Chapter 829: Visiting The Uncle Dragon
The key was still on the wooden table of the room.
The dim light of the lamp slid over the silver veins engraved on its surface, and every few moments, it seemed like something was breathing deep within that ancient metal.
Daniel stared at it motionlessly for a few minutes. Many questions had formed in his mind.
His father’s palace, the man who had been looking for the key, and the image he had seen for a moment when he touched it.
There were many unresolved matters, and thinking about them gave him a headache. He already had many responsibilities on his shoulders, and it seemed another one had been added.
But in the end, he quietly closed his eyes.
"...Not for now."
"First, I need to find the answer to another question."
[Are you sure you want to enter the Celestial Domain?]
Daniel pressed the yes option without hesitation, and suddenly the world around him went dark.
And when he opened his eyes again, he was no longer at home. A warm, heavy wind passed through his hair.
The sky stretched above him, and in the distance, the roar of dragons echoed like quiet thunder across the world.
He had returned to the Celestial Domain, and just as he expected, he found himself in the heart of the dragon realm.
A massive palace made of black and golden stone shone under the artificial sun of that land, and hundreds of young and old dragons flew around it.
But Daniel didn’t even look at them. Silently, he passed by the palace.
Through ancient forests, past rivers of fire, and finally reached the base of a massive mountain where a small sun could be seen.
The same place where the only false god of this world had been keeping guard in silence for years.
He hadn’t taken more than a few steps when a quiet but majestic voice echoed through the space.
"Greetings, Dragon God."
Daniel raised his head. The massive dragon had opened its eyes and was looking at him calmly.
"I’ve said before... there’s no need for these formalities." A smile settled on his face.
The ancient dragon lowered its head slightly.
"But we dragons cannot escape hierarchy and structure. It is part of our nature, Your Majesty."
"Whatever makes you comfortable." Daniel shrugged. This matter wasn’t important enough to waste time on.
For a few seconds, silence reigned between them, but suddenly the false god fixed its gaze more precisely on Daniel.
Its eyes narrowed slightly, as if it had sensed something, and surprise rippled in its gaze.
"My lord... it seems you have become more powerful."
"I was lucky enough to find a divine fruit." Daniel answered indifferently, as if he wasn’t talking about a divine fruit at all.
Something that practically shouldn’t exist in the mortal world.
For the first time, a long silence settled on the false god’s face.
"To find such a thing... especially outside the realm of the gods... requires much more than a bit of luck." Then it said quietly.
It had spent its entire life, before being trapped here, searching for a divine fruit, and yet it had never been able to find one.
And now the Dragon God, shortly after obtaining a divinity, had already found a divine fruit so quickly?
Was there any justice in this world?
But Daniel didn’t care.
"How is Finn?"
A small smile appeared on the ancient dragon’s face. Its gaze fell on the massive egg floating in the center of the small sun.
"Not much longer. Probably by the next time you come to see me... it will have been born."
Daniel nodded quietly, but his brief smile quickly faded.
"I came here because I had a question." His tone became serious.
"Please, go ahead, Your Majesty." Uncle Dragon said respectfully.
Daniel was silent for a few seconds.
Then he asked quietly:
"Can Demi-Gods and False Gods see the future?" And before the other could answer, he also asked a second question.
"And if they are just a copy inside a simulation, can they realize that the real reality is elsewhere and that they are actually a simulated copy?"
The false god’s face completely changed. It fell silent. A long silence, as if even for a being at its level, this question was too heavy.
Finally, it said slowly:
"Regarding your second question... it depends. A true god... would undoubtedly realize it. But a false god, not necessarily; it depends on their power."
"But if it is merely a reflection of a true god, their consciousnesses would be connected, and the copy would practically understand that it is a copy, and the true god could also see and hear everything the copy sees and hears."
"But a Demi-God? No. A copy would understand nothing, but the Demi-God would understand that a copy or simulation has been made of it."
