As could be reasonably expected, Draco was stunned beyond belief. His first subconscious reaction was to doubt, but he soon came around to acceptance before Eva could even reinforce her revelation.
It was because he knew Eva. She wouldn't lie about something like this, meaning she could only be right! Being a Control master as well, her mind was immune to hypnosis or any form of illusion as well as external deception.
Not even counting the fact that while Draco was more high-profile swordsman while managing the Cartel and Hellscape, Eva was more of a low-profile rogue, with her organization focusing on espionage and assassination.
How could she be so easily fooled compared to him?
"I believe you."
Eva nodded at his response. She knew he'd believe her. But she still decided to explain why she said what she did instead of leaving it at that.
"I might have to do a bit of talking, so please reserve questions until I'm done. Is that okay with you?" She asked with a serious tone.
Draco nodded in response.
"To explain how we're not human, I'd first have to explain the history of our world. As science has proven, there was an age before humankind, the prehistoric age. In that age, Dinosaurs were the rulers of this primal world."
She took a slight pause, arranging her words before continuing;
"These beings were then wiped out by a meteor that hit the earth."
"After that, evolution saw the rise of apes who grew into neanderthals and then humans. Unfortunately, this summary is slightly wrong. 'Humankind' didn't evolve from apes, because we already existed before that."
This further stunned Draco. If that was the case then… where did humans originate from?
"Hm, let me correct myself. Humans did evolve from apes, but the source wasn't from earth… but rather that same meteor. We existed as apex organisms that originated from a different galaxy in the universe but were blown away after being almost annihilated by another race."
"When we landed on earth, our bodies had been shattered, but our cells were still active. Some of the weaker cells which were closer to the surface of the meteor were absorbed by nature and evolved into different beings. The highest of these evolutions was humankind."
"This is the main reason why humans can bond with most animals. It is a form of subservience to a higher entity on the genetic chain."
"However… all this, the evolution of humans and animals, was wrought by the weaker cells that fell out. So what about the stronger cells that were held within?"
Eva pointed at herself and then Draco.
"This is our origin."
By this point, Draco was out of brain juice and his logic processing center was overclocking itself to comprehend Eva's words.
"The stronger cells couldn't simply evolve on their own, after all, we'd been annihilated. Over time however, the energy of this lush world allowed us to merge together, eventually forming 9 beings, exactly 7 males and 2 females."
"Zeus the Thunder God."
"Pangu the Primal."
"Ilah the Primogenitor."
"Anansi the Trickster."
"Gautama Buddha the Wise."
"Lucifer the Devil."
"Merlin the Elemental."
"Morrigan the War Goddess."
"Amaterasu the Celestial."
"These nine beings possessed power and abilities to rival that we call Gods. In fact, some of them went on to become deities of various religions for the lesser humans that existed."
"However, a problem cropped up. Their genetic forms had diversified to the point where reproduction among them was no longer possible. As such, they had to… merge with humans in order to have successors. Naturally, the choices for partners varied based on the personalities of these nine deities."
"The two of us hail from different lineages. I hail from Amaterasu's lineage while you hail from Lucifer's lineage. There are various lineages in different countries that either remain low profile like that of your lineage, or those who go high profile like those under Ilah or Zeus."
"So this is the reason for our existences. To explain why I… did what I did, I needed you to be aware of this first. Now, you can ask questions, since the explanation for my actions is slightly tangential."
Draco collected himself and parsed all he had heard so far. He acknowledged that it sounded a bit far-fetched, but it was straight from Eva's mouth.
Naturally, his first question was;
"How do you know all this?"
"It was taught to me by my family. This is basic knowledge taught to any member of any of the lineages." Eva answered patiently.
"How do the members of the lineage know this? Were they not annihilated cells?" Draco asked with a skeptical frown.
"Genetic memory. We are higher beings. If our cells can survive being decimated and manage to recover autonomously, they'd certainly be able to retain ancestral memory."
