Village I

It finally begins, answering question that may lead to boy's demise.

"So, boy, tell me what happened. It's essential for me to know the truth if I want to judge what to do with you next."

Boy told his story about prophecy made five years ago, at the time of his birth. He described how black dragon that nearly killed him looked like and also told as much as he could about mysterious person that saved him.

"I've lived for so many years, yet I've never heard nor seen somebody as strong as this person that you told me about. For somebody capable of doing such deed possible and not being known worldwide? There are so many mysteries concerning this case…

Without further information it's hard for me to tell what will come out of it later.

Tell me again, how he introduced himself."

"He only told me that he is 'one of four'."

"Hmm…

Strange indeed.

Only creatures that I know of that introduce themselves like that are Divine Beasts. But it couldn't possibly be one of them… I'm sure of it."

"Then, can I also ask you something?"

"Speak."

One simple word from village chief made boy feel fear comparable to death. He know that old man wasn't going easy on him and was testing him all the time because he was suspicious of boy.

"What are those plants growing near the river and why they make you feel so horrible."

"Huh? Those are magical grass, one of the variants that contains enormous amounts of magic power due to which even Spirits can't eat it. Backlash is too big for so low gains. But wait… how did you know what will happen after eating it?"

"You see, when I firstly got here I ate it because I couldn't find anything else to eat. I also drank water from this same river."

"I'm getting confused more and more. Humans should die seconds after eating this plants or drinking water from this world. It's not something that you can just devour as if it was natural for you to be able to.

What kind of forbidden spell have you used to maintain your young look?"

"What? I've never used even one spell, I'm incapable of using magic yet. I look like that because I'm 5."

"Hahaha. For someone your age, you have guts. Probably it's another trait of yours that makes you unique. Do you have any more questions to ask?"

"Yes. You told 'this world' before. Is this world different from the one I came from?"

Old man stopped responding for a moment. He got lost in his thoughts, trying to find answer to boy's question. It wasn't that hard of a question, just way to answer it isn't clear and easy to understand.

"Hmm… 'Your world', or more like 'our', is place where all residents of this village came from. We were sent there after losing a war. Those two are different dimension that only [God] should be able to cross or send somebody across. That's why it's so difficult for me to understand how somebody opposing him has capability to do the exact thing as him. The world that we came from is called 'Elearia' and this dimension is known there as 'World of Spirits', or as most of people call it 'Cursed Land'. Due to interference of [God] in humans' societies, they now believe that we were sent here as punishments, but it's not that simple in reality. His name is Solios, very cunning bastard. That's all that you can know for now, I can't tell you about everything yet.

If that's all then go outside for some time, I have to discuss further actions with Wrath sitting behind you."

"If so, then I would like to know your name. It's hard to always refer to you as 'village chief'."

"You can call me 'Mei' or 'Shi'."

"I see. I will call you Shi then. I won't feed your ego by calling you Mei."

"You little... Ahaha, so you know old languages. Well, it doesn't matter, go for now, I have important discussion to have with this fellow over there."

Boy left Shi's home and sat on the bench that was located few meters away from the entrance.

"Is it really fine to talk now? I can feel his presence not so far away. I'm afraid he might hear us."

"Do you take me as a fool? As old as I am, I'm still perfectly fine. I set up soundproof barrier with magic, it's fine to talk here, 'Wrath'."

"Stop it, you're not the one to talk here, you also hid your true name from him."

"That might be true, but at least I told him my true aliases given to be during the war. Unlike somebody over there."

"Alright, alright, you won. Let's stop it at that. What's more important is what you told before. How are you so sure that any of [Divine Beasts] is this mysterious person?"

"Ah, that. It's quite simple. It's because Divine Beasts are beings that were created at the same time and are loyal to gods. There's no way that one of them is plotting against its creators. Another matter is that there are six Divine Beasts, not four. That person stated that it is one of four, right? That's my reasons for my beliefs."

"I… I still don't understand what Divine Beasts being loyal to gods have something to do here."

"Oh, you might not know this. That purple-black scaled dragon is one of Divine Beasts, it's called [Beast of Demise, Hydra]."

"I see. Then only concern is why creature of such standing was hunting down single human."

"You really aren't aware of this child's power?"

"Power? What kind of power?"

"Being a mere human he could get here, he ate Spirit Grass and drank water from Endless River. He got cursed from birth to be death and what is the most important, he feels familiar to me."

"What does this familiarity means?"

"He has something from Erekate in him. Some part of his power."

"How could it be? He died thousand years ago. How is it possible for part of his power to still be in that world?"

"You really don't know what happened there? I thought you were watching it from afar."

"No, I really don't know, I hardly can recall anything from then now."

"Well, I can't blame you, you were going berserk then and didn't pay attention to anything if it wasn't related to your revenge.

Only thing you need to know is that Erekate left part of his power as a legacy, he told me that one day there will be someone capable of destroying the world and that I should help this future monster grow in power. I guess it's finally the time that we waited for so long, time to get back what is ours and to pay them back for everything that we went through because of them."

"Well, you might be true there. It might be finally our time to shine.

By the way, how comes you have so many aliases? I don't think you really got all of them at time of war."

"About that. I once heard gods talking to each other. I know that we, the oldest beings were named as famous humans or deities from other worlds. Our creators came to this world, formed it and started a war involving all of us after giving us names of well-known creatures from their world."

"So some of us have names of deities that our creators believed in?"

"Basically, yes. From what I learned in this world, some of the famous names in their world are just like names of Spirit Kings here. So it's very possible that their world is also connected to this one and coexist with each other just like Spirit's World coexist with Elearia.

Balance is needed for survival of both dimensions. If it's not maintained, it might lead to destruction of either of them. It's just better to keep it as it is before it gets more serious."

"I see. I learned a lot today. Who knew you have such knowledge."

"Unlike somebody here that would just be lazy all day, I was learning of this world and trying to get out of here. Unfortunately, everything that I tried failed and thus lead me to believe that only gods can travel between dimensions as they please."

"So, what are we going to do with the young one? You told before that you will help him grow. Do you have something in mind?"

"Yes, I actually have something in mind. I will teach him magic, you will give him your fault and that battle junkie will train him in swordsmanship."

"So Spartan training, huh? I hope he can keep up with it. I will teach him curse magic if he has capability."

"He has. I checked his power with my appraisal. It seems that he has received some strange ability, probably from the mysterious person, that even I can't understand. Other than that was curse of death, which was the reason for him being hunted down, as well as Yin & Yang magic aptitude. It makes me feel that he can learn all types of magic. If well trained he might become a god himself."

"Hahaha, let's hope that's the case. I would love to see that little guy climbing all the way to the top. It could be interesting to watch."

"Now, I think there's only one thing left for us to do, don't you think so too?"

"We should give him a name, correct? He can't go take over the world without a proper name. The only thing is how we should name him."

"I once heard from the gods that future is bead by golden threads of time and that time is related to some Chrone person. That's why I think that we should call him 'Chron' from now on."

"Not so simple but also not too hard, huh? You might be right here, let's name him that way."

And thus young boy that was nearly killed few times already got named and will start his training soon.