“Okay, go ahead and begin, Elder Nord, I’m all ears.”
Arthur made himself more comfortable by leaning back on the chair, folding his arms, and prickling his ears. Lucy should have been with him right now but he didn’t call her because Cristina’s matter was equally important and demanded great care and patience.
“It all began in the first Era.” Elder Nord caressed his beard at a very slow pace, not wasting time with unnecessary topics and delving directly into the crux of the matter. “When the Titans were viewed as a noble and extinguished race. Our Kang Clan were supporters of the secondborn titans. We helped them with many things and, to return the favor, they granted us powers beyond mortal capabilities. The strength to vanquish our hateful foes, to live thousands of years, to split skies and seas, flatten mountains and even change travel through stars and planets.”
Upon seeing Arthur’s expression, Elder Nord nodded his head. “Yes, mister Arthur.” A knowing smile plastered on the wrinkled old face. “In that era, the Kang Clan was a mortal clan that served the titans and were granted powers.”
“Granted or blessed?” Asked the parasite, his eyes never leaving the elderly.
“Is there a difference? Both lead to the same results.” Calmly said Elder Nord. “Our faith in the Titans grew stronger than ever. We promised them our ever-lasting servitude but they refused, all of them. My clan’s records mention the first ancestor, who spent dozens of years traveling the worlds, visiting every titan and bowing his head, asking to be a servant for those godly beings.”
“I find such behavior quite shameful. I mean, to travel world after world just to be a servant? Pardon my rudeness, but your ancestor seemed to be eager to work for someone else instead of sacrificing all that time to train and better himself.”
“Our ancestor, was a wise man. In the First Era, the humans were not the dominant race… in fact, they were the weakest. Oppressed and helpless, their great numbers decreasing significantly every day, either by plagues or due to the revenge exacted by other races, mainly Demons. Our ancestor could have lent a hand but he knew that his power alone won’t be enough, so he sought protection from the titans.”
“And did he find this oh-so-precious protection? Looking at the present facts and how the Kang Clan still sands, glorious and mighty, I assume it’s a yes.”
“None of the secondborn Titans accepted, but the thirdborn ones did protect our ancestor and even welcomed him into their stars.”
“Is there a difference between firstborn titans, secondborn, and thirdborn? Also, I thought Titan lived together and were not separated into multiple realms or stars.”
Elder Nord stopped caressing his beard, resting his bony hand on his chest, and inhaled deeply.
“Titans.” He said, his gaze landing for the standing Amidel for a couple of breaths. “were different than Humans. They did not live together because their opinions and values differed, however, that didn’t make them enemies. They had accepted each other and chose simplistic solutions, that’s all. As for your first question; the firstborn Titans are the first of their kind, the secondborns were birthed by the firstborn, so on and so forth.”
Sensing that Arthur had no relevant questions that needed answering, Elder Nord continued with his story, or better call it: explanation.
“Our ancestor married a mortal woman and created the Kang Clan, and for more than one era, there was peace and prosperity. But, after, and even before, the Void Era, things changed for the worse.”
“You mean the war launched by the human, right?”
“I won’t call it a war, mister Arthur.” Corrected the old man. “It’s more like a massacre. The titans, albeit powerful beings, were too few to fight the humans, who were given more than ample time to learn their own techniques and advance their technology. Hence, shortly after the Void Era, almost all Titans were killed.”
“So not all perished?”
“The majority. The ones that remained were the weakest of the bunch. The genes of the Titans were present in their bodies, ethereal or not, but to call them Titan is only half-right. They were a mix of Titans and humans, Titans and Elves, Titans and other races, basically.
So, just like they helped our ancestor, we helped them. The Kang Clan was amongst the strongest clans back then, we’ve even had a Patriarch who had reached the Mysterious Realm.”
“But they still died, right?” Arthur said, linking what was said with the facts he was aware of.
“You’re absolutely right, mister Arthur. They weren’t just killed, but they were captured, tortured, then publicly executed. It was a showcase of human superiority and dominance.”
“I thought it wasn’t just the humans were attacked the Titans. Also, the reason behind the war was said to be the Titan’s arrogance, oppression, and aggressiveness.”
“What aggressiveness might you speak of? The Titans never interfered with the Humans. Never touched them or ruled over them.”
“It’s hard to believe such words when historians and scholars say otherwise. You can’t mean to tell me that the Titans did not retaliate, did not spill human blood.”
“Mister Arthur.” Said Nord, intently staring back at the parasite. “I think we’re diverging from the main topic but if you want to debate then I won’t spare you. The Titans retaliated only later on, after the Void Era when it was clear that their extinction is nigh. They were being hunted and our Kang Clan wasn’t able to protect all of them. Some of the remaining Titans hid in ungodly places, outside of anyone’s reach, others changed into intangible forms, allowing them to live by unnoticed. In spite of that, the allied races were relentless, sparing no effort into finishing off all the Titans and erasing their trace from the multiverse. No race wanted the Titans, which were considered the perfect beings, to continue living. I guess you could call them cowards, afraid of what the Titans could or could not do in the future… because if the Titans really wanted, they could have conquered every world, planet, stars, or realm.”
“But they did not.” Solemnly stated Arthur. “And that does answer my question.”
“It does, mister Arthur. It does. If Titans were truly oppressive, wouldn’t they have subdued the humans when the first of their kin were slaughtered? Wouldn’t they have eradicated the humans entirely?”
“Perhaps, by then, it was too late. As you know, it takes but a few decades for humans to increase their numbers. Titans, on the other hand, procreate at a much slower pace. I heard that their pregnancy lasts 9 years instead of 9 months.”
“Procreation and numbers are irrelevant. Titans, as you very well know, mister Arthur, are strong beyond imagining. Even Titans born much later on, and relatively young-aged, wield powers that could smite an Exalted God in the blink of an eye. Don’t you think that such prowess is largely capable of offering the protection Titans necessitated back then?”
“I don’t think so, Elder Nord. You’re a human too and you ought to know that humans have an infinite potential for evolution? Yes, not all of them grow into Exalted Gods or Transcendent Mortals, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they would not have been able to defend themselves were the Titans have retaliated.”
“It’s not about their individual power, but their motives. As a human, I’m ashamed of what my race, and other races, have done. Based on their baseless observation, they feared what may never come. They did not want a Higher race to exist alongside them. There’s no justification and will never be. If you look closely at the history after the fall of the Titan, the Humans turned their wrath to the Elves and Fairies, which were initially their helpful and irreplaceable allies.”
