Guys, this has been a remastering of this chapter. I was very busy with the previous stories that I updated for lack of time.

I hope you enjoy this story, and don't forget to comment.

Both franchises belong to their true creators.

Enjoy.

The cave was immense and silent, impregnated by the immense darkness that surrounded it, except for a small ray of light that came from an opening hundreds of meters high, illuminating the enormous and circular cave a little bright, not knowing that poor lighting highlighted that the huge cave had some strange aspects that were very rare. There were gray metal toppings circled around the entire cavernous space; there were lights that gave a faint blue glow and some bridges that led to rooms that were open, and in them was a young man in his teenage years, standing, watching the dark abyss.

At first glance, the young was strange: he had ruffled platinum blonde hair that covered his left side of his face, and exposed his eye of an intense gold. His dress was a dark blue vest over a blue indigo long-sleeved shirt and pants the same color as his vest. The teenager had a reserved and blank expression when he saw the huge dark hole that constituted the cave ... or rather, the built building.

There was nothing but the blackness of the hole. He looked more closely, in search of a rare abnormality that made him come here, which must have been a respite outside when he left the two huge doors that had materialized by magic as he left them and met with the strange cave covered with advanced buildings. It was strange and strange to the naked eye when he left the Velvet Room.

The smell was pungent and foul, something normal in the caves devoid of light, except insects and the stench of rock sediments dating back billions of years of formation. But this different cave; the metal constructions with bridges that connected the other chambers had to lead to rooms with rooms if he went into the curiosity he felt to see, but it was the dark hole that caught his attention.

He observed that there was a beastly groan, as if a beast woke up from his lethargic dream. There was a slight movement in the darkness, and the boy could notice a serpentine-looking shadow, so it must have been his body, he moved into the darkness, and emerged with all his majesty before the young teenager with platinum-blonde hair.

He was grotesque, so to speak when he saw him, still keeping his countenance calm without flinching at the awakening of the creature that had emerged from the hole. It was large, with a viscous green skin and a huge serpentine back with tentacles that rose from the darkness of the hole. His lips parted in a triangular way, revealing a grotesque red jaws with rows of sharp teeth.

Terrifying and horrible, that was the right word to describe something taken from the worst nightmares of dreamers. This creature, this monster radiated a menacing aura, and to the death, but he did not let himself be intimidated, but remained alert, waiting for the monster to make a move, and he did so when he spoke in a deep, hoarse, and cold tone:

"Hmmm ... interesting," said the creature, tilting its head in a curious way, analyzing the platinum-haired teenager without considering he had no eyes. "You are human, but different. Your presence radiates an energy that is within you, a powerful aura. I find it curious that a human like you has come to this chamber in a mysterious and interrogative way. Your only appearance and your aura made me wake up from my dream"

The platinum-haired teenager kept his countenance apathetic and little surprised at the creature that spoke in a language outside of his own linguistic speech, but was polite when he spoke.

"Reserved and stoic, a trait for someone who does not get carried away by fear of the unknown, and that makes me say that you had already faced death before, right?"

The boy nodded silently, and that put the creature in a grotesque mood when he let out a terrifying laugh.

"You are a fascinating and curious human. The encounter with the unknown traumatizes individuals to see something they have never seen before; death is a great example of deep fear, but the unknown always overcomes it. Many fall into madness, while others become strong and brave when faced. Your encounter with death must have been profound, don't you think?"

Another silent assent: his first encounter with death was the place of the car where his parents were driving on the highway that left him with an impact that affected him psychologically, and the second encounter with the unknown was in his nighttime arrival at the station Port Island Tatsumi when he first witnessed the Dark Hour phenomenon and his encounter with a Shadow. All these experiences had formed him in the midst of despair and apathy.

"So it means that now you have a different mindset, an approach ... an individual who left all traumas in the past. Kill the child, and you will free man; those are the rules that govern the morals of mortals. But it seems that we are rushing with this philosophical talk between the trauma and the spirit of courage of living is time, we have a lot of time without has been thousands of years since I have spoken to anyone in this imprisonment of the Halo Array. known to the Gravemind, the hive mind of a large number of offspring that I control myself. And you, human, what is your name?"

The boy hesitated to say his true name to this creature, the Gravemind. But...

"Minato Arisato" replied in a monotonous and uniform voice.

