Chapter 260: Chapter 260

The young king met the toga-clad man on a cold winter night in the year of his coming of age. As expected, the full moon was out, and there was no red star to be seen. The chief’s son had been exploring a nearby thicket while out with the hunters. He had had a fight with his father. The boy wanted to help hunt, but the chief would not hear it. This was also when I realized that there were monster-like animals in this world.

I did not recognize those species, but none of them had the aggression, the raw power of most modern monsters. I had also already seen the way these animals became monsters in the future. Some never turned, especially the birds, but most animals became powerful, angry, and seemed to harbor a hatred for sentient life.

The toga-clad man appeared out of nowhere and began talking to the young chief’s son. The boy, for some reason, did not run back to the other hunters. He seemed fascinated by this tall man who wore clothes he had never seen before and whose words were silky smooth and pleasing to the ear. The toga-clad man said all the right things, convincing the boy that he was good enough to hunt and that he only had to believe in himself. Since I had already seen the results of the boy’s hunting the next day, I knew that the toga-clad man had been right. The boy hunted a large animal nearly all on his own, although he was still chewed out by his father for disobeying his orders.

I could not follow the First King any further back, and so I made the difficult decision to follow Madness. Thankfully, I was sure by now that this phantasmal Madness would not suddenly turn around and speak to me, so I grit my teeth and endured the eerie music and the nauseating dancing that accompanied him everywhere.

I did not find out much about Madness by following him back a few centuries. He spent most of his time traveling the world, enjoying the sights, fruits, fresh air and other pleasant aspects of nature. He was, perhaps unsurprisingly, very fond of birds.

He did not return to the moon at any point, or perhaps he did but I could not follow him there and leave this planet even with my temporal domains. I had to follow the toga-clad Madness as he trekked across the countryside and the open plains and even a few islands with strange trees and clear waters. The journey was cathartic, in a way. Not what I had been expecting from the so-called Immortal of Madness.

All the while, Madness was calm, cool, and weirdly relaxed. The music that followed him around was smooth and simple, although it did change from time to time. Harps and flutes and even something that resembled a music box. Piano sounds unlike any I had ever heard before, and a little thumping that sounded like a relaxed heartbeat—somewhat like the heartbeat from a sleeping giant.

Madness was interfering with a few mortal lives over the years. The First King had not been his first apprentice or Ikon. He had found a demon tribe and shared with them some of his knowledge of stone tools and early metals. He taught the beastmen how to domesticate a few animals, and I remembered seeing these animals turning into domesticated monsters after the great wave of monsters was unleashed upon the world. The sentient beings on this side of the world had relied on these domesticated monsters for food, since most of their other animals had been turned into vicious, uncontrollable monsters.

But Madness’ greatest and strangest gifts were given to the fairies and spirits. The fairies had always been a massive race, but they used to have massive wings as well. Over the years, I had observed their wings getting larger and larger, which of course meant that they had been shrinking with time. Now, seeing Madness blessing the fairies with magic that would make them even taller and more powerful, at the cost of their wings, left me with strange feelings. And what he did for the spirits, helping those tiny beings hover off the ground with some sort of strange innate magic, while making them grow smaller with time. Madness’ gifts were certainly mixed bags.

Further and further back in time. To a time when Madness was dazed and confused. To a time when his toga was disheveled and full of holes. To a time when the sentient races had barely started using wooden tools and where language was only beginning to take shape. To a time when Madness first found the sentient races and began to observe them, to teach them, to take them under his proverbial wing.

Teaching the sentient races became important to him. It kept him grounded, humble, and sane. He fixed up his appearance, took upon himself a calm and collected demeanor, and became a great teacher whose contributions to this world were without measure.

Madness had given the beings of this world their first gifts. He had guided them in their earliest hour. Given them better tools, better food, and a greater sense of self and community. He protected them from large animals. He helped them work together, instead of against each other, and he helped the sentient beings of this world come together to form a pact that would be passed down through the blood of their descendants.

This pact ensured that this world could not be completely controlled by the Immortals. This pact protected mortals from the worst whims of Immortal beings. The pact shielded mortals from the moon, the red star, and the Simurgh that ruled them all. The pact did not favor Madness. In fact, it did not give him an advantage at all. It even set the rules for the way the Immortals could compete with one another.

The Immortals must govern all knowledge in this world. All knowledge was separated into domains. The Simurgh retained most of its domains, but Madness had been powerful before he came to this world. With the domains that he had gained and the power he brought from outside this world, he would be an important balance against the Simurgh.

And the Evil Eye was a wild card. The Simurgh had created this Immortal to do its dirty work. To spread misery, despair, and all manner of negativity so that the Simurgh’s own beauty and justness would stand out in contrast. Yet, Madness turned this pawn into a full-fledged Immortal. He strengthened the Evil Eye with domains he had seized from the Simurgh and even helped it take a few more from the Nothingness in which the Simurgh had been sealed.

This was when I learned that the Nothingness was a sort of physical space after all, although it seemed to exist in an abstract, metaphysical way. Madness had sealed the Simurgh’s main consciousness in this space, but eventually, it would break free. And when it would, it would bring with it much darkness and evil, for the phony justice of the Simurgh would be contorted by its isolation and defeat. The Simurgh’s justice would become a new menace on this world. A new scourge that would ravage this planet and bring an existential challenge to sentient life.

When the Simurgh broke free from its seal, it created a wave of darkness. From that wave of darkness came the first monsters of this world. And with them began the age of the First King Jora, and the other Ikons of Madness who would help save this world from the chaos of Desire.