Lex sengaja memilih kata-kata yang samar untuk menarik perhatian kedua Crystal itu, namun ia tidak langsung menjelaskan maksudnya. Ia juga tidak menunggu tanggapan Ezio, sebab dalam situasi seperti itu Belmont lebih berguna baginya daripada Ezio. Lagipula, melihat perilakunya yang menghapus catatan tentang apa yang terjadi, siapa tahu ia juga terlibat dalam skema yang menyebabkan degradasi alam-alam itu.
Karena itu, meski ia masih ingin berbincang dengannya untuk mengungkap sebanyak mungkin rahasia, ia harus memastikan Belmont tetap tinggal.
"Kalau boleh jujur, aku sendiri belum sempat melakukan penelitian sungguhan soal ini," aku Lex. "Apa pun yang kuketahui berasal dari serangkaian kebetulan. Ada beberapa hal yang sumbernya bisa kubagikan padamu, dan ada yang tidak. Terserah kalian mau mempercayaiku atau tidak, atau menganggap ceritaku masuk akal.
"Aku anggap kalian sudah tahu tentang keberadaan alam-alam, jadi aku tidak akan menjelaskannya panjang lebar. Hal pertama yang perlu dicermati adalah aku mendapat informasi bahwa alam ini sedang mengalami semacam anomali."
Kedua Crystal itu terkejut mendengar pengetahuan Lex tentang alam-alam. Ini bukan topik yang bisa dianggap pengetahuan umum bahkan di alam-alam yang lebih matang, apalagi di alam Crystal. Secara teknis, informasi semacam itu seharusnya paling banyak hanya dibagikan kepada mereka yang akan menembus batas alam dan bertransendensi. Bahkan saat itu, sebagian besar makhluk abadi justru menganggap kisah kenaikan dan pergi ke alam yang lebih tinggi hanyalah rumor, dan bahwa earth immortal sebenarnya adalah batas kultivasi. Hanya segelintir elite terpilih yang tahu kebenarannya.
Ras Crystal adalah pengecualian tidak biasa, semata-mata karena seluruh ras mereka luar biasa kuat. Meski bagi banyak dari mereka laju kultivasinya lambat, terutama karena mereka tidak merasa perlu terburu-buru, sudah menjadi anggapan umum bahwa setiap anggota ras mereka akan mencapai alam abadi cepat atau lambat.
Bagaimanapun, seluruh ras mereka abadi. Bahkan jika mereka berkultivasi dengan laju paling lambat, cepat atau lambat mereka pasti membuat cukup kemajuan untuk mencapai alam yang lebih tinggi. Sementara ras lain harus mempercepat agar tidak menjadi korban vitalitas yang menurun dan tubuh yang melemah, ras Crystal tidak punya kekhawatiran semacam itu.
Akibatnya, mereka juga jauh lebih bebas dalam berbagi informasi sensitif. Bagi mereka, ini hanya soal waktu sampai mereka layak mempelajarinya. Hanya saja mereka belajar sedikit lebih awal.
Dengan indra keenamnya, Lex tahu kata-katanya berdampak pada kedua Crystal itu, namun ia tidak berhenti untuk memberi penekanan. Terlalu banyak yang harus dibahas.
"Kutegaskan lagi, aku diberi tahu bahwa alam ini sendiri yang mengalami semacam anomali, bukan ada anomali di dalam alam ini. Karena penasaran, aku mulai melakukan penelitian soal ini. Karena kekuatanku terbatas, jelas aku tidak bisa menjelajahi seluruh alam, jadi aku mulai mempelajari sejarah alam ini.
"Hal yang paling mencolok dalam masa belakangan ini adalah hegemoni Kraven yang tiba-tiba. Aku mencoba menyelidiki Kraven sedikit lebih dalam. Apakah mereka ras yang tertindas, tersembunyi di suatu tempat di alam ini? Apakah mereka ras yang lahir dari mutasi? Atau, mungkin, mereka penyerang dari alam lain?"
Lex berhenti sejenak, memberi kesempatan kedua Crystal itu mencerna ucapannya. Hal yang paling disayangkan adalah jika Lex bisa berbicara dengan Luthor dan yang lainnya, dan membahas hal ini, Kraven akan sangat mereka kenal. Bukannya mereka pernah bertemu Kraven di suatu tempat. Sebaliknya, mereka sudah pernah menghadapi makhluk biologis yang dirancang khusus untuk bertarung melawan penghuni planet tertentu. Jika mereka mendengar penjelasan Lex, pikiran pertama mereka adalah bahwa Kraven terdengar seperti dirancang khusus untuk menguasai alam Crystal.
"Ini semua, lagi-lagi, hal-hal yang tidak bisa kupastikan sendiri, tapi aku terus memperhatikan mereka dan bagaimana berbagai bangsa bereaksi terhadap mereka. Meski aku tidak bisa menebak alasan ras Crystal, reaksi ras-ras lain juga membingungkanku. Dari 7 bangsa besar asli di alam Crystal, satu bangsa utuh telah dimusnahkan oleh Kraven, namun bangsa-bangsa yang tersisa tidak pernah berusaha membalas, dan selalu puas terus kehilangan wilayah akibat invasi mereka, satu daerah pada satu waktu.