Draco nodded. The answer sounded a bit reasonable.
"Do you know the circ.u.mstances surrounding my family, or lineage?" Draco asked carefully. This was one of his more pertinent questions.
"You… well, answering that bleeds a little into why I did what I did so let's skip that," Eva's answer was a bit dodgy, but Draco decided to let it go.
"Alright, so where exactly are the descendants of the lineages located?" Draco asked, though he guessed the answer.
Eva replied; "Zeus' is in Greece, Pangu's in China, Ilah in the Middle East, Anansi's in Africa, Gautama Buddha's in India, Lucifer's in Italy, Amaterasu's in Japan, Merlin's in Britain and Morrigan's in Ireland."
Draco semi-expected this answer, but he was surprised to find that Lucifer resided in Italy. That meant his ancestry was Italian one way or another, though his physical traits didn't look as such.
Then again, Eva didn't look Japanese, so there was that.
Draco indicated to Eva that he was done with his questions. He wasn't too interested in the history of the world, no matter how enlightening it was, compared to the knowledge of his heritage and why Eva betrayed him.
"To explain why I did what I did, I'll have to describe the political climate of the lineages. This is something left over by the deities themselves, after they broke through the atmosphere to head back to their galaxy for vengeance."
"In terms of relations between the deities, it boiled down to strength, rather than charisma. Out of the nine, the power classification is broken down into the Upper Three, Middle Three and Lower Three."
"The Lower Three consists of the lineages of Morrigan, Ilah and Anansi. The Middle Three consists of Gautama Buddha, Merlin and Zeus. The Upper Three consists of Pangu, Lucifer and Amaterasu."
"Naturally, power is the basic decider of everything in the world. The Upper Three were the rulers, the Middle Three were the advisors and the Lower Three were the vassals. It was generally believed that the weakest lineage was that of Morrigan while the most powerful was that of Lucifer. However in terms of strength, it was believed that Pangu was stronger than Lucifer and Morrigan was stronger than Anansi as well as Ilah."
"However, the Upper Three knew that the strongest among them was actually Lucifer, followed by Amaterasu and then Pangu. Pangu had the highest physical strength, but his looks were a bit brawny and rough. This was to Morrigan's liking, but Pangu wanted Amaterasu, whose beauty was said to be so ethereal that even the dead forcefully revived themselves the moment she showed her face."
Draco stared at Eva weirdly which made her sqiurm a bit. At least Draco now understood why Eva was so unrealistically beautiful.
"However… Amaterasu loved Lucifer to the point of madness. Not only because of his power, but… Lucifer was just too handsome that no woman could look at him and remain the same."
Draco was startled.
'F.u.c.k, so that's why This Daddy cannot get any reprieve from women. I knew my key to success had always been my handsomeness, ah!'
Eva's face became unamused when she saw Draco arrogant and narcissistic expression pop up. She could practically guess his thoughts.
"Lucifer, even in the religion he founded, was described as the most beautiful angel, so it was not surprising," Eva explained with a dry laugh.
"Eh? He founded a religion? Wait, don't tell me…" Draco asked with a shocked expression.
"Yeah, Lucifer was physical perfection and his power was potent, but he had the weirdest personality there was. He told Amaterasu that he found it exciting to be hated," Eva had a strange expression on her face when she recounted this.
The two remained silent for a while before pretending to ignore what was just said.
"Lucifer did reciprocate her feelings but Pangu wasn't going to have that. He secretly roped in all the other lineages to his side and declared himself emperor of the world and its creator."
"He wanted an empress that befitted his status and asked Amaterasu to fill that spot, to which she declined potently. Not wanting to give up, Pangu decided to challenge Lucifer for Amaterasu's hand, believing that only the strongest deserved her companionship."
"Lucifer naturally won and this led Pangu to a berserk rage. He decided to declare war against Lucifer and Amaterasu as well as their lineages. This war in the shadows shook the world, but eventually ended in a stalemate."
