386 The Messiah.
“Is that your familiar? Is it some sort of basilisk?”
Han hummed once Yuuma asked him this question and he had to stop and think about it. Huh, he never even thought of asking what species of snake Orochimaru was. Orochimaru looked more like a python than a basilisk, but with its size, it would be mistaken as a basilisk more often than not. Han just shrugged as he called Orochimaru to look toward them. It didn’t really matter what species Orochimaru was. As far as Han was concerned, the only important thing was how strong the snake was.
Orochimaru finally slithered out of the Shadow World completely and it hissed and rose its head up to stare down at them! It was so big that its body completely blocked out the sun from reaching the lab!
Han pointed out his hand to Orochimaru.
“Yuuma, this is Orochimaru, my familiar. Orochimaru, this is Yuuma, one of my wives. Hope you guys get along. And no Orochimaru, you can’t eat her,”
“Wait!! it wants to eat me!?”
Yuuma took many steps back and Han chuckled at Yuuma’s expression of shock.
“Oh come on, I was just joking. He didn’t really say that,”
Yuuma scowled at Han and hit him on the shoulder in annoyance and Han just chuckled again before turning back to Orochimaru and telling him to come down and say hi. The snake hissed as it came lower to face Yuuma. It darted out its tongue and the tongue tickled Yuumas face gently.
Hissss~
Yuuma was a bit hesitant at first and Han noticed that she was very stiff because of how big Orochimaru was, but after looking at Han for confirmation, Han nodded for her to go ahead and touch him. Yuuma stretched out her hand and slowly touched Orochimaru on the head and she was surprised by how smooth his scales were!
“Woah. It feels like metal,”
Han came over and wrapped his hand around Yuuma’s waist and Yuuma turned to him with a smile. Han spoke up gently.
“He’s just a few days old so he hasn’t shed his skin at all. He should have stronger scales after a few more months. Yes, I know it’s surprising to see him this big when he’s just a few days old, I really didn’t understand it either. That’s just how fast he grows.”
Yuuma was a little more than just surprised! She looked at the literal giant snake and she wondered how the hell Han got himself a familiar like this! If it is this strong after only a few days then how strong will it be after a year?
The two of them didn’t know that Orochimaru was not going to grow any larger than this no matter how old he gets. The only reason he grew so quickly was that his entire nature was as a predator. Since he is a predator, he needed to become large as quickly as possible so that he would survive against the dangers out there. His size has nothing to do with his age, instead, it is just his survivor’s instincts telling him to become big enough to live through fights.
Han put his hand out again to pet Orochimaru as well and Yuuma smiled at Han with a look of wonder. She couldn’t believe that Han had such a big familiar! What sort of messed up things did he get into up there for him to come back with something like this!? It must’ve been amazing!
“Well, I’d love to stay with you longer boy, but we have to get back home. You can hunt for a few minutes and then come to me when you’re ready okay,”
Han spoke directly to Orochimaru with a small grin and Orochimaru gained an excited glint in its eyes once it heard that it was allowed to hunt! Han scowled and then told Orochimaru that he wasn’t allowed to eat people, only animals. If Han heard anything about Orochimaru eating humans then Han wouldn’t let him out ever again! Orochimaru hissed in annoyance before it finally nodded its head in acceptance!
Han then turned to Yuuma.
“Alright, we’ll leave him to hunt. Let’s go back,”
Yuuma nodded and the two of them took off and went back to the restaurant to meet up with the other girls.
….
Meanwhile, on the lower floors of the temple, a new religion was starting to grow in popularity. The people on the lower floors were filled with only gold, silver, and bronze stars who were just trying their best to become strong enough to survive the temple and reach the top floor.
But no matter how much they tried to ignore it, it was obvious to everyone that most of the people on the lower floors were nothing but victims of the action of those on the upper floors. They didn’t have any power so they were greatly affected anytime there was a fight or any serious conflict in the temple. A perfect example of this was the time when Han came to the lower floors to look for Ratte and he ended up destroying an entire floor while punishing the coward king.
For Han, this was nothing but a petty squabble that was resolved quickly, and no one was seriously hurt in the process. But for those on the lower floors, it felt like god had come down from the heavens. There were tremors traveling through the entire temple for hours and everyone was terrified of what was happening! This was just a petty squabble for Han, but for them, it was like the end of the world!
This issue and many others like it drove many of the people down here into depression! Knowing that people like Han existed on the upper floors was like an eye-opener for them and they started to realize how outclassed and hopeless they were! They didn’t have any power to fight back against people like Han and they would just continue living as collateral damage no matter how hard they tried! This led them right into depression and many of them started to seek ways of gaining more strength!
It was this same desire for more power that drove many people to establish the Alcatraz guild once again! They all knew that the Alcatraz guild was a bad guild and they remembered how the Alcatraz guild almost wiped out the cyclops clan on floor fifteen! But even though they knew just how bad the Alcatraz guild was, they still decided to revive the guild again because of the quest for more power!
