Chương 32: Mind

"When Primordial Mind had no one left to rely on—isolated by the other Gods because of the potential of his power—Mist was the only one who welcomed him with open arms."

"They grew close, closer than either of them likely intended, until Mind's admiration for her grew into something darker: obsession, then a love he couldn't control. He couldn't stomach the thought of another man holding her, so he acted. His plan was simple. To puppet Berserker into killing Storm. It would have been the perfect crime, and once Storm was dead, Mind would arrive as the grieving friend, ready to comfort the widow."

"But he made one fatal miscalculation. Mist was supposed to be away from the house that day with their son. Instead, it was Storm who took Shroud out, leaving Mist alone to open the door when Berserker came calling.

"What did the other Primordials do to Mind once they found out?" Gray leaned forward, elbows on the table.

"I doubt they just sat there after learning both their commanders died because of him." Gozen shook his head.

"Nobody found out. Mind got away with it clean." Gray's face twisted in confusion.

"What? Then how do you know all this? The whole history behind it?"

"The history of Astoria is recorded by the System. Every monumental event, archived." Gozen tapped two fingers against the table.

"But it only releases the information once it no longer has the power to meaningfully alter the events of that period—and any subsequent events following it."

"But that 'Mind' god deserves to rot in hell!" Gray slammed his palm against the wood, the sound cracking through the room.

"Why wouldn't the System want justice? Why let a monster like that walk free?" Gozen let out a long breath.

"The Great System isn't an arbiter of justice, Gray. It's a machine, coded to maintain balance. The Creator bound it with strict protocols: never interfere with sentient nature, no matter how vile that nature turns out to be. If anything, Storm and Berserker's deaths helped keep the world in balance." Gray slumped back into his chair, the fight draining out of him.

"Then what happened to Mind?"

"Once he finished grieving, he adopted the orphan—the Shroud progenitor. Played the kind uncle to perfection." Gozen's jaw tightened.

"He groomed the boy, poured poison into his ear drop by drop, until the child's grief grew into rage. Rage aimed at the Primordials."

"He convinced the boy that the Primordials caused his parents' deaths. His goal: wipe out the very gods who'd ostracized him for his power in the first place."

"Shroud slaughtered half the Primordial population before the System finally stepped in. It couldn't kill him. It didn't have that authority. The best it could manage was stripping him of his class, leaving him powerless. And the moment the boy stopped being useful, Mind discarded him." Gozen let the silence stretch, the story hanging heavy in the air.

"…Well?" Gray pressed, leaning across the table.

"What happened to him? To Shroud?" Gozen spread his hands.

"No one knows. That's where the records cut off. The next entry jumps straight to the war between the Primordials and humans—the war that wiped the majority of the gods off the face of Astoria." The gap in Shroud's story left Gray hungry for more, but the war demanded his attention first.

"Weren't humans supposed to be protected from attacks like that? How is that fair to the gods?"

"The safeguard lifted the second humans became the aggressors. Even so, humans won. It wasn't even close."

"How does a man kill a god?"

"That's tied to the theory behind why the System pulls humans from Earth to Astoria in the first place. It values curated quality over inherited power." Gozen tapped the table for emphasis.

"Think of it this way—a man who scraped together every copper of his wealth will always outwork a prince who inherited a kingdom. Earthborn claw their way to the peak on a foreign planet. Astorian's are simply born standing on the summit." His face twisted with disgust.

"Look at the two most powerful guilds in Biri: The Jade Lotus and Gisaeng House. Both Guild Masters are Earth natives. They're proof the System's 'Natural Selection' can forge elites capable of ruling an entire nation." At the mention of Jade Lotus, Gray's hands began to shake. Rage surged through him, and his fingers dug into the edge of the table. He drew a slow breath through his nose, held it, and let it out through his mouth, forcing the anger back down. Gozen gave him a sympathic stare.

"The Primordials were born straight into the Kaiser Rank. They held that power without ever clawing through the struggle it takes to earn it. If you watched the recordings of the war, you'd see what I mean. It looked close on the surface, but the actual skill gap between the humans and the gods was massive." Gray's head snapped up, his fury forgotten in an instant.

"Video recordings? You're telling me I can actually watch the war? Like, on video?"

"Yes. That's what a video is." Gozen's mouth curved.

"Every major conflict, war, and world-altering event gets archived by the System and stored at Quantis Corp." Gray's eyes lit up.

"Holy crap. I know exactly where I'm going the second this competition's finished." Gozen let out a booming laugh that rattled the windowpane.

"Good luck with that! Access to Quantis Corp's archives is reserved for esteemed and revered Kaisers. It's not a public library for tourists, kid." The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Well, Mr. Esteemed and Revered Kaiser." Gray spread his palms toward him.

"Couldn't you pull a few strings and get me in?" The humor drained from Gozen's face at once. He rubbed the back of his neck, eyes dropping to the table.

"That won't be possible. Let's just say my reputation isn't exactly… pristine."

"What about Ava? Could she help me out?" Gozen let out a low groan, jaw tightening. Gray's excitement collapsed.

"Fine. Maybe one day I'll meet whatever requirements they need." He paused, turning the earlier thread back over in his mind.

"But my Hollow ability description flat-out calls Shroud a 'Primordial.' How's that possible if he was just their kid?"

"An offspring of two Primordials is, by blood, a Primordial. The only difference is the ones the Creator crafted directly were born at the Kaiser Rank. Their children start off as mere Awakened, same as anyone else." Gray pulled up his status sheet, scanning it.

"There's a discrepancy, though. My class reads Mistveil, not Shroud. If I really carry his legacy, why does the System label it differently?" Gozen leaned back, his chair creaking under his weight.