"It's a very interesting name," the Gravemind hummed. "Minato Arisato, that name has a meaning in my speech, I can feel it when pronouncing it ... as something special. And tell me, Minato Arisato, what makes you come to this place so ... curious?"

Minato looked around: claustophobic and enclosed, like all the wet and dark caves, but these had metal structures, and as the Gravemind said: this area was his imprisonment for thousands of years, which could be to say that the Gravemind was an ancient being that represented a great threat that had to be contained; that reminded him of his sacrifice in jailing Nyx from the other side.

Minato decided to ask him a question:

"I'm curious how you ended up here," he said with simplicity, and the Gravemind let out a deep laugh that echoed throughout the cave like an acute echo.

"It's a long story, Minato Arisato. The story of my captivity goes back several millennia in the past, before the young civilizations resurfaced, when the entire galaxy lived in immense calm. We called ourselves the Precursors, and, once upon a time , we were such an advanced race of all in our galaxy; our technology was unique in different aspects, the hyper-spatial leap is a great example of our technological ability, as is the use of neural physics as an instrument to manufacture new inventions with the use of our thoughts. Our ships had reached your galaxy millions of years ago and we colonized each world in each star sector, then use the other uninhabitable worlds as experimentation sites in sowing living life. Humanity was one of them"

Minato narrowed his eyes when the Gravemind mentioned him. It was a shocking surprise to have heard the revelation he had.

Inside his mind, he could hear the complaint of gods, heroes, angels and demons, but he ignored them. The idea of a possible origin of humanity on Earth was the subject of scientific, conspiracy, and religious speculation: religious think that God created humanity as it says in the Bible chapter of Genesis, scientists followed the laws of natural evolution presented by the writings of Charles Darwin, and the conspiratory are carried away by the crazy idea that the aliens had made to mankind through the use of reverse engineering, and it seems that he won the third option of the conspiratory.

"Surprised to know the truth of your origin, no? Humanity was one of many of the billions of life forms sown by us as part of a great experiment we had planned"

"And what experiment were what you carried out?" he asked curiously.

"You see, Minato, we have the belief that the universe itself is a living entity, and that all the biological organisms that we are composed share an extract of its essence that enriches a greater universal, like our souls and our life. Knowing that there is an order in the universe, that was called the Mantle, a philosophical amalgam where everything must be governed by the good of the species, and we were the guardians of the Mantle in the Life Time. We did the planting of a lifetime in your galaxy to catalog if they were competent to wear the Mantle. There were many, but we only looked at two races that caught our attention: the humanity of Erde Tyrene and the ghibalbans of Ghibalb, both sister species had advanced rapidly at an early age at the technological level. The ghibalbans, who at that time decided to call themselves the Forerunners, tried to be the favorites, however, they got carried away because they were pretentious in their egos: their planet was uninhabitable due to an astro-engineering accident when manipulating several stars in their region from space, which caused a series of supernovae, causing his planet to burn in ashes from radiation. That incident let us know that the Forerunners were not responsible enough to wear the Mantle of Responsibility and we agreed that they were a problem in carrying it. As for Erde Tyrene's humanity, we saw that his capacity for understanding and technological use exceeded Forerunners. We knew immediately that humanity must be those who would obtain the Mantle and not the Forerunners. You could imagine their expressions when they were told that they were not the right ones to be the rightful owners of the Mantle"

"... They must have been resentful for telling them the truth," replied Minato evenly.

"They were, of course they were" Gravemind's voice rang out like a glacial throughout the cave. "The Forerunners were resentful of us after telling them the truth about their incompetence in being the bearers of the Mantle, and at the cost of that resentment, they rose against us. It was a long war, Minato, the Forerunners weren't going to stop until we were exterminated We devised ways to preserve our survival while we continued our battle against the Forerunners Some decided to leave the galaxy while the war broke out, but some decided to stay, I was included We isolated ourselves from the galactic stage and hid, thinking that the Forerunners had won. We could regenerate our bodies with the use of neuronal physics to our advantage, but there was an error being in our dust phase. We mutated, our bodies suffered a corrupt mutation that made us give a different mentality in our change This body, Minato, is the pinnacle of evolution. I am a mind between me illones that conform the Flood. We are the monument to all the sins. We are the beginning and the end"

That statement would make someone feel fear, but for Minato, it was not the case: he had already faced the Nyx entity on the last level of the Tartarus in preventing the Fall from annihilating all humanity. But this monster was unique; He was leading an alien parasitic being for millions of years who had sown, along with his race, had sown life throughout the galaxy in the distant past. If there were things besides Persona and Shadows, and the Gravemind (formerly a Precursor) was the proof of that.

