THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 332: 332: MYSTERIES

The pressure inside Sagiri’s mind intensified. The visions around him faded into darkness once more, yet the knowledge remained. Then, without warning, an answer appeared within his thoughts.

You have met two of the Fourth Tribe. They died before the Fifth.

The meaning struck him immediately.

Had he met two?

The Fourth Tribe. The tribe of hidden paths and unseen roads. The tribe that had vanished from history before the Fifth was finally erased.

More knowledge settled into Sagiri’s mind.

N’folu broke the first oath.

The vision shifted. He saw the five tribes gathered beneath the treaty banners, then saw cracks spreading through what had once united them.

The Fourth Tribe did not leave the South willingly.

Ancient cities flashed before him. Arguments. Accusations. Fear.

N’folu feared the roads between worlds.

The silver masks of the Fourth Tribe appeared again.

They feared what they could reach.

They feared what they could discover.

The memories accelerated.

The Fourth Tribe was cast out before it departed.

Its history was erased before its people vanished.

Another truth followed.

Only the Fourth Tribe could follow the Fifth into the Archive.

Only the Fourth Tribe could hunt the Fifth, where others could not.

The words felt heavier now.

The treaty was designed that way.

Sagiri saw the five relics once more.

The Fifth guarded memory. The Fourth guarded paths. One could always find the other. The final truth settled into his mind like a stone sinking into deep water. If the Fifth Tribe ever turned against the treaty, the Fourth was its executioner.

If the Fourth betrayed the treaty, the Fifth was its jailer.

Then the darkness grew still.

Only the Fourth Tribe can truly kill the Fifth.

”I see, so N’folu is not innocent after all? Centuries ago, before they became peaceful hey had first broken the treaty by being at odds with the fourth tribe? But who could blame them, right? No one can be happy knowing someone is out there who can kill them.

”A mistake I had ignored, thinking the unity could always last,” the memory filled sagiri’s mind. ”The Sekana was meant to keep the N’folu in line, so there was a balance. Many already thought you were my favorite, but I, in fact, had given you a big responsibility.”

”So we could say it was karma for the N’folu to be wiped out?” Sagiri said.

”Far from it?.....”

The next words to fill Sagiri’s mind had him frozen, and he could not move.

”Impossible!” Sagiri snapped. Whatever the stupid beast of memory had said had to be a lie.

”I can not lie. I live in the memory of the archive. Lying is impossible to me.”

Sagiri wanted to laugh, but far from it that he could laugh at such a cruel joke. He now, more than ever, could not help but feel hot, burning rage.

”So then I am either going to die by a Southerner’s hand,” Sagiri asked.

”Yes.” There was no hesitation.

”How interesting.

”But your death will bring more harm than good. So I merely remind you of the memory the archive does not have. But before that... a war is coming. Neither the South nor the North will win this war.”

A memory seared through Sagiri’s head that had him frozen completely. It was even worse than what the beast of memory had said. This time, Sagiri did not even have the strength to react. As he watched could happen if things went the most likely way now.

The vision changed again. Sagiri suddenly found himself staring down upon the entire ribes of the north and south. Then destruction swept across it. The South burned first. Great canyon cities collapsed into oceans of fire while ancient fortresses shattered and disappeared beneath storms of sand and darkness.

The North followed. Mountains split apart, glaciers broke free, and kingdoms vanished beneath avalanches large enough to bury nations. Then the East. Endless forests burned from horizon to horizon while great beasts fled through dying lands and entire cities crumbled into ash. The West suffered no less. Oceans rose to consume coastlines, fleets burned across black waters, and islands sank beneath monstrous waves.

Everywhere he looked, there was ruin.

Armies annihilated.

Tribes erased.

Bloodlines extinguished.

Centuries of history reduced to smoke and rubble in moments. The world itself seemed to be dying. Vast cracks spread across continents while the skies darkened and the seas churned in fury.

He should never have entered the wretched pool.

”No one gets to wipe out the north before I get my revenge,” Sagiri said.

”Yet there will be no one left to die by your hand if you keep being short-sighted. After you take all these relics, this pool, and I will cease to exist. I only stayed long enough to tell you what you have been seeking. You have my heart inside of you. You will become the rightful ruler of the south. I will have solved your problem. Now you will solve mine.”

”Now then, let’s begin....”

Koru stood at the pool after he lass went. He watched the pool stir once before it was silent. He watched the abyss from above for a second, then a minute, and an hour... he two.... He could no longer watch. He did not know how long the archive could hold, but he knew he could not wait any longer.

And so he jumped into the pool. Well, he tried to. Before he could even touch the water, a force struck him back so hard he was thrown out and back to where he had stood before he jumped.

It was as if the pool itself was alive, and I was rejecting him.

That did not stop him, however, and he tried again and again and again. The result was the same, but each time he tried, the force resisting him grew harder. He scored a mouthful in his sixth attempt. This was bad. He did not have long to get out of there either, but he was not going to leave without the boy.

Perhaps he should have tried harder to stop him.