I saw an old man in the dark his face wrinkled with age, he had bright yellow eyes that glowed menacingly, but if one were to look deep into them, one can tell those are the glare of a man who has seen death time and time again, only to overcome such horrific ordeal every time life hit him with such predicaments.
The wisdom portrayed in them was vividly so, ripe with age and time it was, even now just looking at him, my danger sense was slightly going off.
He was seated humbly in a wheelchair, his body was covered with a yellow coat from neck to toe, his head being the only thing I could vividly see, he had a gentle but chaotic smile, and he wore a rather elegant monocle on his right eye, and above his head was a black top hat with an old vintage clock, ticking and toeing away, it was fashioned in numeral values of the Roman epoch.
The Oldman look at me with a morbid fascination indeed, his eye tilted to Rose, who simply bowed, and exit the room, closing the door behind her.
It was then the master of the house smiled with great delight as he said.
"Ah yes. As red as blood drawn by a thorn, I can see it, the beauty and chaos coming from you, such an inspiring color indeed, miss Valentine an honor and a pleasure to meet you, my name is Desedoma Van Regulus the IIV."
I remain silent, but I bowed humbly, as I introduce myself.
"Greeting Lord Regulus, it's also an honor to meet you, firstly let me give you my sincere gratitude for saving a stranger like myself."
I replied as I humbly thank him for giving me a helping hand, of course, my guard is up, more than ever to be honest, why you might be asking, well it was simple, up until now I could always read a person body language to distinguish lie from truth or to sense emotional distress.
However, this man was different seeing I can't get a good read on him at all; if anything I did not even hear a single heartbeat, it was as if he was already dead.
Earlier I talk to Khaos and she confirm these people aren't human instead they seem to be lesser dragons, or as they are referred to the Dragonkins, or half-human half-dragon is a better way to put it.
They have humanoid form but also super strength, speed, durability, and even a greater healing factor, which makes them heal lethal injuries very quickly, they also have a long life span, the cap being two to three thousand years or slightly above, in rare cases.
So I know for a fact that this man was a Dragonkin, just like Rose, he smile even brighter as he laughed and said to me.
"Hahaha... please... please Ms. Valentine, call me Desedoma, I never was one who like formalities, to begin with, in return let me call you by your name as well."
He explains, expressing his dislike for formalities, of course, I responded to him like normal, keeping the flow of the conversation going.
"No problem Desedoma, but enough of this idle chit-chatter, I heard from Rose you wanted to see me, tell me, how can I help you?"
I ask nicely, maintaining a level of respect, befitting of a Noble.
At these words, Desedoma's smile went up so much, revealing all his sharp teeth that were like rigid daggers, and what I saw next was not the same gentle smile, but the glare of a madman and a smile filled with morbid insanity fertilize over year's of turmoil and anguish all to reach the bliss of one's effort.
Normally I would respond to this with immediate execution of the enemy but I didn't sense any hostility, nor did I sense any bloodlust, only peace, yes this man was nearing his peace, he was excited because his journey would soon end, it was the smile of someone who was nearing the purpose of his life.
But I immediately took notice when he call out a name, one forbidden by all means, a name that no one but me should know.
"Nyrthalan, son of the anointed, and the accursed, I finally get to meet yo...
However before the master of the house had the opportunity to finish talking, he was soon silenced when seven flexible bone tendrils with wide sharp bone blades at their tips, were all targeting his neck, but even so, his expression didn't falter his smile remained despite this situation.
On the other hand, I was suspicious as I said to Desedoma in a neutral tone, and with an expressionless expression on my face.
"Move and I will kill you, scream and I will kill you, lie to me and I will kill you, do I make myself clear Mr. Desedoma, we don't want a tragedy to befall you and your family now would we?"
I said to him in a threatening voice, I did this so I can garner his cooperation even more.
Desedoma of course smiled happily as he responded completely unfazed by my threat, instead, he was in glee, so much so, he said something as twisted as this.
"Of course, I understand you perfectly my lord, dying by your great hands would be an honor like no other as well, my entire life up till now, was to meet you after all, hell my wife, my daughters, my son, and even my maid, I have cultivated them all as an offering to you my lord, they possess powers some of which even the like of your authority cannot bypass, the youngest especially is a work of art if I do say so myself."
Desedoma Said with great pride, his voice filled with madness, and corruption, however, this also made me confused for many reasons, this old man was seriously unfazed by my threat, however, if it's like this, then he might be useful, so I look at him and began to question him.
"I see, sigh! so let me get this straight you know who and what I am right?"
"Yes, you're the great Messenger, the ambassador of the worlds."
"The what now?"
I asked with interest and shock, to which he replied.
"Great messenger of the Outer Gods, Ambassador of worlds, The shadow of Chaos, the omega who shall bring forth the Alpha, these are all names you go by my lord, I can go on and on, about the prophecy of your legend, however, to answer your question, then yes I know you better than anyone else, my existence, the very purpose of my life till now was to meet you in all your glory oh lord beyond the stars."