Even so, there was more than he should know about the creature's story, and he asked:

"What happened after they became the Flood?"

"We plan our revenge against them," Gravemind sentenced in depth. "We have planned our revenge against the Forerunners for millennia, until we achieve what we have done"

"How they did it?"

A grotesque smile formed on the monstrous and horrible jaw of the creature.

"You see, during our return to the galactic stage, we were awakened from our dream by Erde Tyrene's humans; we were inside a capsule when they picked us up and thought they could alter us to make us consumable for their pets, not to mention that the mistake they had made We infected all humans and their pets in just a second. They showed resistance, they fought, they sent all the heavy artillery, but their efforts were useless. We spread like a plague. Consumed and subjected their minds to our will. Humans fought with all they could, but we were invincible. We forced humanity to exhaust all resources, and they had no choice but to enter Forerunner territory"

Minato's lips twitched, and the Gravemind laughed at the sight of his face.

"The result was as planned: we isolated ourselves for a minute, and let humanity fight the Forerunners in their attempt to recover resources and technology to strengthen their empire. It was a fierce war that broke out in every sector of the galaxy. Both sister species fought each other for the following years, until the humans were betrayed by their allies, the San'shyuum, in an offer of peace to the Forerunners to forgive their lives. They were given the location of their bases and fleets, in addition from its government headquarters in the world colony of Charum Hakkor. Legions of war cruisers Forerunner invaded the capital on a large scale and the humans resisted the invasion. They were defeated, stripped of all advanced knowledge and sent into exile on their planet. Erde Tyrene, where they would live for the rest of the millennia as a primitive civilization, it was at that moment that we, the Flood, attacked them off guard s during his long years of peace. Our moment of revenge had arrived"

Minato swallowed, did not like where the story was coming.

"But the Forerunners maintained resistance during your appearance," he replied.

"They did it, the Forerunners used all their advanced technology to eradicate us, as they did in the past. Their weapons were powerful, but they couldn't stop our power increase. We invaded every colony planet and made them our puppets to make us stronger, like all the animals we have consumed. While the battle was lengthening, a Forerunner faction known as the Lifeworkers began to annex several species in every corner of the galaxy to protect them and send them to various worlds away from the activation of the Halo Array; an apocalyptic weapon that He was able to decimate every living organic life in an elongated range. The Forerunners had serious discussions in their advice about using the Halo Array as a last option measure, not counting that, by activating it, it would eradicate all the mortal life that they swore to protect as It was dictated by the Mantle. A tool known as the Composer was used, a machine designed to circumvent our to infection by translating the mental pattern of an organic being into data and then transferred to an artificial body without infection. Unfortunately, that result was flawed: all infected Forerunners who were treated by the Composer succumbed to decay and spontaneous death, too bad for them. There was also the second alternative: use the Halo Array"

"And they used it?" Minato replied curiously.

"They tried to use it as a purgative, but they refused deeply, trying by other means to use bombings in each planetary system, but those were useless acts. Halos were used in the past by the Ur-Didact and his faction of Promethean warriors as preventive measure, but they were defeated and exiled in storage chambers like Cryptum by the Builders as punishment for being in suspensive isolation.A Halo was activated by the AI Mendicant Bias as experimentation with a single small-scale shot in a solar system, decimating the all of some solar systems and devastating natural ecological systems, however, in the devastated world of Charum Hakkor, they managed to free a surviving Precursor in their wintering capsule known as the Primordial, or rather, one of us who shared several million of minds. He was sent to Facility 07 to be studied and analyzed in the laboratory inside the Halo. He managed to give shocking revelations to the successor of Ur-Didact, the IsoDidact, and also to corrupt AI Mendicant Bias to betray its creators, and that task had been achieved: Mendicant Bias was called to Maethrillian, the Capital of the Ecumene Forerunner, to bring Installation 07, and then, the AI activated the Halo, decimating most of the space city and all its inhabitants. There were survivors of the annihilated city, as well as others who gathered under the charge of the IsoDidact who unanimously decided to activate the Halos. The result was simple: all the worlds and living life were devastated and extinct by the Halos, including us, and the Forerunners left this galaxy, leaving Erde Tyrene's humanity as successors as the legitimate guardians of the Mantle. This is where this story ends, a story that had been hidden for millions of years."

