The moment the poisoned dagger’s blade touches the skin.
Tock.
A strange sound echoed in the air.
Simultaneously, everything came to a standstill.
At the precise moment when the blade of the dagger drove into his neck, close enough for Rychlen to feel the sticky texture of the poison, his body froze as if it had turned to stone.
Was his reaction too slow? Has he transformed into the kind of god who does nothing, just as they wished?
Drenched in despair, Rychlen glanced around with the only moving part of himself—his eyes.
And then…
…!
He saw the sight of several gods, just like him, completely unable to move.
The gods, frozen in place, simply rolled their eyes around, surveying their surroundings with annoyance.
Seeing such gods, Rychlen realized he wasn’t the only one immobilized.
But why, oh why, were these powerful deities as motionless as if they had been turned to stone? As if the very world had frozen. Were they truly incapable of moving?
The answer lay ahead.
“Okay. That’s enough.”
A girl who suddenly appeared right in front of him must have the answer.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Many pondered.
Why does the sun rise and set in the world?
Why does the world keep changing?
Why does time move forward in this world?
Some believed that the two servants of the Light God—the Sun God and the Moon God—drove the sun and moon in a chariot, creating day and night.
Others dreamed that a massive serpent coiled underground was spinning around, causing the world to rotate.
Some believed in the unproven Time God, who turned a colossal hourglass to keep time flowing.
Yet none of these beliefs offered solid proof.
What is time? Why does it flow? Such seemingly obvious questions led to no answers.
In the end, must we simply accept time as it is, without knowing a thing about it?
While lost in such thoughts, I encountered something remarkable.
A chance meeting with an old lizardman sorcerer.
This elderly sorcerer, adrift in search of something, shared many tales with me.
Stories about the lizardmen that existed long before humans wandered the earth.
Tales of the Age of Dragons, when countless dragons ruled the lands.
The story of the divine dragon that ended the Age of Dragons, the dragon they worshipped, and the one that ultimately obliterated everything at the end of the world.
The saga of a dragon that can both create and destroy.
But both divine dragons were merely two sides of the same coin—through them, the world is born, maintained, and unmade.
From these narratives, I grasped a vague sensation.
If the world was created by the Creation Dragon, sustained by the Divine Dragon, and ultimately destroyed by the Destruction Dragon…
If the world indeed relies on that dragon…
Could it be that the force that propels time forward springs from its might?
Of course, it’s not particularly convincing.
But if—if the Creation Dragon revered by the Lizardmen truly exists…
Then… isn’t the closest thing to the god of time actually the Creation Dragon?
Naturally, I hold no definite evidence yet. Such musings should pique any scholar’s curiosity.
Therefore, I’ve woven together the stories I heard from the lizardman and my separate research on the faith in the Creation Dragon into this book.
So, I hope that anyone who comes across this book becomes a little more interested in the tales of the Creation Dragon.
– Lizardmen and the Dragon Faith (Volume 1: Creation Dragon)
This book thoroughly investigates the beliefs of the lizardmen, articulated from a human perspective.
However, at that time, the academic community dismissed it as mere barbarism surrounding the lizardmen’s faith.
Eventually, as the Lizardmen were reassessed, this book gained value, but such reevaluations would be stories for a distant future.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“Well then, let’s see here.”
In a world where everything had halted, a silver-haired girl with large horns strolled with ease.
“I was late due to all the preparations… But this situation is rather amusing.”
Rychlen instinctively recognized the girl before him.
Save for her silvery hair and the horns adorning her head, she was a doppelgänger of Hades from the Underworld.
Her appearance aligned almost perfectly with descriptions of the dragon priestess recounted in tales of heroes.
Thus, the girl before him must be the dragon priestess.
That was only logical.
“Well then… Let’s allow Rychlen the privilege of moving her mouth for the moment. I wonder what delightful tale she’ll spin.”
The girl snapped her fingers lightly, and suddenly, Rychlen realized that her mouth could move.
While the other gods remained frozen, he now had the liberty to speak, to express his thoughts to the girl before him.
Looking at her, Rychlen opened his mouth. If his hunch was correct, she must indeed be the dragon priestess.
