Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 953 - 952: "Godchosen" Amber

The Dragon God spoke earnestly, showing no hint of joking—and naturally, a god wouldn’t have any need to joke with Amber like this.

The bright expression on Amber’s face suddenly froze.

"I told you," Gawain couldn’t help but glance at Amber, casually saying, "Isn’t your feeling of being the Shadow Chosen just a result of drinking too much?"

"No... it shouldn’t be!" Amber suddenly became excited, even in front of the Dragon God raising her voice uncontrollably, "I really am Chosen, I’ve been Chosen for decades now... I even chatted with the Goddess, and she taught me a lot of things..."

Gawain felt a bit helpless: "What did the Goddess teach you?"

"Tossing skillets... and baking thin pancakes..." Amber immediately said, but as soon as she uttered half a sentence, her voice gradually faded, growing quieter, "Of course, not just these, of course... Of course, there were some really impressive things..."

Gawain: "...?"

Even Gawain, with most extensive banter reserves of this era, found Amber’s words increasingly absurd—he had never inquired in detail about what Amber had learned from the "Goddess of Shadows." Upon hearing it now, he couldn’t react for a while, feeling more and more that Amber’s sense of being the Shadow Chosen was merely an illusion caused by a severe bout of drinking. After all, even a person with a couple of peanuts wouldn’t typically drink to this extent...

However, despite Amber’s weak voice, the expression on her face remained unwavering.

"...Child, your explanation is... interesting," the Dragon God finally couldn’t resist breaking the silence, looking at Amber with a peculiar expression. What neither Gawain nor Veronica noticed was that it wasn’t a look of disdain or denial upon hearing something funny, but rather an expression of... scrutiny and observation, "But did you know, the Shadow Goddess I know... couldn’t possibly cultivate a Chosen among mortals in this era... She couldn’t even respond stably to faith from the mortal world. So do you think a god like that could possibly chat with you, let alone teach you those miraculous... skills?"

Amber slowly widened her eyes, seemingly bewildered, then turned her gaze to Gawain, even showing a hint of seeking help in her eyes—she seemed to still want to hold onto her long-held belief, but today she faced the most challenging, compelling questioning of her life, a god, a god lingering amongst mortals, personally told her that her deep-rooted belief was impossible.

Always ebullient Amber now seemed uncharacteristically glum.

Gawain noticed the change in Amber’s mood, hesitated a bit, then patted her shoulder before suddenly knitting his brows and looking at Dragon God Enya: "You said the Shadow Goddess couldn’t even stably respond to faith from the mortal world?"

"On the Loren Continent there are numerous religions, and most mortals possess faith—but have you ever heard of the Shadow Church having a developed doctrine and a tightly knit organization? Have you ever heard of a large-scale Shadow Cult or wandering Shadow Priests preaching everywhere?"

Veronica shook her head: "No—the faith in shadows has always been weak and... chaotic since historical records began. Although there are indeed some divine feedback tendencies pertaining to shadows, and some individuals gifted spiritually can perform shadow miracles similar to Divine Arts, these unformed faith activities have never established a formal church. As far as I know, shadow faith only operates through some loose, secretive small sects in relatively remote areas, their doctrines chaotic, many being swindler groups deceiving ignorant farmers. Since the establishment of the Imperial Theology Administration Department, we have cracked down on more than one of such groups."

She then glanced slightly at Amber: "As the head of the Intelligence Department, you should be aware of these as well."

"I... indeed know," Amber’s mood became somewhat downcast, "But that still can’t prove..."

"Because the god doesn’t provide strong feedback, the church can’t form a stable and unified system of Divine Arts. Yet weak feedback from the god is always present, so followers, following their interpretations or even illusions, have developed all sorts of bizarre and contradictory doctrines. This is the current situation of the Shadow Goddess," the Dragon God said calmly, "Thus, she couldn’t respond to you or elevate you to being the Chosen."

"Why is the Shadow Goddess in such a state?" Gawain immediately pursued—it was evident from the description that the Shadow Goddess’s condition was abnormal, and regardless of whether it’s normal or not, any intelligence concerning gods, he wouldn’t ignore, "And if the Shadow Goddess couldn’t provide strong feedback and elevate Chosen, then whom has Amber been believing in and connecting with all along?"

"Yeah, yeah," Amber immediately echoed, looking towards the Dragon God, then suddenly reacted, turning to Gawain full of disbelief, "Ah, you... haven’t you consistently disbelieved that I could connect with gods..."

Gawain glanced at her: "I can believe now."

The Dragon God looked at Gawain and Amber, appearing disinterested in their exchange, merely responding offhandedly to Gawain’s inquiry: "Regarding the Shadow Goddess’s status... I do indeed know a lot, but before answering, I wish to first ask how much you know about the ancient divine secrets?"

"Ancient divine secrets?" Gawain felt a stirring in his heart, sensing the other party seemed to imply something, yet his surface remained composed, "Which aspects are you referring to?"

"For instance..." The Dragon God gazed into Gawain’s eyes, speaking unhurriedly, "Once, there existed a group known as the Voyagers, powerful beings who killed nearly all the gods of the civilization that existed one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years ago..."

The entire hall suddenly became very quiet.