"By that point, all the deities had broken through the atmosphere to head back to the superior galaxy they were from. It was the heads of the lineages who decided to compromise, after all the deities were gone and they were losing lives unnecessarily."
"That truce has been maintained until now."
Eva's face darkened suddenly and her tone became a bit more strained. "However, in this generation, there were three absolute prodigies born into the Lucifer, Amaterasu and Pangu lineages who possessed the most potent bloodlines of their family."
"This wasn't a problem for the Amaterasu lineage, since the Pangu lineage still held onto their arrogance that our lineage were born to be their possession."
"However for the Lucifer lineage, this birth was the precursor to a possible second war. After all, the Pangu lineage and the Lucifer lineage were irreconcilable enemies who ignored the truce and killed each other whenever possible."
"The lower lineages naturally didn't dare to do so, even if they could, while my lineage was practically ignored as an enemy."
"To have both the Amaterasu Lineage and the Lucifer Linage birth absolute prodigies was a direct threat to the Pangu faction. In order to lower tensions, the prodigy of the Lucifer lineage had his bloodline crippled and sent into the mortal world to fend for himself."
"That prodigy is you, Draco."
It was as if a thousand explosions had occurred in Draco's brain. All his life, he had thought his parents were those he had until the age of 9, who then mysteriously died. He had been left to fend for himself all that while, scraping on an average inheritance to pay for the bills. He had grown up weak minded and cowardly under adversity, making the current him believe he was pretty shit in all honesty.
He only began to shine when he entered Boundless which was a combat based world instead of the peaceful one like earth. In fact, his abilities almost impossibly skyrocketed after his fell into hatred phase, leading to the current him.
So all his achievements were not through hard work and effort but... talent? Not just any talent too, but crippled talent. So if he hadn't be crippled…
"Your talent was higher than mine originally and we were originally supposed to marry when we grew up. This was what really scared the Pangu faction. After all, if the original Lucifer and Amaterasu, the two strongest, could reproduce, then their offspring would have had universe rending power."
Eva's face became a bit red when she spoke of this and Draco had an awkward look on his face.
Destiny really always had her way eh…
"However, they couldn't. But we, as their strongest inheritors to date, could. While it might not be as powerful as the child Lucifer and Amaterasu could create, it was still potent to destroy any opposing faction once mature."
"It was you who had been crippled and cast out because I was a girl and because the Pangu faction hated you more."
Her expression became guilty and filled with shame at this point. Draco was a bit unhappy inside, but he understood why. Whether one liked it or not, while a male would have a harder time at the bottom, it was believed that it was what he should do as a man.
"There's nothing to it, you didn't make the decision after all. It was my useless lineage that chose to bow down in the face of adversity."
Draco words were considerably dark and filled with anger, but his face remained calm. Eva could only sigh on behalf of Draco's family. There was a deeper story there, but she wasn't qualified to share it.
"In our past life and probably in this life too, your existence was scrapped from the minds of most since no one saw you as a baby. You also grew up in the human world without any form of monitoring since if the Lucifer lineage dared to, the Pangu lineage would find you as well."
"That meant, when we were together and before that, I had no idea who you were. In fact, I might have never known if it wasn't for a certain accident."
"Accident?" Draco asked with a frown.
Eva's countenance became awful and remorseful as she continued on. "You remember Local Lord, right?"
Draco's face also became unpleasant and filled with utmost hate. "How could I forget that arrogant bastard? He was the one that… that…"
Draco would never forget the arrogant smile and laugh Local Lord made as Draco found him on top of Eva that fateful day.
Just remembering that event almost made him fall into madness once again. Draco had to turn his head away from Eva and collect himself carefully.
Eva was inestimably pained by this action as she felt her heart being shredded. Still, she knew she had no right to demand any less even with the truth coming out.
