Mican’s heart pumped once, and his mind froze for a split second.
He immediately knew he had screwed up somewhere in his acting, but he didn’t know where. This was an acceptable outcome to Mican though, and he was prepared for it.
There was no way he would be completely able to hide his ignorance from the head, he just hadn’t expected to be given away so soon.
“Do not question me, head.” Thinking fast, he took the first course of action that came to his mind and doubled down on the act.
“…Yes, my lord.” After a slight pause of silence, the head replied in a bland tone and agreed.
Wrapping the head back up, Mican slung it back over his shoulder and began his walk once again. According to the words of the party spoken before, the head had played multiple schemes on them throughout the duration of their journey.
It was cunning, and he did not know if he could trust its words at all, but he had one major advantage that seemed too great to ignore.
He had his own lie detector, and judging from the reaction of the head when he first revealed it, the power was trustworthy. He didn’t know when or how he had obtained it but based on his previous experiences he had his guesses.
It was obvious to Mican that the changes to his body after eating the golden finger were not only physical. The clearest examples of this was his sudden ability to tell truth from lie, and him somehow being able to understand languages that were clearly ones he was not familiar with.
Slight anxiety rose in him from knowing that there may be more of such changes that lay completely unknown to him, but he shoved away the thoughts knowing there was little he could do about it.
“Now explain to me ‘these pathetic systems of men’.” After a short moment of silence, he continued on with his question from before.
“In response to my lord. You may have only recently fallen from the heavens so you may have been too preoccupied to care, allow me to explain.” The head obediently began monologuing in reply. “The group you had slaughtered earlier consisted of two powers. One party of adventurers from the adventurer’s guild, and the other of the Church of War, who serve the god of war.”
Truth.
“Tell me about the ‘godcraftsman’.”
“If you want to know about the warlocks specifically, then allow me to explain. While the gods have been under war for the past few thousand years, these foolish humans have been put beneath their notice. Forgetting their terror, they have somehow learned the divine language of power. With the divine language, they have learned to manipulate a portion of a god’s power themselves.”
Truth.
If that was true, then that would explain the strange ability that he had seen from Leigh. What sort of god would that be? While the ability looked slightly like some strange superpower, it indeed felt god-like in nature. Of note, the man was called a godcraftsman by the others around him.
The ability to manipulate time itself…
If that was only a fraction of a ‘god’s’ ability, then what would a true god’s power be like?
Something felt off to Mican about this entire situation though, and it did not fit into his line of logic.
“Why have the various churches not done anything about it? This is clear blasphemy to the gods.”
“Done something? These stupid humans have tasted the power of the gods and wish to play gods themselves. The various churches have long forgotten their animosity and even join hands.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Truth.
“Rose, are you telling me everything you know?”
“Of course not, my lord. Telling you everything I knew would take me days, and we do not have the time.”
A half truth.
“Then tell me Rose, I have the time.” He pressed for information from the head, not willing to resort to violence as he knew that if he did nothing relating to the severing of immortality, the demon would not care.
“…”
“You said ‘somehow’ the humans learned of the language of power. Do not be vague with me head, tell me how.” In a commanding tone, he demanded answers from the head.
“The humans learned the language from the demons.” The head answered the young man swiftly and concisely in response to his question, without a shred of hesitation.
If the humans had indeed learned the ‘language of power’ from the gods, and the demon referred to the gods as lords, Mican could indeed see the discrepancy in his previous ignorance, and it was made obvious to him that he had seemingly just asked a very stupid question.
“You are suspicious of me, aren’t you, head.”
“…The humans being unfaithful, and the demons rebelling should be common knowledge among the gods and even their offspring.” After a brief pause of silence, a chilling tone sounded out from the demon slung over the young man’s shoulder.
Truth.
Pausing in his steps once again, Mican unslung the rucksack from his back and placed it on the ground.
He unraveled the head underneath with his good hand, the cloak falling away to reveal the disgusting and bone-like features of the demon underneath. A sickening grin lay on the demon’s face towards the young man, stretching ear to ear.
The hollowed concaves in its head gave Mican the sense of mockery, and the yellow teeth in its mouth were on full display.
“What does your flesh taste like? May I please have a nibble?”
The first words that came out of the demon’s mouth were full of childlike curiosity, innocent and pure, as if it was asking how pleasant the weather was.
Despite the chilling words, Mican remained unperturbed, having expected such a situation. The head was much too suspicious, and too clever for him to have held it off for long with his ignorance.
“Do you not believe that I’d leave you on this road to be delivered to the Church of War?”
“Haahaahaa! Not at all, in fact I would welcome you to!” In response to the threat, the head only roared in laughter. “They would never reach me in time before I died!”
Truth.
The head clearly had his ways of getting out of the situation, given his willingness, though Mican did not want to take it along with him either.
It was chilling to him to think that the head would have stayed silent had the young man not forced it to reveal itself.
He knew that threats of any kind would never work on the demon, as he had no leverage, not even the fear of pain.
“Why do you emit the smell of a god, but also the scent of chaos? Such a scent has not passed my senses in a thousand years, and yet why are you so weak?” The head knew well the only option Mican was left with, and he quickly shot out a question.
In response to the question, the young man stood up and unclasped the mace on his belt, prepping a swing, raising it far above his head.
“Mican Aster, wait for me here in the overworld. I will return for you, and when I do, I will devour you whole.”
With those last words, the head exploded with a loud crack as Mican swung the ornate mace down, smashing it into many pieces as if it was porcelain.
A load of black blood along with pieces of grey brain matter spewed outwards onto the cobblestone, dragging across the ground in their momentum.
The young man realized the poor situation he was in, being tracked by four separate parties. The unknown individual or individuals that had summoned him here, the adventurer party ‘Brave Heart’, the archbishop of the Church of War, and the demon named Rose.
He only hoped that he had bought himself a bit of time by smashing the head into pieces.
There was one main objective to his survival, and it was getting as far away as possible, as quickly as possible, before any pursuers managed to track him down.
The clothes he was wearing had been taken from Erving, and anybody familiar with him would be able to recognize it, or even its attributes. One of the first things he needed to do if he was to approach civilization was change his clothing.
He had gained valuable information from the head despite having destroyed it in the end. There seemed to be gods in this world, and the average human clearly knew little of how they worked.
Demons were subservient to gods, and the gods had been in war for many generations. Men vied for supremacy, and warlocks who had strange powers beyond imagination wandered the world.
Mican did not know what this meant to him specifically, but he did know that the source of all of his answers lay with the golden finger that he had devoured.
Wonder filled his heart as he began running again on the cobblestone path, getting lost in his thoughts. The unique scent of the forest wafted into his nose, and he looked up at the sky, at the dragon head with a size he could only barely comprehend, and at the boundless sky that lay behind it partially covered in clouds.
A great mystery lay behind this world, and the young man nearly couldn’t control himself from bursting out into laughter from the excitement of thinking of what may come next.
This was a world of swords and magic, of gods and demons. There was a secret to his transmigration, and Mican planned to find it out.