"What will I do now?" Gilgamesh looked at this knight and said, "You come from a very distant place, and I must assume it's because of my presence here. The question is not how I know but what you will tell me right now."
Richard, looking at Gilgamesh in front of him, truly felt he was in the presence of a god whose strength could not be matched by anyone in this world. He had been foolish to think he could have killed him, but that no longer mattered now that he knew the truth, so he made a decision immediately.
Bowing on one knee, Richard lowered his head and said, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Richard, and I am one of the divine knights sent by the holy church of Millis. I was given a special mission, and that is to kill you."
"What did you say?!" While Richard was immersed in his thoughts, the edge of a sword immediately pressed against his throat, and when he opened his eyes, he saw how his old master was targeted by several ice spears that lowered the temperature around them. If he said something wrong now, both he and his master would undoubtedly die.
While Eris held the sword over Richard's neck, Roxy aimed her staff at the old master of the man who had just said he was here to kill Gilgamesh. No one was against killing; they themselves now only needed a small reason to eliminate these people.
Cunsfiel stood by, stunned. How was he not aware of the situation a moment ago? When he heard the knight, whom Gilgamesh had just saved, mention killing him, he scoffed deeply in his mind, as trying to kill someone like him would require at least a true god, and he wasn't talking about the scale of this planet.
"Reconsider your words; death is not the only thing waiting for you..." Roxy had never shown so many negative emotions together, but her eyes were as cold as winter.
As for Eris, she wouldn't hesitate a second time to kill those who even thought of harming the people she cherished. If she hesitated again, she would prefer not to keep living.
Richard turned pale and said, "That was the mission assigned to me by coming to this place. Of course, it was unthinkable for me to do something like that. What I come to bring you is a message, one that is about to change what we know today as the future and the past."
Gilgamesh, needless to say, had seen Richard's past and realized what he wanted to tell him, so he simply said, "It started much earlier than you thought; a long time ago, I mentioned it, but honestly, it was just a joke."
Eris looked at Gilgamesh and asked, "What does this man mean?"
"Well, how do I explain it? In short, the Church of Millis was corrupted by my enemy, who is strategically targeting realms around the Asura Kingdom to attack it in a united assault. That is, we would be the public enemy of an entire continent and much more."
Roxy frowned and muttered, "That's a good plan, but it doesn't amount to anything. Aren't we stronger than most conventional warriors in an army?"
"It's strange; the one controlling those people should know that, so how is it that he hasn't considered that? Maybe what he's looking for is something else, something like a distraction." Eris looked at the edge of her sword at Richard's neck and muttered, "Perhaps it's a distraction; that's the best I can come up with."
Gilgamesh nodded and said, "You're right; it could be a distraction, but things are extremely blurry, something that I find a bit perplexing. The future is disastrous; nothing is stable, and what is about to happen is like a confused mind not knowing exactly where to go."
"Isn't the future written?" Roxy murmured to herself, but her words were heard by everyone.
"That's an easier way to explain it; the future is not written, and it's really strange... I suppose the numerous timelines we've created while trying to see the future are like a convergence effect. If there's a stable path, and we add a small branch to it, there will be a future effect that changed. If that changed future has a stone removed, then a new timeline is created, and the previous two are of no importance."
Along with Gilgamesh's explanation, Richard was lost in his thoughts. So, if he knew it from the beginning by seeing it, why did he save him? It wouldn't be useful if his mission was accomplished in this place, so there was no need for him to be saved.
If that's the case, perhaps his usefulness still holds some value in Gilgamesh's eyes. But what he didn't know is that this is not how the future Gilgamesh could see worked, but without expressing his questions, obviously, there would be no answer.
Earlier, Gilgamesh took Eris and Roxy in search of the entity that had escaped from his seal but found absolutely nothing. Without any traces, he decided to go alone into each of the isolated caves to look for any trace of that entity and luckily encountered Richard, who, without thinking, helped him. Therefore, this meeting is just a mere coincidence.
However, even after eliminating so many shadows, that thing that should supposedly be nearby never appeared.
"Not bad; your mission has been completed, so I appreciate it... Still, my question stands, what will you do now?" Gilgamesh, who was a little uneasy about not being able to catch the entity that had escaped from this place, asked Richard. In this dangerous area, death is at every corner. The underground areas are enormous; wandering aimlessly is only seeking death.
Richard, at this moment, was in a daze. He had no idea that, in the end, he would be left without a purpose in this life. It would have been better even to die; to lose one's desires is just a feeling of loss for him.
At that moment, Richard's old master sat down with the support of his disciple. He looked at the doubts in the eyes of this young man and said, "Young Richard, it's still too early for your wishes to die in this place."
"Old master, please, don't educate me in this place. You must stay calm and rest; I will get you out of this place, or your daughter would hate me."
Cunsfiel at that moment said, "Just rest, Grandpa; everything will be okay."
Richard then saw the talking dog; was that filthy dog a divine beast?
"Lord Gilgamesh, for saving my only disciple, I am extremely grateful," Richard's old master finally stood up and expressed his appreciation towards Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh slightly nodded. Then, he looked at Richard and said, "You've come from afar to bring me a message; saving you is just a small admiration on my part for your principles."
At this moment, Richard lowered his head in silence. This time, a couple of things had moved his heart, and unknowingly, he had already made his decision: "Allow me to pledge loyalty to you!"
Gilgamesh looked at Richard and asked, "Are you sure?"
"I have nowhere else to go after failing. My sister will return to the Millis continent, so I only have one thing left, and that is to follow you."
Gilgamesh looked at Richard with unknown thoughts and nodded, handing him a special sword and warning him about the consequences of betraying him.
"What do we do now?" Unable to find the main entity of this place, a worried Eris asked.
"After everything that has been done here, nothing will catch its attention."
Gilgamesh narrowed his eyes and said, "This thing is cunning; however, I still have one more method. Even if it's a demon, it will still have to lick my boots. Come, let's go to a different cave. I don't believe it won't come out!"
As he was unable to lure it, Gilgamesh wanted to use something else that was in this place. Now that he hadn't found it with normal methods, before destroying everything in this place, he wanted to try new methods.
Finally, Gilgamesh led the group to a different place. Richard, along with his old master, also followed.
There were no more shadows as they traveled to a different place. The truth was that not only Gilgamesh, but even the other adventurers still in the other caves realized that the malevolent shadows were no longer appearing.
The truth was that the ancient black adversity monster was aware of the danger and felt that someone was hunting it. Thus, it turned into a ghost, hiding underground, and no longer took action. It became inactive and waited, instead.
Eventually, Gilgamesh and the others arrived at a large cave. This rocky cave was very large; however, without Gilgamesh leading the way, others would not be able to find it.
There was something that looked like a giant box but also a bright stone platform. It is unknown what divine minerals this thing, which looked magical, was made of. It emitted a faint light along with a brilliant beam, resembling a very beautiful blood diamond.
A crown was floating on top of this platform. On closer inspection, this crown was not made of divine material or magical metal.
This black and white crown suspended above the platform, with careful observation, was found to be made of two types of woods; one black side and one white side. The black was like obsidian stone; the white was as white as a diamond. Seeing this black and white crown, others would think it was made of magical materials.
However, Gilgamesh was not captivated by the crown. His gaze was on a pig statue. This huge pig statue didn't move but lay on the platform without moving.
Gilgamesh stared intensely at this pig. His eyes became incomparably fiery, and he murmured, "I never thought a pig could be a divine beast; it must be my pet."