Chapter 389: Angels and Demons

Adrian nodded slowly.

"Yes, I do have a guess," Adrian admitted. "And that is the fact that the other transmigrators were brought to this world along with their original bodies. They all went through some sort of official, divine summoning technique. But me, on the other hand... there was absolutely no summoning technique used. And I also did not get to keep my original body. I basically just forcefully took over the body of a random native of this world."

The Dragon nodded in confirmation.

"Well, that is exactly the thing," the Dragon explained softly. "The True God. The one who originally created this entire world, this universe, and this specific reality. When he first created us Dragons, he explicitly told us one thing."

The Dragon’s eyes glowed with ancient power.

"He said: ’When you find someone who effortlessly breaks the fundamental laws of this world, it means that they function outside the rigid threads of fate. They have the potential to take my place.’"

As Adrian heard this, he frowned deeply.

"Take his place?" Adrian repeated in disbelief. "Are you honestly telling me that I have the potential to literally become a god? And in fact, not just some random, lower-tier god, but the True God who created you?"

The Dragon nodded.

"Well, you’re not going to become him," the Dragon clarified. "But you do have the potential to ascend and take his empty place on the throne."

Adrian thought about it for a moment, processing the weight of the statement.

’Empty throne... this shit wasn’t written in the novel...’

"What makes you different from this True God?" Adrian asked.

"Well, the specific title of ’Goddess’ was simply given to me by you mortal people," the Dragon explained with a faint smile. "It was given to me by humans who worshipped my power. But the True God did not need it. He did not need the blind recognition or prayers of the people to exist, or to become strong. And it is fundamentally the exact same for us Dragons."

She took another sip of her tea.

"But let’s just say that I got a little curious about humanity and decided to show myself a few thousand years ago. And now, I am officially worshipped as a Goddess. Perform just a few flashy miracles, and you can easily elevate your mortal status and gain direct access to a very powerful form of faith energy."

She looked directly at him.

"But of course, that stolen energy pales in comparison to the absolute power of the True God. And I’m entirely confident that you already personally experienced controlling this specific sort of faith energy on the battlefield today."

She paused. "Well, not perfectly ’control’. I guess the word ’sense’ or ’feel’ is the more accurate word for a beginner."

Adrian nodded slowly, remembering the golden light that had flooded into his chest.

"Yeah, I did feel it when I was fighting that Apostle," Adrian confirmed. "It was almost like I was instantly able to give a massive, army-wide blessing to all of my people."

The Dragon nodded in satisfaction.

"Exactly," she said. "You can do a lot of incredible things with this specific type of energy. It is functionally different from ambient mana, but again, it is not too different at its core. Mana is just the natural energy of the world itself, while that golden energy is just something that is synthetically born directly from human belief and devotion."

Adrian just looked at her, his headache starting to return.

"Could you just explain everything properly?" Adrian pleaded, running a hand through his hair. "I just really need to understand everything that is going on, and you’re just sort of vaguely talking in circles. You’re not giving me a single, clear answer."

The Dragon just chuckled, her voice sounding magical that entranced Adrian for a second.

"Well, there are some things that you simply aren’t supposed to know at this stage," the Dragon teased. "But let me tell you a little bedtime story."

She rested her hands on the table.

"Once upon a time, there used to be a single, unified race that completely ruled over this entire planet," the Dragon began. "And this planet had a massive, continent spanning tree called the World Tree. It birthed the race that I just told you about."

"High Elves," Adrian muttered instantly.

The Dragon nodded. "Yes. The High Elves. They were the strongest race on the planet. We also naturally had Dwarves, Lizardmen, Beastmen, and much, much more. But the Elves were just way too strong. But they were also incredibly peaceful. They were a proud race that defended themselves and took revenge for their kind, but they never actively sought out war without a valid reason."

Her eyes darkened slightly.

"But one day, a few powerful foreign entities suddenly appeared from the sky, and everything began to change. The brutal, world ending war between the invading Demons and the defending High Elves began, and the High Elves were entirely cursed for their defiance. Their beloved World Tree was violently uprooted, stolen, and taken over to a completely different dimension by the invaders."

The Dragon looked across the table directly at Adrian.

"What do you think is obviously missing from this story?" she asked pointedly.

Adrian frowned slightly as he thought about it.

"The Dragons?" he guessed.

Hearing his answer, the Dragon couldn’t help but smile.

She took a slow, elegant sip of her tea and asked another question instead of directly ging him an answer.

"Humans in this world are always born with both a blessing and a curse. Do you know why?" she asked.

Adrian’s eyes widened slightly in realization.

"Wait. Yeah, you never even mentioned the Angels in that ancient story," Adrian pointed out quickly. "What exactly were the Angels doing while the Elves and the Demons fought?"

The Dragon smiled warmly at him.

"The Elves were a species that had been directly planted here by the Angels," she revealed. "They were the creations of the Angels. The World Tree was a seed planted by them. It was a tree originally grown in the Heavens. Well, ’Heavens’ is what they call their home dimension."