Chapter 108

The Goddess of the Earth, Nemi, controls the earth. Her priests can enrich the land, but they can also anger it. Where Nemi’s wrath reaches, crops wither, and fertile lands turn barren.

The Goddess of Light, Elysia, surpasses even Nemi in pure offensive and destructive power. Her followers can freely manipulate light for both offense and defense. In contrast, Hilrae has no notable combat abilities.

Before the establishment of the Three God Faith, Hilrae’s priests were often oppressed by the Elysia and Nemi churches. This is a distant and shameful history, but while ordinary priests may not know it, an Archbishop cannot afford to forget. An organization that forgets its history has no future.

“Nemi’s Holy Knights can fly like birds, neutralizing gravity with divine power. They can twist the ground to incapacitate entire armies,” muttered Archbishop Armata, looking at a girl in a large glass tank. Holy Knights are the divine swords and maces each church painstakingly creates.

Even minor sects often fail to produce Holy Knights, settling for priests instead. True Holy Knights are rare, and while the Three God Faith boasts hundreds or thousands of them, only a handful are genuine.

A knight who can only use divine power is not a Holy Knight. This is the truth hidden within lies. What people think of as Holy Knights and what the Three God Faith considers Holy Knights are different. A true Holy Knight is the church’s ultimate force, just one step below the Pope.

“Elysia’s Holy Knights create weapons of light and summon light to form armor for protection. In comparison, we have nothing. Our Holy Knights can only stubbornly rise even if their limbs are severed,” Armata continued.

Priest Elwin listened silently to the Archbishop’s mutterings. Whenever he came to this research facility, the Archbishop always seemed uneasy, as if trying to justify his actions.

“Near-immortality is a great ability, but without corresponding power, it just makes you a hard-to-kill target. Such incidents were frequent in the early days of the church,” Armata sighed.

The Hilrae Church, now glorious, once lacked its current status. Local nobles even mocked the church’s priestesses. Each time, the desire for power grew among the faithful. They sought ways to protect themselves, as Hilrae could not provide such power.

“Has the ultimate Chimera’s adjustment been completed? Does it need re-tuning?” Armata asked.

The power they eventually found was the Chimera—a fusion of humans and monsters, or monsters with monsters. Sometimes, they even introduced monstrous traits into humans or monsters, aiming to combine only the strengths of different beings.

Of course, if it were that easy, the Hilrae Church would have conquered the world with a Chimera army, and Hilrae would have become the sole deity ruling the continent.

Creating Chimeras is a series of endless challenges. The Hilrae Church uses divine power to achieve the biologically impossible.

“Re-tuning is impossible. The physical damage is near its limit,” Elwin reported.

“Extending its lifespan is difficult. Truly regrettable,” Armata sighed, looking at the girl in the holy water tank. She was the ultimate Chimera, surpassing all previous attempts.

This is the last one. There are no more materials or vessels. The Dragon Heart is a treasure that even when dragons roamed the earth, never fell into human hands.

With all dragons gone, their hearts are now mythical treasures. Naturally, a Chimera with dragon traits is likely only this girl.

“We hoped she would surpass the Saintess in power, but her lifespan is too short. If she can only survive in the holy water tank, what’s the point?” Armata lamented.

“Creating a Chimera with such abilities is already miraculous. Balancing the body was beyond our power,” Elwin timidly defended.

Even with the Dragon Heart, they had no idea how to handle it. They resorted to primitive methods, searching for orphans with an affinity for dragon magic.

Those without affinity were cared for in orphanages, while those with it were brought to this lab. The lab is in Grantera, not the Church Country, to avoid the eyes of the other two churches.

Grantera is the capital, where all goods converge. With enough money, anything can be obtained, making it easy to gather experimental materials.

“Committing crimes even slavers would balk at, and all we get is this? The cost-benefit doesn’t add up. Her body will completely collapse after one or two uses,” Armata complained.

Experiments with criminals failed, and those with orphans also didn’t succeed. Humans couldn’t withstand even a fraction of the dragon heart’s power.

Of course, the Hilrae Church didn’t know that humans and dragons are vastly different beings.

All creatures, including monsters, originate from the Primal Body. Even Chimeras made from creatures sharing the same ancestor have short lifespans, rotting bodies, and imbalanced forms, often leading to sudden death.

“Elwin, is this truly your best? We gave you more time and budget, but what’s the result? We wanted an ultimate Chimera, not a mayfly!” Armata fumed.

“Dragons are beyond common sense! We’re unjustly blamed! Everyone did their best, but the results just didn’t come,” Elwin protested.

Dragons are extraterrestrial beings, not originating from the Primal Body. From a species perspective, humans are closer to pine trees than to dragons.

Trying to create a Chimera from such a being was bound to fail repeatedly. None of the accumulated knowledge or common sense applied to creating a Dragon Chimera.

Frankly, there’s no precedent for even a human-plant Chimera. Humans and dragons are as distant as humans and plants are insignificant.

Not knowing this, they repeated meaningless challenges, piling up failures without learning anything. The ultimate Chimera project was once on the verge of being scrapped.

“Wait, what if we use those with dragon blood as vessels?” someone genius finally thought.

Many had considered using descendants with dragon blood as the most suitable vessels. But now, there was no alternative. They had invested too much time and money to turn back.

Who has dragon blood? Emperor Harmail and the royal family, for example. If the Hilrae Church could capture them for experiments, why go through all this trouble? They would already rule the continent.

Lacking such power, they had to resort to desperate measures to surpass Nemi and Elysia. They had to look elsewhere for alternatives.

If they couldn’t find dragon-blooded humans, they could look among non-humans.

“At least this half-elf has dragon blood. Without her, we wouldn’t have achieved even this much. If she can fulfill her role at a crucial moment, that’s enough,” Elwin said.

They didn’t need to kidnap elves from Elvenheim. Elves see half-elves as byproducts—results of fleeting romances.

When they offered a large sum to an elf with dragon ancestry, the mother handed over her child without hesitation.

The elves seemed to live only for the present, caring little for the future. They gladly handed over their child, who became the ultimate Chimera.

For three days, she might be the most powerful creature on earth. After that, her heart can’t be reused. It’s already one with her body, and when her body collapses, so will her heart.

When the Archbishop realized that all the cost, effort, and the Dragon Heart resulted in a three-day Chimera, his spirit broke. Worse, even keeping her in the holy water tank won’t preserve her forever.

Horns sprouted from the girl’s head, wings fully formed, and a tail grew from her hips. Cracks appeared all over her body.

Forcing two completely different beings together, even divine power couldn’t suppress the disharmony. Even submerged in holy water, she’s falling apart. Using her in battle even once would mean losing her forever.

But not using her means she’ll still die. The time to use her has come.

“Wake up,” the Archbishop said, activating the divine seal on the glass tank.

“You have a task to fulfill.”