Daniel quietly closed his eyes. The image of that old man came alive in his mind again. That calm old man, that strange smile, and those words that seemed to know everything in advance.
He opened his eyes again.
"And what about the future?"
"Demi-Gods usually cannot see the future, unless they have a special talent." Uncle Dragon answered.
"And even then, what they see is full of flaws and errors."
"But False Gods... can take a very brief look at the future. Not a definitive future, but thousands of different possibilities."
"Of course, if most of those possibilities lead to the same outcome... that future is almost inevitable."
"So my guess was correct. That old man... was either a False God, or a copy of a real god." Daniel whispered quietly.
He was almost certain the first was correct, and he doubted the old man had really been a true god, unless he was actually the one responsible for bringing that tree into existence.
In that case, perhaps the second possibility was more likely.
"Which old man?" the dragon asked.
Daniel told it everything.
About the fourth floor, about the destroyed world, about the old man he had encountered.
The ancient dragon listened without any particular change, but when Daniel said the next sentence, everything changed.
About how the old man had probably been fleeing from a beast of corruption. Of course, this was more based on his own speculation than a definite fact.
"...Impossible." The old dragon whispered quietly.
Daniel continued, about that dark being, about its shape and power, and about the hand that had extinguished all the laws of the world with just a single movement.
And about the strike that hadn’t even given him a chance to resist.
When he finished, the false god said nothing for a long time.
"Except for a true god, no being can truly defeat a false god." Then very quietly, in a voice that seemed slightly heavy for the first time, it said.
Daniel’s eyes narrowed slowly. His mind began to piece together the puzzle. The divine tree that had grown in that world.
The divine fruit.
And the world that had been destroyed by a monster that seemed to have the power of a true god.
Perhaps the entire purpose of that tree had been to create a true god. That fruit had been the last hope of that world.
Perhaps the world itself had tried to create a true god to stop that monster, but the people of that world had destroyed the tree.
Or perhaps it was the work of the gods to save that world.
And in the end, no true god was born, and the world was destroyed. But suddenly, another question troubled his mind.
But why? Why had that Divine Prophet made such a mistake?
The more he thought, the more he reached one conclusion: either the Divine Prophet had truly been a fool, or perhaps that monster didn’t just have raw power.
And perhaps it could affect the minds of others.
Perhaps it had distorted the truth, perhaps it had made the people destroy their only hope of salvation.
"Perhaps... that’s the reason the Mother System forced all False Gods to ascend." At that moment, the false god said quietly.
Daniel fixed his gaze on it.
"Perhaps it wants to block that being’s path."
Then it said quietly.
"Perhaps that’s why, despite the attacks of the beasts of corruption, that monster still hasn’t entered this world. Some kind of mechanism that prevents those monsters from directly interfering if False Gods are not present in a world." The false god raised its head and looked at the small sun above the mountain.
For the first time, a trace of concern could be heard in its voice.
"If this hypothesis is correct, then my presence is dangerous for this world."
"If the Mother System allowed you to stay here, then it’s probably not a problem." But Daniel said without the slightest hesitation.
"I hope so..." Uncle Dragon just sighed.
A few moments later, Daniel rose from his spot. He had gotten the answers he wanted, and was almost 98% sure his scenario was correct.
But he didn’t feel his burden had lightened; on the contrary, he now had even more questions.
When he was about to leave, the ancient dragon’s voice rose again behind him.
"Your Majesty..."
Daniel stopped.
"Thank you. You have finally opened my eyes to the truth as well."
"Thank you for your answers too." A faint smile settled on Daniel’s face.
Then, without visiting the Dragon Empress or the dragon elders, he quietly descended from the peak.
He passed by the palace, crossed through the sky, and just as he was leaving the borders of the dragon realm, he paused for a moment.
His gaze fixed on the distant reaches of the Celestial Domain. Only one name was engraved in his mind.
Evangelin.
The time had come to visit the Mad Empress.