"I understand," Minato said quietly, fascinated and amazed by a story that had been hidden for centuries. He had witnessed where humanity had a golden age of technology where it led them to leave Earth and start a stellar empire, colonizing each solar system. It was wonderful, I could say that. That humanity, that Ancient Humanity was an advanced counterpart, a lost reflection of today's humanity in the XXI century; where corruption, apathy and despair reigned.

Ancient Humanity had been chosen by its creators, the Precursors, to give them the Mantle of Responsibility, but the Forerunners were not happy with that; they rose up in arms against their creators in a radicalist way because of their jealousy of choosing Ancient Humanity instead of them. The result of that insurrection resulted in the Precursors becoming the Flood, parasites that devoured and assimilated any living being that it found in its path, like a virus that deteriorated the body. However, that threat had been neutralized by activating the Halo Array that resulted in the devastation of each planetary ecosystem, except for some races that could be saved and spread at extremes that would not affect the annihilation wave.

As for current humanity, Minato Arisato would classify it as a species that is barely in its state of evolution. Recovering those centuries of glories lost millions of years ago in the past would be an arduous job to achieve. Today's humans were killed by mere whim that made them reach their own extinction without caring about anything. In the case of Nyx, it was a being, or rather, a collective consciousness of an astronomical body that had collided with a young Earth millions of years ago, where its body fragmented into giving rise to the moon, and organic life in the planet. The psyche of his power was stored in every human mind, something that was used by his Plumes of Dusk that were used in the Evokers manufactured by the Kirijo Group to fight the Shadows during his former life as a student of Gekkoukan High School and as a member of SEES.

Nyx wanted to bring the Fall because humanity had decided that being dead was better than living in a cruel reality where society began to corrupt and collapse. She was not bad, but maternal, and Minato had intervened in using her soul to form the Great Seal. It was his sacrifice that helped humanity to survive, and would also facilitate that in the future, humans could recover the moments of lost glory and carry the Mantle of Responsibility left by the Forerunners as their legacy in their failed attempt to protect the galaxy.

His sacrifice would bring up the lost lake of Ancient Humanity.

"If the Halos eradicated much of the Flood," began Minato after a minute of silence, "does it mean that there are more hive minds like you that are locked up?"

"Exactly," the Gravemind told him severely. "There are millions of us who are confined to the Halo Array as prisoners in preventing us from stealing our infestation throughout the Milky Way. The Halo Facility where you are is my cell."

"I see," Minato nodded. "Many of you are confined in each Halo, but you are able to manipulate the Flood with the use of a telepathic link." They were like ants and other insects that communicated with their queens in making an order sent by them.

"Correct, very correct in your intelligent deduction" congratulated the creature.

Minato nodded in accepting his compliment in silence.

"I see that you are in a reserved habit to choose your questions very wisely at the time of speaking, not including your appearance and aura; I can assume that you had a change in appearance, I can assume that and deduce it"

"I am," replied Minato frankly.

"And you are who you accept as you are, that pleases me and I'm interested in you. Tell me, Minato, what is your opinion about knowing this story told by a creature that was previously your creator?"

Minato thought about it, and then spoke:

"In my general opinion; I am fascinated to have learned a story that humanity lives from its ignorance erased over an era where they had formed a galactic community in the stars, and as for you, I can only sincerely say that it is a nice to meet you. You, the Precursors, sowed life in the galaxy to see you grow and mature. As a life created by you, I am very grateful to be alive and see my creator. That's all I can say"

The Gravemind let out a huge laugh that echoed loudly throughout the cave.

