Posts from 🔥 Иказкан -> Тезот Auto-translation in progress

And here is post number 6000.

The end.

I don’t remember my grandfather being so talkative and petty as the Sword. Either it’s a retcon, or he also suffered some mental trauma after being reborn in Hell.

Nobody asked about the alien artifact, so I'll ask. What was the deal with it?

Ah, yes. After the incident with the king, but before the apocalypse in Asuga, skirmishes began between different factions (in Mufigura, Jingo had become a protector by this point, by the way), and one of them was led by Professor Peleng. He turned out to be more complex than he seemed and used this artifact to build piloted golems – there was a cockpit for the pilot inside, they moved across land, and were very powerful. At first, nothing useful could be done with the artifact – it was just a weapon hanging on the wall, waiting for future events to unfold.

At the start, there was nothing useful to do with the artifact — it was just a gun hanging on the wall for future plot developments.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 And then they wonder why you'd pick up these quests of yours...

***

A cold wind swept across the foot of the valley, shrouding it in a silent, ashen haze. An unknown man, with the gait of a seasoned sailor, strode across the mown hill. Only a bespectacled man from the distant south and his own father could recognize his tanned, weathered face.
— A long-awaited return, prodigal son. — a creaky, elderly voice greeted him. His stooped back was still covered by a luxurious fur cloak.
Looking closer, the sailor realized that what he had mistaken for a misty valley was, in reality, a huge crater on the other side of the hill. A bottomless pit, dug deep into the earth, plunged into a dark, black veil of infinity.
— I am not your son. — he said, sitting down a little further away from his grandfather, who was dangling his legs over the edge of the abyss.
— Perhaps stubbornness is not something I passed on to you. But the love of the sea, that came from your mother. And, have you found what you were looking for?
The stranger sneered:
— Perhaps a couple of new scars and a couple of old wounds. But I witnessed the birth of someone else's story, one that will be greater than yours.
— Really? Well, tell me, we have all the time in the world. — the old man thoughtfully twirled his cane in his hands.

— ...And the raven idol, he freed it. How? Better not to ask. It just happened. I learned all this from his deceased father. I don't know if he lost his mind when he learned the truth, or if he was never told the whole truth? — the sailor shrugged. — In my opinion, he was not quite right in the head even from our first meeting at his birthday.
— Really? I thought he was an exceptionally intelligent young man.
— You have always had poor judgment of people. So, for some time, he wandered back and forth. He seemed to forget about his adventurous past, about the undead, about the hardships of the front, about the friends and comrades he had gained. But at some point, he clung to his homeland like a lifeline.
— The one that was thrown under a train along with everything else by a madman and a mongrel?
— Well, each to their own. — the man grunted.
— Now I respect him even more. — the old man sighed, rubbing his stiff limbs. — You know, son, in the second half of my life, I met people no less amazing than in the first.
— Well, no need for your stories...
— A warrior of water, a warrior of fire, a warrior of darkness, a warrior of matter. We were all united by an obsession with a past that none of us were destined to change. Deprived of light, water hid in the night. — the old man looked up with devastating sadness, then cast a benevolent glance at the abyss plunging into the void.
— Fire was scattered by the ambitions of others in someone else's war. The shadow disappeared underground in an irreversible realm, and matter... Is it right to call it material? Its history was doomed from the very first chapter. Hmm, so what happened next?
— Then? He stayed with them. With those he could not forgive. With those he loved with all his heart. It was painful for him to say goodbye to his friends, but he could not break the promise he had made to the black knight. Although the knight had nothing to do with it. He had made a promise to himself. He was a stubborn and naive man.
— And what about his family? You said he had a family.
— They stayed in the south. Together. Until the end. Except for his youngest sister. Hardly anyone remembers that he had one. In that time, she grew up and wanted a different fate.
— And what happened to her?
— I know he discussed it with the knight. Apparently, for her rejected — that is, involuntary and futile — service, he allowed her to take the place that was intended for him among the eternally undead. But the outcome of this is not important for my story.

