Chapter 1573: Quintess’ Answer
Quintess continued to look impassive and uninvested.
It wasn’t as though Sause expected him to respond with a frown or a gushing of tears, of course. But the Giant found himself feeling like he was talking to a huge wall.
Finally, Quintess’ lips parted, and he spoke:
<And hence, after loathing me and my will, you devoured your own kind. Did you hope to gain some greater semblance of importance by making sure you were the only Giant who remained, or was that your attempt at trying to acquire greater strength? Like Jerthrax.>
Sause’s face... softened.
In order to salvage Edagon from a coming apocalyptic event – the departure of Quintess and Listafelle, which left Aigas’ Rules weakened – Jiggorrhax had given the order for some of the Giants to feed themselves to his younger sibling so that he (Jerthrax) could grow rapidly. Indeed, the Giants and the dragons were related. One could sacrifice power for the other in a fashion more effective than with cumulative mana experience.
"Both," came Sause’s answer. "It was both. And I don’t regret it. The fact that I yielded no better result – or satisfaction, for that matter – from both validated my new reasoning all the more."
A lull followed.
Everyone who’d heard Sause bleed his heart out patiently waited for the response of the mightiest Deity on Aigas, or rather, the mightiest Deity to create Aigas.
It didn’t take long for the response to come.
<Is that so?> said Quintess, and he sighed lightly in order to not blow everything away. Then he smiled. <I found the way Aigas has developed since my departure rather... phenomenal. So many creatures with strong wills have been flourishing. I had thought such stubborn minds would end with the Grand Wars, but apparently not. You and that little bird, Asthon only served to mark a coming age of more strong-willed individuals with your influence. Frankly, I never had much hope in that.>
Sause scowled. "Is that why you abandoned us?"
Quintess maintained his smile.
<No. Listafelle and I had to leave in an... official capacity.> he said. <The illusion has been broken. Everyone who remains on Aigas right now knows Deities aren’t all-powerful beings who have never been weak before. Hahaha. I never thought I’d be sharing such information here, but... The truth is very few Deities out there operate on their own. There are organisations of Deities with their own corners of the reality they rule – while steering clear of the Primeval Deities’ domains, of course. I, Listafelle, Suzamete and Boron were groomed from mortality to godhood by one of these organisations. The Aspire to Divine."
Skullius and Sause reeled.
<We aren’t our own people, most of the time. We owe ourselves to that organisation. Thus, when Listafelle and I were called, we couldn’t afford to dally. We left the burden of Aigas entirely on Suzamete.> Quintess gave a soft laugh. Sause’s face kept growing darker. <But that’s not what you want answered, is it?>
And indeed, it wasn’t.
But then Quintess continued to speak freely.
<Aigas was my first project. I was a very naïve back then – and lively. I wanted to create all sorts of things. I had my biases and I definitely had many, many flaws. All of those culminated into this flawed world. The Drakkens were my first failures. I urged my friends to help me create creatures born at the peak of strength to see what they would do. But it wasn’t sustainable and breaking them down to begin anew proved to be... a challenge. So, we improvised and made them Aigas’ anchor. From there, we made models out of them. More practical, and less powerful. The dragons.>
<But then Listafelle had her own ideas, and so we collaborated. We were both biased towards humanoid figures, so that subconsciously became the end goal. We went back to our roots. After the dragons, I started to model Giants, but I didn’t want them to be like the humans Listafelle helped me create. So, I gave them... you, a greater purpose. Or I thought I did. I made you knowledgeable, wise and powerful without building a definite end goal. Mortals should have one, lest they break down. Inevitably, that’s what happened to your kind. Your fates were skewed. Your strength became your purpose, but you couldn’t use that for your own good, let alone the good of every creature on Aigas You had to be prompted by a disaster.>
<Funny. Oh, well, you wouldn’t consider that funny. But that’s why I’ve largely moved on from Aigas. My next projects have been better, more refined. Everything has a clear goal and end purpose. Not that there weren’t purposes for things here in Aigas. But in essence, all I can say is... feel proud of that hatred, Sause. It has a larger meaning. Depth even.>
Sause took a few moments to truly digest what he’d heard.
Mistake.
Mistake.
Mistake.
That was all there was to it.
Aigas was a mistake, and what did you know? Quintess had moved on. He’d made other worlds, apparently. Yet, Sause couldn’t fault him for that. The Deity still played a part in Aigas. He knew everything that happened here.
But in the end, Sause only conclude that indeed, Divinity wasn’t all it was chalked up to be.
He scoffed.
"What larger meaning? What depth is there to my hatred?" he said, hanging his head.
<Why, that hatred has emphasised you as an individual. An extraordinary one.> Quintess seemed to beam. <Despite your hatred, you still took care of your Elder Jerthrax, and in the end, you even groomed a successor to protect Edagon, did you not? A human no less. That alone proves your worth over any other Giant. Despite your feelings, you aren’t willing to cast away everything.>
Sause shook his head. He thought of Benzard, the man who had inherited a Hidden Class from him. Indeed, Benzard (who had been warped to the Empyrean Bosom for safety) was to be Edagon’s guardian now by Sause’s design. But...
"I didn’t decide that. I didn’t give that man my powers because I really wanted him to succeed me. It was all because of a mess of events that occurred in that damned Labyrinth," Sause argued.
<Indeed. It was all because of the influence of a man who influenced you into becoming the current you. What a coincidence.>
Sause’s eyes widened and he stared up into Quintess’ star-like eye. The Deity gave a soft laugh.
"That’s it then?"
<Indeed.>
Sause gave a pause and drew in a sharp breath,
"Fine. I understand. However, I have decided I won’t spill my blood for Aigas anymore."
<I know. You’re bound to that anomaly now through a Tie of Exchange.> said Quintess. < If you wanted, though, I could...>
"No," Sause rejected the offer at once. His rage had faded somewhere during Quintess’ narration. "Please, don’t touch my fate anymore."