Linian trembled in shock.
“You… How is this… This doesn’t make any sense… There’s no way I’m mistaken. The repulsive energy of those wretches that was imprinted in my consciousness on the day the goddess fell… Why am I sensing it from you? Do you have any idea how much I suffered trying to track those damned bastards down? I gave up when I saw no way forward, and just when I thought I finally had a lead, this is what I find…”
Solaris simply observed in silence, as if telling Linian to continue.
Frustrated by the lack of response, Linian pointed at him angrily.
“Say something! Why do you feel exactly like those accursed underground vermin? Don’t tell me you’re about to say the worst possible answer I can imagine!?”
Solaris replied indifferently, his expression unchanged.
“Lying to each other would be meaningless. The worst possible answer you can imagine… is the truth. The Usurpers… You call them underground vermin? Well, you’re not wrong. In any case, I am the one leading them now.”
“What…? You’re… ‘leading’ them? What are you saying? That sounds like you’re working with them—”
“Yes.”
Linian’s eyes burned red with fury.
“Are you out of your mind?! Do you even know who they are!? Who do you think is responsible for the state we’re in!? You seriously don’t know!? And you dare call yourself the ‘Son of the Sole Sun’!”
“I know very well. Thousands of years ago, the greedy rulers of humanity betrayed the goddess who had descended to the surface, trapping her and exploiting her power. Our kind, who were deeply connected to the goddess, lost the ability to take dragon form the moment she fell, and the divine powers she had bestowed upon us were stripped away.”
“And you know all that! Yet you’re saying you sided with those deranged bastards?! Are you insane?!”
“Of course. While you were chasing empty leads trying to track down the Usurpers, I found their stronghold much earlier and went there myself. The humans who brought down a god were cursed, unable to even maintain their own forms in the lands once blessed by the goddess. They had taken refuge deep underground, in the grand cathedral where hymns were once sung in her name, exploiting what remained of her power.”
Linian’s face twisted in horror.
“Impossible! There’s no way humans could wield the goddess’s power as they please!”
“I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen it myself. When I found them, it had already been 300 years since the goddess’s fall. Among the traitors were high-ranking priests of the goddess’s own religion. They already knew how to wield her power—figuring out how to siphon it for themselves wasn’t difficult.”
“Then you should have killed them all right then and there! If the goddess had been freed—”
“Linialas, have you ever seen the places humans leave behind?”
“?”
Linian blinked, confused by the sudden question.
“Humans are insatiably greedy, never knowing when to stop. The lands they inhabit are stripped of all resources, forests are destroyed, rivers and seas are polluted, and life itself withers away. Even the goddess, their own creator, was no exception.”
“…No way…”
“When I found the Usurpers’ stronghold, the goddess was already so diminished that she could barely maintain her divinity. Imagine that—just 300 years after betraying and binding her to the earth, they had reduced her to that state. In all that time, they had been siphoning her power to restore their own bodies and pursue their insane ambition of becoming gods.”
“Those lunatics…”
“They didn’t want the world to realize the goddess had fallen, so they extracted fragments of her power to appoint hollow ‘Holy Knights.’ They lured fools from the outside world—idiots who dreamed of godhood—to serve as their unwitting hands and feet. But even if I had freed her, the goddess was so weakened that she couldn’t return to the heavens. And we, who had lost our forms, had no way of regaining them.”
“Then you should have killed every last one of them! The ones responsible for our suffering were right in front of you—what the hell were you doing?!”
“I did. I killed quite a lot of them. But wiping out every single one of those wretches, who had been feeding on the goddess’s power and wielding it as they pleased, was no easy task. So I absorbed the power of those I slew. Do you know what happened then?”
Solaris closed his eyes and spread his arms.
From his back, wings unfurled.
Linian’s memory held only the image of pure white wings, but now, much of Solaris’s wings had turned black.
As Solaris extended dragon’s wings, immense and far larger than his own body, Linian muttered in shock.
