Undying Warlord

"You're still alive?" Dilan managed to ask weakly while his cruelly tortured body lay on the ground, unmoving.

Nial was lying next to him in his combat clothes, drenched in his own blood.

"...I think so?"

Neither Dilan nor Nial was able to move the rest of their body. Only their head seemed to work, to a certain extent, at least.

Dilan's body felt like it had passed to a grater. His skin was peeled, and his bones, veins, muscles, and organs were exposed. He was not wearing anything, but that was something he couldn't be bothered about, right now. His body ached and his Origin ability was not working properly anymore.

Dilan could tell that this state was only temporary, but it was still annoying because he was healing even slower than 10,000 years ago.

"I guess we made it both…we got rid of that…thing." He mumbled, almost adding 'for the time being In his head.'

Nial's lifeless, milky white eyes stared into the cloudless sky while blood keep oozing out of his burst-open skin.

"What in the vast Universe was that even, to begin with?"

Nial would have shuddered if he was still in control of his body. However, only his head shook wildly for a second while Dilan turned his head in the direction of the Eternal Darkness.

"This thing came out of you, so how the hell am I supposed to know what that was?" Dilan shot back in an incredulous tone to Nial before he sighed deeply as he recalled the presence and the ominous sensation he had felt while looking at the Gate. "But I'm pretty sure that it can kill me…and I mean literally eradicate my entire existence…"

Dilan knew that his Origin ability didn't work as well as before due to the presence of the thing that resided behind the Gate. He could also tell that if he had been a God and True Undying Essence had become his True Divinity, things wouldn't have been that troublesome. But he was still a mortal right now, and unable to deal with that…thing.

'Well, even the Oracle was shocked, so it's not like it's a surprise that this thing can temporarily weaken my Origin ability with its mere presence…I guess?'

"That thing was probably Hoert," The Oracle's voice rang through the ears of the Fate Changers, and they flicked their gazes at her in unison.

Both were trying to lift their head to look at the Oracle, but she squatted down in front of the two of them.

"You two did a good job…I never expected that it would be possible for him to find a way to you guys…or that he would ever be interested in you guys, to begin with…"

Neither Dilan nor Nial felt any better upon hearing the Oracle's compliment. Her words were just a clear indicator that she was as clueless as them, and that was certainly not good.

"What…or who is Hoert?" Dilan asked the first and the most important question that had to be answered so that the Fate Changers could get a rough understanding of the situation.

The Oracle bit her lower lip and she tried to put a smile on her face. Unfortunately, her smile crumbled after only a few seconds.

"Hoert belongs to the Pryards, Ancients of Doom that came into existence long before this Universe re-entered the circle of life. The Pryards are usually not interested in the happenings of a young Universe like ours….but Hoert is a little bit different" The Oracle spoke slowly and she was taking pauses way too often as if she was weighing the gravity of each word that left her mouth. It seemed as if she was trying very hard not to reveal something she shouldn't tell them yet.

Dilan didn't really care what the Oracle wanted to hide, but he wanted to hear the truthful answers to his questions. That was all that mattered. When he looked at Nial, it was quite easy to tell that his colleague thought the same…or so Dilan interpreted based on Nial's expression which was hard to read.

"How exactly is Hoert different from other Pryards?" Nial asked at this moment.

He was also interested in figuring out what exactly the Oracle meant with the Universe re-entering the circle of life, or how old a Universe had to be not to be considered young anymore but Nial chose to discard these rather trivial questions to be answered later, or never if their answer was of no importance.

The Oracle heard Nial clearly, yet, she hesitated to answer. She was still squatting in front of them but her mouth was sealed tightly for what felt like an eternity.

"...From what I've heard Hoert has already devoured a Universe…" The Oracle finally answered, expecting the Fate Changers' immediate responses.

"Huh?"

"What the…!?"

Both Nial and Dilan were alarmed at her answer and hastily pushed their upper body from the ground despite the unbearable exhaustion that swept through them. Dilan looked into the violet eyes of the Oracle, while Nial forced himself to use his range of perception to feel the wildly fluctuating mana of the Oracle.

'Is she speaking the truth?'

"If your words are nothing but the truth, how could our lovely Nial summon that thi…I mean Hoert?" Dilan finally asked, ignoring the grim expression he received from the Eternal Darkness.

"Our lovely…" The Oracle started, just to freeze in place for a second. Correcting herself, she began again.

"Nial nearly summoned Hoert because he seems to be in possession of an ability that allows him to summon the Pryards, also called Primordyas…though I am not sure how he got it in his hands…"

When she finished her answer, the Oracle looked over to Nial as if she was demanding an answer from him.

'There are too many things the Oracle doesn't know…Fate Changers and beings stronger than our Universe are really beyond her comprehension I guess…' Dilan thought, connecting the dots while allowing his body to slump back to the ground.

"I just bound the Summoning ability to my Mana Core. It was a great complementary ability to my mental control ability, Dominion, but it evolved to Awakening of the Prymal when I finished the binding process," Nial explained slowly and he continued after taking a breather, "I summoned Tyrant with the ability as well."

The Oracle nodded her head even though she didn't really understand how Nial's Summoning ability could evolve to something so fearsome.

Dilan felt exactly the same which led him to recall something the Soul Shards had said about Nial when they met him as a baby.

"Are you really human?" Dilan couldn't help but ask. Nial turned his head to the Undying with a pained smile on his face.

'I don't know what I am…what do you expect to hear?' He nearly responded.

In the end, he chose against saying anything but that was only for the better. Nial had no idea what he was, which meant that it was already good enough to know who he was and who he cared about.

The Oracle looked at Nial for a few seconds before she smiled gently.

"I never knew that the Undying cared about something like that!" She said all of a sudden, which caused Dilan's lips to twitch.

"Nobody was talking to you, bi–..." Dilan nearly cursed but Nial cleared his throat to prevent war from breaking out between the Oracle and the Undying and finally answered,

"Let's just say that I feel like a human!"