"What do you an?" Ashton asked Vulcan.
"There is a reason why that Staff was left untouched by the Xyrans," Vulcan replied, slowly regaining his composure. "Even the strongest amongst them couldn't ta the staff that held the power of creation and destruction."
Ashton felt it was story ti, so he picked Aegis up in his arms and sat down. Vulcan did not bother waiting for him and kept narrating what little he rembered about the staff.
"The dwarves were responsible for making and maintaining almost everything the Precursors ever touched. However, not once were we allowed to see, let alone touch the Staff of Eden."
He continued, "Obviously, being restricted only made us more eager to use the staff. But none of us wanted to disrespect our creator's wishes. None, but two morons, and humans at that."
[I'm willing to bet a thousand Yenos, it was a distant relative of yours.]
Ashton did not strike back as the tale was more important to him than Astaroth's barking. Vulcan rembered that a human couple called Adam and Lilith sneaked into the forbidden sector to see why the staff held such significance to the Precursors.
The security wasn't tight because the Precursor believed no human would defy their instructions. But they were mistaken as the seed of curiosity often defied the authority of a higher being.
However, halfway through, Adam had a change of heart and no longer wanted to disobey the Precursors. But Lilith wasn't as docile as her partner. Once she set her mind on sothing, she would stop at nothing to achieve it.
Adam knew only the Precursors could stop Lilith, so he left her and rushed out to confess to their lords and get their help. However, by the ti they returned, it was already too late, and Lilith had got hold of the staff which slowly corrupted her.
Her appearance changed drastically, and she had evolved into sothing of her own creation.
"That's how the first-ever Succbus ca into being." Vulcan sighed, "As a result of her actions, Lilith was imdiately banished from Eden, the Precursor's ho world. But before she was thrown into the endless space, sothing weird happened to the staff."
"What could possibly happen to such an overpowered artefact?"
"No one knows, as the Precursors never ntioned the staff ever again," Vulcan replied, "But if I had to guess, I'd say Lilith wasn't the only one who got corrupted that night."
"She corrupted the staff? But how is that even possible?"
"Think of it like this. The staff was a puddle of the purest water in the universe, and Lilith's touch was like sewage. Now you see what happened?"
It was a weird analogy to explain sothing, but it worked. Since the Precursors were the 'purest beings' in the galaxy, they could use the staff as they pleased and hence did not want anyone else to contaminate the staff. Therefore, they prohibited anyone from even looking at it.
But sothing felt a bit weird about the story. Ashton couldn't point it out; however, he knew there was more to the tale than what Vulcan told him.
Either Vulcan didn't know the complete truth about the story, or he was purposefully excluding so details to make the Precursors seem like the good guys.
[Victor's version of the story is often popular, but more often than not, it's covered in lies. Unfortunately, there's no one from whom we can get the other side of the story.]
'I wouldn't be so sure of it just yet. As long as I can get so soul fragnts, I can reconstruct-'
[Do you know how to?]
'...I'm working on it.' Ashton thought, 'But first, I need to take care of sothing else.'
Ashton wanted to call out Vulcan on his lies. From the mont Vulcan began narrating the tale, Ashton had used [Heartbeat Sense] on the dwarf. A couple of tis, Ashton knew Vulcan was lying, or at least he was omitting the truth.
Rather than calling him out without proof, Ashton decided to get the complete story from sowhere else, hopefully. But there was one thing he wanted to confirm first.
"Master, please, don't answer my next question with a lie." Ashton mumbled as he turned around to leave, "Do you believe Lilith was the one who corrupted the staff?"
Vulcan did not respond, but in his silence was the answer Ashton had been seeking.
"I see," Ashton left the room with Aegis right behind him, "Maybe we should talk about it soti later when you have made peace with your thoughts."
***
anwhile, Anna and Eula were busy discussing the specifics of the mission.
Since they couldn't take a request to retrieve the staff, as it would inform people hiding in the shadows about the artefact's whereabouts, Eula suggested Anna take A job request that would land them on a wild planet called Occuna.
Occuna was a planet overrun with wild beasts, which ant many job requests ca from there. The quests varied from subjugation to defence to escorting, so the team should be okay with taking on a job from Occuna.
By this ti, Ashton returned from Vulcan's chamber and joined in on the plan.
"Once you are done taking care of the job request, you can look for the artefact without any disturbance," Eula eagerly told the couple.
Although she had a point, there was one thing she was missing. A quick search pointed out that Occuna was roughly four tis the size of Earth. That said, looking for an artefact no one had ever seen before was too far-fetched.
"I agree," Anna mumbled, "Finding a needle in a haystack would be much easier if he had a magnet. But other than the artefact's existence, we know nothing about it."
Ashton knew Vulcan would be of help in verifying the artefact. However, after witnessing his reaction to the ntion of the staff, Ashton decided it was better not to include the dwarf in the planning for now.
[Although it would put us at a disadvantage, it's the right choice.]
In the anti, since Ashton had already accepted a lot of job requests, he was going through the list to see if there was any request from Occuna. To no one's surprise, there was a chain request on the list.
A chain request was multiple quests marked under a single job request. At the sa mont, Ashton had a realisation. The Gold Water rcenaries might have had their eyes on the sa job.
"Maybe we don't need to be so clueless after all." Ashton smiled.
"What do you an?" Anna asked.
"Well, if we don't know about the artefact, we'll just have to team up with those who do." Ashton replied, "Get ready. A joint operation is in order."
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