Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 915 - 914: Dragon and God

Inside the medical center under the Talronde Council.

Melita lay honestly on the circular platform, surrounded by several medical machines humming nearby. A few scanning probes were slowly passing over her torso from above, while she herself squinted slightly, letting these Omega-controlled machines work busily around her.

”This is the final check,” Nuoletta’s voice came from the side, with a hint of relaxation, ”Once it’s over, you can leave this place.”

”Actually, I’m not in such a hurry to leave now...” Melita’s lazy voice echoed on the platform, ”I’m telling you, once I learned that all expenses here are covered by the Council, I even thought about pitching a tent on this platform...”

Nuoletta glanced disdainfully at her friend: ”You can try—I guarantee the medical center team will let you lie here for a century, and by then, you wouldn’t be able to leave even if you wanted to.”

As they spoke, the last group of medical machines around the platform suddenly emitted a low hum in unison. Then all the scanning probes retracted into the slots above the platform, and Omega’s broadcast voice announced the completion of the medical examination in the room. Melita immediately shook her head, muttering as she got up, ”Forget it, I don’t plan to be disassembled into parts and then assessed as a minor medical injury...”

Before the words had finished, a light screen enveloped Melita’s entire body. In the slow undulating movement of the light screen, the huge silhouette of the blue dragon gradually disappeared, and a human form began to take shape within. In less than a moment, Miss Blue Dragon had switched to her usual human form. She slightly moved her joints, confirmed her sense of balance, and then stepped toward the edge of the platform.

Nuoletta came forward: ”How are you feeling? Any better?”

”Mostly recovered—there’s some residual fatigue and discord, but once the internal components finish adapting to each other, I’ll be fine,” Melita said with a gentle exhale, ”Sigh... My biggest regret now is listening to your recommendation and replacing the third auxiliary heart—it was scrapped shortly after I got it, proving that those neon rings are completely useless...”

”Don’t say that, I looked at your examination report; at least, it was the last to explode,” Nuoletta showed a slight smile, ”The improvement brought by the neon rings is closely related to your mindset; you have to believe first...”

Melita waved her hand to interrupt before the other could finish: ”Stop, stop, I don’t want to hear more about your theory on lighting effects equals performance—and besides, I have serious matters to attend to.”

”Serious matters...” Hearing her friend’s last words, Nuoletta’s original intention of making a few more jokes to cheer her friend up was replaced by seriousness. Her brows furrowed slightly, and her footsteps slowed down, ”You... are going to seek an audience with our God right now?”

Melita smiled: ”He said I could go see Him anytime after returning... It’s quite an extraordinary honor.”

”Yes... it is an honor,” Nuoletta repeated softly with a somewhat complicated expression, then looked up, fixing her eyes on her friend’s, ”You still haven’t told me why you want to go see God so proactively, nor have you spoken about your experiences. What happened to you? Can’t you tell me?”

”Perhaps I can, but right now I dare not,” Melita responded, holding the other’s gaze, then lightly shook her head after a two-second pause, ”Some things have to wait until I get a response from God before I can decide if I can speak of them. But don’t worry—I am fine, at least for now.”

She finished without leaving Nuoletta a chance to continue questioning, then turned and briskly walked toward the room’s exit, leaving only one sentence: ”I’m heading to the Upper Sanctuary, let’s have dinner when I get back.”

...

In the upper reaches of the mountain where Agondale is located, a special architectural complex stands between high walls and towers, covered in magnificent gold. It has a solemn and imposing dome and walls full of reliefs, with a sacred and distant aura seemingly perennially enveloping the dome’s summit. The never-ending songs and Holy Chants blend with the air, lingering around the building.

Here is the Sanctuary of the Dragon God, a crucial facility found in every city of Talronde, familiar to every Dragonkin. In Talronde’s society, religious activities, like implants and enhancers, form an essential part of a dragon’s life; whether they wish it or not, these three things accompany them from the moment they hatch and throughout their life.

Under the influence of the Weather Controller, the clouds near the mountain’s summit are just right, gathered at the Sanctuary’s foot. Melita walked step by step along the slope before the Sanctuary, through the layer of clouds, arriving before the splendidly gilded dome construction—the great door was already open for her, needing no introduction, she walked straight in.

The grand and solemn interior of the Sanctuary was fully illuminated, with the light source unknown, lighting up the large structure. In the circular hall, there was nothing except a high platform in its center. Around the hall, eight balconies extended outwards toward the sea of clouds, and at each balcony’s connection to the hall hung a dusk-like light curtain, as if hiding numerous eyes staring at her. At the moment she stepped into the Sanctuary, Melita felt an elusive sense of surveillance.

She wasn’t bothered by this typical perception, and she walked confidently up to the platform, bowing her head respectfully: ”My Lord, I have arrived.”

No sooner had she spoken than an immense divine presence abruptly emerged out of thin air. A stunningly beautiful woman with flowing blonde hair appeared atop the platform in front of Melita, calmly looking down.

”Melita, raise your head,” spoke Dragon God Enya calmly, ”Today is not the day for worship; you can relax a little.”

”Yes, My Lord,” Melita then raised her head, daring to glance at the deity on the platform—who merely looked back peacefully, with even a touch of gentleness on that flawless face, which indeed slightly relaxed her tension, ”I... I have some questions I wish to ask you...”

”I know,” the woman on the platform said, ”you wish to ask about the event from six hundred years ago—that mortal you brought to the No.1 Monitoring Tower, that mortal’s situation, and your missing memories.”

