30 minutes later, Theodore had finally made it to the top of the Dragon Mountain.
Originally, it wouldn’t have taken so long for a flying Magic Beast to reach the top of the Mountain from the bottom, but ever since it had become a Sacred Land it had largely grown in size, and then when the World had evolved it had grown once more, reaching the size that it was now, which was so high that you could barely see the clouds that you had once passed below. Now, even a Magic Beast Dragon like Theodore had to spend arduous effort to reach the top.
However, when he did, he couldn’t stop elation from rising in his heart and dispelling some of the murky darkness within. The 15 Peaks were that spectacular.
Not only was it one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen, but the quality of the ambient Magical Energy was just sublime. And although he was unable to directly absorb it like the 14 Supreme Dragons and Dragon King were allegedly able to do, it still made him feel extremely comfortable.
But then when he thought about how this was only his third time visiting this place, the darkness within his heart could only grow larger.
Because of his low value, he wasn’t allowed to come to such places except on special occasions. Disregarding the strange time that the Dragon King himself had requested his presence (which he still till this day thought was 1 of the reasons that he was so frequently bullied), the only other time he was allowed to come here, was when the abnormal yet ridiculously beautiful golden Dragon had revealed her identity as the fallen goddess of Creation to all.
Back then they didn't know what a goddess was, talk less of some kind of ‘goddess of creation’. But when she stated that she was the one who created the World, along with a majority of the races (with the Dragons being the first race ever created), everyone had been shocked senseless, before immediately disparaging her words and calling her a crazy liar (something they immensely regret nowadays). They questioned why she was so weak, with a few who had been jealous of her special treatment all along accusing her of being so weak that she had to leech off the Dragon race. However, the goddess gracefully and magnanimously explained how she had been betrayed by the sinister god of ice.
The story was told in such a compelling way that even Theodore felt anger rising within him, unbelieving of how someone could be so evil to someone so kind and innocent.
Later on, the goddess spoke about how lucky she was to quickly escape at the last moment and reincarnate as a member of the Dragon race. She even winked and said ‘don’t tell anyone else that the Dragons are my favourite’, which obviously caused many to guffaw with pride. Theodore even remembered thinking that the goddess was legit then and there. And it was then that the Dragon King (who had most likely heard the story before), told everyone that they needed to do all that they could to help the goddess ‘take back her divine cave’.
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…Haah~ how embarrassing. Divine cave? Seriously? Now that they had the knowledge that they had now, they realised how insulting and pointedly stupid it was to say such a thing.
Tch, stupid King.
After that, the goddess told them that they didn’t have to do much, and all they had to do was fill the World with creation, create anything that they liked and spread her name. They also had to do something called prayer (which they later found out to be a wonderful thing), but that was it. Apparently, such acts would grant her something called Faith Energy, and that would give her back some of her power, but it was quite weird. However, when the goddess started teaching them about the different things that they could create (with examples), they were flabbergasted!
After that it didn’t take long for their race to be pioneered into a new era where instead of just taking, consuming, and growing, the Dragon race started to learn how to stockpile knowledge, and use various materials to create all kinds of things.
There were culinary arts (the most popular form of creation), sculpting, architecture, music, dancing, alchemy, rune formation, blacksmithing (one of the rarest), and much more! It was wonderful, and it was all thanks to the goddess!
Theodore felt passion coursing through his veins when thought about becoming a mighty blacksmith (which was his second biggest dream), but when he remembered the… what he liked to call ‘low-likelihood’ instead of impossibility, his mood dampened once more.
He and Lyrria had already decided to become the perfect duo of Blacksmith and Rune Inscriptionist, but whilst the young Fire Dragoness had already embarked on that journey, he couldn’t even get his head in. It was a massive blow to his ego.
Theodore sighed, deciding to get his head out of the gutter and focus on looking for what he came for.
After utilising his small size to bypass a sea of flying Dragons (no he wasn’t going to be thankful), he eventually ended up at the forefront of the crowd, where he could finally lay eyes on the goddess herself.
She had golden scales, light yellow horns and claws that almost seemed like they were carved from light, an imposing height of 20 metres (which Theodore suspected had something to do with a high attainment in Anatomy Refinement), a feminine figure that caused many in the crowd to feel dazed, and soul-sucking golden eyes that caused all sorts of reactions. Fear, reverence, lust, love. Any of these things could be felt with a single look.
She was extremely beautiful, and by common standards, was definitely the most attractive female Dragon of all time.
But… Theodore just really couldn’t dig it.
Although she was beautiful, when Theodore looked at her, he always thought that she looked tooo beautiful. Rather than thoughts of lust, her beauty would only inspire a feeling of wonder within him, kind of like when he looked at a spectacular creation. Something to be admired but not touched.
On the other hand…
Theodore turned his head to the left where he caught the sight of a familiar figure that had plagued almost all of his thoughts since the day he met her.