Shades of the New World

Chapter 274: The Avatar

Luiev eyed the man as if he was a walking bag of coins and smilingly replied.

"Of course, but as sir might know, information doesn't come cheap," the pink horned man said and pointed at the Strands, "These these are but products of the Avatar's knowledge. The lore behind them will cost you a bit more."

"Don't push your luck. Either tell me what I want to know and take this gold coin, or don't. Stop wasting my time," the man grunted out threateningly at Luiev's attempt to extort him.

"Sir, don't be so prone to threats. I was just about to say that the knowledge costs a gold coin only. I'll even add a Strand as a bonus for you and you only. But sir, you are a mage, right? I can't quite tell you about these things if you're not," Luiev smiled.

The man held out his palm in front of him and pieces of sand started to appear on it. Luiev nodded smilingly and invited the man to enter his drugstore. Evin followed behind them soon after. Luiev then promptly started to recount an old tale which he had obviously told many times in the past.

"As sir might know, the Avatar is depicted as a powerful Hornbearer who possesses the Twelve Horns of Magic atop his head. And not just any old horns, like this one," Luiev said, pointing at his own, "The horns that are directly connected with the Worlds of Magic themselves. A domain usually only accessible to the Empress and the Authorities."

"And what does that mean?" the bulky man asked.

"This means that the amount of mana the Avatar can pull from the Worlds is practically endless. He is literally a Blessed of all the Twelve Worlds, regardless of the Authorities' wishes. In the legends, the Avatar's power was to take anything and everything he desired from the World, so naturally, it isn't that weird of him to freely take the energies of the Magic Worlds. It also ties to his origin stories as well."

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"Go on."

"In his origin stories, it is said that the Avatar was one of the first people who ever received our primogenitor Selat's blessing of the Horn. Selat, who had been a simple super-imposer at the time, had granted the Avatar the horns of the World of Thoughts and the World of Emotions, giving him a task to better understand the nature of humans." 

"The Avatar was enthralled with this gift at first. You see, the Avatar wasn't a very, precise user of the Worlds, but that didn't mean he was someone talentless. He simply didn't like to bother himself with the small details. He had many grand ideas in his head, but couldn't quite achieve them due to his inability to focus on the small things. Selat had obviously noticed this trait of the Avatar and decided to give the latter the means to achieve his grand aspirations." 

"And after the Avatar received the horns, he could finally solve this problem, as the horns granted him unparalleled fine-control of World energies. But it wasn't enough. The aspirations of the Avatar wasn't able to be satisfied with two Worlds, he needed more. After he got a taste of what the horns could do, he wanted access to all the Worlds of Magic!"

"He confronted Selat regarding this idea of his, but the super-imposer refused to grant his wish, saying that any horn after the second would be more than enough to destroy his mind. The Avatar was furious, he felt that the super-imposer was simply denying his powers because, afraid of the Avatar's potential. Thus, he decided to study the secrets of the Horns himself."

"Some time later, the Avatar reappeared in the World, a majestic twin horn on his head, which possessed twelve different branches, all differently colored with a unique World of Magic. Not only that, he was successful in taking many times more World energies than what his mana-core allowed, turning him into one of the most powerful mages alive at the time. No one knew how he was able to achieve them, but at the same time, everyone was able to see that the Avatar's claims were true."

"Wait, if he's so powerful and famous, there should be something about his story in history books, right?" the man interrupted.

Luiev smiled and started to explain, "We'll get there soon. Anyhow, the Avatar soon decided to wage war against Selat's rule, promising anyone who sided with him infinite access to one World of Magic. Naturally, many mages started to flock to him and receive the benefits that the Avatar promised. Coincidentally, the Avatar was plotting his insurgency in this very town you now stand in. But anyway, things were starting to look bad for Selat, who had no proper way to deal with the sudden threat but very soon, tragedy struck the Avatar." 

"His wanton display of his magnificent 12-pronged horn had garnered the attention of the one woman standing high above us, the Empress. With her unfathomable powers, she very swiftly made the Avatar and his little troupe to commit suicide by having them completely destroy their bodies," Luiev said, a weirdly nostalgic look to his face, "A very similar incident to the Tragedy of Dragonshifters."

"The Empress then had Selat destroy any evidence of the event happening, wiping out the event from the face of Alvox. Selat had obviously did his best, but as you can see, stories and legends can never be fully smothered," Luiev finished his story with a sigh.

The man who was listening fell into thought and as did Evin.

'Weird how I finally learn about who a World's Blessed is in a random story in a drugstore,' Evin thought. Luiev's story was rich with details and history and Evin really enjoyed listening to it. The only problem was, that it was probably all bullshit. 

The story was inconsistent and unbelievable in general, but Evin could see how some people might find it attractive. And one such group of people could be the original creators of a certain hidden base that so many people were trying to find. 

Shady myths, an overpowered body modification, infinite energy and mysterious organizations with their secret bases. If Evin thought about it logically, all the elements of a B-tier secret agent story were there. Who was to say that these things couldn't happen in reality?

Evin was all for this plotline, but the bulky man, on the other hand, seemed unimpressed. 

"A neat little story, but there are too many details in it that I can't just take at face value," the man said and prepared to leave.

"Take it as you well. No hair off my back," Luiev smiled mysteriously.

'Now that I think about it, this dude's been acting really differently from how he did when he was searching for delusional teens to scam' Evin thought, observing the Hornbearer more closely.

But, since the only lead Evin had to find the other elite groups was leaving, Evin decided to maybe give Luiev another visit in the future and followed behind the bulky man. Though Evin did manage to bring out a golden coin from his shadows, putting it on the drugstore's counter as a little parting gift.

After the guests went out of the store, Luiev casually sat on the seat behind his counter and picked the golden coin that Evin left. 

"At least the boy's got some respect..." he chuckled as he played around with the coin.