Chapter 217: Almost The Same

Even without her beastian body. Kon Sas Koron stood nearly seven feet, which made Ned look up as they talk.

"That must be the reason why Moloatiss get a liking to you."

"I doubt that."

"Why?"

"Gogmurch—the evolved goblin—Khiccaal, and your Moloatiss killed my former teammate," Ned said without a hint of fear. "Only I and a hunter survived—wasn't even sure if he will live. Why? Surely, they won't do it without your orders."

"I let them do what they want for the better of people."

The queen spun and let her back be facing Ned. She wore leather down her waist, and down her legs, but no boots to cover her feet.

"So you killed hunters to fulfill what? Have you even killed innocent humans?"

"Have you killed a magical beast, Ned? Ned was it, right? Better 'human' I call you, makes no difference. So, have you, human?"

"Ned is my name," he said, "and yes, I've killed to survive."

"Then, there's your answer. What makes you so different from us? You even made an association of hunters only to show us—dead beast—as a trophy and earn gold and fame. Your kind is worse than us. We beast never betrayed our kind. We never hunt others to show who's the strongest. We beast, we're trapped in this world."

Ned's silver brow furrowed hearing the last words of the queen. She was right, humans were worse than beasts.

And Ned has proven it by killing her kind. In return, they (the beasts) will kill Ned's kind (humans) and the process goes in a circle. Until one of either, both races vanished to nothing. It's a never-ending process of killings. But the last part got him.

"Trapped? What do you mean?"

"Have you ever wondered why there were beasts on this world? How about the Gates that appeared every 300 hundred years? Have you ever wondered the previous civilization ceased to exist?"

"No," Ned responded. "What I wondered about is why are you telling me this?"

"Hmmm," she said, rubbing her chin. The ear on her left side was a mark that she was an elf as it was pointed elegantly. The other side, was a mark, that she was tormented by cutting it. Some part of her dark hair was hanging loose over her forehead. "Interesting. Really interesting. Originally we will use you to spy the hunters for us. You seemed too innocent with your face.

"But as Moloatiss discovered that you weren't affected by his parasite, he was turned intrigued. The brain of him can't process the failure you have given him. So, instead, he wanted to use you and test you why his parasite wasn't working—I don't really care, I let him do what he wanted—but faith brought me to you." She grinned. "You understand the language of the beast. Your mana sensing is too sensitive for a human cub. Tell me, human cub." She paused. "Do you know how many Lords are there in this continent alone?"

Ned shook his head, he doesn't care how many were there. What he cared about was the Mark. How to extract it from his body, and fulfill the deal with the Knight, Ser Edwin Tulor Godefroy.

"Of course," she said, "you don't know."

The room they were in was too small and enough to fit at least ten people. Aside from the curved stone behind Sas Koron, and the furnaces to Ned's right. It was empty. The light was the abundance of mana stone. Ned's eyes looked over the queen's shoulders, to the curving of stone. It was rather dark, too dark that Ned was having a hard time making out the writings around the surface of the carved stone.

"According to history, I've learned in this world." She added. "Every 300 hundred years or so, Gates will appear. It doesn't matter which part of the world you're in—they will appear. And this time, not even Lords, or your measly Kings and Queens, can tell if the one that will appear from the Gates were friends or foes."

Ned was silent, his hands hanging on his sides, from the looks of it, he was uncaring and wasn't sure how to process this information.

"And again," he said, breaking his silence. "Why are you telling me this?"

"We beast fought with each other, yes," she said, doesn't bother to answer Ned. The light from above made her eyes glow in blue and black, and at the right angle, it was rather calming. "But at the end of the day, we settle things. Why? Because we bonded together to fight not only you humans." She paused, she could be a good professor in some magical academy with her patience talking to Ned. "But to fight whatever is coming out the Gates. History told me, that whatever is coming from the Gates will push this world's civilization back to the end of the magic era. All the hard work, of both you and my kind, will crumble. Now tell me, human cub, was killing your team, and my kind could stop the incoming war?"

Some sort of switch inside Ned was pushed on as if only waiting for this kind of moment. But Ned doesn't want to be naïve, but he wasn't answered yet. So he said, "Again, why are you telling me this?"

Kon Sas Koron turned to Ned and spun around to walk toward the stone curving. She lifted her hands, muttered words of Incantations, then the writings itched around the stone curving shone brightly white.

Ned's eyes widened as the writings kept on shining from the bottom going until the halfway end. The stone carving was some kind of door with a half arc from the top. As the light shone, it was getting clear that the stone door was massive that could fit half of the Queen's body. The light then stopped, didn't even reach the writings in the middle.

The queen paused for a moment and stared at Ned with a wide grin and said, "As you can see." She hand produced a gesture as if presenting something important. "My people only understood not even half of the writings. The last symbol to be decoded was fifty years ago. But it seems that we don't need fifty more years."

Ned nodded, for the first time, he agreed with the queen. "What do you want me to do?" He said.

"Decode it," she said, "and we will assist you with whatever you wanted."

Without hesitation. Ned nodded, again, another agreement. He walked past the queen, uncaring of Kon Sas Koron's status. Her hair grazed a part of Ned's face.

ICE, he said over his thoughts. Are you seeing this? Of course, she does, but Ned must assure himself.

[I've been listening, and seeing.]

So how was it?

[Definitely ancient.]

Ned pointed to a symbol: inverse triangle, with circles surroundings it, some dots then layered each of the edges of the inverse triangle.

"This," he said, "is almost the same as the symbol of the Mark of the Knight."