Demon continent Alsace in the year 237 in the 10-month Asmodum on the 5th day after the shattering of the empire

It had been a few days since she and Diva had had their confrontation. If one could call what they had a confrontation at all. Since they could prevent it both. Nevertheless, she could not get rid of the feeling that it would still come to a fight. Because it was still in her, she could feel it, the will to triumph over Diva. She didn't really know how to deal with it, as she had never had a more instinctive desire to defeat someone. It wasn't that she didn't trust herself, but control was better, which is why she always reminded herself that she would die if it came to a fight.

Besides, she still had Lerna, who would take care of her, at least she hoped so. Because only a few days after Lerna had arrived here and she had begun to study the runes on the metal rings, the rats that had been chasing Lerna had also arrived.

And there seemed to be some tension between them and also the rats didn't seem to trust her. Not that they could do anything, because the Golems had not been able to enter the hall. Which left them all in a stalemate.

The rats had ordered their golems to prevent any attempt by her side to escape and to kill her if necessary. She could kill many of the rats, but there were still more waiting in the city above them, and more would keep coming. Should they be needed, even if she had a rough idea how many rats there were, she didn't know if she could take them all on. Again, her gaze wandered over the rats scurrying back and forth below her, going about their tasks. She could certainly take them on, and she might be able to defeat the other rats if she were smart about it.

For the moment, however, they had all agreed to a temporary peace. Whereas she could tell by looking at the rats that they were planning something. Nor were they particularly subtle about it. Let alone their thoughts, which were so loud and the same for all of them. That she would have to try hard not to hear them.

Nevertheless, she had gotten involved, even though Lerna was not enthusiastic about it. Something to do with the fact that they were rats, thieves, and hunters. What exactly she was trying to tell her, she didn't know. Even though she could see that Lerna's thoughts were becoming more structural and she could understand them better and better, it was still difficult. But it was much better than in the beginning when she couldn't tell if the snake wanted something from her or not.

Still keeping her eyes on the floor, she watched the rats and Lerna, who ignored them as best she could. A few rats were hauling supplies into the great hall, others were looking at the murals and statues that lined the walls. Probably to learn something about their titan and their own history, even if she doubted the truth of it a little. Then there were the priests of Diva, who came every day to be taught by their Titan, and slowly she could see that the monsters were not entirely unlike humans or demons. Only that they were treated as monsters by the other races, who called themselves divine races. Now that she could observe them, she could not see how rats differed from beast-men or were-men. Which were a divine race as were demons, which sometimes did not have much in common with humans, elves or beast-men, and the other divine races.

The rats who looked at the statues and murals took notes just as human scholars did when they explored a ruin. Which only made this demarcation make even less sense and disproved some of what they had all been taught.

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"So, why are your children monsters and the children of the Cailan and the Rigan divine children and thus belong to the divine races?" Even though she could not expect a truthful statement, she could use the false statement to draw her conclusions. Also, Diva had started to make up the sentences in her head, which she could observe and thus see which parts of her sentence she corrected and which she did not.

"As I said before there were several wars. -" this part seemed to be true, or at least that's how Diva remembered all the events. - "Which we Titans." As always, the word Titan had a strange sound to it when Diva said it, also she stressed it. She just didn't know yet why Diva stressed Titans. It was clear that she was trying to say something, and her thoughts betrayed that she didn't think of herself as a Titan. Which was pretty clear, but she still couldn't make out the other word, it was just clear that Diva didn't think she was a Titan and that seemed to apply to the other Titans as well. - "had lost as you know yourself. From here, the little king must find out for himself. Because that's all I can tell him." What she had said the other times too, and like the other times, she smiled a rueful smile. This was not the first time she had asked Diva this question and yet she was no closer to an answer.

Concentrating on the runes again, still thinking about what had been said, she set about trying to make sense of them.

What could it be that Diva sees herself as? What was even comparable to a Titan that she knew of? Gods? Yes, from the stories and ancient records, they were like gods. What else did she know about Titans?

"So you were the rulers of Arcane before the gods?" She hoped she would get a somewhat clearer answer to that question. "Yes." Diva answered her, after briefly interrupting the conversation with her priests.

Ok so Titans were the rulers of Arcane before the Gods, and that was something Diva was sure of and there was no interference from the prison so that was a truth that was not hidden. But I knew that before, that's nothing new, every story of the Gods begins with their fight against the Titans. As far as Diva remembered and the murals show, this part of the story is true, only the number or length of the wars is unclear.

"And gods and titans were fighting each other?" Something Diva had said in their first conversation was still not clear to her. A smile crept onto Diva's face before she answered. "It was a fight between titanic forces young Basilisk." Again, the prison hadn't intervened, which meant it wasn't an untruth or Diva believed to be telling the truth. When she finally found the runes, which forced Diva to say something other than what she really wanted and change her thoughts. Then everything would be much easier and she wouldn't have to keep asking the same questions and examining them from all sides.

"Say why do you have priests I have never heard of Titans being worshipped and having priests?" Before Diva could answer, one of the priests had jumped up. "How dare you talk to a Jainkoa like that, you wouldn't talk to your Jainkoa like that!" Diva had just watched the whole thing with a satisfied smile.

"Now, now! Eder. You must know which Jainkoa is called little king or Basilisk. And I don't want you to serve this room as statues until the end of time." Again she smiled down at the rat as did the statues in the temples of Cailan, or any statue of gods she had ever seen.

The rat, named Eder, froze and looked at her with wide eyes. The next moment she threw herself on the ground at the edge of the prison and bowed repeatedly. Something that only her senses told her because although she was looking at the rat's goings-on, she was deep in thought.

"Gods, where did they come from if you were there first and ruled over everything?" She asked into the room which had grown quieter and each rat was waiting to see what would happen next. "What's with the question, as I've said many times before it was a battle between titanic forces." Diva regarded her with a look of anticipation.

Once again the outburst from the still groveling rat went through her mind and the smile Diva kept showing. With narrowed eyes, she asked. "You are defeated, gods."

The smile on Diva's face grew bigger and bigger. "Today's gods are simply the gods who had won and imprisoned you, other gods, down here. But why?"

"Yasamaq and Yerek'uyrer." Diva only managed to get out before she was already writhing in pain again.

But who was that now?