Who is More Pitiful?

After reuniting with his stick, Charley wore a broad smile on his face.

"I knew I would be able to save you."

[You can't possible be talking to your stick now right? You have got to be the most pitiful thing in this world.]

"Sorry to rush thy reunion, mortal, but come with me. I shall explain the meanings behind this mural."

[You even have the ghost taking you seriously.]

Choosing to ignore the voice for now, Charley followed the instructions and went over to stand in front of the mural. Upon inspection, he noticed that the first part depicted a strong and flourishing empire. There were multiple temples like the one he was currently on with thousands of people gathered around.

"As I am sure thou has guessed, this first part depicts our great Atzotl empire as it was multiple eras ago. Back then we stood at the forefront of the world in every field imaginable. But above all, we were known for our superb understanding of magic and its applications."

"Are you talking about that trick you used just now to get my stick back? I though that was just a ghost technique."

"Don't tell me you are even unaware of magic?"

"Well, to put it simply, until you used that technique I thought it was all just made up in an attempt to trick me."

"..."

"A strange mortal indeed. Perhaps the times have changed with the passing of eras, but back in my time, the use of magic was a common place occurrence."

[That is definitely still the case. You would have learned that had you actually went to Sora Village. You might have even been able to learn a thing or too.]

"Shut up voice. Well anyway, you can continue Mr. Ghost."

"I don't get why thou keeps mentioning a voice, but very well. For a long time our empire flourished and we eventually settled into a grand goal of one day understanding the workings of this world. To this end, the position called High Priest was created."

At the mention of High Priest, Charley examined the mural and noticed a lone figure standing at the very top of every single one of the temples. Those figures were depicted as having a ghostly green staff, much the same as the one he saw just moments before.

"So you were one of these priests then?"

"Yes. Unfortunately I also contributed to that whole ordeal."

Looking at the next part of the mural, Charley saw a single high priest standing over thousands of people with his ghostly staff in hand.

"Our kind focused on an area of magic called divination. This magic allowed us to see into the inner workings of the world, often at the expense of our own livelihood. Take for example, the idea of gravity. One might spend their entire lives studying its properties and not understand a thing, but one use of divination magic and one would gain a profound understanding right away. This, then would allow that person to create new magic with that new understanding -- except at the expense of losing many years off of their own lifetime."

"Hmm, that does sound like an unfortunate position. But does that explain why the next part of the mural is a creepy man stabbing a person?"

"Yes, unfortunately. It is unknown who made the first discovery, but once the knowledge that a high priest could sacrifice others to forgo the penalty of losing their own life with divination magic, our civilization changed forever."

"Ya, I think I see where this is going now. The next part of the mural shows a crazed old man running around and looking for sacrifices right?"

"Thou catches on quickly, mortal. Yes. It all began with the high priests demanding sacrifices. At first there were people who were willing or just random slaves that we could use, but as time went on our thirst for knowledge required more and more uses of divination magic. At this point, every high priest was infinitely stronger than anybody else because of their profound understanding of magic."

The ghost paused for a moment as if in remembrance of a time long ago.

"So we took the only reasonable route and forcibly sacrificed everybody that we could find. Then, when our cities lay in ruin and we couldn't find anybody else no matter how long we looked, we turned on each other and began sacrificing our fellow priests."

"So you guys just committed genocide and destroyed your entire civilization?"

"In a word, yes. As I'm sure you can see by the last part of the mural, the battles between the high priests brought a calamity to the land. Our knowledge and power far exceeded what should be allowed in this world, so our battles brought endless destruction. However, in the end one high priest stood above all of the others."

[Interesting, if I'm not mistaken these battles that took place between the high priests should be the Great Reckoning that current history remembers.]

"His name was Gorgamesh. I do not know what power he unlocked through his divination, but he got access to a power that made him nigh invincible. At the end, when only a dozen high priests remained, we knew that there was almost no hope in us stopping him. So at that moment, when faced with the knowledge that we ourselves would just end up as a sacrifice in the end, we knew that this path was a mistake."

"You didn't think it was a mistake when you guys killed off your entire civilization?"

"No, that was quite alright I think, but we would never allow ourselves to become a sacrifice. I mean who would want that?"

"You are very strange Mr. Ghost."

"So anyway, the last dozen surviving high priests banded together and used divination magic as a group. Our goal was to find a way to stop Gorgamesh from sacrificing us. Although interestingly enough, we discovered that when we used divination magic as a group, each of us could just sacrifice some magic power that would regenerate anyway and none of us would have to shoulder the cost of a reduced lifespan."

"So you guys didn't need to sacrifice your entire civilization?"

"Yes, that's right, but enough of that. With our newfound knowledge we discovered a way to seal Gorgamesh and prevent him from hurting us any longer, however, we soon became drunk on the power of being able to use divination magic whenever we wanted as long as we had magic power remaining. So we used our magic for multiple days and nights, all the way up until our magic power was depleted and we died to overexertion."

"..."

[This guy is even crazier than you.]

"Ah it was very unfortunate. It even happened right before it was my turn to choose the topic of divination. I mean what was the point? Everybody got one more use of divination than I did."

"Oh wow. Now that I look at the time, I think I need to go soon."

"What thou are pressed for time? Very well let me finish my story."

"Ahem, so even though everyone of us had died, we previously discovered a sort of immortality magic where we would come back as ghosts after death. This was one of our strategies against Gorgamesh. Even if he did end up sacrificing us, we would just come back as ghosts and haunt him forever. But anyway, realizing that we were all dead and could never again use divination magic, we decided to at least seal away Gorgamesh. No reason he should have all of the fun."

"Ya, no. It's getting really late, so maybe we can do a little walk and talk while I head towards the exit?"

"Hmm? Oh yes sure."

Charley began walking down the temple while the ghost followed beside him.

"So that leads us to the end of the story. After sealing away Gorgamesh, each of us returned to our own temples with a part of the key that was used to seal him. We then tried our best to hide away our temples so that future generations would never find them or, even worse, attempt to unseal Gorgamesh. I shudder at the thought of that man being the only one that gets to use divination magic. I mean why should he get all of the fun?"

Soon Charley and the ghost reached a hole in the ceiling that would lead back to Dread Village.

"Well this is where we must part ways I'm afraid. Your story was very interesting Mr. Ghost."

"Ah it is that time already then? Very well, I will leave you with a warning. If Gorgamesh breaks through his seal, this world will face a great calamity. I beg of you, please get strong enough to prevent him from using divination magic. If he ends up destroying the world, so be it. But I will not stand to see him uncovering another secret without sharing."

"Of course, I will do my best Mr. Ghost. Thanks for finding my staff for me and I wish you a great eternal rest."

"Well, now that I think about it, I could just choose to haunt thou and follow thee on thy journey. It might be quite interesting like that."

"Oh no, no! That will be quite alright. I wouldn't want to disturb your deserved eternal slumber."

"But it really might be more interesting. I usually just stare at the ceiling of that coffin everyday anyway."

"Nope! You must cherish the little moments in life. You have earned the right to stay at your temple forever and I would feel terrible taking that away from you. Well anyway I've got to go."

With that Charley climbed up the rocks as fast as he possibly could. He never looked back or dared stop for a second, even as he heard a faint voice far below him.

"Hmm, maybe I should just haunt him anyway."

Charley had never moved faster before that day.