They all watched in terror at that gigantic face, that seemed unreal, never, not even in their strangest dreams, they would think that they could be facing one of the gods, everyone kneeled almost immediately.
Fardos said:
– "Don't be afraid my children, I know why you are here and I'm glad you came to meet me! Get up, there's no need for this."
Lesly, still afraid, replied:
– "Fardos, with all due respect, we need to be guided in the fight against Variphor's followers, we came here looking for answers..."
Fardos, while showing a smile, said:
– "I know Lesly, I know each of you, I know exactly the conversation you had recently and the outcome of the fight against Scourge of Oblivion…"
– "The fight against Variphor is complicated and difficult, even for a god, I guided Henricus to bring you here, even though I have powers that you can't even understand there are things that unfortunately not even I can do..." While Fardos finished his sentence, his face gradually disappeared.
The entire team was startled to hear the end of Fardos' sentence, after all, what could be so difficult for even a god and what could they help with? This didn't seem to make any sense in their minds, but Fardos already had it all figured out.
As silence had taken over, everyone started to observe the gigantic library, but Fardos' voice again echoed, causing everyone to turn their attention to him, this time it wasn't a face, but he was in human form:
– "I thought it best to be on an equal footing with all of you, you are the first to know one of my aspects, the human…"
– "I feel your concern, from each of you… But I also see your courage, and your willpower…"
– "There is a lot to be said, a lot to be explained, I know you have many questions to ask, but our time allows me to answer only what is related to our new mission: to stop Variphor…"
– "I know what you think: a god would solve this in a moment… Well, no… The fact that I'm a god also makes it difficult not to be noticed in my movements, Variphor will surely notice another god entering his dimension. In addition, the movement of gods between dimensions requires ascension rituals that prevent me from doing this myself."
– "I have no intention of invading Variphor's dimension, a combat on his ground would mean my destruction, and probably that of all creation later on..."
Hera was about to open her mouth to ask a question, when Fardos looked at her and said:
– "Hera, that's a good question…", Hera scared back, Fardos continued: "The answer is no, unfortunately I can't track where Variphor's followers are, neither Uman or even Zathroth."
Fardos approached the entire team and continued:
– "Variphor protected them with some kind of shield that prevents their tracking... That's why you are here, and why I need all of you. We need to get the information of where they are, but it will certainly be useless to search on our dimension... "
Worry took over the noble warriors, who could no longer hide this feeling on their faces… Fardos, aware of this, continued:
– "You have already understood part of the plan, I see in your thoughts a huge concern, it is justifiable, but I will explain the whole plan to you soon… First I need to tell you a long story, but essential for you to understand its purpose."
Fardos summoned chairs and the whole team sat down comfortably, he continued his long and important explanation:
– "In a distant, very distant past, there was an important alliance between three empires in Tibia, and I guarantee that you didn't know any of them in all their splendor... One of them were the bonelords... Intelligent, who stood out for their differentiated communication and impressive calculation capacity, they are currently in smaller numbers, some spread across all continents and a large part secluded in a place that no human knows..."
– "Another of the empires was the Dream Wardens, they possessed the ability to travel in the dreams of other creatures, and even obtain information and material that they continually used for the prosperity of their empire, they did this for a long period... In their heyday, they allied themselves with Zathroth, and that was the reason that ended up in the destruction of practically all their people… Currently there are a few Dream Wardens, and they are hidden…"
– "The last empire, the most powerful, the most ambitious, surprising even for a god, were those called Shapers... They were excellent builders, magicians and inventors. All their knowledge was shared by great towers, a network that united their minds. Their greed destroyed them, and in a very dramatic way… Currently, there are no shapers left, but deformations that still occupy parts of one of the main cities they once owned."
– "The shapers, by the way, are the protagonists of another story that you need to know to understand why this alliance fell apart..."
