Liliana nodded her head in agreement and the fifteenth rumbling sound sounded. “Alright. Hmm…” she said and mumbled, “From where do I actually start though…Hmm…” She lowered her head and moved her right fist to her lower lip, touching it with her index finger, and the sixteenth and seventeenth rumbling sounds sounded. She closed her eyes to think, and the eighteenth rumbling sound sounded.
“Liliana, before you tell me why your body won’t awaken anytime soon, can you first tell me, what exactly are Dokalfar?” I said just a few seconds after she closed her eyes.
Liliana opened her eyes, and raised her head, looking straight into my green eyes, and the nineteenth and twentieth rumbling sounds sounded. She lowered her right arm to the right side of her body, and the twentieth-first rumbling sound sounded, “Dokalfar is one of the first fifteen races to come into existence.”
“The first fifteen races?” I said with a slight interest in my voice; this was the first time I felt interested in history and lore.
“The first fifteen races can be split into three categories. Higher races, middle races and lower races. The higher races are: Dokalfars and our opposite race Ljosolfars. True Vampires and their opposite race True Werebeasts. Archangels and their opposite race Archdemons. The middle races have no opposite races and they are: Cambions, Oni, Tengu and Kumiho. The lower races like the middle races have no opposite races and they are: Humans, Orcs, Dwarfs, Trolls and Undead.
I nodded my head in understanding and thought,
does that mean that all these races were playable in the game? There was not a single player who was any one of the higher or middle races. The players were either one of the lower races which for some reason doesn’t have Elves included. Or races that were not part of the first fifteen races, such as Vampires and Werewolves amongst the others… Hmm… Vampires must come from True Vampires, and Werewolves must come from True Werebeasts, but Nara was a Werebeast lord, so maybe not? Or maybe each of the first fifteen races have multiple descendant races? Then what about the Elves? Are they the descendent race of Dokalfar? No, that doesn’t make any sense. Liliana said that Dokalfars were hunted down 100,000,000 years ago and she was the only survivor. It would be impossible for them to have any descendent races…
There was one way, but my thoughts didn’t dare to go in that direction.
“Liliana you still haven’t answered my question. What exactly are Dokalfars? And what about the Elves?” I said.
Liliana tilted her head in confusion and a twentieth-second rumbling sound sounded, “I already answered you though.” She returned her head to normal position and a twentieth-third rumbling sound sounded, “Dokalfars are the higher race. One of the fifteen original races. As for the Elves, they are the descendants of the Ljosolfar.”
I nodded my head in understanding and thought,
so Dokalfars have ears as long as the Elves and Ljosolfars are Elf ancestors. That basically means that both Dokalfar and Ljosolfar are both elf races. You could call them not opposite races like Liliana said, but sister races instead.
“I see—so, why won’t your body awaken anytime soon?” I said.
Liliana sighed heavily, “I will start from the very beginning, but don’t expect me to recite it in great detail. It would just take me too much time.”
I nodded my head, “I understand.”
Liliana lowered her eyes, looking at the ground and the twentieth-fourth rumbling sound sounded, “Like I already said, 100,000,000 years ago, when I was only fifteen years old, we were attacked.” She raised her eyes from the ground, looking at my green eyes, and the twentieth-fifth rumbling sound sounded, “By the Ljosolfars.”
I widened my eyes in surprise and I mumbled, shocked, “What?!”
So much for sister races…
I thought, during which Liliana continued speaking, “Becoming aware of the attack, my father – the emperor of Dokalfar, issued an evacuation order for everyone under 10,000 years old. But I wasn’t willing to leave my family behind, and so I threw a tantrum.”
I raised the corners of my lips, smiling gently.
Liliana shook her head and the twentieth-sixth rumbling sound sounded, “But my tantrum didn’t last even four seconds as I felt someone hit the back of my neck and I blacked out… When I regained my consciousness, I saw that I was in a camp and I saw a few hundred Dokalfar children around me, but no matter how much I looked, I couldn’t find my big brother, my mother or my father…"
I sighed heavily, “I am sorry.”
Liliana shook her head and the twentieth-seventh rumbling sound sounded, “You don’t have anything to be sorry about, but thank you, Drak.” She lowered her eyes looking at the ground and the twentieth-eighth rumbling sound sounded, “Not finding them, and seeing that I was already far away from the city, from my home, I slowly walked away from the camp and stopped once I was 10-yards away from it. I stared in the direction of my home. In my heart, I already knew that my father, mother and big brother were all dead. I collapsed on my knees, my eyes got filled with tears and I swore that I would kill all the Ljosolfar. But as I swore, I heard a sudden shout, ‘I found them, kill them all!’ hearing those words, I paled, and I hid behind the closest tree, I knew that I was too weak to do anything, and that I could only hide.”
