The darkness the Ravager had banished returned momentarily, blinding Ojero completely.
It vanished again a few seconds later, but the entire cavern had changed. It was now far smaller and looked more natural.
Multiple openings dotted the walls, each leading in a different direction.
Strangely, there was no opening where Ojero had initially entered from.
"You will need to listen to the next part very clearly: As far as you are concerned, I do not exist. You never met me, and learned nothing of what I spoke."
The ground behind Ojero rumbled, and from the earth rose a strange pedestal with a shattered glass case.
Runes that he could not understand were engraved along the entire frame, glowing with magic that was rapidly dispersing.
Three prongs sat on the head of the pedestal, perfectly sized to hold an elemental gem.
Despite this, nothing was there, which Ojero noted with mild disappointment.
"Fear not, you will obtain an elemental gem today, boy. You will need a proper excuse, however, and this provides that. When others from your species enter this cavern, you will plea ignorance."
The clone stepped towards him and held his gaze unflinchingly.
"You will say you fell down a hole into one of the adjacent tunnels, and do not remember which one it was. You followed the pathway until you reached this pedestal, where you saw a gem. Without thinking, you reached for the gem, and it leaped onto you, bonding with you before you could consider the dangers."
None of that seemed too far from the truth anyway. He did indeed fall down a hole into one of the tunnels, and could not point to which one it was now.
As for the pedestal, he might as well have stumbled onto the gem without considering the dangers.
The eyes of the Ravager went from shifting colors to turning a deep black, activating a primal fear in Ojero.
"As for what you have learned today, you are to tell it to no one. Not your parents, not your friends, not even your brother. If anyone learns of what you know, you will be hunted to the ends of this plane to keep the secret. Your trust lies to you. Even if they do not betray you, there are methods to gain access to their thoughts without them noticing."
Despite his fear, Ojero felt himself questioning the logic of that rule.
If they could read the thoughts of his friends and brother, why couldn't they just read his own too?
If anything, he would need people to have his back in the coming years if the governments were already corrupted.
The air around him turned hostile, and it became harder to breathe.
"You will listen, child! Your thoughts will not be as easily readable as theirs! You will be one of the thirteen Archons!"
The power in that last word felt similar to that of Chaos, but instead of causing him dread, it filled him with hope and amazement.
'What are these strange words and the power they contain?'
Ojero somehow knew if he said them they would not have the same impact, at least not yet.
These words were beyond mundane humans, and required mana to speak their true name.
He felt excited to be considered an Archon, though. It appealed to the ego in him to be one of only thirteen chosen mages, even if he didn't really understand what the title meant quite yet.
"You will learn more in time. Never stop searching for the truth and it will always reveal itself. Now, hold still."
With only that as a warning, thick roots exploded from the stone beneath Ojeros feet and bound him, restraining his limbs and neck.
He tried to struggle a little but quickly discovered it wasn't possible. They were simply wound too tight around him.
'He could kill me right now without any issue at all…'
He banished the thought as soon as it arrived, recognizing the Ravager could have eradicated him with a thought.
Speaking of the powerful creature, it was currently weaving its fingers in a strange combination, mana flowing in a flood out of them and slowly taking the shape of an egg.
It was covered in onyx-black scales, and a purple glow emanated from it.
He felt his body begin to shiver at the sight of it, and immediately recognized that Chaos was wound into it directly.
The replica began to approach him, and every step caused Ojero's body to thrash against the restraints. Despite his best efforts, he could not convince his muscles to stop struggling.
Whatever the egg was, it was not antithetical to everything he understood.
He felt his body lose substance in its presence, threatening to cause him to cease to exist.
He began to beg and plead, all confidence in being able to do this vanishing.
He regretted everything he had done that led him to choose to stay.
He would have rather bled out on that stone when he first fell.
Once the Ravager reached his bound body, he placed the egg on his forehead and began to press it down, causing Ojero to scream in pain and fear.
The actual weight of the object seemed to have no bearing on how it felt when pressed into him.
It was as if the universe itself was weighing down on him.
Minutes seemed to pass before the feeling faded.
When the restraints loosened, Ojero looked around in confusion.
For some reason, he couldn't remember what had happened after the roots bound him.
His mind refused to fill the gaps, no matter how hard he tried.
"What… What happened?"
His voice sounded broken, causing his words to come out in a croak.
"Even I lack the capabilities to force your mind to reveal what occurred. Some things the mundane brain can not comprehend."
Looking at his mirror image he saw something new.
The Ravager looked exhausted, and sweat freely dripped down his forehead.