The conversation flowed smoothly into various topics and continued long after dawn. Unfortunately, in those days, the sun no longer rose over the ravaged mountain peaks of this land.
— ...So, they are there? — the sailor nodded towards the object hovering high in the distance.
— I don't know. If not, then they are there. — the old man pointed his cane even higher, at the oppressive, dark sky.
— And you? Have you decided that your life is no longer worth living?
— I fought. I lost. Then again and again. And now I will rest. — came the indifferent answer.
— Well, if that's how you feel. — the stranger said with a barely perceptible note of regret. — I thought I would take away everything that is rightfully mine and conquer what remains of the ruins of the old-new world.
— I'm afraid the universe has already beaten you to it. The scabbard on my belt has long been replaced by a walking stick.
— And so be it! I have earned what I have. — the sailor touched the chain on his chest.
— Perhaps there is a curious story connected with it?
— What makes you say that?
— Otherwise, you wouldn't carry such a useless trinket with you.
— And you still have a keen eye, old man! But in reality, no. — the sailor waved his hand. — It used to hold a pocket watch or something like that. It was given to me by a woman we rescued in the southern sea. Apparently, it was her father's legacy. She also had a family ring, but we sold it. She completely lost her mind, talking about other worlds. As if she had been in suspended animation for half a century and had just woken up. Well, I couldn't just leave her!
— That's my son. — the old man smiled for the first time with the corners of his dry lips. — We don't abandon our own. I hope you will find with her what you have been trying to achieve beyond the horizon.

The truth is unpleasant, bitter, and heavy. It will take years to accept it, decades to understand it. But it is even harder to live a lie. Dorian knew this well. He did not know his past, and continued to invent his present. Dozens of names and aliases, betrayals and schemes; this man was not the epitome of evil, he did not blow up cities, he did not send peoples to their deaths. He was the very essence of humanity — a nasty, petty Nobody. How many more worlds will be created and destroyed because of the lust of their weak minds?... Nevertheless, the fate of this man turned out to be worthy of its logical conclusion.
— An interesting story, Dor-i-Rad! I will definitely add it to my chronicles. — with a flap of his wings, the infernal creature disappeared into the depths of the dungeon.
— No, but you've got to see this! — he said cheerfully to his companions. — I've met a lot of things here, but an evil eye in glasses! Ha-ha, what are they for?
Did Eresuk, Lettie, the Gnoll, or even Koin and Shuk answer him? Although the latter would hardly have wanted to stay in their company. Most likely, their thoughts were occupied with the upcoming meeting with the mighty guardian. Perhaps even not with him, but with what was hidden behind his back, engulfed in infernal flames.
What will happen to this world? Will the Shadow, born of the devotion of the sand princess, destroy everyone? How far will the madness of Hekizo go? Dorian did not know and did not want to know the answer to these questions. But he knew perfectly well what Gigasord would say about all this:
— ...

and from the outside world, they were protected by the guardian of knowledge she created, who lived at the bottom of the Abyss – at the exit to the surface.

He-he...

Well, in general, Erebus doesn't care who he experiments on, so the ideology of the Fire Mages was never close to him (especially since Eresuk isn't even human anymore), and Shuk also changed his views a bit after Antrum and his journey with Dorian. I wonder if he will ever meet Hataraight...

Explorers: being selected to go to the surface. Khatarait, level 999, in god-like armor with the Sword of All-Conquering, invulnerability, and 100 turns per round: bonjour.

They both ended up having surprisingly similar life paths, with the only difference being that Dorian had more attention focused on him.

So, who actually stole the books in the end? Was it Kof, after all? And what was his motive?

It’s as if Kof didn’t do anything at all in the plot. Somewhere long ago, off-screen, he fought the Fire Elementals and even took them prisoner, proposed the idea of a voluntary-compulsory unification of the peoples of the underworld against the Cheesemakers, but in the end, he simply passed away.

But why he sent Rurek and his fluffy creatures to die in the Antrum remains an open question.

I think everyone could have survived the Antrum, albeit not unscathed. It's unlikely that Skunk's explosion radius was "the entire map"...

Only Liu had enough potential spell points to safely retreat. Unfortunately, the Sords are slow.

Gaal, with his 4 Supply Points, could have retreated far into the rear if he had gone there immediately. That would have been enough...