Manifold. Material Realm. Genesis Forest, aka Western Origin Forest.
A female figure is sitting on a branch of a tree, her feline tail dangling from the branch. She is currently fidgeting a single red straw while being deep in thought. Randomly, she would look back at the direction of an Arcane Dragon she just met. Although she has his secret as does he have hers, but there is no guarantee that that secret wouldn't spread.
"Dead man can't talk... Hmm, it should be Dead dragon can't talk."
Silencing that dragon and his entire party was her first choice, and she hasn't abandoned that choice. She dared to jump into the fight due to the advantage of her Primal Magic. However, his party was harder to deal that she originally thought. A Navigator coupled with an Arcane magic user who can boost his party for longer than her mana can hold on. Not to mention two more members who barely did anything.
Her irises quickly shift to catch a glimpse at the corner of her vision. It's not something in the forest, rather, she simply checked her MP. It has regenerated half-way through. She clicks her tongue at the thought of having her MP run out before she could archive her objective. Although she isn't an Assassin who does things as fast as possible, she is still a Rogue. Unlike other Rogue who has to steal with they dexterous skills; with her Dimension magic, stealing is but a single spell.
"Doing it myself is impossible..." She mumbles then stares at the red straw. It's something she secretly took from one of the carriage. "The Sun.. huh?" A smile creeps onto her face as her figure disappears from the branch. "It's your fault..."
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Manifold. Material Realm. The Origin Temple. Oracle's Chamber.
Although the amount of white particles in the air has reduced since the last oracle left, it still gives off a solemn atmosphere.
A hooded figure cladding in white robe is standing in the middle of the garden. Behind him, a Holy Knight in shining armor and golden decoration is kneeling.
"...And that concludes my report." After reciting a series of seemingly unrelated events from a scroll, the knight closes it.
"So.. it's true." The new Oracle, without turning back, slowly nods. "At first I thought it was some kind of hallucination or trick.." He slowly reaches up to touch the symbol on his hood. "I still can't believe that I have Omniscience."
"Congratulation on receiving your Reward. Your service for His Holi..." The knight who was saying canned praise was interrupted by the Oracle's fake cough. Realizing his mistake, he changes his word. "Your service for the Origin Dragon has paid off."
"He didn't think of that as a reward though..."
The Oracle lowers his head to 'remember' that night. His memory plays out from a third person perspective like there was a different him there. It's clear like he is standing right there right now. The Light no longer has any effect on him now, but he still remembers clearly the indescribable feeling like he is bathing in it.
"Sir?" After a long silence, the knight calls out. "About that..."
The Oracle pulls back from his reminiscence and looks at a piece of information. Although being Omniscience lets him know anything he desires, some information still sound too unbelievable for him. The one he is looking at is the first one he got from this power. Both confused and excited after bathing in the Light, he chose to believe it and immediately decided something in front of the Origin Dragon...
However, the more unbelievable things he found, the more he doubts this power. Until a few days ago he told the Holy Knight to put that thing on hold and told them to investigate the various 'secrets' he randomly got from Omniscience.
"Scrap that plan. He wouldn't like it anyway. There should be something else more entertaining for him..."
"When did we become His plaything?" The knight asks with doubt shows clearly on his face.
However, instead of answering, the Oracle raises three fingers up, confuses the knight further. Before he could ask the meaning of it, the three fingers become two, then one. When the countdown reaches zero, a surge of power swell up inside the knight, leaving him baffled. It goes as fast as it comes, but the knight was sure it wasn't an illusion.
"He just had fun..." The Oracle says bluntly, but it makes the knight realize a lot of things.
"So.. it was our fault, wasn't it?" The knight lets his forehead touch the ground...
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Meanwhile, the Northern Kingdom Capital - Aurora. Royal Castle. Throne room.
There are only a few people here.. including an Arch Angel floating in the air. Its eight wings barely flutter to keeps it stationary. In front of the throne, a man donned in royal attire is kneeling next to one of his trusted aide.
The other aide, the Minister of Military, is laying senseless next to a dented stone column. Despite being one on the top of this country's military power, that man is still no match for a level-capped arch angel.
"Ah.. whose fault is this?" The king mutters under his breath. He doesn't dare to push the blame toward the Origin Dragon at all...
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We arrived at Argon's tribe right before sunset. Calling it a tribe would be an understatement. It's more like a lakeside town with one tent near each other, forming alleys and streets. Also, I call them 'tents' because they look like one, but on closer examination, one could see that they are all made of woods. The only cloth on them are 'door' and window curtain. Apparently they aren't afraid of thief.
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Surrounding the town is a crudely made wall of mud and wood. However the carving on the walls make me think of the word "art". Maybe as a fellow lizard, I could find beauty in their wood-mud mosaic.
With my height, I could easily step over their wall, but I decide to wait while Argon exchanges greeting with the gate guard. The wooden gate looks fragile and I feel like I could smash it open; but in this stupid world, STR would decide that.
"Brother Raging Storm, lying is no good." The blue scaled guard says something that caught my ears.
Before I could ask what 'Raging Storm' is about, Argon turns and looks up at me.
"Can you please turn off your spell?"
I glance at my arm to see its color. Ah, so the guard needs confirmation on my identity. In front of the gate guards' curious and confused eyes, I do a light bow like a performer finishing his performance. Although canceling Minstrel spell can be done through thought process, I still need to practice Canceling when I go performing for real.
""The G..Genesis Dragon!""
Multiple exclaims can be heard, and the most annoying thing come, some of them kneel down while some other are just too surprised to react. It only takes a minute of explaining until Argon gets them to their feet again. The Lacertian aren't big fanatic, so they easily agree on referring to me with Sir.
