Deviant: No Longer Human

"What...?"

Wang Xiao couldn\'t help but turn towards Aurora, his eyes narrowing in confusion as the letters swiftly evaporated, whisked away by a mysterious, chilling breeze.

"..."

Still harboring a flicker of disbelief, Aurora shook her head slowly, her face marked by a shadow of unease. "It\'s... the Call of Death."

"What is the Call of Death?" Wang Xiao\'s frown deepened, his tone filled with apprehension at the sinister implications of the name.

Aurora replied, her gaze clouded and somber, "I can\'t decipher this script myself, but it\'s the same ancient language discovered on the relics unearthed during the Pangean era, from civilizations that existed long before ours, lost to the sands of time."

"And?" Wang Xiao asked, his tone laced with suspicion.

Aurora paused, her eyes darkening with the weight of memory. "And... during those times, there were strict decrees we had to abide by. One particularly strict rule stated that anyone who committed a heinous crime against the emperor was sent to the graveyard of gods to die."

Wang Xiao nodded, understanding the gravity of such a sentence.

It certainly seemed like a merciless way to execute someone, especially given the abysmally low survival rates in the tunnel to heaven.

Aurora\'s voice grew softer, almost a whisper, as she continued, "Back then, we had tales of those who perished within the graveyard. It was said that their souls would scream into the night, calling the living to join them, to share in their cursed fate."

"Their cries are the screams of souls still tormented, trapped in perpetual agony."

"And anyone who follows those screams," Aurora\'s voice dropped to a hush, "is doomed to suffer a similar fate."

"Thus, it was named \'The Call of Death.\'"

Wang Xiao, "..."

Even though he had braced himself for the worst, the reveal that it was merely lore from the ancient Pangean era still left him deeply unsettled.

However, a moment later, an unnerving thought struck him: since he could actually hear these whispers, shouldn\'t he be even more alarmed that a legend hundreds of millions of years old might be real?

Observing the shadow that crossed his face, Aurora hastened to add, "ᚹᛖᛊ Αίθερ— which is pronounced \'Ba-sen Kha Wes Aither\'... It means \'Come to the Aether,\' the cries of the damned calling you."

"Wait!" Wang Xiao abruptly came out of his reverie, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Didn\'t you say you don\'t understand this language?"

"..."

Aurora hesitated, her eyes reflecting a mixture of fear and reverence, before nodding slowly. "I don\'t know the entire language... But this particular phrase is etched into the memory of nearly every Pangean still living. It\'s almost instinctual for us."

"This isn\'t just any language; it\'s known as the Language of the Gods. Legend has it that the words themselves hold such immense power over the cosmic forces that they can warp the very fabric of reality."

"Anyone who masters this language," Aurora continued, her voice dropping to an awed whisper, "has the potential to command all the nine realms—"

"The sun, and the eight planets that orbit it."

"It\'s the ultimate language of the universe."

"Every word uttered is a command, and every stroke written is an expression of its indomitable will."

Aurora concluded, her gaze distant and full of wonder.

Wang Xiao, "..."

He fell silent, lost in thought...

Had he not witnessed it firsthand—the mysterious way the words materialized and then vanished in the snow—he would never have believed her words.

But now, it was clear. Aurora wasn\'t merely putting on a grim face; she was genuinely as astounded as he was—though, in truth, he was filled with awe while she was consumed by terror.

For Aurora, this moment was unprecedented.

Never in her life had she encountered someone who actually claimed to have heard the cursed call of death!

And that someone was none other than the father of her daughter!

She just couldn\'t understand—where had this all been all this time? Why him?

So many questions swarmed into her mind.

Until now, everything had been going as it should, but now!

It was all a— mess!

Seeing the distress etch deeper into Aurora\'s features, Wang Xiao gently placed his hand on her shoulder, "Aurora..."

"Y-Yeah?"

Jolted, Aurora flinched slightly before locking eyes with him, finding a deep concern reflected in his gaze.

"You\'re still not revealing everything to me," Wang Xiao said, his tone insistent.

He had overlooked her actions until now, but the urgency of their situation pressed upon him, urging him to push for the whole truth.

This woman, he sensed, held the key to unlocking the mystery.

Aurora remained silent for a moment, trapped by his intense stare.

The realization that there was no escaping this confrontation settled heavy in her chest.

Finally, she let out a slow breath and confessed.

"The language, and the specific meaning of ᚹᛖᛊ Αίθερ, were originally uncovered by Aegis himself.... Moreover, he was the very first to spread tales of the call of death!"

!?

A thought struck Wang Xiao, causing him to speak up, a hint of suspicion lacing his words, "Could it be that he deliberately distorted the meaning of these words to keep people away from this place? Is there something here, something hidden, that could challenge his authority?"

Aurora shook her head, her voice low and tinged with a hint of foreboding. "There is more..."

Among the ongoing whispers and hushed conversations of her time, one rumor stood out as particularly forbidden, shrouded in secrecy and fear.

It concerned Emperor Aegis.

It was whispered, in tones of awe and terror, that he was the first man to ever emerge alive from the...Graveyard of Gods!

Indeed, after he propagated the chilling tales of the call of death, some of Aegis\'s former friends began to voice suspicions.

These murmurs stemmed from his astonishingly swift ascent to power, which seemed almost supernatural.

Just a few years earlier, Aegis had been a nobody, indistinguishable from the masses, according to those who had known him in his youth.

Yet, in a stunning twist of fate, he suddenly amassed an immense amount of power and authority.

The whispers grew into a widespread belief— he was a man blessed by the gods themselves!

A man touched by divine forces!

A man chosen by the heavens!