"Your speech moved your father, Minato. You are not the first to know the truth of knowing your creator. The ancient humanity that had its capital headquarters in Charum Hakkor found the Primordial in his capsule, asleep, while the war against the Forerunners were lengthening, they witnessed the fascination and horror knowing the raw and cruel reality of the appearance of our parasites, some were on the verge of madness, while others committed suicide, but you are different, you took it as if it was the most normal thing I had seen in your life, and I can see that in your aura. You are a unique human, Minato Arisato"

The young man nodded silently. For a minute, doors formed behind him a centimeter from the corridor. The doors were velvety blue with gold borders and two paths of the same color with butterfly wing shapes. The two doors opened, and from them, a woman came out with a beautiful and soft face with pale skin; short platinum hair and golden eyes. He wore an indigo blue cap and a uniform similar to that of a blue hostess with small yellow circles, blue gloves, black leggings and blue knee-high boots. The young woman walked with an expression of emotion towards the teenager.

"Minato! Oh, Minato, I was so bored of waiting so long inside the Velvet Room to wait for your return! So I had to tell Igor to send us to your location to explore the great ...!" The young woman's voice remained in the air when she looked at the Gravemind head on, and every expression of joy was replaced by one of terror. "Aaah! Be careful! That thing ..."

"He didn't hurt me or attack me when I got here," Minato reassured him in a monotonous and uniform voice. "Calm down, Elizabeth"

The woman, named Elizabeth by Minato, looked with exorbitant and expectant eyes at the intimidating form of the Gravemind; It was awful and awful, and it gave off a very old aura, older than Nyx. She tried to form a condescending smile on her thin lips, but failed her for her chills and stuttering when she spoke:

"Eh ... eh ... Hello, mr. Monster ..." she said awkwardly, then shuddered when the creature let out a laugh that left her frozen.

"Fascinating, fascinating" repeated the hive mind. "It is interesting to see a human with the same appearance and the same aura as yours, Minato. Nice to meet you, I am the Gravemind, the monster with whom I spoke in a civilized manner with Minato Arisato. And it seems that you know each other deeply , in that I can see it in your excited tone of voice. Come on, we have all the time to talk and tell hidden stories"

"... Well ... I ... hmm ... I ..." Elizabeth scratched her neck with shame. "I don't know what to say about it ... mr. Gravemind"

"You don't have to be so scared of me, Elizabeth. It's just that I've been very isolated for millions of years in this Halo without being able to have someone talk. I insist, I'm curious, and want to hear from you."

Elizabeth swallowed.

"My life? Halo? Wait a minute, is Halo the name of this place? Well, for me it looks like an excavation site where you look for old things. Also, this place has very different corridors than I've seen"

The Gravemind cocked and Minato groaned.

"Elizabeth ..." he began to say.

"What? It's true, the tiles and walls have stripes and lines with metal surfaces ..."

"Elizabeth!" called an older and worried female voice. "What are you doing outside? Leaving the Velvet Room is very dangerous ..." The owner of the voice was a beautiful woman with long curly and fluffy platinum hair; she had golden eyes and a blue dress with tight black pants. His voice cut off when he looked at the Gravemind. "Elizabeth! Minato! That thing ...!"

"Quiet, Margaret! The Gravemind didn't hurt us," Elizabeth said as she calmed her sister with an expectant face.

"Calm down?" she repeated with disgust. "Elizabeth ..." Margaret swallowed and said in a low murmur: "Are you sure that monster won't hurt you?"

"This is wonderful!" announced the Gravemind with funny tone. "This is a real surprise to meet another human who has left those doors. Presumably it is neuronal physics, or a method not seen. Especially you, Elizabeth and Margaret. Both have human appearances and therefore a very latent aura. That leaves me speechless. Ah! It seems that there were two others that came out of the doors. A man and a little girl. It seems that the Universe decided to give me a lucky day in my imprisonment"

Minato rubbed his forehead with a start, watching the figures of Theodore and Lavenza enter the scene; both brothers stiffened at the horrible appearance of the Gravemind. This has to end until something goes wrong.

"What is that thing?" Lavenza with terror and curiosity behind his brother.

"I don't know," Theodore told him protectively. "Stay behind me"

I couldn't take it anymore.

"It has been a pleasant conversation, talk to you," said Minato, taking Elizabeth by the arm and pushing her gently. "It's time for me to leave"

"Are you leaving? But if there is time to meet your companions," the tentacles swung from one place to another, like snakes surrounding their prey. "There is no hurry to leave your creator with the speech behind your back. It is a rude gesture on the part of a rebellious son who goes against his father's authority."

