Orion was in a terrible situation.

In front of him, Elliott sat with a smirk on his face.

Behind him, two furious women and a giggling one.

Earlier this morning, Orion told them everything that happened with Olivia, without hiding anything.

At first, they weren't particularly bothered by the girl, but the moment he brought out the kiss, they angrily fought back.

To make the matter worse, Olivia entered their room and began to hog Orion.This display began to infuriate Amelia to no ends, while Karteira's brows twitched each time Olivia tried to kiss Orion.

A true carnage, a war, fell on Orion, with him at the center.

Though, there was still important matters to settle. He couldn't waste the day trying to persuade them to calm down.

Instead, he went to look for Elliott. It wasn't that hard to find his overwhelming aura, so he was quickly found sitting on the stairs outside, looking at the two resting dragons.

They returned inside when he noticed him, leading to the situation he was currently in.

"That luck with women, I envy you."

"Keep talking."

Orion ignored the women glaring at each other behind him, and focused on Elliott.

"I thought you were a reserved person in the past? What happened to that?"

Orion threw a jab at him, expecting some kind of reaction from him.

"Have your body controlled to kill thousands of innocents, and maybe you'll understand."

"Fair enough."

Elliott wasn't particularly proud of his past.

"What did you want to ask?"

He crossed his arms and glued his back to the back of his seat.

"How did you freed yourself from Miasma's grasp?"

"That's your first question? Really?"

Surprised, Elliott uncrossed his arms. He was certain that Orion would ask about his parents or anything related to the Apostles.

"Yes, are you going to answer or not?"

He nodded, and answered.

"Because of you. You should remember the trigger yourself, a terrible rumbling and a large amount of magical power."

"The day I helped Velridar?"

"The Remnant encompassing 'Power'. Indeed, it was at that moment. Something I never thought of until now came to me when father noticed his encroachment inside that being's soul vanishing."

"I realized the same, that tracking the origin of his power through my own soul would lead to his purge."

Orion showed a slight reaction to that.

"You've copied what I did to him..."

"And it sure worked wonderfully."

Relaxing on his chair, he laughed a bit.

"But I still remember. That disgusting corruption infiltrating my body."

"The feeling of sludge down my throat, and the loss of control that ensued."

"Really, even if you think of me as nothing but your enemy, still, you have my thanks."

Like a knight, Elliott stood up, placed his right arm sideway at his chest and bowed forward.

"..."

Everyone looked at him with neutral expressions.

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"Just so you understand, I will not forgive your actions. But I was told to let you redeem yourself. Unless you try to harm what I hold dear, I will ignore you."

Elliott's eyes opened wide. His eyes looked slightly troubled, but he quickly recovered.

"You're parents were very good people. I heard many stories during that time. If only everything went down a different path."

His eyes looked at the bracelet around Orion's left wrist, its rightful place, with melancholy.

"I do know what it means to lose family. This was something I would have hoped to not force upon no one else."

Orion remained neutral. There was no compassion in his eyes, nor understanding. He completely disregarded Elliott's words and feelings. He really didn't care. He couldn't.

It wasn't that he was unable to feel compassion toward someone else, he simply couldn't bother to even give a shred of his interest to Elliott. He still despised him and seeing him in front of him rubbed him the wrong way.

"..."

Elliott felt the silent hate coming from Orion, so he stopped there. He wasn't one to try and push his luck further. There was no particular need to antagonize him.

"There's something I did not understand from your story."

"What could that be?"

"Why is there not a single word, not a single note on what happened in the past?"

This made sense. Why the Remnants he saw never mentioned such an important event? Why is there not a single mention of this in the human history?

"That's not very hard to understand. While mother while fighting Averbdyon, eight other entities of the same caliber erased the other human cities. All kingdoms ceased to exist approximately at the same moment."

"And while you might think the Remnants are immortal or all-knowing, that couldn't be more wrong. The Tree of Life being an exception because of her grasp on life itself, she can hold her title, and probably life infinitely, unless something like the corruption brings her to death."

"To answer quickly, after the attacks, father investigated everything. Only a few hundred humans managed to survive. They managed to rebuild everything quickly, and quickly forgot about everything. When I say quickly, it might be my view specifically. I've been alive for too long at this point."

He sighed and looked through the window on his right.

"The nine Valkyries died, their body usurped by those 'divine' monsters. Humanity almost vanished in a single afternoon, and father discovered that he was a 'Remnant'."

"The word Remnant, it came from him to begin with. Blanc, my father, was the very first Remnant to obtain a will, a soul. That's why he was ignorant of his own power. Only later did he found out about other entities similar to him appearing on the continent."

