Witches and Wizards!
Roland had been feeling very uneasy since the day he visited the demon city in the dream world. Even though he was astonished by the capabilities and the infrastructure of the demon clan, he was more worried about the conversion process as well as the fact that the senior demons actually resembled humans.
Evolutionarily, humans aren't really that advanced as far as physical capabilities were concerned, A dog can potentially kill a human under the right circumstances. The only reason why humans even managed to become the apex predator of the world was due to their intelligence. If not for that, humans could never end up at the top.
But now, the demons were morphing into the shape of humans. Roland wasn't actually concerned about the form but rather the reason for such a transformation. Demons developing intelligence on par with humans was the worst possible outcome in his opinion.
Also, Roland felt that the way demons achieved the power by consuming the magic stones was a bit similar to the way he grew stronger by eliminating the corrupted souls in the dream world. That thought alone scared him so much that he chose to remain silent, but that didn't mean he could forget about it and pretend that they weren't similar.
Actually, ever since Roland got the ability of the dream world from Zero, he'd been plagued by one question. 'Since witches only females, how could he inherit Zero's power?' True he couldn't use Zero's ability like her, but he could use the same magic power inside the dream world.
No matter how he thought about it, Roland was sure that the force of nature behaved like magic power in more ways than one. However, the force of nature wasn't limited to the females in the dream world. This meant the power itself wasn't differentiating between the genders. That instead indicated that the men in the real world were in some way different to the women on a fundamental level.
It was no longer a problem at the level of genders. Roland being a modern person that the problem may very possibly be at the molecular level.
How to change one gender of a species without affecting the other? A genuinely problematic question for the ancient world but a rather simple one for the modern world. Just change the 'Y' chromosome, and all men will change with no visible effect in the female members of the species.
Even if he could think of a way to change all males. It was an impossible feat to achieve.
Roland couldn't think of many possibilities, but there was one he didn't want to consider cause it made him feel cold sweat on his back. There was a somewhat terrifying possibility.
Those who could change the genetic structure of an entire gender could ever be human. Only gods had that kind of ability. At that moment Roland recalled the first sentence he found in the nameless book.
'The deities deceived us.'
It was a bold statement, and Roland felt so at that time but now faced with his own theory, he no longer had the ability to say that the comment was overkill or a misnomer.
If what he thought was indeed true, then the only power which can achieve such a feat belonged to the deities.
"Is that really the reason behind the lack of male users of magic power?" Roland thought silently,
But Roland couldn't understand. If the deities indeed decided to take away the magic power from humans. Why did they target only men?
The answer to Roland's question gave rise to another possibility. It was an even more ridiculous conclusion which could perhaps change the perception of humanity, and witches for all eternity.
Roland thought, 'What if we've been wrong for centuries all along? What if witches could at some point in history carry a child?'
And what kind of a child would such a union produce that the deities sealed away the magic power of an entire gender?
'If the presence of the magic power is the only criteria, then what am I?' Roland thought. Even if I cannot use my magic power, my body is filled with it. I can be considered as a male witch or rather a wizard.
'And what happens if I am right?' thought Roland silently as he raised his head and gazed at the distant Northern slope mine where Anna was currently working.