'Again with the underworld.'
Northern had been noticing it for a while now. Underworld.
But he refused to ask Sura, knowing very well it could ruin the progression of their conversation right now.
Instead, he chose to confirm something else.
Lingering for a second before he asked.
"So, if this place was an exile for you, does it mean you alone were here from the beginning?" Northern's eyes squinted as he awaited Sura's answer.
"Of course. I molded the red walkers from the volcano, as I did with the white walkers from the glacier mountain. Distorted the concepts of this realm and made everyone believe Ulzred and Alana are needed for the rift to be defeated."
Northern shook his head, his brows slowly furrowing as Sura continued.
"Well, how do I put this, neither I nor Fano is the guardian of the realm. I killed the guardian a long time ago. Of course, it tried to make me its guardian naturally, but that was too much of a burden so I created Ulzred and Alana, dividing the role amongst the two of them."
He scratched the back of his neck with a small smile.
"The whole story of them going into the mountain is all lies I told to divert Fano's attention away from the fact that they are the guardian, not him."
"Yes, Fano, I created him too, but I created him from my own blood. I created Ulzred and Alana from a mixture of my blood and the fabric of the sky."
Northern paled; he was hearing some really unrealistic things.
Sura smiled and pointed to himself.
"Me? I'm just a wanderer who got off on the wrong foot with Tearun's whore. Well, in our world, the powerful rule high and the weak suffer in submission. Being a much greater person than myself, Taerun banished me for a whore."
He seethed with anger towards the end of his speech.
Northern stared blankly for long. Then shook his head.
"I still understand nothing of what you speak."
Sura massaged his chin for a couple of seconds before he then said to Northern.
"Young man, should we help each other? You owe me a debt after all. But you know, I observed that I keep starting off on the wrong foot with a lot of people and you know, I actually want to have friends that care about me. So I will write away your debt; in return, you can just give us a chance to work things out."
He paused, observing Northern's demeanor before he continued.
"Since you look like you could use a little bit of my knowledge, how about I do that and you tell me how you took my powers from Fano…" He paused abruptly and thought for a brief second.
Then he refocused his gaze on Northern.
"Maybe I should just say it clean. Since we are friends, I'll be honest with you." He breathed, "I want you to teach me how to do it too?"
Northern did not respond, instead looked at Sura for a while.
He knew that it was practically impossible, but didn't know how to convey that idea to Sura so that it wouldn't look like he didn't want to sell out his secret.
"Is everything as simple as having a technique to them? So you create these monsters, with techniques that are teachable?"
Sura immediately retracted his head with a slight frown but quickly hid his expression behind a smile that beautified his face and said:
"No, no, my friend… that is not something that your kind should be curious about."
Northern made a slight frown.
"Oh, so you are still discriminating? And you want to be friends?"
"What? Discriminate? Me? Bah!" He scoffed hard, "I don't diss anyone, not to talk of criminate them."
Northern felt like shrinking into the ground.
'Seriously, how much more cringe will this guy get…'
Trying to trick Sura was clearly working, but the guy had a very obvious mask over his trueness, one that Northern was not sure how to remove.
And because of that mask, Northern couldn't trust him, even if he does manage to remove the mask, Northern still couldn't trust. Cause who would?
The bastard fed the entire rift lies for how Eldech knows how long.
Northern just had to tread carefully, not make his intent known and manage to get out what he wanted from Sura without asking him.
"Learning it is a forbidden art, which is why I said it is not for your kind to be curious about," Sura explained to Northern with a calm tone.
"I see… What a coincidence though… it's the same thing with my case."
Sura narrowed his eyes at Northern as he continued.
"It's an art specific to the essence of my name. It's not teachable. It's just something I can do because of my name."
Sura nodded in understanding, with downturned lips.
"I can render any other help you want. In return, can you answer my question?"
Sura looked at him suspiciously for a couple of seconds then eventually nodded, agreeing to Northern.
"What is the Underworld? Is it the same place as Stuart?"
Sura stared with a deadpan look on his face.
Causing Northern to ask, tensed.
Sura shrugged and said nonchalantly, "I mean, I just thought you were going to ask me a more meaningful question since you were willing to be indebted to me."
Northern frowned immediately, "What? Indebted? When did I…"
Before he could end, Sura's voice interrupted as he explained.
"Underworld, it is simple. Underworld is the world under a world. In this case, however, the world under your own. Have you ever wondered what rifts are?"
Northern was still concerned about his initial statement, but his explanation needed to be paid attention to.
"I thought they are like a tear in space that swallows dimensions?"
Sura gave him a disappointed look.
"Tear in space? Swallow dimensions? What a lame explanation. Is that what people in your world think too?" He shook his head and clicked his tongue.
"I pity you guys; you lots are far from the truth. When destructions begin to strike us both, I wonder if you all will be able to fare at all."
He sighed and continued his main explanation.
"Well, your world is here, at the top." He gestured with a hand in the air.
"Our world is here, a contrast opposite of yours, right below."
He looked at Northern.
"Now, what do you think is in between, keeping both worlds apart?"
With a stoned expression, Northern slowly muttered,