Chapter 166

“Are you… part of Lucile, HOOT?”

“I am,” Duwend replied firmly.

Naell had his suspicions about the resemblance even back when they first met Duwend. Yet somehow, he didn’t feel threatened, so he thought it was just his imagination.

However, seeing that Owly had also reached the same conclusion, Naell realized it was likely correct. Still, he couldn’t think of Duwend or Entima as foes.

He knew Owly felt conflicted. Even though Duwend confessed, the young owl didn’t move but waited for further explanation.

“Or so I was.”

This was when Duwend began to tell the story of his time as a former member of the Pieces.

“We weren’t called Lucile, just Pieces of the Kings. We were tasked to help oversee territories.”

He also mentioned history that wasn’t even recorded, such as how the demon king of that time was called the Dark King.

“They were the kings that symbolized light, dark, land, wind, fire, and water,” he added.

He then stated that Leviathan’s name was different back then. “Levy was his name. He was no sea king, but he was the water king who loved the sea.”

Even the guardians, according to Duwend’s information, surprised the duo. “At that time they were merely messengers of the Celestials, while the kings were tasked with presiding over domains.”

As the revelation progressed, it became harder to swallow. Truth be told, if Naell had not heard some of these stories when he met Phoenix, he wouldn’t have entirely believed Duwend.

Likewise, Owly felt the same since Naell had shared his conversation with Phoenix.

The young owl couldn’t help but ask, “How do you know all this, HOOT?”

“Because I’ve lived long enough to witness all of it. You could say, I’m just a few years younger than Levy and the former King of Fire, currently the Guardian of Strength, Ignis.”

“...”

The duo were shocked. Even though dwarves live longer than the average human, it was not that long compared to the almost ageless elves and immortals like dragons and fairies, whose origins were unknown.

If Duwend was saying he had encountered the birth of the demon kings, then by all means, his age was beyond comprehension.

“This vitality was a gift granted by the Celestial of Life, Enrile, may he will it.”

“May he will it,” responded Entima.

“Is that why you said the pieces weren’t originally for Lucile, HOOT?” asked Owly.

“Yes. To begin with, we were made to support the kings. And at the time, there was no Celestial called Lucile.”

Duwend then mentioned that Levy and the Dark King turned crazy at the same time Lucile appeared.

“It was also the moment when the messengers couldn’t contact the Celestials. It happened so fast that we couldn’t react.”

So far, it seemed that Phoenix’s stories coincided with Duwend’s account. Even some puzzling events that lacked information were being answered there and then.

‘If Phoenix were here, all, if not most, of her confusion, would have an answer,’ thought Naell, who was just listening until now.

“The only information we had was that the kings were removed, and the supposed death of Lucky, the Celestial of Fortune.”

Duwend then, with a heavy sigh, leaned backwards from where he sat before continuing. It was apparent that what he was about to say saddened him truly.

“As you might have guessed, some of the kings revolted upon the disappearance of the Celestials and their removal of power.”

The ones who waged war to regain their territory were the Dark King, who then called himself the demon king of Lucile, also known as the Celestial of Destruction, and Leviathan, the former Water King Levy, who became the Sea King.

“Even with their domains removed, the King of Light, Wind, and Land wanted to stop the two, yet that resulted in their deaths.”

Duwend then told them it was because the three kings didn’t fight but tried their best to stop the ravages of their two friends who had fallen from grace.

“All that time, the original pieces remained neutral and sided with Ignis, yet upon hearing of the demise of the three kings, some of us began to participate in the fight.”

It was then that Duwend mentioned some names and races Naell was familiar with, such as how the elves fought to take revenge for the King of Land, and Phoenix and Pegasus, who were also there to avenge their fallen lieges, the King of Light and Wind, respectively.

“Together with the messengers, some of the pieces, and the awakened beasts who were also friends of the deceased kings… we fought hard, yet we lost.”

Duwend then told how half of the messengers sacrificed themselves just for the others to survive.

“Even then, we barely escaped and were hunted relentlessly by Leviathan. We felt hopeless and truly enraged as Ignis continued to feign neutrality in the war.”

Duwend also shared how angry he was towards the fairies who ignored all those things even though the King of Light was one of their kin.

“Yet we were not abandoned. The Celestials somehow bestowed blessings to the remaining messengers and other awakened beasts who were close to the deceased kings, calling them Guardians and Pupils.”

Duwend didn’t receive any blessings as he was a piece that served the kings, after all.

“But I didn’t mind. At that time, I just wanted the turmoil to end, and so we tried. After a long battle, we were able to seal Leviathan.”

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Hey guys, sorry for not being very active lately. I’ve been caught up with work and life in general.

I just wanted to share that I’ve finished writing TNBS (WIP mode), and it’s now available on Patreon. I can’t say I’m completely happy with the ending since I’m still rewriting it from scratch, but for now, with the time and ability I have, that’s the best version I can give.

I hope you’ll still enjoy it, as I’ll be posting all the chapters eventually!

For now, I also want to promote my new work, which is already out on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-1-140464855?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

I’m not sure yet if I’ll be posting it on other platforms, but we’ll see. For now, you can read it there as a free member.

Thanks a lot for the support!