"That circles back to the massacre. Storm and Berserker slaughtered the humans, but they spared the disciples who'd inherited their classes. Why? Because after the safeguard went up, the brothers struck a deal with those disciples. To wipe out the human race in exchange for training and resources. Ironically, the brothers were the first to pioneer the mentor-disciple dynamic."

"That, too, broke the System's balance protocol, so it stepped in and erased their legacy entirely. It wasn't allowed to strip the brothers of their own power, so it blacklisted them instead, and made sure their classes could never surface again during the summoning's vetting phase. But the System was allowed to take the classes away from the humans who'd inherited Storm and Berserker's power, since they were the ones who led the genocide."

"No one's inherited StormWrath or Berserker since."

"But how does that connect to my Shroud class?" Gray asked.

"Because the System isn't perfect, no matter how advanced it looks. It managed to strip the Shroud progenitor of his class and blacklist him from taking disciples. But somehow, he slipped through the cracks anyway and manifested his power through the Mistveil class instead."

"You're an anomaly, Gray. You've inherited a power the System deleted.

'Shroud' doesn't show up as your class because it technically shouldn't exist anymore. But the signs are undeniable. The clearest one being: Hollow."

"And the reason I wield smoke instead of clouds…" Gray started.

"…is because that power belongs to Mist alone," Gozen finished.

"StormWrath is the embodiment of fury and rage—its core attributes are smoke, lightning, water, and wind. Mistveil's clouds are graceful and delicate. Smoke is toxic and dense, the opposite of that. You won't be able to shape it the way Mist could, because it's too volatile—like fire. Instead, you get Storm's firepower fused with Mist's elusiveness."

"And as for Shroud's power itself…" Gozen trailed off, then shook his head.

"Never mind."

"What?" Gray's voice climbed a pitch.

"What is Shroud's power?"

"You don't need to know that until you reach a higher rank." Gray shot him a scowl, but Gozen didn't budge.

"Some would call the Shroud class an upgrade over Mistveil," Gozen went on.

"It adds offense onto what's otherwise a pacifist class. But those people don't understand the simple joy of conjuring a cloud backscratcher on demand." He summoned one out of thin air and began scratching his own back with it.

"Then couldn't you just make your own offense?" Gray asked.

"My shadow clone was spitting out projectiles and swords made of smoke. Why can't you?" Gozen flicked two fingers forward. The room's humidity spiked instantly, and beads of moisture streamed down Gray's face, cold against his skin. The air shimmered. Within seconds, a two-handed sword made of condensed vapor solidified in the middle of the room. Then another. Then another.

Gray's eyes swept the space, counting as more weapons coalesced out of the mist—ten, twenty, fifty—until over a hundred cloud swords hung suspended in the air, their edges all leveled at his head. They surged at him at once. Gray squeezed his eyes shut and threw his arms up to shield his face. A shriek tore out of him, high and undignified, and he braced for impact. Instead, a violent gust of wind slammed into him, ruffling his hair.

Gozen dissolved the swords without a trace, leaving nothing behind but Gray's damp pants and a satisfied grin. He sat back with his arms crossed, watching Gray recover.

"I can conjure weapons like that easily," Gozen said, his voice level, as if he hadn't just come within an inch of skewering someone.

"But they're mere facades of power. You'd be better off using a real weapon. At the pinnacle of the Kaiser Rank, a cloud sword I form might leave a shallow scratch on a bottom-tier Prestige, at best. That's why I mostly use them for utility." Gray exhaled, still recovering from nearly being turned into swiss cheese.

"I like the original Mistveil class better than Shroud's, if I'm being honest. Beyond the obvious perk of not having my soul hijacked by a god, I think it suits me more. I've always liked staying in the background. The Storm half of my powers feels… loud, and attention-seeking." Gozen rubbed his chin, nodding slowly.

"Regardless of your class, that nasty personality of yours will draw attention wherever you go. And not the good kind."

"But don't worry about your powers being 'loud'. Shroud is a fusion of Mist and Storm. It's not some meathead class where you charge into battle calling down lightning bolts in your wake."

"If you ever get into the Quantis Corp archives, watch The Battle of StormRage. It'll show you exactly how Storm used his skillset." He paused, gaze drifting to the window, lost in the memory of it.

"There's one word I think of whenever I recall that fight between the brothers." He let the silence sit for a beat.

"Glorious." A spark lit Gray's eyes.

"What about his son? How did Shroud fight in his battles, hmm?" His voice climbed.

"Wouldn't watching him instead help me understand my own class better?" Gozen gave a slow shake of his head.

"It would. Unfortunately, every video record of Shroud has been redacted."

"Wh-why?" Gray's voice dropped to barely a whisper.

"Rumor has it the Guild Master of Quantis Corp buried the files himself. I don't know why."

"Is it because the System tried to erase his legacy?" Gray said.

"No, that doesn't add up. If it didn't want me here, why not just delete the problem outright? Why not strip me of my class the second Hollow showed up in my ability loadout?"

"That's the question that's haunted me for years. I… I do not have a definitive answer for you," Gozen said.

"My original theory was that the bearer of Shroud stayed under the radar, avoiding the System's attention. But that was quickly debunked by the last bearer of Shroud's legacy. He didn't hide in the shadows—quite the opposite, actually. He climbed to the very top and became the strongest Kaiser in recorded history. It was impossible for the System not to notice him." Gozen's expression shifted, dread settling over his features.

"It would've been for the best if the System had simply stripped him of his power. For his own safety, and everyone else's. But the Great System looked the other way instead."

"Who is he?" Gray asked. Gozen lowered his gaze to the table, and when he finally spoke, his voice had dropped to barely more than a murmur.

"My mentor."