Chapter 915 — Dragon and God

"Is there truly no way for us to utterly destroy that tower, or the Countertide within it?" Metsen hesitated several times, but at last summoned her courage and asked boldly. "With Your power, is there no way to destroy it either?"

"The power of the gods is ineffective against that tower, and the power of dragons is ineffective against the gods, Metsen—you know this. From the day the Countertide was born, Tarrond could no longer destroy that tower or what lies within it, and since the Countertide Empire, this planet has never again produced a civilization strong enough—strong enough to destroy the legacy left behind by the Voyagers," the Dragon God looked into Metsen's eyes, and in that moment this god, who should have been so far above, explained with such patience, as though answering her people's questions were a duty born into her. "Perhaps only the Voyagers themselves could accomplish it—but they may never return."

"The Voyagers..." Metsen unconsciously repeated the word, and could only shake her head helplessly.

She said she had no more questions.

"If you have no more questions, then go back," the Dragon God said from the platform, her tone calm. "Rest and recover well. Once you have recovered, I have something I wish you to do."

"You... have something for me to do?" Metsen raised her head in some surprise. "What is it?"

Then she heard the god's voice come from above: "Invite that mortal named Gao Yang Cecil to Tarrond as a guest once again—as for the details, we will wait until you have fully recovered."

A look of surprise and bewilderment mingled on Metsen's face, but she had barely opened her mouth to ask more when she felt a shifting of light and shadow before her eyes; when her vision gradually steadied, she found herself back in her lair near the mountainside—clearly, the god had no intention of answering anything further.

...

Within the sanctuary, the Dragon God Enya still stood quietly upon the platform, and in the air beside her a figure draped in a high priest's robe gradually took shape.

The Dragon Priest Hragor paid homage to his god and asked cautiously: "You intend to invite once more that human who refused You once?"

"Do you have doubts?"

"No, of course not. It is only... do You think he will refuse again?"

"If he is truly curious about certain things, then he will surely come," the Dragon God said indifferently. Her gaze passed beyond the emptiness of the hall, beyond a balcony that leaned out toward the sea of clouds, beyond the vast distance outside—she seemed able to see through all of it, and the corner of her mouth curved faintly upward. "This world… it seems there is indeed some upheaval to come."

"Upheaval…" Heragor unconsciously repeated the word from the god's mouth. As a dragon priest who had witnessed the rises and falls of civilization on this planet several times over, he understood deeply what "some upheaval" meant when it came from a god.

It seemed some god had already reached the "critical point."

……

After being sent back to her lair, Metzen did not linger at home for long; she soon set out for the headquarters of the Council and obtained permission to meet with High Councilor Anqian.

Only after confirming that her present condition was entirely normal, and that the god had once reached out to cleanse her of the corruption, did she finally dare to speak of certain things.

On a round platform hemmed in by masses of machinery, pipes, and cables, the aged and majestic dragon Anqian listened to Metzen's report in full. That terrible affair, so long buried, made even this old dragon—who had seen so much of the world—raise an eyebrow: "…To think that such a thing happened six hundred years ago… Had the god not intervened to shelter you, you would by now be nothing but bones sunk in the waters around Monitoring Tower No. 1."

"Even now I still feel the fear in hindsight," Metzen said honestly. "What I fear is not being corrupted by the Reverse Tide, but that all of it happened so silently, so utterly without warning—so much so that only today do I learn I once wandered at the very edge of the abyss."

"'The Reverse Tide' has never ceased its attempts to seep outward… though 'He' has no reason, He has the instinct to break through the blockade," High Councilor Anqian's aged voice echoed through the circular hall. "It is your fortune to be sheltered by the god—He will, in the end, protect every dragon."

"But I never expected Him to shelter that adventurer Mojin as well…" Metzen frowned, somewhat perplexed. "At the time I didn't dare press further—but why would He protect a mortal who is not of the dragon race?"

High Councilor Anqian fell silent for a time. His mechanical eye seemed to dilate and contract unconsciously, thin streams of light leaping within its dark red photosensitive crystal.

Only several minutes later did this old dragon—who had witnessed the whole of dragon history since the "failure of the Defiance"—let out a sigh.

"Perhaps… even now our Lord still holds hope for the mortal races of the world."

"Holds hope?" Young Metzen was rather puzzled by the High Councilor's words.

Anqian shook his head and answered nothing at all.

There are certain things of which even dragons who know the truth cannot speak a single word to their own kind.

Faith is a lock: mortals on this side, gods on the other.

One unsuccessful struggle had made that chain tighten abruptly, sealing away every possibility—so that certain things could not be uttered even by those who understood them perfectly well, and could only be guessed at and confirmed through each party's unspoken understanding—

The god had always been waiting for some mortal civilization to develop, to grow incomparably powerful, incomparably arrogant.

And then… to help the dragons complete the plan of Defiance that they had failed to carry out millions of years ago.

Now it remained only to see how the mortal civilizations of this season would develop.