### Chapter 169: Humans and Gods
Inside the massive tree is an infinite expanse of dragon graves.
That little white branch infused with the tremendous power of the “Ancient Deity” has been catalyzed into this towering giant tree. It resembles the storm tree that once stood in Woodward Forest, but now it’s even more robust, lush with branches and leaves, like a reborn “World Tree.”
And the fruits borne from the World Tree are the “Deities” of the new era.
The humans outside have no clue about this.
But the fairies in Dragonland seem to have a vague understanding.
This land that once sealed them has now transformed into a realm of abundance, with vibrant plants encircling the mountains. The strange, vividly colored flowers and mushrooms seem to drip with color, and the putrid dead water has been purified to a crystal-clear state. The gloomy gray mist in the sky has quietly dissipated, and the brilliant sun hangs high, partially concealed behind fluffy clouds, casting gentle rays of light upon the lively scene below.
It’s like a painting of a dazzlingly colorful world.
However, under that clear sky illuminated by the rising sun, a gigantic black sphere, burning with chaotic fire, hovers ominously above the ridge formed by dragon corpses.
From the sphere, dead smoke wafts, slowly eyeing the surroundings, corroding nearly a hundred kilometers of land and creating a patch of scorched earth.
Beyond this scorched earth, walls rise like fortifications, and countless fairies have set up defenses around it. They have gradually developed human-like forms since the last time, their skin no longer decaying, their features more symmetrical, shedding their former ugliness. Gender distinctions have become quite clear, with male fairies standing tall and muscular, mostly over two meters, while female fairies appear much smaller but with streamlined curves—thin yet healthy, with powerful limbs that stand out when compared to humans. Each one could be called the sexiest warrior.
The fairies sport pointy ears and long hair, some perhaps still bearing traces of curses, but a few powerful fairies have smooth, delicate skin and radiant, sparkling eyes. Regardless of gender, their exquisite features are nothing short of a miracle from their creator. They bear no signs of former decay.
These fairies guard the “last dead ground” of Dragonland, awaiting the emergence of the black “sun” that will eventually bear the “Deity.”
Behind the fairies, atop the half-broken mountain destroyed by Diana, a massive white dragon stands erect, four hundred meters high, casting a shadow like a mountain peak. It emits a blinding light rivaling the sun, with countless streams of platinum pouring from it, forming a huge ring around the dead ground, blocking its spread, and continually competing with the vast chaotic energies as if fighting for territory.
Inside that floating black sphere, one can vaguely see sinister writhing movements and the massive form of the Mad God.
On the black skull of the Mad God, there’s a girl, half-merged, clutching a scythe, her body entwined in infernal fire. She keeps her eyes closed, as if she has already fallen asleep.
However, in the sea of consciousness, she is still entangled with the will of the Mad God.
It’s an invisible battle.
The intertwined energies churn like the ocean, swirling dark and scarlet waves clashing against each other, both desperately trying to consume the other, turning them into sustenance.
This resembles when the goddess’s essence fused with the situation in the Eastern Continent, but it also seems entirely different. The girl sees no one and nothing; her consciousness drifts through the vast energy field, lonely yet strangely familiar, battling against the seemingly boundless dark tide. Even though she has exhausted all her strength, she remains helpless.
It seems this struggle could last for centuries.
Time trickles by slowly.
In the sea of consciousness, a voice suddenly appears in her head.
“Little Black Charcoal…”
In a flash of white light, she finds herself in a quaint study.
The glaring candlelight makes it difficult for the girl, used to the dark, to adjust her eyes. After squinting for what feels like ages, she slowly makes out a desk and the figure sitting behind it, swirling a wine glass and grinning at her.
“…Angel.”
His name rolls off my tongue naturally.
“Take a seat.”
The man named Angel gestures for me to sit, his scene and voice making it feel like I’m in a dream. Bewildered, I comply and sit down in front of him.
“I didn’t expect you to still be alive.”
He opens with this, looking at me with interest for a while, wearing that same mischievous smirk from years ago.
“But how long can you keep this up?”
Angel asks, taking a sip from his glass of red wine. “Your consciousness is, after all, not complete. Surviving in the Eastern Continent was merely thanks to the Mad God pushing things along from behind. In other words, absorbing Diana’s waning fire seed is likely what the Mother Deity desires.”