Noticing his look, the creature grimaced.
"I expended much of my energy to create such a gift. It was a necessity to make sure you could compete with the other Archons. All of them gained their abilities through less direct means, causing me to take actions I would rather avoid."
Ojero didn't quite understand what he meant, he did not know what happened to him after all, but felt it was important.
"You will learn in time. Once you have gathered enough mana, the gift I have bestowed upon you will reveal itself and be of great use. However, do not grow overconfident. This gift can only be as strong as you are, and so it is not a crutch to shield you from effort. Of all the Archons, you will have the most unusual path to tread."
The Ravager extended his hand, and in it, a slender sword appeared.
Ojero was sure he would feel fear at the sight of it, but instead, he felt… nothing.
It was such a great nothing, that he was uncertain if the blade was even there.
He knit his eyebrows and focused on it, and surely enough the blade seemed to erase itself from existence whenever he wasn't giving it his complete attention.
"This is the only weapon I possess that won't kill you when touched. Take it, and thrust it into my heart. Once you do that, drop the sword, and lay on the ground. The system will reward you with a sufficient gem to grant you the promised growth."
His eyes widened.
'What does he mean to kill him?'
"Hurry!"
The voice roaded, more of a command than a request.
Without any conscious effort, he saw his hand reach out and grab the ghostly blade, before stepping back and thrusting the point forward into the Ravager's chest.
It was odd to feel himself stab an almost perfect mirror image.
Blood bubbled at the lips of the creature, but the smirk on his face never left.
Letting the sword go, he stepped back as the body flopped to the ground, blood beginning to pool on the stone.
As the pool grew bigger, the edges of it began to fade into motes of light, before it spread to the bulk of the body.
Within seconds, nothing remained of either the Ravager or the sword.
Once the last bit of blood disappeared, the darkness returned, leaving him blind once more.
Ojero looked around, expecting to see something more flashy at the death of a Ravager.
Minutes passed in tense silence, and he began to grow worried.
'Was it all a trick? Or maybe a dream? Wasn't something supposed to happen after?'
Just as panic set in, a floating golden screen appeared in front of him.
[You have slain a Ravager: Asmodeus the Diviner]
[Action has been deemed worth of the Hall of Records]
[Processing reward…]
The screens vanished, leaving Ojero in the dark once more.
Despite more waiting, he barely even noticed.
'So it was true! He was a Ravager!'
Not only that, the system had given him the Ravager's name, Asmodeus the Diviner.
That gave him many more details about everything happening, especially with the title the Ravager had.
The Diviner.
'So he has something to do with fate and prophecy, I wonder if that is why he is trying to fix the planes! He wants to set the course of history back on track!'
It also meant that the creature had probably been planning this for a long time.
But why did he then test Ojero? Surely he had to have known he would pass.
And why did he want Ojero to kill him? Wasn't that a mistake?
'Unless he isn't really dead…'
With that thought, the system returned.
[Action deemed worthy of Mythic reward]
The powerful word made him feel awe and reverence. He wished he could kneel the moment it was said, and felt self-loathing at not doing so.
Following that, he felt shock and amazement.
'Mythic! Only the Everentile Emperor is said to have a mythic gem! This will set me apart from everyone!'
His thoughts were extinguished as fast as they appeared.
'I'm not supposed to be set apart though, that would only raise questions about where I found the gem and what the truth of it is! I have to hide it!'
As excited as he was to have a mythic, disappointment followed in equal proportions.
What was the point of being special if no one knew about it?
'Well, it's better than having no gem!'
Having decided to be happy with his reward, he refocused on the words floating in front of him.
[Gem Awarded]
System message exploded into trillions of sparkles, before starting to spin rapidly in the air.
They grew closer together before finally merging in a small explosion of light, forming a gemstone about the size of Ojero's fist.
It had no uniform color, constantly shifting between them.
Despite the irregularity of colors, there always seemed to be a mark on every one of them.
The red had a purple scar, the green had a black one. The light blue was framed in grey and the yellow was a sickly green.
It felt tainted and warped, and if Ojero had not already been so close he might have avoided it outright.
Instead of waiting for him to grab it, the gemstone shot towards his chest and exploded, long tendrils of mana shot out of the stone and pierced his chest, causing a sharp pain at every point of contact.
Just as he started screaming, he felt himself fainting once again.
A few words appeared as he was falling, and he was able to vaguely make them out.
[You have bonded with a Forgotten Echoes Gem]
[You have consumed Stone of Unlocked Potential]