Chapter 84
"A Legion, you say?" I asked sceptical.
"Certainly. You have the same kind of presence," the Gardener explained.
Their words made no sense.
"I'm far from being strong enough to be considered as such," I stated matter-of-factly.
Although I was definitely more powerful than the archs my age, a Legion was someone who could split open mountains.
"That is irrelevant," the Gardener insisted.
I raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"Irrelevant? Strength is the whole point of being a Legion. A strength second to no one else in the entire globe," I responded mockingly.
"Do you truly think it was simply strength that characterised Legions?" they smiled at me condescendingly.
My eyes, which had started relaxing, became again two sharp slits, but I didn't utter any words. Although their tone was displeasing, it was clear they knew something I didn't.
"During my life I've seen many different kinds of strong beings trodding the Earth. Genais, archs and even beasts born from humanity's oldest myths, fighting for supremacy or for their own sick violent pleasure," the Gardener started their tale.
"Yes, that is well known. But Legions stood above all," I intervened.
"Yes, they did," they nodded.
"So, how is strength not the defining factor?" I insisted.
"Legions were the peak of the world, and yet they were destined to die. Why could those who kneeled in front of them live indefinitely instead?"
The question was a legitimate one. The peaks of the world could live only as long as a regular human, while others had not this limitation, as there had been archs who had lived for centuries or even longer. That wasn't easy to explain. Nevertheless, I knew the answer.
"Because that kind of strength was not something humans could possess"
"Almost correct. It was that kind of power which humans could not possess"
I remained silent and looked at him dubiously. I was finding it difficult to follow what they were trying to tell me. After all, the two words meant the same thing.
Nevertheless, the Gardener continued undaunted in their speech.
"They may call themselves archumans, but they are humans nonetheless. They are born, they grow, drink, eat and die. They are simply stronger. Some of them may be capable of things which would have been unthinkable before the old world fell, but now they are simply doing what the world allows them to"
I opened my mouth to replicate, but nothing came out. I didn't know how to respond.
"A Legion does not abide by the laws of the world. They contrast it. Do you know how The Black forged the Obsidian Pathways and Pillars? How did The Blue open the oceans with a movement of the hand? How did The Green make it possible for life to re-flourish in a barren world? How could The Candour define and vanquish evil?"
They spoke as if they had personally witnessed what they were describing. As if they had met every single Legion. But this would mean that the entity in front of me was almost as old as the world itself.
"They simply willed it and it happened. Archumans evolved to resist mana. Legions evolved to reshape the world. The Blue did not exert force over their surroundings, but over space itself. Where The Green walked, mana vanished. What The Black touched began to behave in strange ways, and it continues to this day. What The Candour abhorred, was destined to be felled"
I finally intervened.
"Fine, I understand. Legions were capable of impossible things. Anyway, those things are still possible, even if done differently. Tobias may not be able to remodel space to generate gravity, but he is able to create enormous amounts of auras which behave almost in the same way. The Green is not here, yet the Garden continues to perform quite satisfactorily. The abilities of The Candour were even inherited by others. The difference between what archs can do and what Legions can do is simply the fact that the latter can do them in greater scale"
"It is what enabled them to do so which differs. Archs employ their strength, Legions employed power," the Gardener rebuked me.
"It's the same thing," I insisted.
"Legions were born the moment something fundamental changed inside of them…"
I stopped him before he could start off with another tale.
"Let's just get to the point," I spoke with a certain degree of aggressivity.
I was starting to get annoyed. It seemed like he was dancing around the subject.
After a few minutes of silence, he finally reached the conclusion.
"I… do not know how to explain it exactly, even after all this time. Legions possessed a… sparkle of divinity. That was what marked their fate. Having stepped into a realm humans did not belong to"
I stopped for a moment. It was not what I had been expecting at all. Hearing a geogenai, an entity capable of performing magic, speaking of religious matters was quite peculiar, to say the least.
I had never spent time designing something like a religion or a belief system for this world, so that was strange to hear. It was even stranger if I considered that this was a place inhabited by virtually immortal beings, who were more concerned with establishing a hierarchy based on strength than anything else.
"And you see the same thing inside of me?" I finally inquired.
"Yes, I do. The clearest I have ever seen," the Gardener confirmed.
"... So, how long do I have?"
If I was already assuming the characteristics of a Legion, it meant I would have to meet their same destiny. I had probably entire years in front of me, but I wanted to know how many exactly.
"... I don't know," they finally uttered, after a long silence.
I looked at them unconvinced. After all, there was most likely no one who knew more about anything than the Gardener, just considering their age.
"You don't know?"
"I lived my entire existence side by side with The Green. I watched them grow, ascend, and then die, consumed by their own power. Generation after generation. Their decay started the exact instant they became a Legion. But you are different. Much, much different"
"Meaning?"
"You are not decaying. On the contrary, your presence consolidates by the minute. Your sparkle isn't weakening, it is continually growing"