"Awalnya, ini hanya kecurigaanku. Namun kemudian, aku bertemu seseorang dari keluarga kerajaan bangsa Hum. Meski dia sendiri tidak memahami alasannya, aku mengetahui darinya bahwa ras manusia sengaja menghindari pembalasan dengan kekuatan penuh. Mereka sengaja menciptakan situasi di mana Kraven menekan seluruh bangsa dengan hebat, menggerogotinya sedikit demi sedikit, dan entah bagaimana mereka puas dengan itu. Bahkan, jika seseorang mengambil tindakan mandiri untuk membalas Kraven, dan mencapai tingkat keberhasilan tertentu, mereka akan dihentikan. Fakta bahwa keluarga kerajaan sendiri mencegah pembalasan terhadap musuh bebuyutan mereka terlalu mencurigakan."
Lex hendak melanjutkan ekstrapolasinya, tetapi Belmont memotongnya.
"Soal Kraven memang terlalu membingungkan," katanya, mengakui bahwa ia sendiri kurang pengetahuan. "Menurut laporan terbaru, pasukan tak terkalahkan yang hanya terdiri dari Kraven abadi telah mengepung seluruh alam, kecuali wilayah ras Crystal. Namun ketika sekutu kami meminta bantuan bangsa Crystal karena keadaan yang mendesak, pimpinan kami tetap diam secara mencurigakan."
Lex had purposefully been cryptic in his wording to attract the two Crystals attention, yet he did not explain what he meant immediately. Nor did he wait for Ezio to respond, for in the given situation Belmont was of more use to him than Ezio. Moreover, based on his behavior of eliminating records of what happened, who knew if he was somehow complicit in whatever scheme was in place which was resulting in the realms degradation.
Therefore, while he wanted to still have a conversation with him to uncover as many secrets as possible, he had to ensure Belmont stayed as well.
"If I'm being entirely honest, I haven't had any time to conduct any real research into the matter myself," Lex confessed. "Anything I learnt was through a series of coincidences. There are some things the sources of which I can share with you, and some that I cannot. It's up to you whether you trust me or not, or find my narrative believable.
"I will assume that you already know about the existence of realms, so I won't go into detail about them. The first thing that requires scrutiny is that I was informed that this realm is suffering from some kind of anomaly."
Both the Crystals were taken aback by Lex's knowledge of realms. This was not a topic that could be considered common knowledge even in more mature realms, let alone the Crystal realm. Technically speaking, such information should have, at most, been shared with those who were about to break through the limits of the realm and transcend. Even then, most immortals actually thought the stories of ascendance and going to a higher realm were just rumors, and that earth immortals were actually the limit of cultivation. Only a select, elite few knew the truth.
The Crystal race was an unusual exception to this solely due to the fact that their entire race was abnormally powerful. Although for many of them, their cultivation rate was low, mainly because they felt no pressure to cultivate quickly, it was a common perception that every member of their race would reach the immortal realm sooner or later.
After all, the entire race was immortal. Even if they cultivated at the slowest pace possible, sooner or later they were bound to make enough progress to reach a higher realm. While other races had to speed up so that they do not become victims of declining vitality and their bodies failing them, the Crystal race had no such concerns.
As a result of this, they were a lot more liberal with sharing sensitive information as well. After all, to them it was only a matter of time till they became eligible to learn this information. It was only learning a little earlier than later.
Using his sixth sense Lex knew that his words had an impact on the two Crystals, but he did not pause for emphasis. There was too much to cover.
"I repeat, I was informed that the realm itself is suffering from some kind of anomaly, not that there is an anomaly inside the realm. Out of curiosity, I began to conduct some research on the matter. Due to my limited power, I obviously could not begin searching the entire realm, so then I began studying the history of the realm.
"The thing that stood out to me the most in the recent past is the abrupt hegemony of the Kraven. I tried to look into the Kraven a little more. Were they some suppressed race, hidden off somewhere in the realm? Were they a race that was born from mutation? Or, perhaps, were they invaders from another realm?"
Lex paused for a moment, to allow the two Crystals to absorb what he was saying. The most unfortunate thing was that if Lex had been able to converse with Luthor and the others, and talked to them about it, the Kraven would have been extremely familiar to them. It was not like they had run into the Kraven anywhere. Instead, they had already faced biological creatures who had been designed explicitly to fight against the inhabitants of a certain planet. If they had heard Lex's explanation, their first thought would have been that the Kraven sound like they were designed explicitly to take over the Crystal realm.
"These were, again, things I could not verify on my own, but I continued to pay attention to them and how the various nations reacted to them. Although I cannot begin to guess the rationale of the Crystal race, the reactions of the other races confused me as well. Of the original 7 great nations of the Crystal realm, an entire nation had been wiped out by the Kraven, yet still the remaining nations never sought to retaliate against them, and were forever satisfied to continuously lose land to their invasion, one county at a time.
"At first, these were only my suspicions. But then, I met someone from the royal family of the Hum nation. Although he himself did not understand the reason, I learned from him that the human race had purposefully been avoiding retaliating with full force. They had artificially engineered a situation where the Kraven were putting immense pressure on the entire nation, chipping away at it bit by bit, and somehow they were content with it. In fact, if someone were to take independent measures to retaliate against the Kraven, and achieved a certain level of success, they would be stopped from continuing to do so. The fact that the royal family itself is preventing retaliation against their sworn enemy is just too suspicious."
Lex was about to continue extrapolating, but Belmont interrupted him.
"The matter with the Kraven really is too confusing," he said, admitting to lacking certain knowledge himself. "According to latest reports, an unprecedented army consisting solely of immortal Kraven has laid siege all across the realm, save for the territories of the Crystal race. Yet when our allies solicited the Crystal nation for help due to the extenuating circumstances, our leadership remained suspiciously silent."
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