“…Why are you here?” I ask him.
“Me?”
The man laughs, “What if I said I’m here waiting for you? Would you believe me?”
His cheerful smile radiates genuine feelings typical of a big boy, “Or rather, I’m here waiting for someone who, like me, can enter the Mother Deity’s will while still maintaining their sanity.”
Angel stands up from his chair.
He holds the wine glass and turns his back to me, moving to the window of the study. Outside the window is an expanse of darkness, with a trickle of crimson bl**d flowing through the deep black night.
“We’ve failed,” he says calmly. “No matter the extent of our efforts to obliterate the Mad God’s dead body, we’ve exhausted every means, yet still failed. At the moment disaster strikes, everyone in front of that Mad God feels as tiny as an ant.”
He takes another sip of the red wine, “But the silver lining is I always like to leave a backup plan.”
“The Mother Deity might have devoured my physical form, but she hasn’t completely fused with my spirit. Because like you, I also successfully absorbed a portion of Diana’s power.”
“That power comes from the remnants of the divine body left in Woodward Forest. This is probably the strength you are missing—and the fundamental reason you haven’t formed a fire seed. You and I are in the same boat; the Mad God cannot completely digest us for now, but at this rate, it’s only a matter of time.”
“What do you want to say?”
I stare at his back, expressionless.
“You can’t win against it, because you haven’t formed a complete fire seed. In other words, you’re not yet a Deity; not like those Gidales.”
Angel pauses, casually tossing the wine glass aside as he turns to embrace me, “But together, we can give birth to a new Deity.”
“……”
I watch him, gazing into his expectant eyes.
“We don’t have much time left.”
He continues, his tone laced with temptation, “If we keep dragging this out, even if we survive here, what about those outside—your father, mother, Queen Victoria, your two brothers, and everyone in that little village? They’ll all d*e.”
“Even if you ultimately defeat the Mad God, the western continent has long turned into a lifeless chaotic land—perhaps even the eastern continent will share the same fate. Faced with disaster, they stand no chance of resistance. You understand this, don’t you?”
…………
Beneath the holy tree, suddenly, Margaret and Her Majesty the Queen turn their heads in unison.
In the distance outside the Holy City, nearly ten kilometers away, through a mist of black fog, a gigantic bizarre shadow, as massive as a mountain, approaches the Holy Angel Fortress from the north, stepping heavily, surrounded by a host of abyssal monsters.
On the wall, Sophia stands beside her father, witnessing that apocalyptic scene, a veil of despair and dead ash glazing over her eyes.
In the camp, warriors also stare at that enormous shadow; swords slip from the hands of some, and despair blankets everyone’s eyes like a dense fog.
…………
On the southwestern border defense line, shattered cannon pieces, collapsed walls, and tattered banners flutter in the dead air, while severed limbs and broken swords pierce through the monster’s fallen corpses. Echoes of soldiers’ heartbreaking screams resonate in the distant valley.
“Defend the fortress—”
The iron hooves of cavalry thunder across the desolate land as the hunters of Shanter Castle, armed with hooked pikes, charge relentlessly toward the monsters breaching the walls. The air is thick with the acrid stench of bl**d and gunpowder. In the distance, after a sound like the collapse of heaven and earth, a massive black claw-like limb smashes through the walls of another fortress, sending rocks and dust flying; silhouettes of people vanish beneath that foot.
“Ah!”
On the broken wall, the girl Aili, bl**d streaming from her head, filled with a determined glint of d*ath in her eyes, leaps from the castle wall with a few companions. Her body glows with holy light as she thrusts her short sword towards a monster below. A terrible scream erupts, and black smoke billows forth as Aili tumbles aside. When she stands up, she sees her companion’s legs bitten off by an alligator-like monster…
All around, even more abyssal creatures surge toward them.
In less than half an hour, starting from the farther south, the entire southwest defense line crumbled entirely under the onslaught of disaster. The soldiers collapsed like a mountain, and hordes of them began to flee for their lives. Though some warriors vowed to hold their ground here, they soon charged the disaster once more and were engulfed in the rolling dead smoke, never to be seen again.
