Nur found himself sleeping soundly, his dreams taking him to a place very far away. He was back to his beloved garden, back to the domain of the master he served, angel of Death, Desolai. But while he could see the surroundings, the architecture that Desolai hoarded, the countless books within the library of living and dead, there was no sign of his master there, nor was his created son, Kunjarik. He was all alone. None there is waiting for him. Just an empty place without a life.
“This looks like a personal domain, belongs to a secondary deity, I presume?” a voice sounded out. It was a masculine voice.
“Who is there? Show yourself!” Nur shouted out.
“Well, of course. How rude of me.” A figure emerged from the trees, blending out from the shadows. He wore a mask that concealed top half of his face, but left the bottom half visible. His hair was white, as were his wings. He was an angel.
“An angel? Are you Shinigami?”
“I indeed am an angel. But no, I am no Shinigami, for I do not serve death. My current master is someone else.”
“What are you doing here, inside Desolai’s place?”
“We are not inside the domain of the one you call Desolai. We are inside your dream. By your impression of this place, this is most likely your memory of a place that was etched into your heart; that is all there is to it.”
“This is a dream? Really?”
“Of course. How else would we be floating while the sky is on bottom and ground on top?”
“Whooah! I didn’t even notice!” indeed, the earth was where the sky was supposed to be while the sky was underneath my feet.
“Dreams are strange places; you can do things you could never do in real life. A place that is isolated from everywhere else, a domain to which none but the dreamer can enter. An ultimate paradise where gods hold no power. A perfect place for us to talk.”
“A talk? I don’t know who you are, I never met you, why should I even care about anything you say? I already have enough problems already!”
“And one of those problems would be going back to your master while the other would be taking revenge on Chronos, am I correct.”
Nur froze in silence.
“How do you know?”
“Oh, I have been watching you for a while. Think of me as your guardian angel. I have seen nearly everything.”
“I doubt that.”
“So far, you have been run over by a cart, stabbed in the back, eaten by dragons, burned at stake, drowned, burned at stake, butchered countless times by knights, and most recently, defeated over seventy times by knight in white armor. There were countless other ones, but I chose to mention only the more traumatic ones.”
“How did you….?”
“I told you. I am an angel that has been watching over you for quite some time. My name is Mrakus. It is pleasure to make your acquaintance, Nur Finnerman.”
“So you know who I am, and you have kept track of me even though I have been sent back, time and again. Are you by any chance cursed as well?”
“Not that I know of”
“Then it means, you are someone who is close to Chronos, aren’t you?”
Mrakus remained silent before speaking.
“Indeed, I know of Chronos. And I know she was the one who took you away from you loved ones and stranded you here. It is natural for you to want to strike her back for what she did, wouldn’t you want to do that?”
“What are you getting at?”
“Sadly, however, she is a goddess. She cannot be killed by a mundane tool or even magic. No, no, no! Gods and goddesses, such frustrating creatures, even if one were to successfully destroy their form, they will just reform back after some time! Such a frustrating thing! And as long as there is time, Chronos can put herself back any day of the week!”
“How exactly is this supposed to be helpful!?” Nur was now getting irritated with this guy. He looked handsome at first, but now he was more and more clownish.
“Of course, every being, even gods, have a weakness.”
“And that would be?”
“Gods are vulnerable to their own power, meaning, a deity can kill another deity. But this option is not available for you, no deity would listen to request of a demon, they would just smite you on the spot, leaving nothing but the ashes. But there is another option- a power that exceeds the gods, the dragon magic.”
“Then I can have Aida kill Chronos, right?”
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“Your dragon companion, you mean? No, no, no. I am afraid it will not be that easy. Only fully grown dragons have enough power to contend against a deity, and it takes especially powerful one to get the job done. The dragon you have with you is merely a fledgling, only couple decades old, I believe. She does not yet possess either the power to kill a deity or withstand a deity’s power.”
“How long does it take for dragons to fully grow?”
“Two hundred years, maybe more, if they live long enough, many are killed before they reach that age. The problem with dragons is that they keep growing in size and power, they never stop growing, meaning their power, if left unchecked, has the potential to be stronger than the power of gods. While there are exceptions among gods, like the sword of gods who is capable of fighting off fully grown dragons, in general perspective, fully grown dragon would hold a bigger threat than any deity. Of course, we haven’t seen those kinds of dragons some time, they usually prefer to lie low, not get into needless conflicts.”
“So how is this relevant?”
“Simple, really. What if one were to harness the power of a deity or a dragon into a weapon, with the power concentrated into it? You see, pure dragon flesh has amazing properties, one of which is that a weapon made with dragon flesh has the capacity to injure or permanently kill a deity. Same goes for a weapon imbued with the power of a deity. Both can be used to permanently get rid of a deity.”
Nur’s eyes opened wide. He did not like where this was going.
“I am not going to use Aida’s flesh to make a weapon.”
