And listening to Ananse right now, Mane knew it was because his True Eyes hadn't truly awakened. When they did, he would become a genius time wielder.
"I'm going to assume that you are telling me this so that I can prepare myself, aren't you?" Mane squinted his eyes and questioned the goddess before him.
Ananse only smiled in response. "Prepare you for what?" Indra asked as he flicked his hair.
"You only mentioned the first users of this powerful eye bloodline, but you didn't speak of the next few who wielded this power. So I am certain of a few things. The eyes do not truly belong to those who inherit it. And two, all those who got their hands on them are dead."
Ananse smiled faintly upon hearing his words, a smile that only Mane could see. Indra didn't have such a privilege. She didn't deny or confirm Mane's words, so he continued with his assumption.
"I thought it was strange that the Origin King transferred his power to two people, yet one experienced a mutation, whilst the other did not. I finally figured it out a few seconds ago. The Origin King may not be dead." Mane laid down his hypothesis.
Indra squinted as he heard Mane's words. He quickly pressed down the feeling of shame that a kid was able to think so deeply and said, "He is right. You kept saying the Origin King is dead, yet you never did mention when and how he died. So, how did he die?"
"You are sharp. I don't know whether the King is alive or not. That is a question too difficult to answer, even for me." Ananse shook her head slightly as she finally spoke up.
"If it were to be anyone else, I would have believed them" Mane didn't think she was telling the truth. "Oh? So you are saying I'm lying to you?" Ananse asked with a genial smile on her face. Unfortunately, Indra couldn't see this smile so he assumed that she was offended.
"Come on kid, apologize to her" he kindly prompted Mane, feeling that Mane may have offended her with his blunt words.
Mane only smiled in response and said, "Let me finish what I am saying, then you would understand. Besides, she is smiling. She isn't offended by my words." His words put Indra at ease, casting his unnecessary worries aside.
"You mentioned that True Eyes underwent a mutation when they were transplanted into the First Supreme. The Eyes of Destruction had no such fate. Initially I found that strange. They were from the same source, so how did one mutate, whilst the other didn't. That was when I realised something. In your narration you mentioned that the Eternal Slayer was almost as talented as the First Supreme, and had reached close to the mastery of the Origin King's mastery of space. Then you said that there were restrictions to his power. Anyone else would conclude that the restrictions were present because of the absence of the True Eyes. After all, any other person would conclude that the only way to bring out the best in the power of space was to reunite it with the power of time."
"This assumption is wrong. Firstly, you didn't mention the restrictions to the True Eyes, only mentioning that it had mutated and hence, had developed novel techniques unknown to even the Origin King. This could only mean that there weren't any restrictions to the time power of the True Eyes! The only restriction to its power was the talent of the Supreme herself! Secondly, the Supreme sustained grave injuries after dealing with the Eternal Slayer, injuries that eventually took her life. These two points provided me with some information. The first being the Supreme bloodline. It is logical to believe that the restrictions of the Origin King's power were broken by the Supreme bloodline. But this thinking is flawed! If it were only a restriction, the Eternal Slayer would surely have found a way to break it. This could only mean one thing: the eyes were still linked to their original owner. With the Origin King still alive and well, any other person would find it difficult to gain the allegiance of his eyes. After all, which loyal servant would give up on its master whilst their master was still alive and well?"
Mane took a deep breath, his aura increasing in intensity as he spoke. It was a change that brought a subtle smile to Ananse's face as she thought silently to herself, "He is already embarking upon the path of a scholar". This was the path of scholars. As one discovered mysteries and loopholes of the world, their power would also grow. Mind you, it wasn't the prerequisite to breakthrough. But when one understood some of the mysteries and histories of the world, that scholar would grow stronger. That was why Ananse spent her entire life seeking to understand the 7 Great Mysteries of the World. And Mane was unknowingly walking into the knowledge of one of them: the 2nd Great Mystery- the Truth about the Origin King. It was a mystery that wasn't even known as a mystery. Apart from the mystery of devilstone, a mineral which sparked a war between the several god races, most of the other mysteries weren't public knowledge. The 2nd Great Mystery was one of these obscure mysteries.
Indra looked calm on the surface, but that was only because he was confused. He couldn't hear a word of what Mane was saying. He could only smile bitterly, for he knew that only one person had the power to cloud his senses in his own dimension. If she didn't want him to listen in on their conversation, then she surely had her reasons.
"The First Supreme possessed a powerful bloodline- the Supreme bloodline- so the connection between the True Eyes and the Origin King was forcefully broken. I reckon that not even the Origin King anticipated that the child who was compatible with his time eyes was the first of her kind- a Supreme. I assume that normally, he would have definitely seen it with his power over time. But in his fear of what he deemed as the greatest catastrophe of the universe, he didn't see something so obvious. Because his connection to the True Eyes was cut off, the First Supreme didn't face many restrictions in using his power. Even at that point it was already wrong to call it his power because he didn't have access to his eyes anymore. It was her power now. As for the mutation, it didn't occur because of the fact that the restriction had been removed. There was another reason to that, and I'd get to that real soon"
"Now to my next point- the Eternal Slayer's talent. You said that it was almost as if he was more talented than the First Supreme, but that wasn't the case. In those days, the First Supreme's talent was at the pinnacle. Over the past millions of years, the bar for categorizing talents has been raised. But during those days her talent was the pinnacle of talents. So there was no possible way that the Eternal Slayer was on par with her. Which could only mean one thing- it wasn't his talent. I asked myself, why was the Eternal Slayer against the Supreme? After all, there was no way that would do him any good. I reached only one answer. Maybe it's because I don't know the entire history, but that was the only answer I could reach. The Eternal Slayer wasn't truly the Eternal Slayer. It was the Origin King!"
If Indra could hear Mane's words right now, he would be gob smacked. How did Mane reach such a conclusion anyway? The answer could be gleaned from the memory ball that Ananse gave him. She stated that not only did it include her training manual, but her experiences as well. She was someone who had succeeded in understanding all the 7 mysteries of the world. So her experiences were extremely valuable. Although she didn't include the solutions to the 7 mysteries in it, her story about the Origin King had caused Mane's mind to glean some fragments of the 2nd mystery from her experiences.
After all, it took her millions of years to understand them all. Mane was only 11. There was no way he would be able to answer even one of them all on his own. Besides, she didn't have any help. But in Mane's case, not only had she filled him in on the true history of the universe, a section of history that was unclear to even a battle god like Indra, she had done so meticulously and patiently.