The Record of Unusual Creatures

Fate is feared because it is elusive.

The demon hunters, whose mission was to hunt down the unusual creatures, had a vampire sage among them who was regarded as a savage beast by various supernatural races. They used to be a conservative and cautious race. The Godslayer¹ had made the demon hunters’ innate hostility become a more powerful killing instinct, changing their way of thinking semi-permanently. It also brought peace as well as prosperity to Coldpath, which was also a prison that imprisoned them for 6,000 years.

The one who knew all these secrets was the guardian giant, Ymir².

“The innate hostility between the races wasn’t terrible. It only caused races to fight among themselves. It was a blind and chaotic sense of hatred, devoid of logic and purpose. It caused the different races to exhaust themselves in the long run. But like the food chain in nature, it did not really destroy all the otherworldling races,” Ymir lamented about the past 10,000 years while everyone sank into deep thought. Once a guardian giant, Ymir was affected by the Sin of the Divine Blood and lost his memory while crossing the Wall of Reality. Despite that, he had retained a much higher intelligence and wisdom than other races. Therefore, he had figured out many things during those long years. “The black sword was the most terrible thing that ever happened to the demon hunters. It changed their innate hostility into a killing instinct; transforming a previously unorganized chaotic impulse into a purposeful mission and letting all demon hunters believed in this ‘sublime mission.’ The external control of the mind wasn’t terrible. What was awful was the changes in worldviews and the ways of thinking. With clear goals and immense power, the demon hunters had become unstoppable.”

“Though I have stopped the first Woe of Madness, the harm it has caused has spread,” Vivian said. He sounded a little dreadful. “It has also ‘killed’ my name and completely erased my existence from the demon hunter community.”

“But now you’re able to tell us all these,” Hao Ren looked at Ymir and suddenly realized, “does it mean that the ‘control’ has lost its effect?”

“You guys ended the Woe of Madness,” said Ymir, winking his approval. “The influence has faded. I can feel that the dark forces that enveloped this space for thousands of years are gone. Unfortunately, twelve sages have died, and those demon hunters who know the history are also dead. You can only hear this ancient story from the mouth of an outsider like me.”

Hao Ren knit his brows together in deep thought. The story of Ymir sounded plausible, but there were still many unanswered questions. He scratched his chin and said, “Though the twelve sages couldn’t mention Vivian’s name, they still knew who she was, right? Why didn’t the sages stop the demon hunters and Vivian from fighting? At least they should have accorded her some privileges.”

“Thinking of it, I had received quite some privileges,” Vivian said and smiled embarrassedly. “For example, they seldom came to me looking for trouble. In fact, they had been avoiding me in the past few thousand years. Now think of it, I was there when Olympus collapsed; I was there when Yggdrasil crumbled, and I was even closer when Horus was hit by three fireballs, but no one had ever come after me.”

“Yes, the sages couldn’t tell your story, but they could remind the young demon hunters so that they would not bother you,” Ymir said. A smile seemed to flash across his face. “Though this is limited, at least you had gotten lesser attacks than the other otherworldlings.”

“All right, let’s forget about that and talk about the Woe of Madness that you have mentioned,” Vivian said, waving her hand. “Judging from your tone, you must have known about the deicide, and that the Godslayer would be losing its control once again. You even foresaw my coming?”

“It was you who told us in the past,” Ymir sounded helpless. “After stopping the ritual, forcing the sages to regain their consciousness, and before the curse of the sword took effect, you had one last meeting with the sages. You knew that the power of the sword had already spread and that it would not dissipate for the next few thousand years. You guys were unable to completely destroy the evil weapon, so you guys decided to seal the black sword until its power weakened before finding a way to destroy it, or continuing to seal it. But Beetholis has foreseen a dark future that the sword would inevitably get out of control and eventually devour the mind of the sages. Beetholis’ premonition had its limitation; he could only see fragmented images but not change its course.”

