Axel, still weak but curious, leaned against the cool cave wall. 'A jackpot, you say? What exactly did I gain, Gizmo?'
Gizmo paused, processing the events that had unfolded. [To start from the beginning, Lilith was not a foe that you could take on—not now and not in any immediate future. She is a mighty demon who has made her name through her infamous blood magic. After a long battle with a powerful foe, she was trapped here.]
[Now, the formation that trapped her is a rather powerful and complex one, but Lilith, being the powerful and cunning demoness that she is, had accumulated energy through some mysterious means, as the formation should not allow her to do so through any of the known methods.]
[But the problem lies in her strong interest in you. The primary motive for which she had collected the elemental energies should have been to escape the formation, but she used all that collected energy to attempt to make you her slave. Even I am not sure why she went to such lengths for you, but if I have to guess, it's because you might be a Monarch's Candidate.]
[What that is and why I think you might be one will come later, but the "why" part might become a bit clearer from what I am going to explain next.]
[Do you remember the time when you were encapsulated in white light from head to toe and experienced a long trance but were unable to remember anything that happened during that trance?]
'Yes, it was only some time ago. You said it was a phenomenon similar to skill awakening but not quite that exactly, as I was not able to recall the trance,' replied Axel.
[Yup, now I know for sure that phenomenon indeed was a skill manifesting itself. But normally, a skill is generated only when its user knows almost all of the parts of the thing that the skill grants. Only in one special case is a skill generated wherein its user might not be aware of even 1% of what the skill can do.]
[And that one special case is the one with Monarchs. For now, I won't tell you much about the topic for your own good, but you just need to know that this topic is taboo in most worlds, and thus it is best if you know less about it for now—especially if you really are a Monarch's Candidate, as it becomes more dangerous for you.]
'But if I really am this Monarch's Candidate, then shouldn't I know more about what I am or what that thing is, rather than just leave it for the future?' asked Axel, a bit frustrated with all the mystery.
[Nope, not in this case. You just have to trust me on this one,] said Gizmo.
Axel chose to be patient and not push Gizmo for more answers, as Gizmo had always been the one to save him in one way or another. Axel still believed that it was Gizmo this time as well—because of whom he had survived.
[As I was saying, you did awaken the skill—a very powerful one. If I am correct, then you were going for a skill that has something to do with an extra mind, right?]
[Well, you did get something similar to that. You were hoping to get an alternate personality or an extra set of brains to multitask, right? But what you got was a completely new, separate entity itself.]
[Now, during your confrontation with Lilith, when she showed you the Soul Contract, I was contacted by this entity within you, and he told me to do and instruct you the way I did.]
[And I am still surprised by the turn of events, but things did eventually turn out the way he said they would,] said Gizmo.
'Gizmo, where is that entity that you spoke of? Why hasn't it made contact with me yet? And why did you trust it at all? If anything, I think we should be wary of this entity that you spoke of—it might harm us in the future. But you seem to be completely convinced in the matter of that entity or whatever it is,' said Axel, completely frustrated by the fact that he was kept in the dark regarding such important matters.
[As I said, Axel, I am convinced of this matter as it is related to your being a Monarch's Candidate. You really have to have faith in this regard. Other than that, the entity told me that if it tries to directly make contact with you, Lilith might notice its presence, so it contacted you through me.]
[Other than that, even I am not aware of what it is and how it operates, because that entity went into hibernation right after modifying the Soul Contract. He simply said to wait for him and said something in a foreign language: "Hasta la vista, baby." He said you would get it,] explained Gizmo.
'It's Spanish, a language from Earth. It simply translates to "until the next time we see each other." But either it indicates a playful personality or maybe something nefarious,' said Axel, his mind working overtime to try and understand the hidden meaning behind the message, if any.
Axel wasn't delighted to know that he might have to share his headspace with someone else. First, the prospect of being manipulated by Lilith, and now someone directly stuffing a different person in his head—he felt like the world was hell-bent on changing who he was.
[Axel, I don't know what you are thinking, but you really need to trust me when I say that a skill manifesting in a Monarch's Candidate is the biggest help that he or she might need. You might doubt anything and everything else, but for a Monarch's Candidate, their skills are an absolute advantage, and they can never be harmful to you in any way,] said Gizmo.
'But Gizmo, you also said that I might be this Monarch's Candidate that you speak of. But what if I'm not, and this is some other ploy by someone powerful—like that old man, for example?' said Axel, still pondering over the tiniest detail he might have missed.
Axel's earlier experiences had made him a cynic, skeptical of the people around him. And his encounters with the Old Man and Lilith did not help the case either.
[You are right—that might be a possibility. But if I had to discuss it in terms of pure probability, then the chance of that is less than 1%. And I am more than 90% sure of you being the Monarch's Candidate. So we need to act on the best course of action and simply have faith,] said Gizmo.
Gizmo was ready to provide Axel with more counselling when its tone suddenly changed.
[It would be best if you directly talked with the person of interest. He is now awake.]