Conqueror

Zieglind was... much more demonic than me. Even though my ugly appearance as both a demon and an abomination, I could still feel his towering presence over me. I was being crushed by his domineering aura of killing intent. I know it wasn't hurled towards me but he was intimidating. "What do you mean by that my lord?" I asked. My mouth didn't move but the monster inside my open chest. Well by saying monster... it means my true form.

"Afal, do you have a clue why all of the players in this world are madly driven by power?" Zieglind then asked me. He suppressed his rage since I couldn't feel it anymore.

I didn't want to scare Zieglind more so I retracted my true form back to my chest and the wound closed. I was back in my... body vessel. "Now that you say that... most of the so-called 'players' that I encountered in the war when Itz and Polk was fighting, they weren't protecting their allies. They just rushed in."

"Those are just idiots. You haven't seen a true player. Hera was one of the strongest players I've ever fought. All players here must've met a condition or trait that we all have. I've met Tark, Hera and others that I might've already forgotten. Tark wanted to pillage and loot every single he want to see. Hera wanted to forge a religion to worship and him as the god. I have always thought of it myself. What man wouldn't do that?"

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"To take over the world."

"How can that be a requirement to enter?"

"Have you ever seen gods?"

"No but I've read of them."

"Then what can you say about them?"

"Controlling, selfish but others are passive and are neutral. But most of them are..."

"Yep. Most of them are rulers, judge and masters of the ones that worship them. You might think of gods as domineering or simply a symbol of power and authority. And this is where we come in. I'm guessing this game the gods that they set up are for testing if we can be gods. That's the end game of this anyway. But here's the big question..."

"What question?"

"How can we break the cycle?"

My eyes widened at the statement he just said. It was beyond preposterous and absurd. "To deny the gods' will, you must have the power of a god itself!"

"I know but... there must be something in this world that will stop it."

"You think the gods are hiding a mechanism like that, here in Pandir itself? Then anyone could just get it!"

"I know but what if it's unreachable?"

"Unreachable, how? We can fly above the clouds, dig underground holes that are a kilometer wide in just a month and such. We can dig it up or search for it in no time."

"You're forgetting something."

"What could I possibly forg-... Ah..." The realization hit me.

"Tartarus."

"It's plausible..."

"Right? Then even though thousands of monsters spawn in everyday, where do they come from? Ogres and such doesn't have any way of reproduction.Goblins have and I discovered that the hard way. But, what about the others? Like the golems in the artifact dungeon we just discovered. Do you really think that some rocks will form and have intelligence?"

"Are you saying that the Tartarus itself is supplying this world with monsters?"

"Exactly. Artifact dungeons are being discovered in an insane rate. I'm always asking Lam in our village to report it to me and several of the artifact dungeons are neatly placed in obvious locations. How can these be not discovered before? And such high artifact dungeons should be oozing with killing intent inside or a heavy pressure."

"So the Tartarus is also making the dungeons? But why?"

"Let's go to the strategic room."

Zieglind then led the way to the strategic room. There it was, a huge world map stuck to the wall. He grabbed the magic pen and started to draw on the map. I sat down on the chair near him while he was standing in front of the world map.

"This is our current political map isn't it?"

"Yes. So as of right now, we have the Three Kings as an enemy, Polk is our current occupied kingdom, Itz and Cagyer are our allies and this is the village wherein where we started. I don't know what our current relationship with other neighboring kingdoms since I haven't asked the king of Itz about it yet. Now, Afal, where is the Tartarus?"

"There." I pointed at the map.

Zieglind then encircled the location I pointed to. "See? There is no way this is not planned." It was at the very center of the map.

"So what's your plan?"

"I... I don't know. The level requirement for entering Tartarus according to you is Level 10000. Which is an absurd amount of levels. It can only be activated during a Battle Royale because the EXP gain is through the roof. So what is it that's inside there?" Zieglind was biting his nails thinking deeply as he looked at the encircled part of Tartarus in the world map. He spent the entirety of 2 days thinking of what could be inside there but to no avail. He didn't sleep nor eat any food but he just stared at the world map intently. And I was just there sitting.

"My lord, we should get s-"

"AFAL!" Zieglind suddenly shouted which caught me off-guard.

"Y- yes?" I answered meekly. Looks like he had gone insane.

"Oh, it's already night?" Zieglind said as he looked at the window beside him. "I must've took hours in my mind palace."

"Hours? It took you two days my lord."

"Wha-..." He was just shook.

"Anyway, what's mind palace if I may ask?"

"Oh nothing. Just a technique I learned when I was studying in college. Forced to learn it but it's useful."

"College?" I was beyond confused.

"It's not important. Anyway, I was trying to remember and trying to dig up anything from my past. I memorized a lot of books about history in my previous world and sometimes the stories of gods. I started with my history of my world because this and my previous world are the same. But I did not find anything. Then I tried to remember all the stories of gods. From Greek, Japanese, Roman, Norse and such. Then I remembered the girl who was given a gift."

"Umm... who?"

"Pandora."

"Is she like your acquaintance or something?" I was genuinely confused.

"No. Let me tell you a story about it. Prometheus was Epimetheus' brother. Because Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Pandora was introduced to Epimetheus. I don't know what was going in Zeus' mind when he did that."

"Please do be careful in speaking their names like that." We might offend the gods.

"Anyway, Epimetheus and Pandora got married. Then one day, Pandora received a bridal gift. As soon as curiosity took over her mind, she opened the box. The box was containing sickness, death and many other unspecified evils which were then released into the world. Hence the name, Pandora's box."

"So what's the connection between this and Tartarus?"

"I'm guessing... Pandora's Box is left open at Tartarus. Supplying magic and evil in this world and infinitely creating monsters and demons."