The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-422

Chapter 422: Demon King

Night came quick for Cadeceus. An hour ago, the sun was still high up the sky and now it was almost sunset with dusklight fading by the minute. The group had manage to find an inn before night fell. It was close toward to inner wall of the city. The place was quiet, and they did not need to worry about the locals bothering them. The establishment being clean was a plus too.

The food served was your rather standard inn fare, but as the group had been subsisting on field rations for a good part of the journey; hot, warm food was a welcomed change. Hao Ren had little to do after dinner, and went towards the terrace on the third floor to get some wind, but he found Y’zaks was already standing there.

The big man seems to have something in mind. He was standing by the edge of the terrace, his arms crossed as he looked towards the cityscape deep in thought. Hao Ren went beside him, and admired the city basked by the fading light, a shimmer of crimson gold slowly going below the horizon as the sky darkens. The row of unique houses and shoplots along the main trunk way too glimmered in a metallic glow. Y’zaks, talking to himself, muttered. “What a sight.”

It was usually very difficult to guess what Y’zaks have in mind and Hao Ren too was reminded of the young lady they met in the afternoon, and her father, Kevan the Soldier. Looking at the dimming sun beyond Cadessar, he wondered what was the scene like when Y’zaks invaded here ten years ago.

“There are not many things in the world that are absolutely right or wrong, the whole concept of it is man-made.” Hao Ren sighed. “You had a great dream, to bring the chaotic world into order, to push for a future far beyond what all races had dreamt of. You’re not wrong at that. But you see this place. So many people, humble peasants most of them. Their joy was to have three good meals a day, to live in peace. They wanted to protect their daily routine and traditions that were dear to them, that drove them to take up arms agains the Demon King, they were not wrong either.”

Vivian’s voice suddenly came from behind. No one knew when she made her way up there. “You may lead this world into the future, but most of them are not interested in that the far future holds. In their short life span, that they want is peace and prosperity for the duration of their lives. They won’t care about reaching for the stars or the truth of the world. What they do care about is growing old with their wives and children, with a roof over their heads and food to fill their stomach. If anyone where to threaten what little joy they had, they would fight with dear life. Humans on Earth too have similar lifespans, and because of that, their differences led to conflict… For this world, those who live long would have lifespans ten times of the common man. What your eyes see is but a mere flash, but for those people, it will be generations upon generations after them. Even if you were to tell them your goal, not many would accept a future that had nothing to do with them.”

Y’zaks turned back, the dusklight cast a shadow over his face. He was smiling. “But you guys still supported my argument.”

“Well, you were right.” Hao Ren shrugged. “But they were not wrong either.”

“There’s no absolute right or wrongs, that I know since the beginning. If the crazed Demon King did not even know that, I won’t be even standing here.” Y’zaks look up, gazing towards the yonder as the sun faded behind the mountains, as if to count time. Then then turned around, looking towards the laterite plains. “Look, the most magnificent vault of heaven on Cadeceus is coming right up.”

Hao Ren did not understand what that meant and simply looked at the same direction Y’zaks was looking at. Towards the far side of the horizon, a curtain of light slowly appeared. Hao Ren initially thought the moon was rising, but it didn’t take long for him to realise that the magnitude of the light curtain was beyond your usual moon!

A faint arcing glow came out from the horizon , almost as if the curtains of heaven were being pulled up. The light gentler than the sun, and it’s glow was dimmer than moonlight, but the scale of it was breathtaking. As the curtain of light rose, Hao Ren realise that the object was another celestial body, a celestial body that could cover half the skyline.

As it rose above the sky, the gentle light carassed the earth, the arcing light curtain showed the contour of a planet. It had a murky surface, lines of cloud like structure formed a ring around it, almost as if a a planet-wide storm was brewing underneath the ring of clouds.

“WHAT IS THAT?!” Hao Ren was shocked.

“Amur” Y’zaks said as he basked in the dim light of the star, with his hands crossed. “It’s also known as the Vault of Amur, a gaseous planet. I think it’s about as big as Jupiter in the Solar System, but it has a much gentler climate. Cadeceus floats on in orbit of this giant gas planet. In reality, Cadeceus is what remained of a planet that had been blown apart, similar to it. The planet was formed before it could fully take a spherical shape. As such, it is now an arcing space continent. The other parts of the planet have mostlikely been dragged into the atmospheric storm of Amur. Maybe we will find some clues in the clouds. There’s a very strong gravity well deep within Cadeceus, or perhaps its a planet-destroying high density space object. It had destroyed Cadeceus as a planet, but had created a strong enough gravity field on what remained of it, and locked in the atmosphere.”

Hao Ren blinked as he digested how imposible the land beneath him came to be. He was at awe by the amount of wonders that would show itself on this planet. Y’zaks was still explaining about the plane without much of an expression on his face. “Cadeceus is orbiting along Amur’s orbit, and is maintaing some sort of rotation along the orbit. As the sun sets on the west, Amur will appear on the east. This is a scene unique to Cadeceus. Thus, the nights here are never fully dark. Like my seventh plane, there is always one giant planet illuminating the night.”

Still awestruck by the scene before him, Hao Ren could only manage a word, “Why?”

“Yes, why?” Y’zaks looked towards the majestic clouds around Amur. “Why Cadeceus torn apart? Why did this shattered planet and incomplete star system exist? Why did this impossible, unnatural wonder exists?” Why was the dimension separated into various bubbles, isolated from one another, yet so many dimensional gates still linked the realms together? Why did the realms, separated for thousand of years, still developed the same way as others? Why couldn’t we see the stars, but we could find traces of cosmic radiation in some old ores? Why did the old man’s calculation of thesize of universe was so strange?”

Y’zaks threw out a string of whys, and almost had Hao Ren in a daze. He then crossed his arm, and looked up to the sky, “I wnat to know why. I’m the strongest being in this world. I don’t want to squirm about knot knowing anything. That’s why I want to invade the sky, to use everything in this world to push me skywards. I need, nay, have to know the truth, and those who do not wish to be earthbound, they should too pursue these truths too.”

“If I could turn back time, and have another go at this, I will raise a new army and conquer the whole world again. I know this is the only way to have the world under my grip.” Y’zaks looked down towards the city. “If they were given a chance, they would ally again, raise a new army to protect their homes and traditions. No matter how many times, it will be the same. Heroes are heroes, demon kings are demon kings. The only difference is our victories and defeats.

“I’ve seen many ageless beings,” Vivian gazed deeply at Y’zaks. “You’re the purest of them all. As you say, there’s no right or wrong. It’s all because you wanted the do it, you needed to do it. It seems like no matter how many times, there is no place in this world for you.”

“Of course.” Y’zaks smiled as he shrugged. “That’s because I’m the demon king.”

Hao Ren went back to his room, and blew the lights out. He noticed Amur’s gentle glow coming in from one of the windows of his inn room. He was fascinated by the mysteries of this world. He felt that even if they did nothing of note here, just by being here itself was an fine reward.”

Something then rang in his mind, and Hao Ren opened his Dimensional pocket and placed a big fish bowl on the floor. He carefully scoop Lil Pea out of the water and brought the little one to the window.

Lil Pea excitedly looked at the outside world, and she tapped her tail happily on Hao Ren’s arm. Pointing towards Amur which by now had covered almost a third of the sky, she exclaimed. “BIG MOON! BIG MOON! I WANT TO GO TO BIG MOON!”

“If there’s a chance, Daddy will bring you to even more interesting places.” Hao Ren softly patted Lil Pea’s tail. “I’m so glad I signed up for this!”