They all remembered how strong the Alcatraz guild was and if not for Han destroying them, the Alcatraz guild would have been the superpower of the temple. These people believed that if they killed enough chosen and gained all the power from those other chosen, then they might become strong enough to challenge even Han!
They didn’t know that the Alcatraz guild of the past wouldn’t be strong enough to even fight against a single white star altogether, but in their own small world, they only know that the Alcatraz guild is the strongest guild they had ever seen! A white star and a gold star were like the heavens and the earth. It didn’t matter how many gold stars gathered to fight against a white star, they would never stand a chance. So how the hell do they think they would stand a chance against a black star that was hundreds of times stronger than a white star? It was madness, but their ignorance made them believe it was possible!
After some gold stars created Alcatraz and started the killing, other people also started looking for ways to gain more power. They tried everything because they wanted to go up to the fiftieth floor as quickly as possible but there was no way they would be able to get past the dragon guarding the floor so there was no way for them to get stronger!
At least, that was until the prophet came to the temple!
No one knew who he really was. The prophet was a man of mystery and mysticism! A legend amongst the people on the lower floors and a savior to the weak!
“He was seen as the shining light that was responsible for drawing them out of the darkness of weakness and into the light of power! He is the one that would lead them into the promised land!”
A man gesticulated in excitement and reverence as he shouted this out to the heavens.
Gregory scrunched his face in disgust as he listened to the gold star talking about this so-called savior! Gregory and Rau were both on floor forty-nine and they were talking to one of the gold stars that was moving along this floor.
Both Gregory and Ray were wearing long coats that covered their bodies and they had a ring artifact on their fingers that suppressed their power and made them look like regular gold stars so that they would be able to move through the lower floors without attracting too much attention. The ring artifact was the same one that Han uses anytime he comes down to the lower floors so that his power doesn’t destroy everything down here. Han’s power was too great to be properly suppressed and that is why even after wearing the ring, everyone can still tell he is lightyears ahead of them in strength. But thankfully, Gregory and Rau weren’t too powerful and so the rings worked perfectly for them.
The man that was talking to them was an old man that had a large beard and long hair. He walked with a limp and he carried a bottle of wine in his hand that he was constantly drinking from. The man has been telling them about how the lower floors have been over the last few years and also about this messiah that suddenly appeared.
The man spoke in a loud voice as he gesticulated with both hands like he was an orchestra conductor.
“So you see he is the savior! The Messiah! Everyone loves him and I know he is going to save all of us!”
Gregory grimaced in annoyance as the man’s alcoholic breath reached him and Rau rolled his eyes at Gregory. Gregory wasn’t used to these sort of things but Rau lived on the street before he ever met Han and he was used to people being drunk at every moment of every day. There are a lot of people that gave up on ever climbing the temple and just became drunkards and useless gamblers. They knew they would live forever in this temple so they didn’t ever need to work a day in their lives. Just drink and eat your life away and wait for someone else to clear the temple for you. That was their life motto. Rau didn’t like them, but there were too many people like that for him not to be used to them.
Rau spoke up in a jolly tone that made him seem harmless! He got the man’s attention immediately.
“So what exactly did the messiah do for them? He must’ve done something amazing for everyone to worship him like this!”
The drunkard stumbled and staggered a little but he managed to catch himself before he fell. He rose his wine bottle drowsily!
“I – Belch~!!! – I am not meant to talk about this, but you see, he has been giving people… He has been giving people extra stars – Shhhhhhh~!!! – Don’t – Don’t say anything! We aren’t meant to talk about this! It’s top secret!”
Gregory rolled his eyes in annoyance but he just kept silent and allowed Rau to talk again. Rau showed an expression of complete shock on his face and he watched the drunkard nod his head. The drunkard thought that Rau was shocked by what he said so the man gained even more confidence as he spoke more.
“Yes, you see he is the Messiah, so something like that is easy for him.”
“Really? So where can someone get one of these extra stars?”
Rau leaned in conspiratorially as he asked this question and the drunkard also leaned in without even thinking about it. He cupped his hand to his mouth and spoke.
“You didn’t hear anything from me – belch~!!!! -but down on floor fourth, I heard there’s a rally every fortnight where people get these stars. You have to be a gold star and part of a strong guild before you can get one so I don’t think it’s gonna be easy,”
Rau pulled back quickly once the man belched but the man just kept on talking as if Rau was still right beside him. Rau fanned the foul air away from his nose before he thanked the man and told Gregory to get them out of there. Gregory activated his shadow travel and the two of them fell through the shadow immediately and disappeared! The drunkard stared at the space where they left in shock before he looked down at his wine bottle.
He wasn’t that drunk… Right? Maybe he should lay off the drinking for a bit. He was starting to see things.
The gold stars down here weren’t used to seeing nightwalker techniques so what Gregory just did was impossible for the man to understand. He just shook his head and continued on his way like nothing happened.
By tomorrow he would have forgotten that he ever even had this conversation.