### Chapter 116: The Beginning (Part Two)
A brief two sentences took me several minutes to digest.
The ensuing time consisted of me asking questions while it answered faithfully…
During this exchange, the ugly fairy, with its still somewhat clumsy language, helped me piece together a cataclysm that had once occurred.
One that originated from their infinitely distant era—an era that humans have long since tampered with and obscured, including the Gidales, leading to the extinction of all other races and their disappearance from the endless river of history.
It was a long, long time ago, so far back that, according to humanity’s current calendar system, it couldn’t be traced anymore. The fairy Alusu spoke of something called “Toka Tadaka” (meaning unclear, attempts to communicate were futile; it should be the calendar they used in that era). On this day, when dragons were still guardians of trees, all living beings needed to attach themselves to trees and embrace them (this embrace probably refers to some form of worship rather than a literal hug) in order to receive the tree’s blessings and harness its power. At that time, the World Tree was the embodiment of the rules of this world, a product of their physical manifestation.
Back then, the Gidales (in some ancient language, Gidales means giants, which was a tough explanation for the fairy leader Alusu to give) were the unspeakable ancient deities, servants of the World Tree from the very beginning (I confirmed with the fairies that “servants” means caretakers of the World Tree).
As for the beginning of the calamity, it started with one of the servants of the ancient deities, a “maid” named Rabishixemos (the quotes around “maid” indicate, from the context, that it’s definitely not referring to a typical servant).
What follows is my attempt to piece together the fragmented and somewhat obscure information from the fairy leader, interpreted and organized with my understanding, trying to reconstruct the events of that catastrophe from a non-human perspective:
One day, the ambitious maid encountered humans—those treacherous, short (strike that) puny folk not blessed by the World Tree.
That human cast a spell on the maid (which, in the fairy’s understanding, was a magic curse, but to me, it seemed like the frightening power of human language), causing some of the Gidales to turn evil, developing ulterior motives. The fairy quoted: the great Rabishixemos learned the vile arts and deception from humans.
I tried to clarify this point.
But sadly, even though some of these fairies had lived for a thousand years, surviving the aftermath of the catastrophe, their perspective on it was fuzzy and incomprehensible.
Their vision was limited, and I had to think hard. After conversing with the fairies, I spent a sleepless night writing and sketching, and eventually unraveled about half of the events…
Generally speaking, according to the fairy leader’s recount, after Rabishixemos, those who fell prey to human words included Esmeralda (later the Goddess of Healing), Diana (later the Goddess of Sin), Danarxis (later the God of Order), and several others from the Gidales lineage.
These powerful Gidales, secretly supporting weak humans by bestowing upon them the tree’s blessings—which they were never meant to possess—afforded them powers of law that previously eluded them. The Gidales, in turn, gained human worship, leading them to become new deities.
One confirmed detail from the fairies is that regardless of whether they became gods or not, the Gidales were far superior to dragons and the Immortal Race. They managed the various forces of the tree’s rules but were seen as “servants” of the tree before becoming deities, even though “servants” here may not necessarily carry a negative connotation.
The puny yet rapidly multiplying humans (the fairies’ term) acquired powers that didn’t belong to them (looking back through human history, it seems it was initially the power to ensure a good harvest, basically, nature’s force, followed by the power to dispel plagues, hence the divine miracles of healing). Soon enough, their population swelled, leading to more collisions with the non-humans.
Before long, they incited wars and persuaded dragons to destroy the World Tree. Nidhogg became the villain devouring the tree, incurring the extreme wrath of the awakened ancient deities (the fairies conjectured that these ancient deities often slipped into slumber, and it was quite possible they were also part of the Gidales). The entire dragon tribe suffered the consequences, and the Red Dragon King willingly took punishment, burying himself deep beneath the tree to nourish it, earning the exile of the dragons rather than their annihilation.
Also exiled was Diana, a Gidales who “instructed” Nidhogg to commit such heinous acts (later becoming the Goddess of Sin).
This event seemed to mark the beginning of a civil war among the Gidales.
According to the fairies, the world order during that period was in total chaos—there was war and the remains of carcasses everywhere. The dragons were at odds with each other, the Flying Ones fighting internally, and even the fairies were not exempt from disputes.
Until the unwilling Diana led several powerful Gidales and her angels (angels were born from tree eggs; the Gidales’ way to bestow stronger powers upon living beings, a concept also from the fairy leader’s mouth) and had a grand brawl with Rabishixemos (the Mother God of Abundance). (Long ago, I had this dream.)
After that, the Ancient Divine Realm (also known as the Great Fertile Land, now Cartelgarin) was completely destroyed, and Diana was exiled.
However, this outcome didn’t put a period on this brutal conflict; instead, it escalated further. More Gidales fell in ruthless clashes, leading to the World Tree beginning to collapse, first drying up the Flower Clan, and shortly after, the fairies began to lose their connection to the forces of nature.
As a defeated party in the Gidales’ strife, they, along with the enraged dragons, were exiled to this sunless “Dragon Tomb,” where day after day they swore loyalty to the great Rabishixemos, guarding the corpse of the “Goddess of Sin” Diana.
“But Rabishixemos deceived us,” the fairy leader told me. They had noticed the decay of the World Tree; the ancient deities abandoned this land or perhaps fell into eternal slumber along with the tree.
And this land of exile had long been cursed by nature—a terrible curse unleashed by the now “Mother God of Abundance” Rabishixemos, where among her powers was one particularly fearsome kind: the power to bring decay, entirely opposite to nature’s growth.
This power was called Chaos (Chaotic Power).
After hundreds of years, the fairies were severely eroded (although they seemed never to have faced Chaos directly), while those powerful dragons they had been exiled with—Fafnir, Aji Takahaka, Kureibre… their bodies have now decayed into filthy black boulders, forever assimilated into the “Dragon Tomb.”
So there you have it, the history as seen (recorded) by the fairies.
As for how much of this is credible—well, I don’t think they would lie to me, but even being firsthand witnesses, they are still just remnants of that world-shaking war from a thousand years ago…
Okay, let’s be blunt, merely cannon fodder at best.
What they know isn’t necessarily the absolute truth.
But regardless, combining what I had previously learned, including verses from the Choir of Saints, the cellar of the Gate of Truth Ailna, and so forth, when I look at all the information together—stripping away the less comprehensible details—the approximate outline of that war in the divine era seems to have formed a “correct answer” in my mind.
And now, the “Dragon Tomb,” having absorbed the powers of the ancient deities, seems to be entering a calm revival—this is good news, but how long this process will take, I can’t say…
Well, that’s enough for today.
Thinking about all this nonsense is exhausting; I’m starting to feel hungry.
I hope whoever reads this journal of mine in the future won’t think I’m just some delusional nutcase… Should I ask Viki to stash this somewhere in the royal palace’s grand library?
Let’s see, I’ll need to find her tomorrow anyway.
—
Snap!
I closed the journal and casually tossed the feather quill onto the desk, leaned back, stretched my arms and legs, and took a nice comfortable yawn before leaping off the chair.
Outside the room, the thick darkness of Longdoll Street enveloped the night.
I walked over to the window, lost in thought as I gazed at the night scene, hearing Barry’s loud snoring coming from the neighboring room, time slipping away.
A flash of white light sparked in front of my chest, and I couldn’t help but glance down, feeling a low dragon’s rumble echoing from there.
