"Lord Chronomet—"

Yvilos gestures from me to them.

"— former Emperor Thaddeus Heavens and former Viceroyal Garne."

At least he got the 'former' part right. These two might soon possess a former body.

I slightly surprise myself when my voice comes out as a draconic growl.

"Yvilos. You'd best resume your mayoral duties."

Seems I now have control over the timbre of my voice. That's good, I guess?

Yvilos responds while fleeing.

"AH! Indeed, my lord!"

A door slams.

*kam*

image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/073.png]

I address the two ingrates.

"You. Why did you come here."

They're sopping wet, not having bothered to shield themselves from the rain.

Garne evidently thinks taunting a dragon is a good idea.

"Dissatisfied that two of your greatest enemies have come to your front door, unarmed?"

Krah. Humans are meat on a chopping block to any adult dragon, never mind politicans whose only skills are lingual.

"To put it mildly— yes. I haven't yet decided what to do with you. I generally figure it out once I've captured the cities your kind manages."

Thaddeus replies.

"That's precisely why we're here."

I snap my gaze to him.

"So you can lie your way out of responsibility? All that'll do is move your execution date forward."

"No, it's because you eat those who act evilly, while interviewing and rewarding those who did good. Then, you discipline or dismiss the remainder accordingly."

"If you know, then why are you here? You surely also know I possess Ainthia's memories. You, Emperor, are currently condemned. However, once I control your respective capitals, I'll also know if there were mitigating factors. I have no need to listen to you; I'll know everything you've done. Personally."

Garne quickly interjects.

"But not why we did it. Not until we're already dead, rendered fully within your spatial maw."

This is a first. I'm surprised by the words of someone I suspect is evil. He may be right.

I squint at him with extreme suspicion and tilt my dragon head slightly sideways.

"Then, please. Do explain away your mass torture and mass murder."

Garne looks at Thaddeus with hope and concern.

My eyes also turn to him.

I watch Thaddeus slowly examine my head, then scan down to my clawed feet, seemingly thinking hard. It's as if he's struggling to make a decision. His eyes then flit back up until they're looking straight into mine.

He stares for a few seconds, after which... He relaxes slightly?

Finally, he speaks.

"Our goal was to create a new god. In this, we've done quite the fine job. You seem to be far more powerful than I'd expected from my most recent reports. So much more powerful that it doesn't make sense."

I feel both pride and disgust from his praise, though I do untilt my head and stop squinting.

"Your stupid bulb's seeds are draining stats into my body. Living peoples' stats. Worse, the seeds' efficacy is rising at a steady clip. Before long, I'm afraid this world may contain over half a billion less living sapients. To say nothing of the billions of others you've infected. I can't even figure out how many seeds are out there."

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

His last bit of his tension drains away. He seems so serene and calm. I feel great unease watching these shifts in his emotions. Has he come to terms with his likely death or does he have an ulterior motive for this conversation?

"The total count was above fifteen billion when last we sowed them, but the plant also spread them without our assistance. There's likely far more. In any case, you deserve to know our reasons. The gods have forsaken my Purified Heavens. Do you know why?"

Fifteen billion is the low estimate? I hope most of these aren't on people. Then again, I doubt there's anywhere near 15 billion sapient beings on this planet. The majority should be on animals.

Also, this is the first I've heard of The Purif—

Reh? Wait.

Wasn't the dragon hunter's last memory of himself asking the gods if they were forsaken? The answer was clearly 'yes.' I'd thought that was a near-death hallucination, but I'd retained this memory just in case. Is he telling the truth?

"I know not."

"Our goal is to create a new god who can kill all the others. The existing gods consume our aptitudes by consuming our connective memories. When we 'forget' something— it's because they ate it."

"That makes no sense; I can create brain matter and thus recreate those memories."

He looks at me with confusion, then shakes his head.

"Our brains don't solely store data. They store the mind's interpretation of an event and the information which was used to create that interpretation. The former are memories of how an event made us feel; the latter, why we felt that way."

He shifts his head a little bit forward.

"That's why when a house is demolished, people tend to forget it existed if they aren't reminded. But, they don't easily forget being there themselves. The Will's objective memories are like a foundation keeping the emotional mind intact."

Quite the interesting theory.

