The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hasse knelt next to Amatura and ran his fingers gently across the text on the pillar. A faint glow appeared on his fingertips; it was a unique identification the method demon hunter used to verify that the writing was indeed of Amatura.

The thin-on-top, dark-skinned man, who looked like an African demon hunter, walked past Hasse. Seeing the body of Amatura, he halted, face solemn. “Indeed, Elder Amatura has also died here.”

“Teuton,” Hasse said as he got to his feet and nodded to the dark-skinned demon hunter. “Take out the letters.”

Teuton was stunned. “Here?”

“Yes, here,” said Hasse lightly. “Countess Ancestor is a respected elder. She has taken the initiative to show her sincerity, and we should reciprocate.”

Without a word, Teuton walked away quickly before coming back with a box that looked rather important. Hasse put the box on the only long table that was still standing. He swept the debris on the table away and took out a stack of papers and notes from the box in front of Vivian.

“This is” Vivian picked up a few sheets of paper and said, “the dairy of Amatura?”

“We found the clues on the documents. White Flame should have mentioned it to you earlier,” Hasse said and nodded. “These are the documents and diary left behind by Amatura and two other elders. The documents include their research on the phenomenon of innate hostility.”

Vivian and Hao Ren immediately examined the documents with the utmost seriousness. The records had been sorted by the demon hunters earlier, not only by date but also by name. Hao Ren flipped through a few pages and found that Elder Amatura’s study on the innate hostility phenomenon was far more comprehensive than he had initially thought. In the documents, Amatura described in detail the innate hostility of the otherworldlings and the killing instinct of the demon hunter and identified the two phenomena as the same thing. He had made a summary of all the supernatural races in history and other information related to innate hostility from the ancient times, including the degree of hatred of each race, the distribution of each race, the degree of force, the beginning and ending points of history of each race, as well as their respective forms of civilization. He categorized the innate hostility into ten levels according to the standard he set and graphically described the average degree of influence of innate hostility on various races since 10,000 years ago.

The illustration charts he had drawn showed that the influence of innate hostility was unbelievably high in the beginning, almost completely overriding the rational thinking of each race, and classified as “beyond the level of thinking.” Before and after the end of the Mythological era, the influence of innate hostility on each race had dropped to the level of “intelligence control,” and significantly declined in recent times to the level of “controllable common hostility.” The plot ended with the curve radically dropped to near zero, where Amatura left a question: Is it disappearing?

There were also research materials and correspondences of the other two demon hunters, but Amatura’s materials accounted for nearly 80% of the study. The more Hao Ren read, the more he was amazed. He realized that these findings were not new; from the declining of the innate hostility phenomenon in the younger generation of various races until now was only a few months, so Amatura had started studying this phenomenon a long time ago.

Vivian found a letter in which Amatura had mentioned some of his research to one of his friends. “…I discovered a long time ago that the difference between the supernatural races, including us, is enormous, not only culturally, but also in terms of physiological structure and the soul. Anyone with the right state of mind will not believe that these races were born on the same planet… I have checked the books that I have collected, and it is clear that smart people of other races are aware of this too.

“…the otherworldlings, and the demon hunter, all these races are undoubtedly from outside this planet, and also not from the same planet outside this planet; they are from different planets. We have different origins, no doubt about it…”

In another letter, Amatura again mentioned, “… my friends, shouldn’t we doubt it? We have been killing the otherworldlings for thousands of years, and those otherworldlings are also fighting among themselves, but why no one has questioned it? As you and I agree, the supernatural races come from different places. We have different physiological structures, forms of power, cultures, and traditions, even souls. Under normal circumstances, it is almost impossible for these races that are so different in every way to bump into each other, just like the fish in the deep sea and the monkeys in the mountains do not interact, let alone hate. There must be some power that threw us on the same planet and made us fought one another for the sake of fighting. Whenever I think about it, I am deeply disturbed…

“We are driven by something that is not of our own will. It lurks in the depths of the souls of you and me. Yes, we are like crickets and fighting cocks in a cage, eyes staring at the ‘enemy’ in front of us and have never been curious about the cage around us. No one has ever asked how we came into the cage in the first place. Now, the force that drives us is weakening gradually, and I am beginning to worry that it is probably a sign of worse to come: If there is a spectator outside the ‘cage,’ then this spectator has probably lost interest in the fight.”

Most of Amatura’s letters were the discussion of this topic with his friends. His three main views were: the supernatural races on Earth came from different “outside domains”; the supernatural races were collected from all over the universe and placed in a continuous battle environment on Earth, and the innate hostility phenomenon was a shackle and controller to keep the various supernatural races battling each other.

These three views could be surmised into one, that was, it was a conspiracy.

Amatura was limited by his vision on Earth and naturally unable to draw the correct conclusion, but he was still much better than other demon hunters and otherworldlings who had never doubted about their existence. At least he clearly understood that the killing instinct of the demon hunters had nothing to do with the sense of justice and mission but with something that was extremely suspicious and from a third party.

Naturally, the demon hunters viewed him as a deviant.

“I’ve never expected a demon hunter could be capable of such thinking.” Vivian could not help but mumble to herself. Hasse gently nodded. “Amatura was the strangest one among the elders. Many of his ideas, in our opinion, could be deemed heresies. He was the bravest warrior during the first half of his life and obsessed in the hunt for the otherworldlings. He suddenly got acquainted with these theories during the second half of his life,” Hasse said.

Vivian held up a letter and waved it in the air. “Wasn’t he scared of getting burned by your council of elders alive?” she asked.

Hasse shook his head. “His research work did not lower his position among the demon hunters, because his ‘fruit of war’ was still the best; he was still a strong demon hunter, just that his idea was a bit weird,” he said.

Vivian arched the corner of her mouth. “You had sensed something was wrong, yet you didn’t stop the fighting,” she said.

Hassel said nothing.

Hao Ren was interested to hear what the demon hunter thought about the ‘heretical’ theory. “Hasse, what do you think of Amatura’s findings?” Hao Ren asked.

After a short moment of silence, Hasse nodded. “It makes sense.” He gave an unexpected reply.

Vivian raised her eyebrows. “I thought you would burst out in righteous indignation.”

“The theory of Elder Amatura is not a secret. Do you think that demon hunters are only obsessed with fighting?” Hasse said with a subtle smile on his face. “We are more focused than most of the otherworldlings in learning and research. The theory of Amatura wouldn’t change anything. The influence of the killing instinct in us is far deep-rooted than you think, and theory alone would not reverse the situation that has been in existence since the Mythological era. At least, this is the case so far,” Hasse said.

Hao Ren did not comment on this. He just glanced at the documents and a line of text popped into his eyes.

“…In summary, our killing instinct is not a natural trait that should exist in our souls. It is implanted in us, evidence of human manipulation, and perhaps with a purpose…”

Unwittingly, Hao Ren again thought of the writing that Amatura left behind before his death. “They’re right. We’ve made a mistake.”

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