The Ashen Keeper

Chapter 70

"Hello there, keeper. You sure are enjoying yourselves."

"Thou art welcome to join if they will agree, my dear Grandmaster."

He waved his hands at this knowing fully well that nobody wanted him to sit there. He also doesn't look like the type to sit by a bonfire and discuss stories.

"You know, keeper, I have a feeling you will living as long as us. Look at them talking peacefully together. I do not understand why they aren't going around screaming knowing they will eventually rot away."

"That, my dear Grandmaster is the beauty of life. Something neither of us will get to enjoy. Look at thyself, gambling away in hopes of excitement. Wearing bright colors in hopes of opposing the dullness of thy life. Maybe, I too will become indistinguishable from thee one day."

"I hope with all my heart that you do not become addicted to something. All of us elders are addicted to one thing. Mine just happened to be games. I could use the company of someone different."

"Maybe, my dear keeper. Maybe and I have been ... meaning to ask. What will you now be doing?"

"I do not know, my dear Grandmaster but doubts too are part of life. That is what makes them unpredictable are they not? Perhaps, I will roam around the cosmos searching for news of Yharnam.

Perhaps I will go back to the place I first set foot on. But, right now, I have been meaning to visit Nidavellir. I do need some weapons for my disciple."

"Then, I will bid you farewell ahead. I came here to warn you about something I learnt from Red Hood. Do keep in mind that I am not ... you know ... threatening you."

"Go ahead, Grandmaster. Pray tell me what is on thou mind. I wish to know of it. Speak freely."

"Well, I don't know if you have heard of this but there used to exist a being who would go around devouring planets as a source of energy. We used to call him Galactus but he is no more after being corrupted by something.

Before, he consumes planets as a force of nature. As a source of balance. Destruction for creation but he became corrupted. Corrupted by something that resembles Red Hood.

Now, he has become a giant skeleton going around devouring the stars themselves alongside this reality. He used to known as 'Devourer of Worlds' and he was known to exist.

Remember, the key word is 'known'. Despite the fact that he goes around eating worlds, they think of him more as a natural disaster. Of course, there exists worlds that resisted. They all end in destruction. There also exists worlds that try to negotiate, and some did work!

Despite the fact that he goes around eating planets, he is still a known being that can be talked with. But now, he has become something horrifying.

So, horrifying that everyone refuses to even acknowledge him. He has become something akin to ghosts and monster. An indescribable horror you may say. A monster that goes around eating suns and twisting reality itself, so everything becomes part of him.

He has now become something not meant to be look upon by mortal eyes. They now call him a 'cosmic horror'. Something in stories. Something to scare children. Something to describe him."

"How would they know about him if they did not lay their eyes upon. A bit confusing, isn't it?"

"Here's a question, Ms. Keeper.

Does what we know depends on whether there is someone who know?"

"I believe the answer to be simple, Grandmaster. How would we know about something if no one else knows about it. If thou art the only one to see something, thou might dismiss it as a hallucination. But if someone else sees the same, it is sure to exist."

"Yes, yes the answer is quite simple. It does. Imagine a tree fell in a forest. It would make vibrations in the air. However, those vibrations do not become noise unless they vibrate an eardrum.

So, in the same way, the light from the sun does not become light unless it falls on an eyeball. We could say that the floor is hard but nothing is hard except in relation to the soft surface of the skin. Nothing is heavy except in relation to the muscles of the body.

Nothing ever exists before a group of people are certain of it. If you feel a pain in your stomach, you might assume that it is because you have an illness. If a group of people feels a pain in their stomach, there is obviously something wrong with the food.

A large group of people must have seen or know of something before being proven. Now keeper, you could go up to anyone and ask if they know of the 'cosmic horror'.

They are certain to know. Nobody told them. Nobody proved it. They just do as natural as drinking or eating that no one teaches. You could go back to Earth and even then, it will be a horror story and nothing more.

But does there not lie a problem in the fact that every planet in the universe happens to have the same story that no one believes. Even I believed it to be fiction before meeting the red hood.

Out there, something is coming for you. Something not even the giant you slay could compare to. It is hunting for you.

Following after you, tearing the fabrics of reality itself, hunting you relentlessly like a hunting dog on a loose. It could pop out any moment by tearing space itself so, do be careful."

"Tis an unusual way to say that thou art worried for me. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the warning. Next time though, thou could tell me directly."

"Who is worried about you? You destroyed my planet and ground it to dust. I just need you for my future endeavors so, make sure ... not to die."

Certainly, a strange way of telling her to stay safe but she will leave it at that. Soon, she will leave behind this planet. It is time to give weapons to her disciples.