Second Genesis

Grey’s eyes narrowed as Veyrath returned to his seat.

Now that was a fucking problem.

Having fire alone wasn’t enough to impress him anymore. Grey was pretty sure that even without any dedicated resistance to it, normal flames wouldn’t do much beyond annoy him at this point.

The gnomes had used some fairly primitive blacksmithing methods in their underground city, and the place had been hot enough that an ordinary person probably would have passed out within minutes, but Grey had barely noticed it. When you had enough strength to survive battles that flattened buildings and tore streets apart, a little heat stopped being particularly threatening.

And if Grey could shrug that off, then a Ranked Demon several Classes stronger than Veyrath definitely should have been able to.

Yet it had burned to ash, and not slowly, either.

There hadn’t been some prolonged funeral pyre where the Demon screamed for several minutes while Veyrath continuously poured energy into it. The flames had touched its head and, within seconds, there hadn’t been a fucking head anymore.

Grey’s eyes narrowed further.

’Those aren’t flames.’

Or at least, not flames in the way he understood them.

They might as well have been miniature flaming nukes stuffed into tiny embers. The reason the arena hadn’t suddenly become the surface of the sun wasn’t because Veyrath lacked power, it was the exact opposite. His control over his fire and heat was so ridiculous that practically nothing escaped.

Every ounce of energy was compressed into tiny pockets that Veyrath could apparently make erupt wherever the fuck he wanted.

Grey glanced toward Xerchen and found even him staring at the Elemental now. There was the faintest tremble in those foggy grey pupils, and the reaction was even worse among everyone else.

Unlike Grey and Mauve, most of them knew what they had just seen.

They knew what a Ranked Demon was. And they had just watched one several Classes above its opponent die without even forcing Veyrath to stop walking.

Could that even be called an exchange?

One of them hadn’t even attacked.

Grey barely paid attention to the next few battles. At some point the giant Dormaji and his group were called forward, and the bastard roared something loud enough that Grey was pretty sure it was meant for him, but Grey didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking.

"You know what that thing was?" Grey asked.

Xerchen blinked, seemingly pulling himself out of his thoughts, then turned toward Grey. "What did you do to me?"

Grey raised an eyebrow.

Interesting.

Apparently Xerchen didn’t know.

Then again, that probably made sense. If the bastard knew he had gnome ancestry, he definitely wouldn’t be asking about it loudly in front of a group of people raised to hate the Savage Races.

"I asked first."

Xerchen frowned, but after a moment he answered. "A Ranked Demon."

"That supposed to mean something to me?"

"They are beyond Unranked Demons by an immeasurable degree. For countless generations, the World of Gods has protected our lands from them. Even those beneath Command Class can threaten powerhouses far beyond their own level."

Grey’s eyebrow rose slightly.

That was... odd.

Very fucking odd, actually.

He had seen the history of this world. Not every little event, obviously, but enough of it that something as important as generations of warfare against Demons probably should have come up somewhere. Yet he couldn’t remember seeing them even once.

Then again...

He hadn’t seen much about the Titans either.

Grey rubbed his chin.

’Maybe I didn’t see as much as I thought.’

That wasn’t a comforting realization.

Xerchen’s eyes narrowed. "Now answer me."

Grey sighed, then leaned closer.

Xerchen immediately stiffened.

"Ohoho," Legan said somewhere behind them. "So sudden, so scandalous. At least buy him dinner first."

Legan started to make exaggerated moaning sounds.

Grey ignored him and pushed his Resonant Sense outward, wrapping the space around himself and Xerchen until their voices couldn’t easily escape.

He didn’t know how Xerchen would react to the truth.

Honestly, there was a decent chance the bastard would have some sort of existential crisis considering how his people felt about Savage Races.

Still...

"You have gnome blood in you," Grey whispered.

Xerchen’s eyes widened.

For once, there was no placid confusion, no cold calculation, just pure shock. Then something changed behind his expression.

Realization.

Like a dozen things from his childhood had suddenly clicked into place at once.

Before Grey could see where that thought went, the arena trembled.

The circles began moving.

Grey straightened as the surviving Regions were dragged inward, stone grinding beneath them as the enormous arena compressed.

When it stopped, only six circles remained.

Grey’s expression slowly hardened.

"You have now passed the Challenge of Demons," the halo announced. "Combat, however, represents only one measure of talent. Comprehension is another."

Golden light spread overhead.

"The language of angels is understood by only the smallest few. In the distant past, your ancestors succeeded in grasping it, and through that success earned the Imperial Bloodlines that now flow through your veins."

Grey’s eyes narrowed.

"However, their success is not yours. If new blood cannot continue those comprehensions, your Imperial Bloodlines will decline, and your worth will decline with them."

The air began to hum.

"An ancient angelic text will soon appear before you. At least one member of each Region must achieve a comprehension of twenty percent."

A pause.

"Failure will result in immediate execution of all parties."

Grey frowned.

Then he noticed movement beside him.

Elowen was trembling.

Her hands were clenched tightly enough that her knuckles had gone white, and for a second Grey didn’t understand why.

Then it clicked.

’Ah.’

Imperial Bloodlines had come from comprehending the angelic language in the first place. Which meant the people with the best chance of doing it again were probably those carrying those bloodlines now.

Grey looked around their group then back at Elowen. She was the only one here, a fact Grey had noticed before and found strange, but hadn’t thought much about.

Now he understood why she looked like she was about to throw up.

She thought everyone’s life had just been dumped into her hands. If she failed, they would all die.

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