I was honestly confused, this isn't the first time, I was met with mystery, nor was it the first time I was called the great messenger, as a result of this, I look at Desedoma and said.
"How do you know all of these things, tell me, why do you know things even I am not aware of?"
Desedoma smiles once more as he closes his eyes as if remembering a past long forgotten but he admits to where he gets his knowledge from.
"Long ago, before the creation of this prison, before the ascension of Queen Maria, I was nothing but a cripple dragon waiting for death, my mother and father were both courtesans for a small foreign country as they bring comfort to the knights, seeing Fafnir couldn't offer any help, much less the financial support I needed for my treatment, day and night, holidays, and special events they would work tiredly, all so they could save enough money to hire doctors, buy medication, seek the help of the enlighten, and take care of my worthless self, their only dream was to see me happy, was to see me walk and experience the world for myself."
"Good parent they were, and miss them I do."
"However the disease I had was something beyond what doctors at that time could handle, and enlightened ones were rarely seen in that era due to fear of being hunted by the Dreamers, however one night, my mother had a dream, in that dream, she met a Goddess, a Goddess who she referred to as the eight sisters in red, and they told her, soon a doctor like no other will emerge."
"And bold and behold, just like the sisters foretold, a doctor like no other indeed emerge, Dr. Mithola, a goblin doctor, who has studied hundreds of diseases, with his aid, he cured my disease within eight months of extensive treatment, however at that time, both my mother and father died, due to a freak accident, hahaha... what are the chances of dying in an explosion that was caused by a gas leak in the brothel, seventy-seven died that night, my mother and father where part of those unfortunate seventy-seven."
"I gain the ability to walk, just like mother and father wanted to, but at what cost, so with nowhere to go, Dr. Mithola decide to take me as his assistant, and for three hundred and twenty-seven years I work with the doctor, he was like another father figures to me, but goblins and Dragonkin lifespan are like heaven and Earth, that curse of having a long life, is the embodiment of you live to see those around you die."
"Either way though, I succeed my master, and I inherited his will, but being three hundred and forty at the time, I could be considered a mere pre-teen in human years, however, my body was already that of an adult, but you see that the thing with Dragonkin, we age slowly, to be honest, we have periods to how we age, for the first one thousand years we can look like young adults in their twenties, after two thousand years, we start looking as if we hit our mid-forties our fifties, then the final period hit us when we reach three thousand years, well it when we hit our last days, as you can see I'm over three thousand years old, to be honest with you, just a century ago, I look as if I was in my forties, now my body life span is reaching its limit, I don't have much time left I would say I have about two more years to live."
But as the doctor was explaining his story I glared at him with slight annoyance and said.
"That's nice and all, but please keep on track your straying away from the main story."
"Ah. My apologies young lord, I always have a habit of explaining even the smallest thing with the greatest amount of detail, now then back to the story, now as a young doctor, I move from place to place, helping anyone that needed my assistance, around that time I was born in the Dante epoch, you can think of that time as a time of great suffering and dismay, an era that was in constant war no matter where you go, not many were of noble blood, and the poor where always the victim of such atrocities and misfortune, so sickness and plagues often break out."
"Eventually after traversing for another decade or two, helping where I can, I obviously gain a vast amount of reputation gaining many different sobriquet along the way; such as the Miraculous Grace, Slayer of Plagues, The Elixir man, Apostle of the Shining one, and so on, and so on, of course as you should already know all these rumors, false or not, would eventually make me a target of Mantra, and being target by Mantra would mean being recognize by the world, and unlike today becoming an enlighten wasn't as easy, only those who truly saw the what is, for what it truly is, can attain the gift of enlightenment, then there are people like me, we are not enlighten not in the traditional sense that is, we are simply love, as such, we are gifted with mutations making us variants, and as a variant I will have you know you can rival even that of an enlighten one, and depending on your reputation, it just becomes stronger and stronger the more respected and mystery you garner, because in this world, the more well known, praise, and worship you are, then ascending to the rank of the Gods isn't so far fetch."
The Oldman explain with great detail, however, I look at him once again and said.
"Thanks for the information, but what does any of this has to do with why you know of my existence."
"I'm getting to that my Lord, I just want you to understand my full life story along with some other useful information as well, now then let us continue; Ah where did I leave off again."
"Ah yes, the part about reputation."
He announced, to which he continued his story.
"You see because of my reputation, I became a variant, and as a variant, I gain an ability called Tree of Norden, our (T.O.N) for short."
With that said, the old man summoned forth a large 3D green sphere, and within the sphere, were eight smaller red spheres, and connected to those spheres were much smaller blue spheres with symbols written inside them, that I could not understand.
I look at this with interest and ask him.
"Tree of Norden, what does this ability do, it's a mutation right?"
"As clever as ever my lord, Tree of Norden, represent "My insanity brought into reality" what you're seeing right now, is my mutated brain, projecting my knowledge into skills."
