have possibly known whether or not the White Star of the TBOAH!World had also balanced his plate by the time the final battle in Puzzle City occurred - unfortunately before he could ask, Naur continued the record.
'That's probably why he was able to fight against so many people.'
However, an odd expression soon appeared on Cale's face. The White Star currently did not have an earth attribute power. He could hear some laughter in the Super Rock's voice.
- He and I were the only ones with earth attribute powers during ancient times.
Cale realized what the White Star was looking for. He opened his mouth to speak.
"Guess I need to find that person's earth power?"
The Super Rock chuckled as he responded back.
- You really are smart.
He then sternly added on.
- And then you need to destroy it.
The difficult path. That path came with two things.
- You also need to find that bastard White Star who has the sky attribute and defeat him.
"Hmm... while I did defeat that bastard White Radish, I did not destroy the earth attribute Ancient Power..." Cale mumbled with a faint tenor of nostalgia and amusement in his tone. Several pairs of eyes fixate upon him and TCF!Alberu and Rok Soo smiled feeling the tension that had been weighing down on their chest lighten even more - Cale seemed to be feeling a little better now - the depressive aura around him had lessened even more.
Cale needed to find and destroy the earth ancient power that belonged to the person who wanted to become nature and defeat the White Star. The Super Rock continued on about the White Star.
- It is possible because his plate is incomplete.
"Oh?! Does this mean that you managed to defeat him while he was still incomplete?!" TBOAH!Fredo asked, surprised. However, TCF!Fredo scoffs at his counterparts ignorance.
"No, my son killed that bastard even though he managed to complete his plate!" TCF!Fredo replied with a snarky and arrogant smirk upon his face.
"What?! That can't be true__" TBOAH!Choi Han and TBOAH!Alberu when they saw the matching expressions of both agitation and reluctant admission of the truth of TCF!Fredo's words.
"He's telling the truth... that White Radish found another earth attribute Ancient Power that gave him the ability to take the appearance of someone else, shapeshift in other words..." Cale confessed without looking at anyone, his eyes had a vicious glow shining in them and the smile on his lips looked wicked, but he looked really happy as he reminisced.
The Palantír continued the conversation between Cale and the Super Rock about how the Dragon Slayer Village was founded by the sole survivor of the Ancient War Heroes - Nelan Barrow, also known as Choi Jung Gun. This information was shared so that everyone from the two timelines would have a more stable foundation - Grigori was attempting to bridge the knowledge gap between the two timelines so that her work to heal the soul dissonance between the two groups would be easier and smoother for her when the time came.
After a moment more, her gaze swept the hall and all her guest and she decided they were ready, so she raised her hand subtly and gestured toward the Palantir - causing the scene upon the record to change and move on.
"Let's continue..." she mumbled seriously with a grim expression on her face. Although her outward appearance seemed serious and professional, internally she was worrying about Cale and his family and how they would handle this record - she kept the majority of her attention on Cale, hoping that he would remember that he could speak up and stop the record when it became too much. To be honest, she really did not want to make him suffer by seeing this terrible test all over again. However, Cale had granted his permission for her to show it to everyone, so she had no choice but to let the record play.
The thief started to speak again at that moment.
- I never imagined you would come in possession of this.
The thief was talking as if she was making excuses for herself.
- Mm, at that time. I had a need to test the person who would come in possession of this item because that person would end up gaining some strong allies.
Cale agreed with that.
"And...?" But his voice sounded annoyed as he asked.
- And... Ahem, mm. I thought that the most important test would be about a person's character. But I was kind of desperate, angry at the world, and slightly crazy at the time...
"...And?"
- A, and...
Cale slowly started to get a bad feeling. A test of a person's character. That itself gave himself a bad feeling, however... The fact that she was saying that she created this test while she was crazy gave him the chills.
- Mm, I was thinking that someone who had similar experiences that I did would live a similar life to me and use this power for good.
"Enough with the useless explanations." Cale wanted the thief to get to the point. "The contents of the test?"
- ...I'm sorry. I can't tell you that. That is the rules.
He opened his mouth to speak, "Damn it."
The thief could not say anything.
However, Cale thought about the things that the thief had just told him, thought about her character, as well as the situation that forced her to go crazy. That was probably the contents of the test. Cale put the jar down to one side. He then brushed his face with both hands. He could anticipate the contents of the test.
The occupants of the Palantír Hall gulped when they saw the way the TCF!World people tensed and braced themselves. Cale, himself, gulped and drew in quiet, shaking breaths. The children averaging ten years old, curled up closer to him, and frowned as they tried to concentrate on the record that hid a secret, which their father refused to share.
That record, it was about to begin.
- We will be with you. Just remember that.
Cale reached his hand toward the top's whip as he heard the Super Rock's voice. The thief started to speak again.
- The test will start as soon as you grab the top's whip.
Cale hand touched the top's whip.