Chapter 193 The Dormants
"So you are the reason why everything happened on this planet, huh?" I asked again as I looked at her. Honestly, I wasn't asking. I just wanted to hear it from her mouth for some reason. Something told me that it wasn't just that… It was like an itch you get when you feel like a part of the puzzle is missing.
"Not really," she said, much to my amazement as she looked at me. Her eyes, which were plain black, now turned blue, her hair which was tied to her head, she let it go free, revealing long curly hairs that reached her back.
The veil she was wearing, she took it off, and I saw her completely snow white face, and I wondered if she was a princess or something? Though, remembering her origins and her title, I guess maybe not.
"Since I have already told you this much, won't harm to tell you a bit more about it. Maybe you will kill those bastards, too. Would make me feel much better honestly," she spoke as she created a chair out of nowhere, one behind me and one behind her.
The atmosphere, which was dry as a desert, with storms raging around the area, turned into a mellow grassland with flowers all around the area. If not for the complete absence of any living being in the vicinity, it would have been quite the picnic spot, honestly.
"Sit. This one is interesting too and since it's related to your planet, you are probably going to need this information beforehand," she spoke as she sat there with a carefree expression.
"What are you aiming at?" I asked as I saw her sudden change in behavior. From trying to kill me, to completely losing any hopes of living, and then finally to being so carefree as if she is enjoying each and every moment of her life.
"Nothing much. I just want to enjoy my last moments a bit better," she spoke and I just observed her face with an analytical gaze.
Her mellow gaze sometimes looked at me, other times she seemed to ponder about something. And once she was done with thinking, she finally spoke up,
"Well. To understand what happened, you need to know a few key things about a planet and how it functions. I have seen the technological level of this world, so I will speak from the point where things are more understandable.
First, each planet is a living entity. Whether it's this one or any other planet in the entire world, they are all living entities. But they aren't exactly conscious. We call these beings as Dormants and they float in the air according to the gravitational pull of the other beings around them. Did you catch this much?"
My mouth opened up wide just looking at her, as a million questions were running through my mind right now. This was… well… okay… not exactly unexpected, but still. Not really what I was thinking, to be honest.
"What about the sun and the moon? Are they too, Dormants?" I asked, and she shook her head in denial.
"Sun is like a ball of energy concentrated at one point. Moon is a broken part of the Dormant. Moon, in general, is a satellite, as you know, mostly because it was once a part of the Dormant. Not going into too much detail, mostly satellites are formed because the Dormant intentionally or unintentionally loses a part of its body," she explained and I nodded at that. I wanted to know more, but it seemed like we were going off topic, so I didn't pry more into it.
"Now this being is more of a mystical being. The Dormants, I mean. And just like all mystical beings, the Dormants have a core. Including this planet, of course," she spoke, and my heart skipped a beat. It kind of made a bit more sense as to why take control of such a weak planet… to harness its core, huh?
"While you might be thinking that one can absorb the core and get strong, and it's true. However, there is something really special about Dormant Cores," she looked at my curious face with a slight smile and continued,
"They are inexhaustible. Meaning, even if you absorb the complete core, the core will regenerate its energy over a long period of time and will provide you with more opportunities to absorb it."
For a few moments, I kept quiet as I took in this information.
"So the zombie apocalypse and everything was to take control over this core?" I asked
"Yes and no," she spoke before continuing,
"Yes, because. We came here to take control of the Core, in fact, take it with us. No, because that wasn't our prime goal. It was one of the three main goals of coming here."
And this time I turned quiet. It felt like another big secret was going to be revealed to me right now, and not betraying my expectations,
"The other two goals were the people of this planet and the gate formation theory."
"??"
"Well. The people here on this planet are one of the inexhaustible sources as well. They reproduce and multiply at a rapid rate. Being mentally weak and technologically much much backwards, they are easy to manipulate and take control over.
I already told you about intergalactic wars, so let me give you insider information on it. The selection of the Champions might have changed, but it is still going on in all the planets. Each planet has their challengers and even this planet is going to send 15 of its best people to the Challenge Grounds in 3 months.
Anyways, back to the topic, so this planet has a lot of humans which are easy to take over. While I was tasked with taking care of the apocalypse and the zombie invasion, another fellow ingrate of mine, Qidsa, is here to manipulate the people of this planet. His work is to provide power to the lower beings in exchange for a slave contract, which he will later add into his army and use to win the Contest of the Champions."
My eyes were glued to her at this point. Each word, each statement, each fact she was telling me, was much crazier than the previous one. I had to run through each of those statements many times before realizing the gravity of the situation.
"We are royally f*cked, aren't we?" I spoke as I knew that while it would be easy to just fight and end things, but once those greedy humans were manipulated by power, it would be nigh impossible to get them back on proper track.
But it made me question something,
"If it isn't too much of a secret, then… Can I ask you a question?" I spoke with a pondering face. She was a bit surprised by my behavior but still nodded,"go ahead."
"What happened in Alfheim?" I asked, and it was her turn to widen her eyes at me.
Though she quickly retracted her expression back to normal as she sighed and spoke,"Well, I didn't think I would hear a past relic's name here."
"Past relic?" I asked as I looked at her out of curiosity.
"Yeah. Well, let me ask you this then. Are you questioning about the people in Alfheim going mad and eating each other, right? I mean, after they got infested with the energy," she asked and I nodded. That was exactly what I was worried about. I don't want my close ones to be turning into something like that. That's the reason I didn't go into full throttle with their advances into the next Grade, which I was easily capable of.
[Advanced Time Manipulation] and the copy skill allowed me to do it pretty much within moments. In fact, I can even create an army of SSS-Grades or higher if I want to, but with the risks involved, I would rather not do it.
"Then you need not to worry about it," she said, much to my relief, but then it made me curious as to why that is.
"To put it simply, the Elves, or perhaps any vegetative race, who only eats plants and has never touched any animals or perhaps anything like that, gets in contact with the Cessation Energy, an energy totally opposite to them, they start mutating.
What research has found was that if the Cessation Energy comes into contact with an energy totally opposite to it, a chemical reaction of sorts occurs, creating a mutated Cessation Energy. Once that occurs, it also starts affecting the mental fortitude of those beings.
The converted are already brain dead so there is little to no problem, but those who haven't converted yet, aren't so lucky. They have one energy telling them to eat plants, while another telling them to eat meat.
Which disgustingly results in them eating their own race members," she spoke as she shrugged her shoulders with a slightly disgusted look.
I looked at her curiously, and she explained,
"They can't eat plants, but still crave for the energy those plants hold. The only other source of plant energy they can get is their own breed, who has previously devoured plant energy before converting.
You see, once converted, the elves can't use the plant energy, but it still hasn't gone from their system. So one thing leads to another and you get cannibalism as your final answer."
She sighed in the end and I, too, couldn't help but sigh at the sad events. Then she looked at me and spoke,
"Finally, the Gate Formation Theory."