– "In their heyday, the Shapers had a plan: Destroy Zathroth... Zathroth and Uman are one and even with many attempts it was impossible to separate them. Therefore, destroying Zathroth would mean destroying Uman too..." Everyone was shocked by this statement of Fardos, he continued:
– "Obviously they failed, and they failed miserably… Their plan was to build a powerful time machine, it was functional and gave this race the ability to travel through the time and change the past. They prepared a huge hall, placed their best soldiers in the machine and its best researchers on hand, the latter were waiting for the soldiers to bring back a huge artifact from the past: the Godbreaker..."
– "The soldiers returned to the exact moment when Brog was handing Zathroth the mighty Godbreaker, they quickly touched the artifact, while both looked on, and in a fraction of time they confiscated the powerful weapon to the present, the moment they arrived at the hall the researchers put all the focus to study and prepare the strange object."
– "They knew that Zathroth would identify them, and that he would appear in the great hall in the form of one of his aspects, it wouldn't take more than a minute... The plan was to prepare the weapon, aim at the center and wait for Zathroth. But there was a big mistake: they didn't know how to operate the Godbreaker and having just one minute made the situation worse. It was impossible to understand such a complex object in such a short time..."
– "Zathroth found them and decimated everyone who was in that city, he even ordered his creatures to invade and destroy the shapers' cities on all continents. One by one the towers of their mind net fell, they were surrounded, killed, and their technology forgotten in time... I see that some of the weapons you currently have use shaper technology rescued a few years ago, not everything they built was lost."
– "After the collapse of the shapers, the bonelords and dream wardens cut off their communications, the ancient alliance of prosperity and information exchange fell apart. Many years after this, the dream wardens fell, and the reason? Well, the construction of a prison for demons and the violent outcome in the attempt to imprison the demon princes caused the population of Roshamuul to cause the collapse of the Dream Catcher Device, the explosion of this device finally caused the place to be totally tampered... inhabitants became mutated nightmares and buildings collapsed. A small part of the dream wardens already warned of this possible end to their empire since demons started the construction of that cursed prison."
– "This small group of dream wardens came to be known as the order of the end. They built an immense fortress northeast of Roshamuul, and with powerful magic they were able to hide it and protect it from a possible explosion from the Dream Catcher Device. This is what saved them… I see on the fingers of some of you their symbol: the ring of ending."
– "Then there remained the Bonelords. These became even more isolated from all other races and their capital became practically impenetrable, only those who know their language can enter their capital city. They, together with shapers and dream wardens have built some artifacts that will be important to all of you, especially in the plan you must follow to locate Variphor's followers."
Olga, who until then was just silent and listening to everything and everyone, finally said:
– "Fardos, isn't the bonelord language known as 469 just a rumor? Would we be able to talk with a bonelord in this language?"
Fardos expressed a laugh and said calmly:
– "Not only is it possible, but you will, you will speak 469 whenever necessary", Fardos pointed to a segment of the library, countless torches were lit revealing a huge corridor extremely well lit.
– "Well, now I will give you your first mission… Go to this place of Roshamuul" Fardos marked on the team map a strange room in the cisterns to the north of that island, everyone watched with great attention and curiosity, he continued:
– "You will need a key to enter the Dream Wardens' stronghold, use the ring" Fardos pointed to Valiant's hands and continued: "This ring is the key to enter the place, I need you to enter the dreams of Azerus, either wherever he is"
– "Use the teleports in this library whenever you need them, they will take you to each of the 19 locations you know."
Iris the sorceress broke her silence and said:
– "Fardos, isn't there a twentieth place?"
– "Of course there is, not just a twentieth, but fifty-eight more locations besides these nineteen that you know about."
All startled shouted:
– "Whoa!! More fifty-eight? How did we get there?"
– "Hahaha! My children, calm down, first follow your mission, in the future you will know these still isolated places."
The team then proceeded to the teleport with Roshamuul's identification, one by one they entered, the library environment changed to that island's temple, they prepared their weapons and headed for the stairs carefully, a great adventure was about to begin.
To be continued...
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