I cant believe I'm saying this, but the Kickstarter has been funded!!!! This insane feat never would have happened if it weren't for each and everyone one of you, so truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all.
Please get excited, its on the way at last!!! Also additional support is still seriously appreciated. Y'all can get significant discounts on advanced webtoon chapters through the Kickstarter still, so please check it out!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tdod/the-dragon-of-dreams-webtoon-adaptation
Music for today:
Rok Nardin & Staarz - No Time to Die (Billie Eilish Epic Cover)
https://youtu.be/8ixzCYNc_KM
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Chapter 467: The Unknown
Early Evening - Mid Summer : Year ??? : Delphi
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Gaia was an endlessly fascinating world—a once-perfectly balanced canvas of evolution with the marks of artificial, self-induced imbalance by the sentience of the beings that inhabited it.
Everywhere you looked, you could find a being whose existence seemed naturally impossible—trees that harbored souls, and dragons the size of mountains—yet the world appeared to lack the omnipotent guidance that should have been present to maintain the balance of such absurdities.
It didn't make any sense.
In that world, life was denser, stronger, and so perfectly adapted that new mutations never spread, harnessing existing evolutionary advantages that, instead of simply overcoming their environmental hindrances, slotted into them like water filling a crater.
It was akin to what I believed the final destination of evolution to be.
...A perfect, unbiased, self-maintaining balance where no power goes unchecked.
But as if meant to fundamentally oppose the path that must have been taken to reach that destination, life in that world seemingly couldn't evolve at all. Thanks to the incredibly dense mana, mutations by themselves were extremely rare, and even viruses and bacteria—organisms that survived by adapting to ever-changing environments—changed so slowly they appeared to almost struggle to survive. With that pace of evolution, the continents themselves had to out-age the universe as I knew it. -With how dilated time is here.. that may not be out of the realm of possibility...-
But that theory never sat right.
While theoretically possible, no world I had ever visited had found such a perfect balance, and those that were close, were only able to hold it because of the unbiased guidance of a god capable of bending natures will—precisely what I believed should have been the case on Gaia.
But despite having certainly found a perfect balance at one point, it was being disrupted by the unchecked creations of intelligent beings, and nothing was correcting it.
I figure if something so perfect was created by someone, why would they leave it be? -Why would they let the balance they most certainly struggled to create be disrupted by the magic and alchemy of their creations..?-
It almost felt like the world itself had been abandoned...
But the mere idea of that tasted bitter. There was something deeper that I was missing—something fundamental that I wasn't understanding—and I acknowledged it before I even step foot on the world.
-The star.. and the planet...- Something was there.. I was certain of it.. but even after I dug through the depths of that world's history, dissected the ancestry of its life, comprehended the deepest innerworkings of existence itself, and taught myself how it all tied into the the same foundation, I only ever found more questions between me and the sky.
I was climbing, but the peak I was reaching for was beyond the horizon even I could see.
I was simply too incapable to see through the clouds...
However, acknowledging that inferiority didn't ever loosen my footing. As I explored, learned, and cultivated knowledge and power the likes of which I could have never fathomed, I grew a closer and closer to the unknown, finding joy in confusion, and excitement in perplexity.
Every twist made my mind spiral, and every turn taught me to love every breath I drew.
That world became my everything. Even as millennia began passing and Dagr found a place to settle down in the elven lands as their god, I continued to wander, explore, and let the world teach me everything it had to offer.
I loved every second of it.. not just because my curiosity merely had room to run, but because the world itself seemed to encourage the chase.
It was my paradise.. my sanctuary...
She was Delphi. The center of the unknown...
...A giant whose beauty no one else seemed to be able to appreciate...
That was except one...
-Hera...-
Everywhere we went, she carried herself with the warmth of a mother overlooking her children. While she lacked the power to truly dissect it all as I did, she seemed to cherish every breath she drew just the same.
However, as the war between the Pantheon and the Aesir mounted, that warmth in her eyes began to fade. Her focus shifted from appreciating whatever was below us, to trying to protect it from the ripples of clashing gods...
...And eventually, that act began taking its toll.
Despite never engaging in the battles of the war itself, she was being worn down with time. With every battle, her connection to the world faded, and by the time it all ended, she was forever changed.
At any moment, I could have walked in and wiped the Aesir off the map.. I could have made it so she wouldn't have to worry about the destruction of that which she cherished...
But she ordered I never step in, remaining adamant no matter how much damage her soul took...
They weren't my battles to fight, nor was it my war to win.
I understood that more than anyone.
But even still.. I could never understand why...