“Wings…? No way… How…?”
“A part of me could return to its original form. But ironically, I was still less skilled at wielding the goddess’s power than the Usurpers themselves. I could only absorb fragments of what they controlled. So I changed my approach.”
The dragon’s wings vanished, and Solaris stepped forward.
“Rather than freeing a goddess so weak she could barely stand, it was far more efficient to make the Usurpers my subordinates, take the power they had already extracted, and use it to restore my body and authority.”
“You insane bastard.”
Linian spat a curse.
“Of course, there were some side effects. Like the Usurpers, I also became affected, making it difficult to roam freely in the outside world. But that was only temporary—once I fully mastered their methods and reclaimed my power completely, the issue would be resolved. And now, it nearly is. It was a much more certain and rational path than relying on a goddess who may or may not recover even if all the Usurpers were wiped out.”
Solaris gazed at the ceiling with a wistful expression.
“I wanted to tell you and Lunarin about this, but you were too busy wandering the world, chasing after the Usurpers. I had no way of finding you. At the time, I couldn’t move freely outside either, so I sought out Lunarin first. There she was, sitting in her nest, bathed in moonlight, praying so earnestly to the goddess.
Isn’t it ridiculous? She was praying to a goddess who had been betrayed, bound, and turned into nothing more than a captive egg-laying hen for the Usurpers—drained of her power for the past 300 years.”
“You… You’re not saying—”
“When I explained my plan to Lunarin, she flew into a rage and attacked me. We fought for weeks without rest. But I was already the strongest of the three of us, and now, with the ability to partially return to my original form, she had no chance. If she had just accepted my offer, none of it would have been necessary. It was a tragedy for both of us.”
“You… YOU! It was you! You did that to Lunarin!!!”
“It was not a choice I wanted to make.”
At last, Linian realized what Lunarin’s dying words had truly meant.
Underground vermin… Solaris… danger… must stop…
She had been too weak to even form full sentences, and Linian had assumed she meant “The underground vermin will attack Solaris, and he is in danger.”
But the truth was different.
It wasn’t that Solaris was in danger—it was that Solaris was the danger.
“Linian, even now, you should join me. Face reality. The goddess has already fallen, reduced to nothing more than a dwindling power source for those who once worshiped her. Soon, her energy will be completely drained, and she will cease to exist.
When that happens, we will take her place as the new gods. Our forms, our powers—everything will be restored. The Usurpers and I have already gained enough strength to move freely in the outside world. The final stage is near. Lunarin’s fate is unfortunate, but—”
BOOM!
Solaris’s words were cut off as an explosion erupted from inside his mouth.
His entire lower jaw was blown away.
But dark smoke billowed from the wound, and within moments, the missing jaw regenerated.
“Then you shouldn’t have done that to Lunarin in the first place.”
Linian raised his middle finger.
Solaris looked down at him with an emotionless expression.
“You are the last of our kind. I was willing to show you mercy.”
“Shut up, you piece of trash. It disgusts me to think that you and I share the same blood.”
“There is no point in further discussion, then.”
Solaris drew upon his power, his body twisting and shifting.
Before Linian stood a massive dragon, now so darkened that it was closer to black than white.
“I told you—I have nearly reclaimed my true form. I can wield my power freely, even outside.”
“And you had to degrade yourself to the level of those underground vermin to achieve it. Some great power that is.”
The massive dragon lunged at Linian.
The temple of the sun trembled as the battle began.
We had escaped into the empire, covering our faces as we made our way toward a Lunia Church.
But with wanted posters describing our appearance plastered all over the city, staying at a proper inn was impossible.
Instead, we bought only the bare necessities, camped in the wild, and searched for clean lakes and rivers to wash in.
The real problem wasn’t the lack of shelter.
“Elfin, how long are you going to keep that up? Come eat.”
“No! I need to get stronger! I don’t have time to sit around eating! Just leave me alone!”
Elfin had turned into a stubborn child.