Therefore…
“Gaia…?”
But what slipped from Rychlen’s lips was a name entirely different.
Startled by the name he’d inadvertently uttered, Rychlen was taken aback. Why had he pronounced someone else’s name? More importantly, how did he know this name belonged to someone?
His mind became a whirlpool of confusion, and the girl before him watched in surprise.
“Huh… How curious. You managed to say that name… Were you not aware of it?”
“No… I… I spoke it without realizing. My apologies.”
“Hmm… Even if memories fade, is there still a trace in the soul? Fascinating. Very intriguing. Hmm… Well, regardless.”
The girl named Gaia inspected Rychlen thoroughly, then withdrew a small object from her bosom, fiddled with it, and pressed something attached to her side—suddenly, Rychlen’s body began to move autonomously.
No, it wasn’t just Rychlen.
All the gods in the pantheon, including Zeus, began to flail about freely.
“Alright… Let’s rewind the situation a bit.”
The dagger held to Rychlen’s neck pulled away. The discarded poison pouches flew back into Rychlen’s hand.
The venom from the dagger elevated and flowed back into its pouch, neatly repackaging itself.
It was as if time itself was being reversed.
The handle of the dagger slipped into Rychlen’s mouth as the club tossed at Zeus returned, the poison pouch nestled back into Rychlen’s bosom, and the dagger wove itself back to his waist.
Going further and further back in time. Backward, backward…
The surrounding gods repositioned themselves to their original places, while the remains of Poseidon, whose skull had been shattered by the club, reassembled and regenerated his broken head.
Rychlen’s body, on the verge of becoming a god, reverted to its original form. The faith that once stirred within him returned. The followers who offered their lives for the ritual began to resurrect.
Everything was reverting. Everyone around bore witness to this strange sight with dread.
To reverse time. To undo all actions, achievements, and consequences, making it all seem like mere figments of imagination.
“Okay, then let’s commence from this point.”
After everything returned to before the gods captured Rychlen, the girl known as Gaia smiled and proclaimed.
“Zeus, I grant you the floor. Goodness, you orchestrated quite the entertaining little escapade.”
“Bird, Goddess of Life…!”
Rychlen’s eyes filled with astonishment at Zeus’s words as the situation resumed.
The Goddess of Life. Not the Dragon Priestess, but the Goddess of Life herself. The remarkable resemblance was undeniable, yet here she stood, not as the Dragon Priestess, but the life-giving deity.
“Wait a moment, does that mean the Dragon Priestess is merely a reflection of the Goddess of Life?” The thought flitted through Rychlen’s mind.
“You… had no intentions of forgiving us?!”
“Forgiveness? Hmmmm. It’s not like it never crossed my mind… It simply wasn’t in the cards.”
The girl smiled knowingly.
“If this child were to ascend to divinity and return as the king of the gods… those were the terms. But since he declined, that’s the end of it, no?”
“But!!”
“Silence.”
As the Goddess of Life uttered softly, Zeus’s mouth sealed shut.
What could have been viewed as a refusal to speak instead felt like an unyielding restraint, his entire being immobilized.
“You stubbornly resisted acceptance and tried to force this fellow into godhood, didn’t you? The rite itself was rather intriguing, but… did you think I would let that slide?”
“…!”
Zeus, rendered mute, seemed eager to communicate something, yet his body betrayed him, leaving him unable to convey a single word.
“Utilizing countless lives as sacrificial fodder to elevate him to divinity… It’s an undeniably crude method, but it certainly proves effective. Had he not resisted with all his strength, he would have surely ascended.”
The Goddess of Life spoke in a calm demeanor. Yet, beneath her composure, a hint of rage simmered.
Anger directed at the gods who sought to sacrifice the very lives she governed.
Anger from a goddess whose domain had been trampled upon.
“No amount of fear for annihilation justifies oppressing someone who wishes to disagree.”
With light strides, the Goddess of Life approached Zeus.
“Won’t that do, Zeus?”
She casually reached out, grasping the crown perched atop Zeus’s head.
She seized the crown imbued with the powers and authority of Baal that Zeus possessed.
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