By then, I had been living in that world for tens of thousands of years, and grown so strong I was hardly different from a creator. I knew every sentient being.. every god, every dragon, every human.. and yet... -She's the only I cannot understand...-
She never let others share her burden, never appeared to do something for herself, and never once elaborated on her actions...
Even as her soul was on the verge of scattering, she stood firm.. merely proud she was able to save a single organism's life.
It was.. sickening...
"~Hera, it seems this is the end.~" Odin's voice echoed over the world like a monarch's command that evening—his weathered, greyed hair and beard flowing in non-existent wind while his cape-like cloak rippled to reveal a body littered with scars he earned as a human, and a long spear covered in cracks and chips. "~You're the last one.~" His tone was heavy and looming.
"~Is that.. so..?~" Easing slightly, Hera's form wavered.. its defined features blurring as if she was forgetting her own form. "~I'm.. truly glad so many of you survived...~" Looking up weakly, her eyes moved over the figures of the Aesir with a mix of fondness and warmth they hardly reserved.
"~Had you joined the war, many more would have died.. the Pantheon may have even won.. so I thank you.~" Easing slightly, he gave a brief warrior salute before a number of others followed suit. "~If you wish to join the Aesir, we will welcome you, but-~"
"~My decision remains.~" Her voice firmed in an instant. "~I have existed for millions of years.. not a single one of you have I not witnessed the birth of... You are all akin to my children, yet to you, I am merely an oppressor.~"
Eir, the goddess of balance, raised her head. "~It doesn't have to be that way-~"
"~The human race will never be able to rise to the heights you wish.. and as long as I exist, you will only continue to blame me as you have the rest of the Pantheon.~" Silence rippled in the wake of her voice. "~This is where my road ends, and I don't have the power, nor will to stop it.~" Straightening herself, her form sharpened, and the warmth in her gaze finally disappeared. "~You all too will soon come to realize the futility of fighting nature's balance...~"
Hesitating as a sudden chill overtook Hera's voice, Eir flinched. "~If the balance is unopposable.. why is it you defend it so adamantly-~"
"~I don't defend the balance.. I defend the life...~" She didn't give her the breath to finish. "~This world is the pinnacle of beauty.. an oasis amidst a mass of horrors...~" Looking up, her expression darkened, yet the others didn't seem to understand. "~Every waking moment we have is bought by a power none of us can fathom...~" Staring into the dark evening sky, her eyes sharpened with a clarity I had never seen.. drifting over the bodies of void eaters squirming beyond the mask of the atmosphere. "~So why live with any purpose other than enjoying every moment...~"
It was like she was possessed.. though only for a moment.
Lowering her head, she closed her eyes. "~My only wish is that the stolen fragments of souls that compose my body can be returned nature in my death...~" She was accepting it.
And as if having waited for the moment, Frigg's saber crossed space, and collided with her core. *Snap...*
It was a fragile sound.. like the shattering of a delicate glass...
But the silence that followed was anything but...
Finally moving with a dilation of time even Odin couldn't follow, I appeared next to her scattering body like a ghost, absorbing the impact of Frigg's saber just enough to prevent her core from shattering before locking its isolated self in a dark artifact.
As she wished, her body was to be returned to nature.. but in unable to suppress a deeper selfish desire, I didn't let her existence scatter. -Forgive me, Hera...-
Loosening my grip on time, space warped, and the expression of the Aesir darkened in unison.
"~What is the meaning of this?!~" Frigg pulled back her saber instantly.
And just the same, Odin's grip on his spear tightened. "~You said you were going to stay out of this, Nott.~" His head, once hung with a glimmer of guilt and respect, instantly reared like a challenged coyote.
"~The war is over.~" My voice was cold—my fur flaring with ripples of purple and glimmers of mana. "~And my agreement was never with you to begin with.~" Looking back, my pupils thinned to blades. "~Do I take it you wish to end your life too?~"
Beside him, Hermod immediately grit his teeth. "~As if you have the power to-~" *Tink-WOOOOOOM*
In a wide burst of mana and light, his figure vanished without even fragments of his soul remaining before my mana scattered and solidified the divinity of the rest.
"~Arrogant brat.~" No one could mutter a word.. left frozen and suspended in space at the will of my whim.
The only I spared was Odin, leaving him to simply bite his lip and find the strength of restraint. "~We have no plan to impede whatever you wish to do. I apologize for my underlings ineptitude...~" Looking at Frigg frozen next to him, he bit his lip harder.
"~You cannot impede my plans even if you wished it upon fate itself, but just the same, I have no need to pay mind to the matters of the human world.~" Looking over the bunch, I jerked my mana away and opened my mouth to speak their language. "You are free to do what you wish with the human world.. just make sure you keep to your bounds."
And without letting another mutter escape their mouths, I vanished...
And time passed...
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