After a while, Draco turned back and kept his eyes on his feet as she grunted for Eva to continue.
With a weak and shaky voice, she did. "Local Lord is the prodigy of the Pangu race."
BOOM!
That was the sound of Draco's mind being blow wide open. Considering what he had heard so far, his brain had short circuited when trying to instantly process her words.
"But… then why…?"
"It was Local Lord who discovered your identity, not me. How he did, he never shared but he was known to have kidnapped some weaker females from your lineage to play with. He might have had some blood essence on hand in case he ever met you."
"You were crippled, but your bloodline is intact, although strongly suppressed… but it's there. This wouldn't have been much of a big deal on a normal day since you had been already cast out but…"
Draco finished her words for her with a dazed voice. "But we had ended up in a relationship still. Even if we were unaware, the fact still remains that we were together. It also gives the Pangu faction a reasonable excuse to kill me and start a war saying that the Lucifer lineage lied, trying to have us produce offspring under wraps."
Eva nodded with a complicated expression. "It was either I acquiesce to his demands or a war between our lineages occurred."
"And so, you chose to prevent the war by acquiescing to his commands?" Draco asked with a difficult expression but accepting expression.
If this was the case, then he could reconcile his hatred and the two could possibly become friends, but never lovers. Choosing to save the world was a noble goal, but not at the cost of his feelings. After, he had been abandoned by these lineages, so he could give anymore of a shit if they were embroiled in a war.
"No."
Eva's reply dumbfounded Draco.
"Then why did you…?"
She raised her face up and her expression was no longer convoluted, but incredibly fierce, with a large chunk of insanity being displayed.
"I did it solely because your life was at risk!"
KABOOOOM!!!
Draco's mind firmly exploded and blood quite literally leaked from his nose and ears. His brain had literally damaged itself a bit from her words that were made with such an expression.
Eva only made it worse with what she said next.
"Who gives damn about those lineages? If they want to fight, they can fight, I don't care!!"
"I don't care, I don't care, I DON'T CARE!!!"
"As long as you were alive!! My life, my dignity is trash compared to your existence!!"
"But THAT BASTARD... T-That bastard!! HE THREATENED TO KILL YOU, ARRGHH!!"
"I couldn't let you die, if you died, I would kill anything and everything that had to do with your death, hehehehehe."
"What even is the point of having all these people remain alive if you are dead? What is the point of my existence is you are dead? Irrelevant, Teeheeheee!"
"That is what happened when you died in the other timeline, I killed and killed and killed…. Kill! Kill! Kill! Hehehe… ahahaha!!"
By this point, Eva had descended into a scary state of madness where her words became less and less coherent.
Her hands began pulling at the skin of her cheeks, ripping them in a gory and horrifying fashion.
Her eyes began to twist and turn in their sockets, as if a demon were possessing her.
It was a sight that would make any onlooker vomit with disgust and fear.
She sounded like exactly what she was, a madwoman who was completely obsessed with something to the point of irrationality. This obsession wasn't the typical kind, it was the kind that encompassed one's own existence. It was the type that made logic redundant when the topic of their obsession was concerned.
In that aspect, Eva was just like Amaterasu. Amaterasu had also descended into episodes of insanity when anything concerning Lucifer occurred. It was why Pangu had never bothered to try to kidnap her away because she would never be his until he shifted her obsession onto himself.
Words from the author:
Some aspects of this chapter has been changed to make things more palatable.
Let me warn you ahead of time, the next chapter features a reconciliation between them. A good amount of my readers were triggered by this, hence the warning in the description of the novel.
There were some aspects that were unpalatable to readers, but I plan to lighten then a bit. However, this had spawned a lot of negativity which I've had to endure for the past few weeks.
Please, if you're the type to dislike reconciling with Riveting Night, STOP READING. It was good run and I thank you for reading so far.
If you're 100% sure you don't mind, continue on. But don't say I didn't warn you.