“Of course not, even if you were to kill the dragon, without tools or knowledge of how to fuse dragon flesh into a weapon, it would just be a rotting waste of flesh. There a two such weapons that are inside of a city called Jambol, but one that was created by the Crimson Knight will only respond to his call, while the other one is in the hands of the Holy Order. Both are impossible to retrieve. Luckily for you, there is a third option. A weapon that is kept inside of a certain castle in the city called Holy City of Sana, the castle is fittingly called Holy Land. Inside of there, it adorns the wall of one of the rooms. Clearly, the owner did not know the quality the weapon possesses, for he simply thought of it as a decoration. The weapon is a crystal knife. Looks roughly like this.” In his hands, an illusion of a glass knife appeared.
“It may look mundane, but this knife is made from a crystal that came from the above, from a falling star, carved into a shape. And the curious thing about it is that it can, not only cut through anything but it can also kill anyone, including a deity.That would be one advice I give you. Go towards the Holy City of Sana, to the Holy Land castle, and retrieve the crystal knife. It will be only a matter of time before Chronos comes after you personally, seeing that you remained unbroken through all that hell she put you through. When she comes for you, you can stab her and end her, right at that moment. Until then, remain patient. Remember, Chronos is not the only deity that is active, other ones might try to kill you if they realize you are a demon.”
“It seems like all the gods hate demons.”
“Indeed, they do. To be completely honest, most gods only tolerate humanity and to lesser extent humanoids like elves, but demi-humans, elementals, or any race other than humanoids are seen as pests to be eliminated. Demons, by far are seen as the vilest of them all. Chronos is not aware you are a demon, she is currently under an impression that you are a human, so in the future keep quiet about what you are, otherwise the deities that walk among the humans will make sure to kill you in worse ways than you can imagine.”
“Not much of incentive for me to go there is it, then?”
“What if I told you can find your master inside that city?”
Nur now was puzzled. Does it mean that by going there he could be reunited with Desolai? The offer sounded too good to be true.
“Do you mean what I think you mean? Can I really find my master there?”
“Indeed, you can. If you follow my instructions, that is.” Mrakus replied. “As an additional bonus, you can exact revenge upon Chronos, not such a bad deal, is it?”
“Mrakus, why are you helping me? You seem to know Chronos, but you are helping me in my effort to beat her. I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to understand. I am simply doing it out of my own will, that is all there is to it.”
“Then why should I trust you?” Nur asked.
“Because if I wanted you dead, truly dead, I would have done that by now. So, you really don’t have any reason to doubt my words. If you got to the Holy City, you shall find that everything I told you is true. But beware, in the holy city, unlike the city you have left, there are many gods who walk amongst their subjects, disguised as mortals, and their subjects, the demi-gods. You have already encountered one demi-god already, knight in white armor, I believe.”
“He was a demi-god?”
“Indeed he is. A demi-god of the highest caliber, blessed by king of gods, Solaris himself. There are many of them there, protectors of the city from unholy forces.”
“No wonder he was so strong!”
“Indeed. Demi-gods have stepped into the domain of heroes, they are not ordinary. They will pose a threat to you if you are discovered, so use utmost caution.”
“Understood.” Nur replied. “I suppose asking you why you are helping me would be pointless, right?”
“Not at all. Our goals simply happened to align, think of it as mutually beneficial arrangement. I provide you with information while you take action based on that information.”
“If it is that important, why don’t you do so yourself?” Nur asked.
“I am angel, a secondary deity; gods keep surveillance on me nearly everywhere I go. Why do you think I resorted to entering your dream? It was to find one place where gods will never look, a place where we can converse without a chance of being overheard. If I were to take action in the open, gods will find me and by extension, you, and they will permanently destroy us. Gods are scary creatures, Nur Finnerman; you do not want to make one angry at you at any cost.”
“I believe I know that by now.”
“There are gods scarier than Chronos, but it seems we went off the topic. Simply put, my hands are tied. Yours are not.”
“I see.” Nur muttered.
“By the way, I am surprised you ended up staining your soul, but I sure am grateful for that. It made Chronos unable to keep track of you with her orb, allowing me to take action without her knowledge.”
“Stained my soul? What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you wondered how you can hear your companion’s voice when she is in her natural dragon form? Or the fact that your left eye is crimson, same color as the scales of the dragon whose blood stained your face?”
“But it happened in one loop, I was sent back, it did not happen!”
“Oh, but it did. Chronos’s curse sends soul into the body in the past. Any soul damage received will stay on your soul. That is the reality of the curse. Your soul has been stained by dragon blood, making it change your soul, erasing Chronos’s link to your soul for your soul had mutated. But strangely, why do you have only one half of a living soul, fused together with thousands of dead soul fragments into one?”
“A what?” Nur asked.
“Never mind, I guess it does not matter at the moment. It is time for you to wake up.”
Just as he said that. Nur woke up with wide open eyes.
“Holy City of Sana. That is where my goal lies.”