Coming down the stairs, Akira was very stunned. He expected this passage to be like one of those that was dug up in a hurry, but he never expected this passage to actually be the entrance to a ruin.
Yes, you heard that right; this village is actually on top of an underground ruin that seems to be from the Era of Gods. If you knew how Akira was, so sure, then you need to understand that a certain someone was so much of an archaeology enthusiast that he even wished for unique skills to listen to all the secrets he came across.
So with one touch of the murals, Akira instantly understood the story of this place.
This used to be a temple that was dedicated to the God of Darkness. In addition, this was also used to be a secret base that the God of Darkness used during that era.
During the era of gods, like the era of dragons, there were three factions. One is the faction that made up gods that were born to govern their own concepts. These gods are made out of the planet, so killing them is basically impossible.
But humans in that era managed to do the impossible. Since the gods cannot be killed, why not just devour their powers instead? It was due to this mindset that the other faction was born in that era.
And that is the God Slayer faction, which consists of humans who managed to slay a god and forcibly take over their divine throne.
And the God of Darkness was a person belonging to this faction. He forcibly took over the divine throne of the Goddess of Light.
And the last faction is the faction formed by the demons from the Abyss. These demons are different from Zeref's demons, as these guys are much stronger and are similar to gods. They are the embodiment of the negative concepts of this world. And although they are called demons, they are like evil gods in a sense, as God slayers can also take over their divine authority.
'Wait, if he took over the divine throne of the Goddess of Light, then shouldn't he become the God of Light?' Akira, who was listening to the story from the murals, frowned as he noticed this important fact.
'Logically speaking, even if the divine authority was downgraded to one level, it shouldn't have properties of the opposite attribute.
So what the hell happened here? ' Akira now, with immense curiosity, began to listen to the next part of the story.
Oh, it turned out that this guy, after devouring the Goddess of Light, also devoured a demon who seemed to be arch-enemies with the Goddess of Light.
'Damn, it seems like this God of Darkness is a very cunning guy. He knew when to fish perfectly in troubled waters. Though it seems devouring both Demon and God authority came at a price. ' Akira thought as he continued reading the rest of the murals.
Although both God and demons came from the same origin, they have completely opposite properties. It's like they are the two sides of the same coin. This is why in that era, demons and gods were mortal enemies.
But according to the records, Akira knew both gods and demons hated god slayers more than each other. After all, God Slayers were mostly humans in the past, so how could these high and mighty beings let such low beings wield the same power as them?
This is the conclusion Akira came to when he first came across information about the God era. Akira knew that plots like this were most likely the truth, especially considering this is a fantasy world.
But even then, Akira was very surprised that there was a brave person who would dare to devour both demonic and divine authority. And according to the murals, this was not very uncommon in that era.
'Oh, this has just become more and more interesting,' Akira thought with a bit of excitement. He never expected that a boring mission would allow him to find this much information about the God era.
'Should I do these kinds of missions from now on? ' Akira thought, but he quickly dismissed this crazy idea in less than 0.1 seconds.
Who are you kidding? Not to mention whether he would even get lucky next time, Akira refused to take on such boring tasks that were too troublesome. Such tasks should be given to his hardworking sister, who will join Fairy Tail soon.
Speaking of which, he still didn't get any information about Erza even after all these months. He even asked Gildarts, who should have travelled almost everywhere, but even he didn't hear about a village named Rosemerry.
This made things difficult for Akira, as he couldn't personally go out looking for her.
Don't think Makarov is trusting of his guild members and allows Natsu and others to do missions far away from Magnolia in the future. The reason why Makarov allowed this is that at that time in the guild, apart from Natsu and others, there were many other talented children and people inside. So this is why Makarov would allow those guys to run wildly, as he had backups.
But now in the guild, apart from Laxus and him, there are no other kids who are talented enough to become the pillars of the guild. Yes, there are Ultear, Cana, Grey and Lyon, but compared to Akira and Laxus, they are a level short.
So Makarov has to be extra careful and not let any of the gifted children be harmed in any way. It's not like Makarov was playing favorites; it is just that he was doing his job as the guild master. In any case, whether there were many talents or none, Makarov would still look after the young blood in the guild. It is just that he would change the harshness of their requirements needed to do missions.
After this, it's just human nature. They would be very protective of things that are scarce but would not care much when things are very abundant.
'In any case, I should first deal with these annoying flies before they destroy this historic ruin. I still need to understand more about this God of Darkness and what sorts of side effects one would have when fusing with both demon and God powers. ' Akira thought as he quickened his pace.
Those cultists may be knocked unconscious for now, but they would surely wake up very quickly. And Akira didn't believe a cult that was able to hide this long without anyone even hearing about it would not have any strong mages who managed to resist his conqueror's haki.
Although in the pirate world Conqueror's Haki reigns supreme, this is the fairy tail world. In this magical world, anything is possible.
...
" Well, I guess I gave these guys too much credit ", Akira muttered as he looked at the now tied-up people with disappointment.
It turned out that the reason why this cult has been able to exist for many years without even being discovered is due to the fact that this cult is run only by normal villagers. And furthermore, calling these guys a cult is actually too much.
These villagers in this village are descendants of the people who once worshipped the God of Darkness. So over the years, these guys have been regularly worshipping the god of darkness as a tradition. And these guys who created this cult in the first place are very good at this. Knowing that the council would definitely destroy their religion, they made many guidelines that all the cultists must remember.
One, they are absolutely not allowed to cause harm to their own members and betray each other.
Secondly, they are absolutely not allowed to go around spreading the religion outside the village.
And lastly, they are absolutely not allowed to go and cause harm to the cult or do any unspeakable things using the cult's name.
It is because of these three rules that this seemingly ancient cult managed to stay hidden for many years. So, to sum it up, the creators of this cult are a bunch of cowards and are afraid of the council, so they didn't bother to spread their doctrines outside the village.
And all that ridiculous stuff that Akira found earlier, like that four-layer barrier—these things have been in this village for ages, so no one knew where the village got them.
With the information Akira gathered, he only knew that the creators of the cult used these resources to make their cult more secretive and more mysterious.
" Sigh, what a disappointment ", Akira muttered as he sat on the head priest's chair with a disappointed expression.
But soon his expression changed drastically as he stood up in shock.
****
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