The information of the Shades of Chaos that Wayne revealed was bothering Hao Ren. It was not known if it was instinct or something else that; he could vaguely sense the Shades of Chaos, and the otherworldlings were related judging from their attributes.
They made people mad?" Hao Ren interrupted Wayne. "How?"
Wayne was very patient. "They attack indiscriminately, but their targets are still limited to the supernatural races. We don"t know it for sure because all this is just the record in the ancient book."
The Shades of Chaos targeted unique races with supernatural powers, in other words, those who were from the Plane of Dreams, and those who were attacked would fall into the frenzied state of the indiscriminate attack. This unusual nature reminded Hao Ren of one thing: it was a primitive manifestation of "innate hostility," a tendency to attack each other among the otherworldlings.
It was now unclear why Y"zaks and his daughter had also become the targets. Though they were of a supernatural race, they were not from the Plane of Dreams.
Hao Ren kept the doubt to himself and continued to listen to Wayne"s explanation.
"The origin of the Shades of Chaos is a mystery. It is very ancient, not many people know about it now. All I know is that the Ancattero family in South America has been responsible for guarding the seal for many years. I think the few elders here should know better than I do."
While saying, Wayne looked at Hesperides, who was sitting in a corner. Hesperides nodded slightly and got to her feet. "As far as I could remember, the last time the Shades of Chaos appeared was in the early days of the Olympus era in Rome. Violence broke out, dragging several deicidal families into conflict. At last, several ancient families joined forces, captured the Shade of Chaos and sealed them together with the source of their power before transferring them to a mountain in South America. The few families building the seal had had some problems, and finally, the Ancattero family took over the job of guarding the seal."
Everyone else at the scene already knew the story, so basically, Wayne and Hesperides were telling it to Vivian and Hao Ren who had just arrived. After Hesperides sat down, Vivian hemmed embarra.s.sedly. "Do you know who was responsible for building the seal?"
As she spoke, she looked around nervously, but it was evident that no one knew the answer. Even Hesperides, who was the most senior, shook her head. "I was still young, and the Olympus family didn"t partic.i.p.ate in the incident directly. I just heard from the elders that there was a battle in the wilderness, and then the incident ended confusingly."
Vivian acknowledged with an "Oh" and turned her head away rather weirdly. "I… maybe… I mean possibly I was involved in the sealing of the Shades of Chaos."
Everyone was stunned. Wayne, who after telling Vivian so many things, almost fell to the ground again hearing what she said. The ancients could not believe that the clueless Countess Vivian Ancestor was involved but needed her juniors to tell her what had happened. Trying to hide their gaffe, everyone pretended to be busy; some pretended to drink, some pretended to look at their watches and read doc.u.ments. They wanted to suggest to Vivian to take more melatonin but were too embarra.s.sed to do so. Vivian was self-conscious and knew what they were thinking. She sighed. "I know I look funny, but I couldn"t help it, I have forgotten everything. I have even learned the name of Ancattero from you all just now. Since I was the one who sealed those things, I should also be responsible when they escaped," she said.
Vivian turned to Wayne. "Do your family still keep in touch with the Ancattero family? What happened to them?"
When talking about this, everyone the a.s.sembly hall fell into silence again. Wayne only spoke after a while, face serious. "The Ancattero family has lost contact with the outside world. Their family"s secret realm has been completely sealed from the outside world since last month. All the investigators except one who went to check them out did not make it back. The one who made it back was severely injured and became mad. According to the confused narration of the surviving investigator, the Ancattero family may have been wiped out."
"Wiped out?" Vivian"s eyes widened. "Are there any other members of their family on the outside?"
"The Ancattero family is a very, very conservative family. They are hermits. None of their family members had ever ventured out in the open. They retain a small number of alien dimensions in the world and live in a semi-self-sufficient way. Only a tiny number of their family members are, but those humans know even less." Wayne shook his head. "The Ancattero family is very mysterious. There have rarely been in contact with others during ancient times. Our family had only conducted a minimum business relations.h.i.+p with them as they produced high-quality rune items."
Y"zaks had been silent since the beginning. He suddenly cut in. "I just heard you say that the matter is related to the demon hunter?"
"We have no evidence," Wayne said, shrugging. He then pointed at a burly, dark-skinned man who was a distance from him. "The Holfinly family said they had the evidence."
"I"m Holfinglian werewolf leader, Hogwarf. I met them in the Battle of Troy three thousand years ago." The tall, muscular black man nodded to Vivian and introduced himself. "Our family is currently active in Western Australia. But last month when the Ebben family and we b.u.mped into the demon hunter when we met in South America. The retreating family warriors said that the demon hunters happened to be active nearby the Ancattero family, who also happened to lose contact with the outside world a few days after that. I suspect that the demon hunters attacked the Ancattero family and stupidly destroyed the seal."
Before Hogwarf"s voice trailed off, and a woman dressed in black, with a pale complexion and a gloomy face sitting across from him snorted softly. "I don"t think the demon hunters would be stupid to ignore the many families in South America and only go for Ancattero. Didn"t they collude with each other all this while? I"m afraid your intel isn"t that accurate; retreating soldiers? More like deserters lying to you to escape punishment."
The woman in black angered Hogwarf. This veteran werewolf leader did not mince his words when he displayed his temper. His hand banged his hand on the table and caused a large crack in the wood. "Hayla, you mix-blood don"t deserve to stand here! You"re just like your b.a.s.t.a.r.d father, shallow!"
Hessiana immediately looked at the crack wooden table and yelled at Hogwarf, "This table costs 60 grand!"
The woman in black, Hayla, also hit the table with her hand. "Hogwalf, do you think that I don"t know? You just wanted us to go to the demon hunters and get ma.s.sacred. You already have a notorious reputation in South America!"
Hessiana jumped on both Hayla and Hogwarf. "You two must share the cost of damage!"
Hogwarf and Hayla finally noticed Hessiana. Both of them glanced at Hessiana, stunned. "Why is it so expensive?"
Brawls among the otherworldlings were the norm. No one raised an eyebrow. Hao Ren asked Zeon Lucas who was nearby him, "Do they have grudges?"
"Hayla is a survivor of the Odin family. Her father, Rocky, once lured Thor to use a lightning bolt to ignite a laurel tree on the mountain to test the accuracy of his magic and unwittingly killed a giant wolf that happened to be under the laurel tree at that time. The wolf was Hogwarf"s distant nephew," Zeon Lucas whispered. "Though it was more than 2,000 years ago, and Rocky and Thor had died, but their surviving family members were in loggerhead ever since."
Fortunately, a fight did not break out between Hayla and Hogwarf; in one hand, Hessiana had interrupted them and on the other hand, they scrupled as they had high respect for Vivian Ancestor was treated like their half-mother. The angry old demons bit their lips and sat back down and signed an I-owe-you letter for Hessiana. When things had quieted down, Hao Ren asked, "Hayla said that the Ancattero family colluded with the demon hunters? What was going on? Are there otherworldlings that would want to collude with the demon hunters?"
"It"s all rumors!" Wayne Walter said with a wry smile. "There will always be one or two bad apples in a basket. The Ancattero family had been low-key since the Mythological era and never partic.i.p.ated in any battle, including the battle with the demon hunters. After the end of the Mythological era, they escaped the persecution of the demon hunters and the human church, so it is understandable that people would suspect them."
Though there was no proof to Wayne"s words, it reinforced the notion of the existence of some "tacit understanding" between the Ancattero family and the demon hunters. Hao Ren could only be stunned.
Was there an otherworldling family in the world that could conspire with the demon hunter? Where was the congenital hostility?