He continues.

"The gods separate the emotional mind from the objective Will. They eat the connection between the two; we call this act 'sciolation.' Once the foundation's been severed, everything built on top is interpretations and opinions referring to nothing, and therefore the mind quickly falls apart. On the other hand, foundational knowledge is only good for animal-like behaviors when nothing higher-level makes use of that data. That is to say: a building with no foundation collapses. A foundation with no building is quite barren indeed."

He twists his face a bit, as if he's trying to grasp something.

"You can recreate these mental pairings, I suppose? Truly impressive. However, the gods will simply eat it again. That's why some people can never learn certain things no matter how hard they try."

His expression flattens.

"We named to this mind-Will bonding mechanism 'Causal Coherence' after one of the plant's— ah, the bulb's two talents. This connective process affixes memories in the mind just as that talent fixes reality in place. Of course, talents are exceedingly rare and valuable. Hence, we've kept the very existence of talents secret. We named this mechanism 'Causal Coherence' despite such secrecy because we believe said talent and the brain's recall mechanism are strongly related."

He focuses himself on my body again. Garne also looks at me, now with cautious expectation.

"Leario reported that you can absorb talents from those you kill and consume. You thus doubtlessly possess the weapon we've prepared specifically for the purpose of killing the gods. Since you hold this talent, the gods cannot instantly render you helpless before killing you. I don't understand how you defeated such a powerful talent and even consumed that Demigod's power in its entirety. In fact, you've become so much stronger that, ahm. I can't understand your power, nor where you're getting it from. But considering our goals? The stronger you are, the better."

If what he's saying is true, then my unusual mental abilities— perhaps it's because of my Origin?

Hrh. There's no other valid explanation. Look at what happened to the warp bug! Causal Coherence would surely be overwhelmed by a god's raw power. Whether it was the bulb's talent or mine, it wouldn't matter in the slightest.

Origin is a different story. It's my lineage: my most basic existence. It has repeatedly proven that I can ignore mental disruptions. Therefore, a god cannot erase my existence without a physical attack.

"Thaddeus, I won because I already possess an ability that can defeat gods. It's stronger than Causal Coherence. So much stronger, in fact, that the bulb was completely helpless against it. It was a battle no less one-sided than the manner in which you claim gods kill their lessers. But that's also where my extra strength comes from. From that ability. Whenever I consume anything, my gains are multiplied countless times over."

Garne's eyes light up.

"Good! Good! This is what I've been saying!"

He looks over at Thaddeus once more.

"See, Thaddeus? We did it!"

How foolish of him.

"You did a whole lot beyond that. You've sacrificed far too many. While I admit it's not hard for a pragmatic leader to weigh the deaths of millions against the lives of billions, the counterpoint is that you've directly harmed billions during your anti-god crusade. Perhaps not as directly as you did Ainthia, but the results are clear. Had I not stepped in? You'd still be pouring their bodies and minds into that bulb's stat pool. This is already a reprehensible act. But now the lifeblood of those billions is being forced into my body instead. Did you ask whether I wanted to cause such grave harm?"

Garne's enthusiasm dims. Then, he straightens his body, looks staunchly at me, and pulls at his coat.

*shup*

"I'm willing to submit my life should you deem me unworthy. I would rather live, of course. But with my life's goal achieved? I will not regret."

"You have no choice. Another of my abilities can locate anything. Anything. On the entire planet and beyond."

His eyes chill for a moment, before firming.

"I meant what I said."

My eyes flit to Thaddeus.

"And you?"

"I will regret, because you're a dragon."

Garne coughs, evidently trying to look like he's not facepalming.

*koff-koff*

It isn't working.

Thaddeus continues.

"Otherwise, I am of the same mind as Garne. Oh, right. I did intend on running before learning it was so utterly hopeless. I presume you've already become a god?"

"No."

"Then you're all-seeing without becoming a god? How is that possible?"

"I have a second type of 'sight.' That's how I can transfer myself from so far away. The reverse is true as well. I could transfer you instantly to my location, even if you were dig to the center of this planet. That said, I'm not going to tell you, of all people, the limitations of my abilities. Nice try, Thaddeus."

"Keh, but you'll list the limits it doesn't have. You really are an intelligent dragon."

"The only one."