”Yes... yes,” Melita quickly nodded, ”Did I really... really take a mortal to the No.1 Monitoring Tower six hundred years ago? Was I then...”

”Yes, you were contaminated. It might have been due to a deviation during a flight or an active strike by the tower; in short, the ’Inversion Tide’ affected your perception then, making you temporarily forget the prohibition and brought a mortal before the tower. Fortunately, the contamination you suffered wasn’t irreversible, and the contact time of that mortal with the tower was brief, allowing everything to be salvaged in time—though it required my personal intervention.”

”So, you erased my memory of those days?” Melita’s eyes widened, ”You did it to... remove my contamination?”

”Did it trouble you?” Dragon God watched her calmly.

”No... not at all, I am only grateful, you... saved me,” Melita lowered her head again, though her tone carried complexity, ”I almost caused a disaster back then...”

Dragon God did not acknowledge this, neither criticizing nor responding, but after a brief silence, casually asked: ”So, you just came to confirm these matters? No more questions?”

”Can’t we completely destroy that tower or the ’Inversion Tide’ inside?” Melita hesitated several times, finally mustering the courage to ask bold questions, ”Even with your power, is there no way to destroy it?”

”The power of the gods is ineffective against that tower, the power of dragons is ineffective against the gods, Melita, you know this—since the day ’Inversion Tide’ was born, Talronde has never been able to destroy that tower or anything inside, and since the Inverted Tide Empire, this planet has not given birth to a civilization strong enough to destroy the legacy left by the Voyagers,” the Dragon God looked into Melita’s eyes, patiently explaining, as if answering the questions of her people was her inherent duty, ”Perhaps only the Voyagers themselves can achieve this—but they may never return.”

”Voyagers...” Melita subconsciously repeated the word, shaking her head helplessly.

She expressed that she had no more questions.

”If there are no more questions, then return,” the Dragon God said calmly from the high platform, ”Rest well; once you’ve recovered, I have tasks for you.”

”You... have tasks for me?” Melita raised her head in surprise, ”What tasks?”

Then she heard the voice of the deity coming from above: ”Invite that mortal named Gawain Cecil to Talronde as a guest again—details will follow once you’ve fully recovered.”

Melita’s face showed a mixture of surprise and confusion, but just as she opened her mouth to ask more, she felt a swirl of light and shadow before her eyes. When her vision stabilized, she found herself back in her nest near the mountainside—it was clear the deity intended to answer no further questions.

...

Inside the sanctum, Dragon God Enya still stood quietly on the high platform, while beside her, in the air, the form of a figure in priestly robes began to solidify.

Dragon Priest Heragor saluted his deity and cautiously asked, ”Are you going to invite that human, who once refused you, again?”

”Any concerns?”

”No, of course not, it’s just... do you think he will refuse again?”

”If he is truly curious about certain things, he will come,” the Dragon God said indifferently, her gaze crossing the void of the hall, past a balcony reaching into the sea of clouds, beyond the distant expanse, as if she could see through everything, with a faint smile forming at the corners of her mouth, ”It seems the world... is indeed about to experience some upheaval.”

”Upheaval...” Heragor repeated the god’s words subconsciously, deeply understanding what ”some upheaval” meant coming from a deity, as one who had witnessed multiple rises and falls of civilizations on this planet.

It seems some deity has reached a ”critical point.”

...

After being sent back to her nest, Melita did not linger at home for long. She soon set off for the Council Headquarters and was granted permission to meet Speaker Andar.

After confirming that her current state was normal and that the deity had removed the pollution from her, she finally dared to speak out about certain matters.

On the round platform surrounded by a multitude of mechanical devices, pipes, and cables, the aged and dignified dragon Andar listened carefully to Melita’s report. The terrifying event, once buried, even made the well-experienced elderly dragon raise an eyebrow: ”I really didn’t expect such things to happen six hundred years ago... If not for the deity’s personal protection, you might now be just another skeleton in the waters around No.1 Monitoring Tower.”

”Even now, I still feel a lingering fear,” Melita admitted honestly, ”It’s not the Inversion Tide’s pollution that scares me, but how quietly everything happened. Even until today, I only realized I had once hovered on the brink of the abyss.”

”The ’Inversion Tide’ has never ceased trying to seep out... Even though ’It’ lacks reason, it has an instinct to break through blockades,” Speaker Andar’s aged voice echoed in the circular hall, ”It’s your fortune to be protected by the deity—for Her ultimate aim is to protect every dragon.”

”But I didn’t expect Her to also protect that adventurer named Modir...” Melita frowned in puzzlement, ”At the time, I didn’t dare to ask further—why would She protect a mortal outside the Dragonkin?”

Speaker Andar fell silent, his mechanical eye seeming to adjust unconsciously, with fine streams of light flickering in the dark red photoreceptive crystals.

After several minutes, this ancient dragon, who had witnessed every piece of Dragonkin history since the ”defied failure,” sighed.

”Perhaps... even today, our Master still holds expectations for the mortal races of the world.”

”Holds expectations?” The young Melita didn’t quite understand Speaker Andar’s words.

Andar shook his head, offering no response.

Some matters cannot be spoken of, even among informed Dragonkin.

Faith is a lock, mortals at one end, gods at the other.

A failed struggle causes that chain to tighten suddenly, sealing all possibilities, leaving some things unspoken even for those who understand them entirely, relying only on mutual understanding to speculate and confirm—

The gods have always waited for a mortal civilization to rise, become incomparably powerful, become incomparably arrogant.

And then... help the Dragonkin complete the defied Plan that wasn’t fulfilled millions of years ago.

Now, it depends on how the civilizations of this era will develop.