……
Zilan cautiously yet expectantly walked towards the altar. His heart beat spiked and his palms became sweaty. The closer he got towards the altar, the more excited he got. He would finally be able to start putting his plan into progress, his dream as well as his mission would finally start to take shape after what seemed like an eternity of waiting.
“Phew..”
Taking a deep breath, Zilan stepped right up to the altar where a gigantic tome that could not appear anymore Ancient was placed. His hands trembled as he moved to pick it up however, he suddenly noticed a few paragraphs of Ancient text written in a very strange language on the side of the altar.
Squinting his eyes, Zilan began roughly translating the words in his mind.
‘To my dear friends the Roho,
From the bottom of my heart, I Gnagus Najua Yote Kuhusu Dawa, wish to thank you for everything that you have done for me. Thank you for sharing with me the secrets to the Soul and allowing me to complete my research on the Way of Alchemy. I know not if I am unparalleled in this [Way] as many seem to think however, I can now definitively say that I have lived a full life now that my research has met a wall, the final insurmountable wall.
On that note, I would also like to apologise for my actions in those days. I was lost, I could not progress any further and the memory of the secrets you shared with me fuelled my inherent humanly greed as well as my thirst for knowledge. I wanted more and my horrible actions at that time can never be forgiven.
Now that it’s all over, I pray you can accept my life’s work as an apology….. and this may be selfish of me but I hope you can keep it safe from the Heavens.
It is funny is it not, I started out human but the moment I incorporate the Universe’s laws into my Alchemy I’m branded a devil, a heretic…..something to be hunted down and put to death. Haha, I suppose I should not be talking about the Heavens and their ways to you…..’
Zilan’s vision trembled and his mind was in total shambles. The second he read the name Gnagus Najua Yote Kuhusu Dawa, his world was twisted upside down and he almost lost his bearings.
“Impossible. How do you have this? How can this be here? This…it doesn’t make any sense…”
Why would the person Zaum recognised to be the most talented, innovative and creative Alchemist to ever live have his life work show up in this small plane of all places, presented as an award for a bloody cheap Alchemy competition of all things. Zilan was utterly and completely at a loss for both words and thoughts. There was nothing linking the two together nor was there any pattern to follow. The thing before him would literally cause every big wig in the Universe to go crazy, forget about destroying this plane, whole galaxies would easily be turned to dust in a fight for it.
“Roho….what is Roho?” Zilan was once again shocked to find he could not identify the name.
‘This information is locked.’ Was the only reply that came from the Book of Path.
Zilan forcefully calmed himself down upon hearing that. The only other time something like this had happened was when he examined Kifo’s light attribute with his ‘eyes’ which could only mean that his Ancestors were involved. He thus swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of saliva before slowly reaching his hand out towards the Ancient tome.
Halfway there though, his hand suddenly paused. Zilan looked behind him in surprise as well as confusion. That feeling, that all too familiar feeling in his heart that had guided him to this point of the journey all of a sudden resurfaced, the difficult to understand part was that it was urging Zilan backwards. ‘Strange….’ Looking back at the giant tome that was surely filled with a lot of insights and then to his back where that special feeling was directing him, Zilan was surprisingly not conflicted. With a strange smile on his face he shook his head and abandoning the tome, he walked back the way he came.
Somewhere far away yet also very near at the same time, a shadow was attentively watching Zilan’s every move. The instant he saw Zilan turn around as well as his peculiar expression as he did so, extreme surprise took over the shadow. He was sure Zilan understood its value and yet…..
‘They’re so alike yet so very different.’ The shadow exclaimed.
…..
Zilan did not even look back at the altar as he simply continued to walk back towards that horrible stairway. There were two reasons behind his conviction and thought process. One of them was his belief in himself, especially when it came to the Major Ways, Alchemy in particular. He had absolute confidence in his abilities when it came to these areas and in this life, he was sure he would create something unparalleled in the whole Universe. Although the giant tome would quicken the process, it would ultimately still be a stepping stone, one of many that he honestly cared about but also overlooked. In Zilan’s heart, his eyes and his brain were already enough of a cheat, nothing else could really compare which is why he could abandon the tome. A creation of Man and a creation of the Universe (his eyes), it was obvious which was the superior of the two.
The other reason for his decisiveness was the fact that Zilan had followed that feeling in his heart for a long time. It was what had helped in his research, it was what helped him get to where he was today and he wasn’t about to just stop listening to it just because a treasure popped up in front of him. That feeling or that instinct was a part of his Path, a part of him and it would stay that way until the person known as Zilan seized to exist.
‘Now where?’ He thought as he continued to move away from the altar.
The audience that was watching Zilan was completely flabbergasted. The way they looked at Zilan had taken so many forms in the past few minutes that it wasn’t even funny. Now watching him walking away without the ‘Supreme Scripture’ even the Elders felt some type of way.
Needless to say, Zilan knew nothing of this and even if he did, he didn’t care. He had bigger fish to fry….in fact with every new discovery he was beginning to realize that the fish was much, much bigger than he had initially calculated. For the Chairman to pull out that tome…..
