Sairi remembered the name Gladious from when he was spying on one of the Enix members. To clear himself of suspicion after everyone looked at him in surprise, he said, "I’m not one of the Enix, and I don’t know who Gladious is. I just killed one of them on my way and took these clothes from him, and the same thing happened to my friend Ares. And I have a question for you: who are the Enix, and who is this Gladious? Why are they watching us? And where did we get these strange powers? If you answer these questions honestly, I might consider joining a madman like you."
Gaia gave a half-smile, as if remembering something that bothered and troubled him. "This Gladious is the wretch who stirred up sedition on my planet. He is the same one who tampered with my brother’s mind and informed him of the crystal’s power, which was hidden from the public. He is the one who stirred up the war between me, my brother, and the people of Atlantis. He is the one who transported you here in cooperation with some humans from the New Atlantis on planet Earth, in the journey they called Enix 3. He is the one who trained you and gave you these powers and ordered the Enix to monitor you until you test these powers of yours in the harsh environment of the outside world. And whoever survives among you is eligible to join the Enix, or the Holy Guard in his language. But... there is another purpose for your existence, which is to send you to steal the crystal. But it seems that things did not go as he wanted this time either. And here you are now before me and at my mercy, and I have informed you of the truth. But he is still striving to obtain the Crystal of Life by all means, and he will fail every time. Know that your true enemy is not me. It is Gladious."
Everyone exchanged glances, their bodies trembling from Gaia’s coldness and his sharp, powerful, and vital gaze. They felt as if he were the king of the whole earth, and they felt that all their convictions and ideas had fallen before their eyes like a leaf in the wind.
No one uttered a word because they didn’t know what to say. Where to begin and where to end? Many questions and ideas were thrown into their minds, making them feel for the first time that they were very small in this life and worth nothing in the face of all these secrets, all this deception, and all these things that they used to think in the past were a fantasy, far from the truth. But now they stood before an unknown creature on another planet, and somehow they had found themselves on it. The presence of this creature gave off a strange awe that they did not understand the reason for, which made them sweat profusely despite the cold weather.
Gaia broke the heavy silence, saying in a resonant tone that stuck in their minds and hearts, "Gladious informed humans of my brother Athenos’ invasion of planet Earth to take it as a permanent home for him and his followers from the people of Atlantis after they became homeless. And so, the CITRA agency built a ship that was the largest ever, and Gladious convinced them to move to the planet Atlantis and bring the largest possible number of humans, after their memories were erased and they were integrated into my planet. Then they would build a city that was an exact copy of the New Atlantis on planet Earth and detain the humans in it under the pretext that the robots had destroyed the world and this was their only refuge for survival. Then the humans would continue to fight against my robots and against me until they were victorious under the leadership of Gladious, and then he would get his hands on the Crystal of Life after he had failed to defeat me before through my brother Athenos. This is because the people of Atlantis never learned how to hold a weapon, while the robots, with some programming from me, can fight much better than any other creature. This was the reason for their loss. But..."
He paused for a moment to give them a chance to absorb what he had said, then took a deep breath and added, "But you humans have been raised on wars and fighting since creation, and you have great experience in war strategies, putting pressure on the enemy, and the ability to fight well. This is the opposite of the peaceful nature of the people of Atlantis, who lived for thousands of years without holding a single weapon except on rare occasions. That is why Gladious placed all his hopes on you to get him the crystal that my brother had failed to obtain. That is why he carried out this conspiracy and this long deception of your minds so that you would get him the crystal without feeling that you were serving him. And he almost succeeded in using you to put pressure on me, if it weren’t for a small mistake made by one of you, which resulted in my invasion of New Atlantis and its destruction. And that is the story in a nutshell."
Gaia looked at Sairi and pointed his finger at him, saying in a warning tone, "Don’t think, you fool, that you truly managed to kill an Enix member at your level. They are much stronger than you imagine. The only one who can defeat them on this planet is me. So if you escape from here and meet one of them, don’t you dare confront him. Run away."
He raised his hands in the air and continued, as if he were a Roman Caesar addressing his people, "And now, what is your decision? Will you enter into an alliance with me so we can put an end to all this nonsense? Or will you just stand there silently and waste my time?"
Ivanov stepped in for the first time, making his presence known. He said in his hoarse, mocking voice, "From what you’re saying, it sounds Gladious is quite the deceiver. But how are we supposed to believe you, an unknown creature we know almost nothing about? Maybe you’re the deceiver, who knows! And maybe this whole story, including your video, is a fabrication. It’s been faked and edited—that’s easy enough to do these days. Or maybe the truth is the other way around. Maybe Gladious is the one trying to protect us, and you’re the one who wants to destroy us. All the evidence points to that, after all. We saw the horrific experiments on our people, and you showed us what you did to your own. Do you really think we’ll just believe you and join you against this Gladious, who we know nothing about? There’s a lot of nonsense in your story, and plenty of things that sound like they were pulled straight out of a fantasy. Of course, your strange appearance proves you’re not human, and our own weird abilities prove there are things happening that are beyond our understanding, but..." Get full chapters from 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⁂𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⁂𝕟𝕖𝕥