I finished recovery in record time and began hunting outside of city bounds. I decided to train shift and learn how to be a smaller dragon.

After a bit of training, I managed to become as small as a horse. Still big, but I could move around in dragon form. I also felt some relief outside of the city, because I could resonate with the evil magic and experiment with it.

I tried mimicking Wrath and controlling evil creatures, but only goblins would obey me. The others would flee.

As I trained, I slowly recovered more memories, and I understood more fully why the rest wanted to destroy the other gods, but I disagreed with destroying the world. As I remembered more, I realized that I needed to be the core. Because even if I managed to convince Wrath not to destroy the world, she would still start a war that would destroy it as collateral.

I was meditating when I felt a presence.

“Whoo, that’s a lot of evil. And at the center a little dragon. Rose, what did I say about controlling that.”

“I’m meditating, please don’t interrupt.”

“Please, I could feel that evil presence from town. I’m sure if your boyfriend wasn’t the vice-captain, they’d have sent out a subjugation party.”

“GHRK... Dallel isn’t my boyfriend.”

“Eh, please. Anyways, that’s a lot stronger than what I felt before. You aren’t trying to become the evil god yourself, are you?”

“Didn’t you hear, I have the Sloth shard in me.”

“Yeah, but I also heard she was asleep. And sleeping shards don’t resonate that much evil, especially when inside of a body as strong as yours.”

“Size comparison, I’m short.”

“You are 10 times larger than Thalia, I’m pretty sure you’d be able to hold it in.”

“Well, I’m not trying to right now. I’m trying to meditate.”

“Yeah, there’s going to be an S rank meeting tomorrow. Try to hide that aura, or I guarantee that the other S ranks will be trying to kill you.”

“What, am I invited?”

“Actually, yes. After you managed to take on 10 godly level entities and recover in a little more than a week, they actually wanted to meet you and maybe make you an S rank.”

“10?”

“The 9 shards and the king Whilderbeast.”

“But three of the shards were on my side.”

“And? The fact is that you managed to survive the will of a god with a weeklong recovery. Most would die from their minds breaking, but you not only managed to survive, but you were unharmed mentally. That’s impressive.”

“I guess.”

I knew that I couldn’t be harmed as I was an equal in willpower with Envy, but they didn’t. I never realized how impressive that would look to someone who was unaware of my nature, and even though Asura suspects something, he likely thinks that I’m just getting slowly corrupted from my connection with Sloth.

“Anyways, can I continue to meditate?”

“Mind if I watch?”

“Not at all.”

I began to meditate more and more. I dug down into myself and found my core. It was black and muddy. It seemed dirty, like someone covered it in mud on purpose. My memories didn’t tell me anything.

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‘I should clean it.’

So, I began to do so, the dirt was packed thickly, and I looked to see if there was easier way to clean it and saw that Sloth’s core was much the same way.

‘When she wakes up, I’ll ask her if I can clean her core.’

I rubbed a cloth against my core and reached a point where there was light. It was beautiful, and I felt like all was right. I felt really tired.

“Rose?”

“Asura?”

“What was that odd feeling?”

“What do you mean?”

“For a moment, it was like everything was suddenly right in the world.”

“I don’t know.”

I looked back at my core, and a thin film now blocked the light, but the dirt didn’t return, so I could still see the piece of light. I needed to clear the rest of the dirt before removing that film.

‘It will take a while, but I may be able to do it.’

“Well, we should go back to town, conceal that aura.”

“Got it.”

_

We got back to the gate, and I noticed a familiar dragonkin.

“Ah, Asura it seems you’ve found the local beauty. She seems ungrateful as she had no interest in joining my party, so I’d suggest not trying.”

“Hey, Asura, it’s Clemton.”

“C-CLEMTON?! MY NAME IS CLIMOND!!!”

“Oh, right. Clibo.”

“You’re doing that on purpose, anyways, I’m here for a meeting about this Rose person, I still can’t believe that they are suggesting another new S rank so soon after we got a new person.”

“Well, Clibo, this person is being suggested after doing an amazing deed.”

“Asura, please don’t call me Clibo.”

“Also, this girl is Rose...”

“She is? She looks so weak though.”

“Do you not remember last time? I caught your weapon.”

“Um.”

“You ran away.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Why do S ranks act like children?”

A familiar face showed up.

“Hey... um.”

“Rhedon, I know we didn’t introduce myself, but I took your advice, and I became an S rank with the sponsorship of Oldell.”

“Oldell?”

Another familier face came out.

“Oh, the nice kid.”

“I find it fun that you remember me. Though I’m rather surprised to hear that you may join our ranks.”

“You’re an S rank?”

“Oldell, S rank 5. I didn’t know you were friends with rank 1 though.”

Oh yeah, Asura is the highest-level adventurer in the guild.

“Oh please, I bet Asura could beat her easily.”

“Actually Clibo, we were on par when she was a level 5.”

Climond started sweating.

“A-and what level is she now?”

I smiled.

“42.”

“A-ah.”

Oldell shrugged.

“It makes sense, as she was a high mythic at 5 and now, she’s considered a low godly.”

“Asura, do you think she could beat the whole S rank if we all ganged up on her?”

“That... I don’t know actually.”

I spoke up.

“If I wasn’t bloodlusted you’d all do a number on me, but I’d barely edge you out. Bloodlusted though, you’d all be dead before you could draw your weapons.”

“... Charming.”

I entered the town with the four S ranks.

“How many S rankers are there anyways?”

“20, you’ll be a rare 21st.”

“Really?”

“Yes, there are normally only 20, but when someone does an incredible deed that determines a need for a promotion, the S ranks get together and have a vote on whether the person becomes a 21st member.”

“What if there is a tie?”

“Then the guildmasters all take a vote.”

“How often does that happen?”

“Pretty often actually. I was the last one.”

I looked at Asura in surprise.

“I just assumed you were regularly promoted.”

“Nope, I took on a mid-level mythic as a B rank and won solo, so they had a vote on whether I could join. So, it’s not irregular.”

“First time we are letting in a beast.”

Climond glared at me.

“She’s not a beast.”

“Oh please, dragons are harvested for material and in some countries, they’d eat dragon meat if it wasn’t so rare. This region may be weird, but most places have the sense not to call beasts adventurers.”

“You...”

“Calm down.”

I smiled as Asura looked at me.

“Climond, I fully understand your concerns, but I’d like to remind you that I’ve had numerous chances to wipe this nation off of the map. My brother has had that in Calesen, and my sister even had absolute reason to after they killed her young, but we made no attempt whatsoever to do so. If you still want to consider us beasts, then feel free too, but you will still have to convince over half of the S ranks that.”

“Alright. I will be a bit more polite, but I still do not want you to be an S rank, you are still a danger. You made a contract with a shard of the evil god. I can’t trust you.”

“I understand, and if I don’t become an S rank, then I’d fully understand. I’ll just need to work harder to prove myself.”

“... Now I kinda feel bad.”

Climond awkwardly walked off.