Shifting to standing on two feet, I step over the gate to follow Argon inside. However he soon turns to heads somewhere. Rector wants to follow him but gets rejected. Some tribesmen lead Rector and Bened somewhere else and leaves me to the other lizards. Despite the night, the fire light of torches and the moons' light still let me see their scale's color; and most of the Lacertian are blue, fitting their element of Water.
On the way to the center of the town, I get touched a lot of time.. on my tail.. with their tails. I freak out in my mind at first; but soon I understand that it's just their way of showing their feeling, and as a fellow reptile, I easily learn how to read their emotion from the way they touch me.
There are those who lightly touch my tail with the tip of theirs then run away hiding their faces like being shy. I guess they're female. So the ones who would walk parallel to me while rubbing their tail under mine are male. I could see other lizards doing the same thing to each other like a pair of sworn brothers. However with my size, it looks a bit weird as my hind are above their head. At least I don't have anything down there. Still, I feel a bit naked although most of them wear very little clothes: a bandoleer connected to a belt, and said belt support a single sheet of cloth that hides their groin. Wait... Does that mean the female ran away because of my nudity?!
Before I could find a piece of cloth big enough to wear, I've already reached the center of the town. This yard looks really big, and without a doubt I can lay down or roll over without hitting any building. However, there is a campfire in the center of the yard, and I wouldn't roll over it while it's burning like that. Campfire and tents give me the feeling of a camping trip.. with a lot of lizards.
The Lacertian quickly makes a makeshift seat for me out of leaves. It seems like they fell down a tree to get enough leaves for that. My seat is in front of but a suitable distance away from the campfire. After I sit down, the rest of the preparation is quickly carried out. I thought that it was a little party for me, but soon I feel guilt as I remember Argon's brother...
It's Neon's funeral...
And it's partly my fault that he died...
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Argon, or as his tribe-name goes, Raging Storm walks into a strangely decorated tent. Unlike the wall of mud was carved with random image of daily life like scribble from a hatchling, the wall of this tent are filled with green symbols, arranged in an orderly manner. An expert in magic would understand that the tent itself is enchanted with Nature magic.
"Shaman Green Finger..." Argon calls out to the other green Lacertian in the room.
"Ah, Brother Raging Storm. The news has came to me, that Brother has brought Our Tribe the grace of the Genesis Dragon. Your deed would be remembered by generations to come..."
"My big brother, Brother Slither Tongue has died." Argon interrupts the Shaman. His downcast eyes refuses to look at the Shaman as his brother's image keeps showing over the fellow green Lacertian. Despite knowing it's just an illusion, he couldn't even look at his own reflection in a lake.
"Slither Tongue..." The shaman mumbles the deceased lizard's name as he remembers the face of his student.
Years ago, when the two green lizards hatched, he thought he was going to have a successor. However, both of them failed to gain the same class and subclass as him, a Druid. Still, after years of teaching them Nature magic, the shaman loved them both like his own child.
"How did he die?" After a moment of reminiscing, the shaman asks.
"Brother Slither Tongue was heavily wounded while helping the Genesis Dragon. He gave up on living and..." Argon momentarily pauses to choose his words. "... and the Genesis Dragon gave him the highest reward."
With Argon's pause and stressing on the key words, the Shaman understand what happened to Neon in the end.
"Do you blame Him for your big brother's death?" Seeing the downcast expression of Argon, the shaman asks in a low voice.
"It's not his fault..." Argon immediately answers as the blasphemous thought of blaming their Creator flashes in his mind. "It's.. my fault. Neon chose to die so I could stay on the side of Him!"
Argon crashes his knees on the ground, his scaly hands holding the side of his head. "Holding his face" would be impossible due to his muzzle, so this is the lizards' equivalence.
Letting out a sigh, the shaman pats his hand on Argon shoulder while silently cast a soothing spell. Although positives Nature magic doesn't work well on Wind element, he doesn't know that nor Argon's true element.
"Let's inform the Chief. I'm sure he wouldn't blame anyone for this. We will hold a funeral for Brother Slither Tongue, better than for any other deceased Brothers. He deserved this honor."
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The funeral was over. It was done pretty fast, from when the moons just raised until they barely reached zenith. Still, I don't want to think about this again. The atmosphere wasn't too depressing because Neon "died in honor", and none blamed me for his death. Although I will outlive anyone anyway thus there is no reason to be sad over someone's death, I still decided to keep Neon's funeral as solemn as possible, for both his and Argon's sake.
Because Argon had told me that Lacertian doesn't sing for funeral, I stayed quiet until the end, when I say a simple "Thank you, Slither Tongue." to the deceased lizard whose soul rests within mine.
I just sit there with Rector and Bened, pondering various thoughts while the lizards prepare a little feast for me.
Due to Lacertian's names sound funny to human, they use alias when travel outside their tribe. "Raging Storm" Argon received that name in a stormy day. Speaking of Neon, his name in the tribe was "Slither Tongue", a name he got in his youth due to how he talked. I slither my tongue across my lips as I think about Neon. His name was true to him through his life even till his death. With a thought flashes through my mind, I look toward Argon's direction "Will he die in a stormy day? I hope he would get stronger by then..."
The sky suddenly darkens as the red and blue moons' light disappear. Startled, I look up. Fortunately, it's not a sign of a coming storm.
Too soon.
It's not morning yet, but the sky then brightens up like day time. The lizards attend me are as confused as I am. In the sky, a giant bird-shaped creature is blocking the moons. Or maybe the moons just disappeared so this creature can appear.
This is the first time I've seen something bigger than me in this world.
And it's a [Lv105 Fire].