NOVGO.NET Chapter 914: Lessons from a Dragon (2)
Chapter 914: Chapter 914: Lessons from a Dragon (2)
As the dragon continued blabbing proudly about soul diets and divine energy refinement, Kain let a thin breath slip through his nose and quietly split a portion of his consciousness.
’If this thing is right… then souls contain divine energy. And the amount must scale with strength.’
His awareness dipped into Pangea.
The shift was instant—the comforting pulse of the World Tree, the familiar gold and green canopy, the hum of life.
He focused first on something insignificant: a small, red-striped beetle crawling along a root of the tree. Practically an ordinary creature, barely even a spiritual beast.
He narrowed his senses.
There.
A flicker. Dust-like. The faintest mote of source energy clinging to the creature’s soul.
’So small I never even bothered noticing it before…’
Next, he turned his awareness toward something stronger.
A luminous deer grazing in a nearby clearing—around orange-grade. Its soul glowed more brightly, and within it, he could finally sense a proper wisp of source energy.
’Still tiny… but noticeable.’
Finally, he turned toward the greatest presence in all of Pangea.
Aurem.
The ancient gold dragon rested coiled around the mountain peak, his spiritual pressure washing over the surroundings as he rested; his underlings shivering and tiptoing around him so as not to wake him and suffer his wrath.
The moment Kain brushed Aurem’s soul with his senses, his breath caught.
Aurem’s soul was enormous—an ocean of power. And within it? The highest concentration of source energy in the soul Kain had ever sensed from a living creature.
And yet… even that vast quantity—
’It’s… not actually that much.’
Enough, maybe, for Kain to rebuild his body once if he were destroyed.
But Aurem would vanish forever in the process.
’That’s a horrible exchange rate.’
He withdrew slightly, thoughtful.
Souls contained divine energy—but only in trace amounts. Even Aurem’s vast reserve was but a droplet compared to what Kain needed when fighting regularly or using the System’s functions.
’So where do I usually get mine from? And it said my use of it was childish? Does it have further uses?’
Kain’s gaze slid back to the dragon, who was still ranting proudly, obliviously, about the supremacy of his talents compared to other abyssals.
’Maybe this idiot will reveal more information…’
Most high-level abyssal, including demigods, from what Kain could see, had purple eyes with gold flecks—clearly they could absorb some divine energy directly, but still relied on souls a bit.
But this one…
Pure violet.
Meaning it did not absorb souls at all.
That put it disturbingly close to Kain’s own abilities.
Kain inhaled slowly, then decided to push.
“You too,” he said casually. “It’s rare to see someone absorb divine energy purely, with no medium. Even at your level.”
The dragon preened.
“Your vision truly is clear. Mother forged me from a previously harvested world. Even before I was saved—before the abyssal awakening took me—I was already a prodigy among my kind. A dragon capable of manipulating luck and fate.”
Kain’s lips twitched at the dragon’s retelling of the clear destruction of his planet, and him being contaminated by abyssal energy, as him being ’saved’.
But his statement did reveal some information. Is source energy, or ’divine energy’ as this draogn calls it, containing the fate and luck of a being? Maybe some other ethereal attributes as will. In which case, Kain could fully understand why it’d be far harder to sense and absorb than more tangible things like flesh, blood, and the soul.
The dragon lifted the boy’s chin high with pride.
“Mother saw my potential instantly and recruited me personally.”
Kain nodded thoughtfully, encouraging the bragging.
“And yet,” he mused aloud, “the natives here didn’t kill you. They locked you away. Surprising, considering how exceptional you claim to be.”
The dragon let out a scoff so sharp it almost snapped the air.
“These primitives? Without a deity’s backing? Kill me?”
It laughed—an unsettling, echoing sound.
“My body had been reshaped entirely by divine energy. The insects here could injure, yes. Contain, temporarily, perhaps. But kill? Impossible.”
A prickling chill washed down Kain’s spine.
So if he himself reached that level… would even demigods here be unable to kill him too?
Technically, he’d never fought a demigod before, there’s no guarantee that they could kill him now…
But before his head could get too big from conceit, and a belief in his own ’invincibility’, he instinctively felt the answer through the Threads of Destiny and the pitch black threads that often led to the demigod in the fortress:
A demigod could still kill him.
But anyone below that?
…Maybe not.
The dragon leaned back, sneering.
“One native in particular vexed me. A human manipulating a power vaguely similar to Mother’s.”
Kain’s heart stilled.
“Amos Sans?” he asked casually.
The dragon’s eyes flashed.
“So you know of him.”
It clicked its tongue irritably.
“Mother offered him a favourable position—once he accepted her power and ascended, of course. But the fool spat on her grace.”
Kain exhaled softly.
Every new revelation slotted more pieces into place, like gears finally aligning.
The dragon, too delighted to have a conversational partner after centuries of isolation, continued chatting without restraint.
“His resistance was admirable… though pointless. Mother grows amused easily when watching mortals struggle.”
“And you?” Kain asked. “You sound like you still hold a grudge.”
“A grudge? No. Contempt.” The possessed boy waved a clawed hand dismissively. “He believed himself untouchable because his power was unusual. Foolish. Without a true deity to guide him, he is merely a slightly bigger ant.”
Kain waited, nodding along.
The dragon’s arrogance poured forth like a flood—years, decades, centuries of pent-up superiority spilling unfiltered.
Clearly, without company for so long, he had a lot he wanted to say.
And Kain was more than willing to be his captive audience.
Kain even reached into his space ring and casually pulled out a bag of snacks.
He popped one into his mouth.
Crunch
The dragon paused mid-sentence.
“…Are you eating?”
“I got hungry.” Kain replied calmly.
If the dragon had full control of facial muscles, Kain was fairly sure its eye would’ve twitched.
But instead of attacking, it simply huffed.
“Well. You may continue,” it said magnanimously. “I will allow it.”
Kain grinned.
“Don’t mind me. Please—go on.”
And it did.
Oh, did it.
The dragon rambled, boasted, ranted, lectured, and reminisced about invasions long past. It described planets devoured, guardians fallen, creatures corrupted or, as it called the process, ’ascended’.
Secrets buried by centuries of dust spilled from its lips with reckless ease.
It had been alone for so long.
And Kain—smiling politely, crunching snacks, mentally cataloguing every forbidden detail—had never enjoyed talking to an abyssal more in his entire life.