The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 756: Roundtable Meeting

She was Tia, the slaughterer prime among the wrath monsters.

Next to Tia was a middle-aged man about 1.7 meters tall, his figure thin and frail. Sitting next to Tia, he looked like a dwarf.

He had short, hard brown hair and a narrow face that looked a little mousy. His hazel eyes darted around like he was wary of or observing something.

He was wearing a black tank top. Tattooed on his arms were countless faces, mostly with twisted, pained expressions as they were squashed together, like vengeful spirits getting tortured in the cauldron of hot oil in hell.

The faces weren’t actually tattoos, but the grievances of countless awakeners at the moment of their deaths, imprinted on his arms in the form of energy brands.

He was Tokoos, the devourer prime among wrath monsters.

All awakeners who died at his hands would have their Talents recorded permanently. However, the Talents would be mutated and weakened. By awakeners’ standards, what he acquired would be no stronger than level 3 Talents.

The small red flower that had grown out of Clear Mirror’s arm was Tokoos’ version of Plant.

Many years ago, he had devoured an awakener with Plant, a young man who whined and begged before his death. The experience was tremendously pleasurable to Tokoos.

It was perhaps due to the great pleasure he got from devouring awakeners that Tokoos felt empty and bored in everyday life—outside of the time he got to meet Tia. The damn beauty had bewitched him. It was a damn shame that he could never win her over.

The opera house was silent and empty. On the bright stage, the three sat around the table. Nico didn’t say anything.

Tokoos, on the other hand, initiated small talk. “You’ve gotten even more beautiful, Tia. Do you really not want the company of a male?”

Tia shot him a side glance and didn’t deem that a response.

“Consider me, would you?” Tokoos grinned. “I know I’m too short for you, but that won’t be a problem. Once I devour an awakener with Shapeshifter, I’ll be however tall you want me to be.”

“If you want me, beat me first,” Tia said derisively.

“I’ve long gotten stronger than you are, Tia,” Tokoos said with disingenuous tenderness. “It’s just that you’re too beautiful for me to go all out on you.”

Tia burst into loud laughter. She stared at Takoos with a prideful and pitying gaze. “I give it some thought, and you are quite cute. Would you be my dog instead?”

“Hm, that’s not out of the question.” Tokoos actually considered the suggestion. “If you hug your dog when you sleep...”

Clang.

The heavy door opened. A ray of golden light shone on the dim audience seats, and two backlit figures emerged. They were Clear Mirror and Dust, who had rushed their way here.

“Here you are,” Nico spoke up in an ancient and booming voice, his back hunched with both hands holding his cane. His muddled eyes were still focused on the table.

Clear Mirror and Dust weaved through the seats without a word and easily jumped onto the stage, taking the two empty seats around the roundtable.

“May the Heavenly Godbearer bless us,” said Nico.

“May the Heavenly Godbearer bless us,” the others echoed.

“I’ve gathered you here today because the Heavenly Godbearer issued a new order,” Nico explained calmly.

The other four nodded, having anticipated it.

Dust spoke up first. “Nico, I’d like to meet the Heavenly Godbearer.”

“It’s not yet time.” Nico lifted his right hand. “When it is, She will summon you.”

Dust fell silent. She had long expected the answer.

Dust and Clear Mirror had only met Heavenly Godbearer twice, during the Crimson Tides eighteen years ago and eight years ago respectively.

Of course, they didn’t meet the Heavenly Godbearer in person, but a blurry divine image of Hers. Despite it being the projection of only part of Her divinity—Her grace and compassion—it was still a supreme existence they could not look directly at.

The Heavenly Godbearer inspired and impressed DUst so greatly that she would never forget their meetings. She believed the same must be true of the others around the table. Or they wouldn’t have followed and served Her so loyally for such a long time.

In her long years of being a spy and one-sidedly receiving and carrying out orders, though, Dust slowly lost her patience, and even her belief wavered.

She had spent a decade living among awakeners, during which she often forgot about her true cause and even mistaking herself for a human—for an awakener among peers.

In fact, an overtaker could choose to live as a human after successfully taking over a host.

With the end of the world on the horizon, a chaotic civil war broke out among the awakeners for the Gates of Closure. That elicited a sense of urgency in Dust. She wondered if she and Clear Mirror would really get to reach the blissful otherworld with the Heavenly Godbearer when the end arrived, or if they would turn out like Tails.

No, I’m different from Tails.

I’m different from Liu, Yellow Butterfly, and even Archbishop Black Tortoise.

I’m special. I’m the king of my kind.

I, Clear Mirror, and all the other primes are born as God’s subjects, shouldering God’s decrees and blessed with God’s grace.

In the Otherworld, the world belongs to God, there are spots reserved for us.

Dust repeated the words in her mind and reaffirmed her belief, her eyes lighting up with renewed determination under the mask.

“Before telling you the will of the Heavenly Godbearer, report the progress of our respective missions.” Nico turned to Tia, the slaughterer prime, first.

“I’ve looked everywhere and found nothing.” Tia crossed her arms and grunted with annoyance. “The summoner prime couldn’t have died, right?”

“Even if they died, new one would replace them. They msut be somewhere in the world, only you haven’t found them.”

Tia’s most important mission was to find the summoner prime. She had been preoccupied with the mission for years.

Nico, the wanderer prime, was the first to be discovered by the Heavenly Godbearer. With him as an elder, he found the other monster primes one after another under Her divine guidance.

In Her decree, Nico learned that each prime had a mission to carry out, and the summoner prime had the most special and important mission. They must be found.

All the years, however, Tia had failed to find the summoner prime. She found the freerider prime instead.

Freeriders, including the prime, were flawed products. They were corrupted, foolish, and driven by insidious desires, willingly becoming a part of a human.

In comparison, overtakers were the finished products among the greed monsters.

The latest freerider prime was a college student. When he sensed the scent of a mother from a life monster, his monsterhood mutated and went wild. He got killed by awakeners and met a farce of a tragic end.

No one cared about freeriders and freerider prime. They were considered humiliation and jokes among monsters.

“Why don’t we drop it? We’re more than enough for the Heavenly Godbearer. We don’t need another prime.” Tia scoffed haughtily.

Nico sighed softly and shifted his muddled eyes to Tokoos, the devourer prime. “And your mission?”

“You already know the answer.” Tokoos shrugged, looking bored. “I’ve been doing nothing since the death of Archbishop.”

The former Black Tortoise had been the one in charge of the mission, supported by Yellow Butterfly, Dust, Ghost Horse—who later turned out to be a traitor—and Tokoos.

Tokoos was mainly the window of communication between the spies, Elder Nico, and Edmond, the leader of Tails. He was a coordinator pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Black Tortoise and Tokoos had formulated three plans for the mission.