I nodded my head.
“A few short moments passed, and screams of pain and anguish of my people entered my ears. Hearing them, I shut my ears closed with my hands, and tears flowed out of my eyes like rivers. I waited and waited, I don’t know for how long, but when I returned to the camp, there were only corpses of my people waiting for me and nothing else. Seeing them, just laying there lifelessly on the ground, made me think of my big brother, my father and my mother. My thirst for vengeance grew,” Liliana said.
I nodded my head for the second time.
“In the following years, I trained and trained. I knew that if I wanted to get my revenge, I had to become stronger than my big brother, stronger than my father, stronger than any Dokalfar that ever lived. And so, I trained for 50,000,000 years without stopping and then I left for their capital,” Liliana said.
I nodded my head for the third time.
“When I arrived to their capital, not one of them recognised my race. Not one. I was both enraged and confused at the same time, but I still was more furious than confused. Thus, I began slaughtering them, one after another. And when three-fourths of their capital’s population had perished, their emperor came out and he shouted towards me, ‘Who are you?! Why are you doing this?! We have never harmed anyone!’ Hearing his words, I got enraged even further and I shouted back, ‘You slaughtered my people 50,000,000 years ago. I came to collect the debt of blood!’ And he responded to me by kneeling on the ground and shouting out, ‘I apologise for my ancestors’ actions. Please spare us!’ I didn’t listen to his words as I thought that he was trying to survive by lying,” Liliana said.
I nodded my head for the fourth time.
“I didn’t stop there, I started searching for any Ljosolfar that weren’t in the capital. And as I searched and before I could kill them all, I learned that Ljosolfar unlike Dokalfar had a maximum lifespan of 100,000 years. Learning this, I thought that all the Ljosolfar that attacked my people were already long dead, and my vengeance’s target disappeared, and I entered depression. Skip through 40,000,000 years, during which I sank into the depths of my depression, and was rescued from it by an Archangel and a true Vampire; then I became an adventurer; then a hero; then a legendary hero and finally the leader of the ten legendary heroes around 10,000,000 years ago,” Liliana said.
I nodded my head for the fifth time.
“Together we all ventured around the world, saved it from destruction more than a handful of times, but then one day the Ljosolfar that slaughtered my people, and I thought dead, appeared before me, alive and well. My rage ignited once more, and I rushed at them with my heart full of hatred. But, I was beaten to a pulp and almost killed. Luckily for me, my nine companions came in the nick of time and I didn’t die. Together with them, we killed most of the Ljosolfar but,” Liliana shook her head and
twentieth
-ninth rumbling sound sounded.
“Before we could finish the last Ljosolfar off, they disappeared into nothingness. But not before casting a magic on the mortal legendary heroes which made their bodies fall into sleep. We knew that the Ljosolfar would return one day and stronger than ever. But we also knew that it would be many years in the future. We also knew that we needed the strength of all the legendary heroes when that happened. For this purpose we created ten inheritance grounds. My real body will only awaken when one of the two happens. All inheritances are passed on, or the Ljosolfar have returned,” Liliana said.
I nodded my head in understanding, “I see.” I said and thought,
so if I want to see Liliana in the flesh, I would either have to wait until those three appear or find nine people that could pass the tests and accept the inheritances.
“I have one question, before I leave,” I said.
Liliana tilted her head in confusion, and the thirtieth rumbling sound sounded, “What question?”
“Does your statue have a sense of touch?” I said.
“Yes, I have all my senses, why?” Liliana said, confused.
I raised the right corner of my mouth, forming a smirk on my face; then I approached Liliana’s stone statue by taking a few steps forward and touched her lips with mine. I felt cold stone pressing against my lips, and it felt in no way satisfying. But as our lips met, her eyes widened from shock and the thirtieth-first rumbling sound sounded and just one second later, the torches extinguished and her eyes dimmed down.
I moved away from the statue,
see you soon.
I thought and walked out of her room the way I came from. After passing 5,000 torches, I came out into Lilith’s room; from there I walked into the path that was opened to me when I ‘failed’ the test of the eighth legendary hero.