Ben's mind raced as he pieced the information together. Before, the system's information were too fragmented to make sense.
But now? The dots were starting to connect.
The opposing faction—the ones trying to stop the Daemons—must have created the system. They likely summoned a Traveler like him and built give them system and artifact to help guide them against the Daemon threat.
And if there were groups actively hunting Travelers… then it made sense. They were probably working with—or for—the Daemons.
"This group," Ben said, his tone more serious, "can you tell me more about them?"
She nodded slowly. "I don't know what their original name was, before the split. It's been too long. But after the fall, they each took a name. The ones who sided with the Daemons called themselves the Templars. The others, the ones who stood against them… they became the Crusaders."
"Crusaders and Templars…" Ben repeated the words quietly, filing them away. It wasn't the full picture, not yet—but at least now he had a direction. "And the Daemons—can you tell me more about what they can do? Their abilities?"
"They're not like any creature you've seen," she said grimly. "Each one is a harbinger of death—unique in form and power. But there's one thing they all share. They don't use mana. Mana obeys them. And it's not just this world mana."
Ben's brow furrowed. "What do you mean? They can use mana from different world?"
"One of them could," she said, then raised her palm. Water bubbled upward, forming spheres that hovered and began orbiting each other like a miniature solar system. "But that's not exactly it. Look here. These are planets. This is space. This is our world and others like it."
Ben nodded. "Yeah. That's the sun, that's the moon. I know how this works. There are galaxies. Star systems. Billions of planets. I get it."
She zoomed the image out further—until the spinning stars and swirling galaxies compressed into what looked like a glowing current. A silvery stream.
"To naked eyes, it looks like a river," she said. "But it's not. What do you think it is?"
Ben squinted. "I mean, I assume it's just distance. A visual illusion."
She chuckled softly. "No. You're wrong. Let me ask you something. In your world, you have a theory about cells, right? That all life is made of them?"
"Yeah, of course. Cells combine to form tissues, organs—whole organisms."
"Now imagine this," she said. "What if the entire universe is just a living organism? Every star, every planet, every system—just cells, serving a function. Moving. Living. Dying. Just like inside your body."
Ben's breath caught. "Wait. You mean… we're part of something bigger? Some living thing?"
"Yes," she said simply. "And just like cells, we don't know what we're part of. We just do our function and pass on."
He stood still for a moment, trying to wrap his head around the idea.
"But back to the point," she continued, folding the starmap back into mist, "the Daemons—somehow—they found a way to tap into the energy that flows through that great body. Not mana from the world. Not energy from the stars. Pure energy—a current that flows across the fabric of the universe itself. We call it Aether."
Ben blinked. "Aether?" The name hit something in the back of his mind. "Wait—like the Aetheri? Are they related?"
"Aetheri race?" she echoed with a faint smile. "Of course. They were one of the results from those experiments—the ones that led to the discovery of aether in the first place."
Ben hummed in thought. "That's interesting and all… but it still doesn't tell me how strong those Daemons actually were."
She tilted her head. "Let me put it this way. Based on the strength you showed earlier? The weakest Daemon could kill you in a heartbeat."
Ben raised an eyebrow. "You ever fought one?"
She let out a dry laugh. "Do I look like I fought one and lived to tell about it? If I had, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you ."
"Then how do you know all this? Don't tell me… you're a survivor from that epoch?"
Her gaze dropped, turning solemn. She shook her head. "That's not part of our deal. So I'm not answering. Ask something else."
Ben clicked his tongue, but let it go. "Alright. What about the Templars? Do you know anything about them? Their strength, where they are now, anything useful?"
She shrugged. "Nope. I've never met one. But if I had to guess, any humans that managed to survive on the surface are probably tied to the Templar Order somehow. They're likely the last remnants. Strong, organized, with a ranking system… and one of those ranks? 'Magus.' If you've ever heard that title."
"Magus, huh…" Ben muttered, remembering he had heard about them before. "How about their strength?"
The Lady of the Lake tapped her chin thoughtfully. "It's been a long time since I last crossed blades with one of them, so I can't say for sure what their strength is now. But you…" Her eyes slid to the pickaxe resting on Ben's back. "If you use your strength properly, you should be able to win. That weapon of yours—it's dangerous."
Ben gave a small nod, swinging the pickaxe through the air with a casual grunt. "I know. But other than stabbing or smashing things, it doesn't do much. It's tough to fight creatures that can just regenerate no matter how many times I kill them."
She smiled faintly. "You're thinking too narrowly. That's your artifact, isn't it?"
"Then here's my last piece of advice," she said. "Artifacts don't always reveal everything they can do. Just because it hasn't shown you its full power doesn't mean it doesn't have more to give. Sometimes, you need to push it—experiment. Find it yourself."
Ben eyes narrowed, 'she's right, I cannot just blindly believe system description.' He remember how many times the system just act as it pleased, maybe it judge he doesn't need to know for now, but that doesn't mean the ability doesn't exist. And now the real system is on hibernation, so there's possibility that the information haven' updated properly.