“Ultimately, the sages who gave no thought to personal safety decided to accept their fates. But to leave a glimmer of hope and out of confidence in your own strength, you left a memory crystal to Beetholis. You told him that you would come back one day to clean up the mess. So even if you know that you would lose your memory, you would still come back and finish your unfinished business if you saw your bloodstone,” Ymir said.

Vivian thought for a moment and said, “And this had also bypassed the curse of the sword. Even if the saints couldn’t tell the truth, they could still let their men deliver the bloodstone into my hand, just that they couldn’t explain to their compatriots why they did what they did.”

Ymir closed his eyes and said, “That’s all about it.”

“Wait a minute, I have a question!” Lily suddenly jumped out and raised her hand. “Since the twelve sages knew that the black sword was sinister, why did they still hold the ritual? It sounded like they were just looking for trouble.”

“They underestimated the corrupting power of the black sword,” Ymir said and let out a sigh. “For thousands of years, the voice of the sword had been whispering in the minds of the demon hunters and influencing them in a way that they were unaware of. In that way, the twelve sages were corrupted. Even I could not escape the influence. This is the truth that Beetholis could not see in the vision. The black sword would be out of control, but it was they who released it.”

The light finally dawned on Hao Ren.

The irrational behavior of the demon hunters; the obtuseness, passiveness, and dismissiveness of the twelve sages despite knowing the truth about the killing instinct was an impulse—all of these suddenly become explainable.

Even the guardian giants such as Ymir could not resist the whisper of the Godslayer. Perhaps, he was not aware of these whispers at all.

It was fortunate that after the black sword was sealed, Ymir woke up and revealed the truth.

Ymir was only brought to the Netherrealm Clock Tower after the Twilight of the Gods. It was at the time when thousands of years had passed since the first Woe of Madness, but by the unique mental power of the guardian giant, he recovered the truths from the minds of the twelves sages.

“It was tough to do something under the influence of the whispers, but we did our best to fight back,” Ymir said and smiled faintly. “We couldn’t go against the shackles of thinking, but we could make some arrangements within the rule. Beetholis delivered the bloodstone, others had tried their best to prevent the most corrupted council of elders from leaving Coldpath, and I trained Claude through the ritual of memory heritage, making him a messenger and spokesperson at the critical moment.”

Ymir finished his story and left the rest of the time to Vivian and her friends, letting everyone digest the truth, however unbelievable it was.

“Do you think these stories are true?” Hao Ren whispered to Vivian after a long while.

“I can’t prove that it’s fake,” Vivian replied, shaking her head with a forced smile. “All events tally. There’s an explanation for every suspicious point. Of course, there is still something unexplained in the story. But, 6,000 years, plus the Godslayer is able to explain everything to those who know the truths. Overall, I tend to believe the story.”

“But I really can’t believe that you had actually done such a great thing,” Hao Ren said. He could not help but look at Vivian with a wacky face. Though he knew that Vivian had lived for 10,000 years, he had never thought that Vivian, who was gentle in temperament, had had such an extraordinary past.

“Great thing?” Vivian’s voice appeared a little bit shivery. “I still find it a bit scary. Six thousand years of depravity, my strength has declined too much, and losing memory is the bigger problem. If it were not for you, the bloodstone would have brought me to Coldpath, and the consequences would be unimaginable,” she said.

Hao Ren shot Vivian a glance. “Then why did you still want to do that?” he asked.

“Because I thought that I had the advantage,” Vivian replied, feeling a little embarrassed. “According to the memory loss situation, I felt that a new round of hibernation was just around the corner. You know, I would usually get hysterical before going into hibernation.”

Hao Ren was dumbfounded.

After a moment of silence, Ymir saw that everyone had more or less digested his story, he broke the silence. “The records of the Fourteenth sage, as well as the historical records of the ancient ruins of Coldpath are kept in the room behind me. Old friend, I think you are definitely interested in them,” he said.