"He did not miss a chance and managed to place a seed of corruption inside every single one of them that would follow them even in remote lands. Strangely enough, transforming into Miasma did not make him any less intelligent. Miasma still is Blanc, he simply lost his mind after mother died."

Orion asked another question with a serious expression.

"Why is there no mention about you in any textbook? If you've lived thousands of years before the Purging War, there should have been mentions of you somewhere."

But Elliott shook his head.

"Father is a shred person. He killed every person who went too far, every one who got too close, and burned every mention of me to the last witness. But I say that, we rarely went inside a human city after that."

An idea entered Orion's mind.

"Was Noah one of those people?"

"..."

There was no doubt about it. Noah was a very sensitive topic, for the only reason that Dramia and Drania were close to Orion.

"What answer will satisfy you the most? The truth, or half of it?"

The answer was a silence, and a long stare of confirmation.

"The complete truth it is then. Fine."

Elliott placed his right elbow on the chair's arm, and glued his fist to his cheek in mild annoyance.

"Noah is still a complete mystery, even to father. This man was human, yet too powerful to be one. He was what you called a 'Hero' in the truest of terms possible. Possessing the five natural elements, and two brand new elements that were, let's be honest, not natural at all."

"This man was Nature's response to my father's obsessive need to corrupt everything. When I say everything, I mean it. Lands, skies, animals, plants, water... the only thing he wasn't able to corrupt were intelligent creatures. Those with a free will."

"Noah completely eradicated by himself the full might of the corrupted army. There was not a single corrupted soul left during his fight against father."

"I'll answer that question everyone is dying to ask. Why did he not send me to fight. Why did he move personally? This all went down because of a single thing. My body stopped responding to his orders. In fact, I broke down during that time."

"I was a normal boy when our city was ravaged. My mind and body couldn't hold on anymore, and I fell asleep, as the corruption was too much for me."

"Father released me in a space where I recovered. Was it ten or twenty years?"

He questioned his own memories, but failed to remember.

"During that time, he tried to conquer Triazils, but failed at the hand of the Hero. Noah was a very strong and smart man, yet father managed to trick him at the last moment. Though, he suffered quite the injuries I heard when he took control of me again."

That was something Orion knew. He heard what had happened from the sisters themselves.

"Last question. Why-"

"Why did Miasma began to corrupt the continent?"

"Don't finish my sentences..."

Orion made a very dissatisfied expression.

"Father is trying to open the rift again. He's doing the complete opposite of what happened in the past."

"When the nine Valkyries managed to be happy, the purity in their soul attracted those things to our realm. Father is trying to see if other beings can open a rift, attracted by the corruption."

"For that stupid reason?"

"..."

Only silence was Orion's answer.

"Yes. He wants his revenge no matter what. No matter the sacrifices."

"Bullshit."

Orion spitefully spat that word.

"I was also ready for everything just to stay alive fighting you, but I never stood as low as trampling others' lives for that. What a pitiful excuse. His mind was weak, that was all. that's why he succumbed to the opposite side of his power."

"I won't deny it. But not everyone is as strong as you. We've had our eyes on you through the curse since the beginning, but never was he expecting you to be similar to the previous Hero. I won't complain, because I recovered my freedom."

This was the end of the conversation. He understood pretty much everything from this exchange.

'The Purging War, the balance between factions. Those were all excuses. Excuses Miasma used to bring despair and corruption to everyone.'

'He annihilated multiple factions through Elliott, and happily rebuilt his corrupted army, which is probably waiting in high number inside the Frigoria Plain, which might be his way to edge despair into the various factions of Triazils.'

'The Apostles, the Ceremony, the dark sludge, I get it now.'

But a sudden realization came to him.

"What about the dark cores? What are they?"

"The crystallization of corruption? This is Nature's way to fuck over father's plans."

Elliott smiled.

"What do you mean? Why did Nature do that?"

"Because there was no cores into the corrupted beasts and lords when Noah's fought them. After his win, Nature imposed her rules on those new lifeforms, which led to their weaknesses."

'I had no idea.'

Orion stood up, and began to walk toward the door.

"You're going? If so, can you listen to my proposition before leaving? You can just think on it for a few days."

Stopping in his track, he opened the door for the girls, who exited without batting an eyelid.

"Would you be interested in being trained by me?"

"..."

Without answering, Orion closed the door behind him.

"Haha~"

Elliott shrugged, before closing his eyes.

"Mother. I'll try to follow your teachings again. Maybe there is still light at the end of the path."

His eyes opened, revealing a darkness inside of them.

Just like his father, he wanted to avenge Frey, his mother.