"What does (T.O.N) do then?"
I asked him intrigued with this topic, the reason being, I don't feel any threat from this thing at all, however for some reason, I know this power of his is very dangerous.
Norden smiled when he saw confusion, albeit not mockingly, it's the nature of a doctor or a teacher to teach what cannot be explained or understood, and as such he brought up a familiar phrase I heard not too long ago.
"Have that carefree maid of mines brought up the topic of Miracle arts?"
"Miracle arts, I see, so Miracle arts wasn't a branch or another name for being enlightened, instead it was something related to your power as a variant, am I wrong, or am I right?"
"Most certainly, you see after my Ascension to an Order-6 Variant, my power increased yet again, originally When I awaken (T.O.N) I was at the lowest level of control, which mean I was nothing more than an Order-10 Variant, to upgrade a level is very hard for a variant, systematic rankings a truly hard, for example...
And yet again, the old man was going off-topic, as I said.
"Old man we will talk and blabber about many things later on so tell me what, (T.O.N) does in a summary, and skip to the part where you came to know about my existence."
"Being impatient seems to be a flaw of yours my lord, but as you wish, I shall explain, so (T.O.N) has eight branches such as (Heart, Lungs, Brains, Blood, Muscle, System, Bone, and Flesh) With this power I'm capable making cures for the disease I already know related to these branches, however with (T.O.N) I'm capable of doing and utilizing other powers related to the branches, for example, with the Brain branch I'm capable of doing things related to brain powers such telekinesis and telepathy, with the Blood branch I can do a Blood transfusion regardless of compatibility and I can manipulate and weaponized it, and I also have the power to share my ability, although they need to learn a certain arcane language and after writing it, Mantra in the atmosphere will be sacrificed and the same desired result I can pull off, the person I share my power with can also do it as well."
Upon hearing this, I flinch, as I said to myself.
'Tree of Norden seems similar to my Shublaveins, although there are a lot of obvious differences between the two.'
However as interesting as this may be, I didn't have much time to think about it, seeing that Desedoma began to continue to speak about the origin of his knowledge, as he said.
"Well then my lord, as requested let me tell you the source of my knowledge, you see there was a time in my life when I reach the limits of my capabilities when I began to question my mortality and its morbid capabilities."
"As a doctor, I know the harsh truth, you can't save everyone from the end, but I still try nevertheless, my entire life's dream was to beat death, albeit I try so hard to avoid the inevitable, and yet I fail to realize that death is something essential, something that is needed to keep balance, l know this better than everyone else, however, I don't want to see people die, but the more I try to better myself to be the hero that everyone needs, to be the hero that everyone deserves, the more I see myself becoming the villain that everyone hates."
"As good as I may be by heart, I know better than anyone else I am unforgivable scum, a waste, and sore to this world, I have done many atrocious things for the sake of science, I have murdered countless people, in hope to save more than what was sacrificed, I torment those in my wicked experiment to develop a new method of treatment to cure sickness."
"Many nights I hear and see the voices of the people I kill and torment in my dream, telling me to die, telling me they want to make me suffer, I am hated, but you know what, so be the case, if I can save the mast majority at the cost of a hundred or maybe a few thousand then so be it, I am no god I am only a man seeking the impossible, I don't like to see other suffer, I have suffered myself; so I can relate to the topic, but to cure suffering you must be the cause of suffering yourself."
"However, enlightenment, variant powers, Dark arts, Alchemy, Adavacne technology, my lord all of these failed in comparison, to the absolution, to the light that is the darkness of your rein, my lord Nyrthalan, My savior, My salvation in the form of the end, I bow my fate, my life, my soul, my dream, my family, and my everything to you any day, at any time."
"You see, when I plummet into the madness of my mortality, he came to me in a dream, the Lord of nightmares, the Duke of the astral realm, the cosmic horror of the voiceless mind, son of anointed and the cosmic mist without form, said unto me.
"Thou art of mortal blood, however, thy destiny begins at the summit of the great messenger, follow the gospel, and it shall lead you to him, the world he shall take you; will be not one of suffering, but one of eternal peace, praise him as thee is the end of the nightmare that is reality, sing his name on high, for the prophecy says he shall bring the living into an inescapable dream alongside him, as it ends with his slumber."
With those words said, Desedoma pull out a white book that look too familiar, when I look at it, it was the same one that Lilu had in his hand.
Of course, I asked him as such.
"Where... Where did you get that from?"
He then began to explain to me with a crazed and obsessed smile on his face.
"Everything up until now my lord was foretold by the Lord of Nightmares Lilu the traverser, he foretold the era of darkness that shall cleanse the world of its imperfection, he told me you shall consume and rebirth the world anew with your children, he foretold that the spawn that you and mother of a thousand young shall give birth to will be hail as the favored ones, and as such you shall be the new Maria, all is possible if we follow Lilu Gospel, my Lord."