"Creator?" said Margaret frowning. "What does it mean?"

"It's a complicated story and difficult to process," Minato told him evenly. "Come on, let's go to the Velvet Room, Igor is waiting for us" He passed Elizabeth.

"Very true. Come on, sister," said Margaret, taking Elizabeth, dragging her to the open doors, followed by Theodore and Lavenza behind. Minato was the last to go behind, but he had turned sharply, and left exposed his aura of Thanatos that completely bathed the cave, making the whole atmosphere feel heavy, and completely stopping the tentacles that were close to millimeters from them.

The attendants of the Velvet Room were amazed as Minato stopped the advance of the tentacles that moved without them noticing. The Gravemind had fired an aura that hit Minato's aura of death. There were no words to describe that clash between two individuals with the oldest and most powerful energies.

The four watched as they looked at each other for a tense minute that became seconds.

"Goodbye, Gravemind," Minato said roughly and icily as he turned his back, without hiding his aura. Instead, and to the surprise of the audience, the Gravemind had laughed in a funny and funny way that disturbed them.

"It is a pity that I will not be able to obtain such valuable information from your companions. Soon humanity will be judged without being able to wear the Mantle and recover its former lost glory. Goodbye, Minato Arisato" The assistants watched as the Gravemind plunged into the depths of the abyss until hiding in the darkness.

That had been a surprise attack, but Minato had noticed; he had never let his guard down after Yaldabaoth had taken over the Velvet Room, owned by Igor and split Lavenza in two halves. As a new assistant to the Velvet Room after having only taken half of his soul, Minato would only be in the Velvet Room long enough as a debt payment, and then he would think if he would go to his world if necessary. So far, only he would decide what to do. Now, with everything left behind, the doors had closed behind him, and then disappeared.

"How was your recognition, my child?" Igor replied hoarsely and a creepy smile formed on his lips; With his elongated nose and bloodshot eyes, Igor's appearance frightened anyone who sees him, generating consternation and confusion among the human guests who had appeared in the Velvet Room to become Wildcard users for the first time. His attitude was of an elder scholar and wise man who helped young people in their travels to save humanity from cognitive beings, giving courage and strength to their dearest guests.

The older man had given one of his enigmatic smiles towards Minato that had entered when the doors closed.

The young man looked at him patiently, and answered in a reserved voice:

"It was good, I met the strange source that Philemon had seen in his perception. Construction is a deadly weapon that is capable of annihilating any living being and ecological environment, in addition to being living as an enclosure to an ancient parasitic being that represents a great danger if it is loose" he shrugged indifferently, while the attendees were stunned and horrified by what they just heard.

"Hmm, I see" Igor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I guess it was a brief summary of what that site was. Philemon will like the field analysis you just got, you can pass, my young child."

Minato nodded, and walked to the door in the corner; He opened it and entered it, until the doors were closed.

"Master, Igor," Margaret began to say with consternation in her voice, "he would be so kind as to tell me what this was all about. Minato mentioned that the place where he was sent was a kind of destructive weapon, and that monster named Gravemind he named himself as "creator." What did the two talk about?"

"Was Halo a weapon?" Elizabeth wrinkled her forehead and tilted her head. "I thought it was a place where you could get old things, do I think that term is called archaeological excavations?"

Margaret gave her sister a blank and incomprehensible look.

"Really?" Then she frowned. "Wait a minute, is the weapon called Halo? I don't understand ..."

"Halo is the name Gravemind had given him to the place where he was imprisoned." Elizabeth shrugged, and looked at the owner of the Velvet Room. "Master Igor, what was this all about? And why did Gravemind say that humanity will be judged when they get the Mantle and recover their lost glory? What is the Mantle you talked about? Was there a hidden event that we don't know about humanity that happened many years ago?"

"I'm afraid, my dear girl," Igor said softly to the assistant, "that that is very complicated for you to know. The conversation that Minato had with the Gravemind was a story that had been covered during the passing of centuries undiscovered, so far that we are witnessing a history of humanity that was unearthed. It seems that humanity is destined for something bigger, in that I can be sure"

"But ... what is it supposed to mean?" Elizabeth replied anxiously.

"Change, my dear Elizabeth" Igor replied with a wise tone. "It means that humanity is destined to experience a great change"

All comments and criticisms are welcome.