“Daisy…”
“Daisy…”
Amid the desolate battlefield, where flames burn and black smoke rises, in a chaotic camp, one can hear the approaching sounds of monsters, mingled with intermittent roars. Covered in bl**d, Sarah clings to Daisy, whose head has been crushed by falling rocks, face pale, bl**d streaming down her cheeks. She quietly sobs, her eyes reflecting confusion and helplessness.
…………
“Humanity will ultimately perish under the onslaught of disaster.”
Inside the giant tree, in the sea of consciousness, Angel calmly conveys to the girl, “If this drags on, it’s bound to happen.”
“There’s no time to waste for either of us here. They are utterly powerless to resist. And once the Mother Deity steps into Cartelgarin and properly interacts with that black dead tree, the fire seed will complete its true rebirth. At that moment, our consciousness will be completely assimilated, and everything will come to an end.”
The man pauses, walking toward me with a smile: “I know you hate me.”
“I’m very sorry, but given a chance to choose again, I would still do the same. What else can I do?”
“Humans cannot hold back such power. In the end, the one you can rely on is still you. The fact that you and I can converse here, that we’ve secured a final chance for the western continent, proves that what we’re doing is the right thing!”
“Embrace it, please.”
He steps closer to me. “The Church has sacrificed all for this. Now, this is our only opportunity to accept it. Accept this power, accept yourself, and you will become a Deity. We will become Deities, revered by all, the saviors of this world, the only faith of those people, receiving their devoted reverence for generations!”
“Come, let’s turn this last war between humans and gods upside down. Our victory will mean that humanity, our kin, will finally step onto the true glorious path—”
Angel’s tone is grand, taking a deep breath with excitement as he asks me, “Don’t you wish for that?”
“Come.”
He opens his arms, ready to embrace me warmly. “Accept your final power. We shall be reborn in the hopes of everyone.”
But he didn’t manage to touch me.
I quickly step back, look at him for a moment, and softly ask, “Are you sure?”
Angel is taken aback, his smile fading as he slowly lowers his arms. “…Sure of what?”
“Sure that you can swallow the Goddess of Sin’s power and be reborn.” I shrug, not waiting for him to speak. “Is the true purpose of the Destiny Plan really to create something like me, and then save the world?”
“What else could it be?”
The man retorts, his expression darkening, “What else could it be for, if not for myself—”
“Angel.”
I interrupt him, “The Gidales are incomprehensible beings. Those inhumane experiments you all conducted, the results were never about creating me, nor saving people from suffering. You only push them deeper into misery. What the so-called Destiny Plan aims for is to reform the Mad God’s fire seed completely and create a new, singular Deity.”
“Perhaps that wasn’t your intent, nor the Church’s, but… Angel, you have ceased to be yourself a long time ago.”
“You—”
Boom!
I swing my hand, and scarlet flames surge forward, engulfing the astonished figure before me.
Angel does not dodge.
As I keep retreating, I watch him stand still amidst the flames, allowing the high heat to incinerate his flesh, turning him into a skeleton.
Then, that skeleton steps out of the fire.
“Interesting…”
He rasps, on his blackened bones, bl**d-red flesh buds sprout and writhe, forming organs, fresh red muscle, and pale skin.
The flames flicker upon his reconstituted flesh; this isn’t infernal fire but pure black chaos fire, symbolizing d*ath and obliteration.
Black mist rises from beneath “Angel,” spreading backward, extinguishing the flames entirely.
“You refuse to become a Deity.”
He states, now with a colder, hard voice, as ‘Angel’ slowly raises his head. His golden hair is regenerating, fading to a snowy white silver, his body appears to shrink two sizes under the refining chaos fire, and his features begin to change. When he lifts his head, I see a beautiful, painful doll-like face.
That face, those dazzling golden eyes—there’s at least a 60% resemblance to my own, but it seems more matured, as if it’s me a decade later.
Angel… no, the snow-haired, golden-eyed woman waves her hand, coalescing the surrounding flames into a black battle armor, also burning with chaotic fire. She steps forward, exhaling a breath of white mist, addressing me.
“Then, become fodder for the Deities…”
“No.”
I gently shake my head, pulling out Captain Gray from my chest and stepping towards her. “I want to be human.”
