I'm currently sat on a bench inside a makeshift tent.
Sitting opposite to me is the old man skeleton, who seems raring to unload all kinds of information on to me.

Sniffles is peacefully sleeping in the corner of the tent behind me.

"We are known as the architects of this world." (Old man skeleton)

"Our purpose is to populate the caverns with demons for the harbinger of the end to harvest." (Old man skeleton)

That cringy harbinger of the end title is what they call me... so...

"Huh? Are you saying the only reason demons exists is to be cannon fodder for me?" (Scarecrow)

"I'm not sure what cannon fodder means, but yes, the only reason demons exists is for you." (Old man skeleton)

I... I'm the main character after all...

Aren't I actually a pretty big deal?!

This old man could just be going senile though...

"In truth, we have another purpose, however." (Old man skeleton)

"We've been tasked by the architects of this world to protect the end in their name." (Old man skeleton)

"Architects? Isn't that what you guys are called?" (Scarecrow)

"Yes. We've been named after our creators who granted us these undying bodies." (Old man skeleton) 

Well, that's confusing...

"Ah... Alright then... And what about the end?" (Scarecrow)

"Yes. Quite literally the end of this world." (Old man skeleton)

"What do you mean? You're protecting the concept? The idea of the end of the world? " (Scarecrow)

"Ho ho ho... no, no, the end is simply what the architects call a hole inside of the world itself." (Old man skeleton)

...There's that hole again.
That crazy skeleton from a while ago that was shouting at me in jail seemed rather obsessed with a hole and the idea of me jumping inside of said hole.

There's something that's confusing me though-
"What about Julia?" (Scarecrow)

"Hmmm? Ah... that's what you called our queen isn't it?" (Old man skeleton)

"Ho ho..." (Old man skeleton)

"I must say, it is rather interesting to have learned of our queen having saved your life." (Old man skeleton)

"Truly it must have been fate for her to have come to us in our time of need..." (Old man skeleton)

Ugh, it sounds like he's winding up for a long story...

"Years ago, our king was working together with all of us, taking care of the demon farming fields outside our city." (Old man skeleton)

"Demon farming fields? You mean those weird fields outside of the city?" (Scarecrow)

"Yes. We use the mana retrieved upon the death of a demon inside the cavern to cultivate another." (Old man skeleton)

"That way there was a constant cycle of demons for us to send your way." (Old man skeleton)

...They grow them?

"Small fluctuations caused by a large loss of life will cause more powerful demons to birth from the ground." (Old man skeleton)

"But on this particular day the unprecedented happened..." (Old man skeleton)

"Both guardian demons that we had created to lead you to us and protect the entrance to this realm were all too suddenly destroyed." (Old man skeleton)

"The large influx of mana from their death ran rampant in the fields and produced unfathomable creatures." (Old man skeleton)

"The ones you now know as abominations." (Old man skeleton)

"They're hoarding all the mana inside of themselves that's meant for populating the cavern." (Old man skeleton)

Uwaaah... this is a lot to take in...

"Our king attempted to cull their birth but was easily captured by them instead. Never to be seen again..." (Old man skeleton)

Ah... that explains a couple of things I guess, but where does Julia come in?

"Lost without the guidance of our king..." (Old man skeleton)

"The kingdom we had built to defend the end was usurped in the blink of an eye." (Old man skeleton)

"And abominations hunted us down, nearly eradicating us all, until one day..." (Old man skeleton)

"A skeleton with the brightest bones we had ever seen appeared before us. Attended by some sort of manservant." (Old man skeleton)

Manservant? I wonder if that's Lucas who would've been following her around at this point.

"The rattling of her bones was divine... the shape of her clavicle... ho ho ho... she was like a goddess sent to us by the architects themselves. (Old man skeleton)

Clavicle? I- is that a compliment?

"Upon seeing us approach, she looked shocked!" (Old man skeleton)

"She ran and ran... ho ho ho." (Old man skeleton)

"Intrigued by her complexion, we all followed!" (Old man skeleton)

"It was her who led us all the way here to this safe haven." (Old man skeleton)

...

"And uuuh... what about the manservant?" (Scarecrow)

"Well..." (Old man skeleton)

"He's dead." (???)
Julia who was stood at the opening of the tent answered.

"Those... monsters... killed Lucas..." (Julia)
I'll ignore that she slightly jumped when she saw my scarecrow face turn to look at her.

He seriously died though? Just like that...?

I wonder if it'd be rude to ask how he died?

"You... you're somehow related to all these guys right?" (Julia)

"He is our reckoning. The end is neigh." (Old man skeleton)

Shut up dude, stop giving me cringy titles in front of Julia... you're the worst...

"..." (Julia)

"I- if you still feel indebted to me... then..." (Julia)

"Help me defeat those monsters..." (Julia)

"Lucas won't be able to rest easy with those creatures still out there." (Julia)
Her grief and anger seemed to momentarily override her fear for me.

"Ah... sure." (Scarecrow)

"But I think you might be misunderstanding something though." (Scarecrow)

"?" (Julia)

I pointed at myself.
"I'm not even level 10..." (Scarecrow)

"What does that mean?" (Julia)

"Uuuh... I'm basically 70 times weaker than you.." (Scarecrow)

"..." (Julia)

"Harbinger..." (Old man skeleton)

"I can only apologize... this is all our fault... if we hadn't let those abominations hoard all the mana..." (Old man skeleton)

Honestly, to me, it just sounds like everything is actually Alcazar's fault.

He's the one that blew up those two guardians that seemed to be pretty important after all.