Lord of Secrets

The vertical eye on the floor was staring straight ahead, with no life to the pupils. It looked blank, yet so terrifying. For a moment, Lua was horrified at the prospect of accidentally summoning an ancient deity.

I really shouldn't have dabbled with things that would get me in such trouble!

Suddenly, the eye gained life. Its pupil began darting around, eventually stopping in the centre. The eye began to take form, turning into a physical eyeball. The white Sclera that a normal human would have had shifted grey, and the pupil had an eerie magenta colour.

Suddenly, a loud voice boomed in the room:

"A child of the Machine.."

Lua looked around, trying to find the source of the sound, but he could find nothing. Panicking, he turned his attention back to the vertical eye. He heard a deep chuckle reverberating in the room.

"It has been quite some time since I have been summoned.. yet I did not expect it would be one of Machines'."

Lua, in his fear, tried to open the door to escape, only to find the door to be blocked off by some unknown force. He punched the invisible barrier, only to cause ripples and nothing more.

"It seems you were not expecting for me to appear through the summoning, were you?"

The booming voice chuckled again.

"Fret not, for I mean no harm."

Hearing the consultation of the vertical eye, Lua calmed down by a margin and stopped his rash attempts at escaping the room. He mustered up the courage to ask a question or two.

"G-great entity, may I ask who you might be?" Lua spoke, his voice bleak and terrified of whatever curse that might befall him if he spoke without proper respect.

The eye, looking directly over at Lua, spoke without reservations.

"I am called by many names, but I have one that I prefer in particular."

Suddenly, the room dimmed and turned abnormally cold.

"You may call me the Lord of Secrets."

The Lord of Secrets? That sounds like the name of some great entity that could be a God..

The Lord of Secrets spoke again, with a hint of sorrow.

"Judging by the absence of an overtly panicked reaction, I can safely assume I have been mostly forgotten.. I guess it has been a few centuries, after all.."

Lua spoke again, feeling slightly ever more confident that his question hadn't led to him being slaughtered on the spot.

"Great Lord of Secrets, are you perhaps a deity, then?"

The Lord of Secrets looked straight at the ceiling and sighed.

"I guess you could say that. Yet, I have been mortally wounded by the cursed Machine. I am a mere shell of my former self, clinging onto my last few believers for my survival."

Lua hadn't expected that the Lord of Secrets would be in such a pitiful state. He had such an overwhelming presence, yet he wasn't able to return to his throne as a deity just yet.

"Great Lord of Secrets, you call me a child of the Machine, yet I do not know what that means.. Could you perhaps expand on it?"

The eye belonging to the Lord of Secrets opened in surprise, but it regained its calmness in a few short moments.

"Is such trivial information kept from you? My condolences.

Allow me to explain what I mean by that.

All powers in this domain come from a few sources. The power you have directly correlates to whomever you are descended from.. In this case, you are descended from the God of Machines."

I see.. so it basically means everything has a source.. I wonder who Mother is descended from..

"Great Lord of Secrets, can you explain who the God of Machines might be?"

Suddenly, he heard a deep chuckle originating from the eye.

"Unfortunately not. If I did that, I might just bring His attention over here. If He is still alive, he would no doubt send His forces to deal with me and finish me off fully. At that point, I would be beyond recovery."

Lua nodded, understanding the grave situation between the Gods. He couldn't risk angering the Lord of Secrets. But something puzzled Lua.

"Great Lord of Secrets, would I have not heard of the God of Machines if he was still alive?"

The eye of the Lord of Secrets darted around, as if he was trying to shake his head with only his pupil.

"Not exactly. Indeed, it is pretty interesting that he is unwilling to spread his religion.. Perhaps he truly has perished.

Another possibility is that he is hiding underground for an unknown reason. Gods are crafty, and oftentimes when they are in trouble, they head somewhere safe with only their most loyal believers to keep them alive during their time of turmoil.``

The Lord of Secrets chuckled.

"That is precisely what I am doing right now."

I see.. Is it that easy for Gods to simply hide for centuries? But wouldn't some historical records still exist from older times when the Gods preached by free will? Perhaps it's being actively censored..

The Lord of Secrets cleared his throat and changed the subject.

"It seems you have a part of your soul missing. This is a common trait for children of the Machine, but your level is far too low to be able to do such a task alone."

Lua explained his situation.

"My father is also a child of the Machine. He is more skilled than I am, so he was able to extract my soul for me."

The Lord of Secrets' eye did a nodding motion.

"I see.. that must mean your father is at least a Classification 9."

Upon hearing this, Lua was perplexed.

"Classification 9?"

The Lord of Secrets' eye nodded again.

"That is right. I am more surprised you do not know about this already. This world is divided into thirteen - er, actually, I think it is fourteen with the latest generation - fourteen classifications. Every few generations, a new classification has to be added due to the constantly diminishing abilities that reside in peoples' bodies."

"Diminish?" Lua was interested in learning why people continued to get weaker over time.

"Yes. Every time a new child is born, the essence that belonged to the first deity gets weaker. There is not much most people can do about this, except prevent it from getting weaker by breeding with people that are stronger than them in their respective descendancies." The wise vertical eye explained.

That means I cannot be too far off from Father, right?

"You are roughly at Classification 13s lower range." the Lord of Secrets suddenly dropped a bombshell on Lua.

So weak! What the heck, Father?

Seeing his reaction, the Lord of Secrets chuckled.

"It seems your father was much weaker during your birth and only got stronger afterwards."

Lua suddenly saw a glimpse of hope, "Stronger? Can you get stronger?"

The Lord of Secrets' eye looked shocked once more, as if wondering how this human child didn't know basic knowledge.

"As expected, they keep this a secret from you too..

Yes, you can get stronger, but it is not easy. There are a few secrets you must unlock, and it is different for every descendancy. For the Machine descendants, I am not too certain.. However, that gem you found might be able to provide some help to you.

Getting strong is not a simple thing for your body. Oftentimes, your body at birth will not be able to support increasing your powers. To be able to withstand it, you have to evolve.