Amber’s eyes widened, Veronica sat upright in astonishment, as if they were both doubting having hallucinated for a moment—gods could fall, something they had long known, yet evidently, they weren’t aware of the Deicide Fleet from the ancient times and the war that resulted in the death of nearly all gods.

Gawain’s expression was equally unable to conceal surprise—he stared straight at the god sitting before him, though he wasn’t doubting what the Dragon God said, for he had already known about it long ago, just hadn’t expected the other party would abruptly reveal all this.

The Dragon God knew of the deicide war... It was indeed within Gawain’s expectations, since he had surmised this god had been active since the ancient era. Given the Dragonkin had withstood waves of chaos and witnessed countless civilization changes, having a close relationship with "Voyagers," it was inevitable their god had lived through equally long ages alongside civilization.

Gods and civilization coexisting—this was a rule Gawain and his expert team had concluded after detailed study of the workings of the gods.

Yet the Dragon God unabashedly spoke of it, revealing it with such candor, such lack of restraint...

Gawain suddenly realized that this journey to Talronde might have been one of his most correct decisions, for now... he at last knew the exact time of the ancient deicide war—one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years ago.

"Voyagers... killed nearly all the gods of the civilization that existed one million eight hundred and seventy thousand years ago?" Veronica finally couldn’t help breaking the silence, "Isn’t this..."

"It’s an event I experienced firsthand," the Dragon God said calmly, "I can’t tell you deeper details, as even I can’t safely elaborate events occurring at that time and beforehand to mortals, but I can assure you all this truly happened."

"What does all this have to do with the Shadow Goddess’s unique status?" Gawain couldn’t help but ask.

"If you know that gods have died, then you should also know that gods are reborn in each cycle of civilization," the Dragon God looked at the mortals before him, discussing the fall and resurrection of gods as if talking about the weather, "I guess... you must have already researched this far? You’ve even planned to use this knowledge for some very bold endeavors. There’s no need to deny it, it means nothing to me."

Amber’s eyes widened immediately; as the intelligence officer, she was exceedingly sensitive to information leaks: "How did you know?"

"It’s not difficult to guess what you have learned when you have a general idea of what you’ve been doing recently," the Dragon God said indifferently, "I can see through many things simply because I’ve seen many things before."

Gawain grew more cautious in his heart. He realized that if this seemingly gentle deity bore malice, he might be the most difficult opponent to deal with—even without considering the god’s power, this ancient being’s accumulation of knowledge, experience, and wisdom far exceeded that of any mortal, perhaps even any existing god. What else did He know? How much had He already guessed? Was He aware of the defied Plan? Did He know about the various "theological experiments" in the Cecil Empire? Had He seen through their thoughts? Had He seen through... his identity as a "visitor from outer space"?

Gawain practically couldn’t control the deepening thoughts, and could only control his mind while maintaining a façade of calm, nodding slightly: "Indeed, we discovered that gods are reborn in each civilization cycle and have roughly deduced the mechanism of their birth... But how is this related to the Shadow Goddess?"

"The Shadow Goddess has not undergone rebirth—He has survived since the war 1.87 million years ago, through each and every passing civilization, to the point of your appearance, He has always survived."

Gawain was dumbfounded.

"You’re surprised," the Dragon God looked at Gawain with a subtle smile, "but you needn’t be so surprised, after all, the surviving gods from that war 1.87 million years ago are not just the Shadow Goddess, but the situation of the other god who barely survived is much worse, and by now He’s not much different from being completely fallen..."

Gawain frowned slightly: "You mean..."

"He fell from the kingdom to the deep-sea of the mortal world, though He was heavily injured, He originally still had a chance to recover... Unfortunately, before He could successfully draw nutrients from the new cycle of civilization, a group of uninvited guests arrived in this world, and that unfortunate fellow instead became someone else’s nourishment."

Gawain had already figured it out: "The God of Storms..."

The Dragon God’s knowledge was indeed very, very extensive!

"So, two gods survived that ancient war, one was the Shadow Goddess, the other was the God of Storms," Gawain continued quickly, but stopped as he recalled something, "Wait, shouldn’t it also include you..."

The Dragon God merely maintained a somewhat smirking expression, seemingly confirming without responding.

"So the Shadow Goddess survived and went into dormancy with a peculiar status?" Gawain finally brought the topic back, "So her situation is very unique, unable to provide a strong response to believers, nor elevate them to Shadow Chosen?"

"That is true."

"Then what kind of status is it?" Gawain’s curiosity intensified, "Is it a pseudo-death like Amon? Or an evasion like the Goddess of Magic?"

"Regrettably, I don’t know this either," surprisingly, the Dragon God shook his head, "I cannot see Him, nor can I hear Him, I only know He’s alive, living in a most unusual state... I once tried to find His whereabouts, but within all the realms I can touch, I found nothing."

"Even things you don’t know..." Gawain couldn’t help shaking his head. Then he glanced at Amber beside him and looked back at the Dragon God, "Alright, according to what you said, the Shadow Goddess’s situation is so unique... She indeed cannot elevate a Shadow Chosen from mortals. Then the question returns to the start—Amber said she has established contact with a god, so who exactly is she believing in...?"

The Dragon God did not immediately answer him, instead, he seemed to smile slightly, his gaze falling on Amber: "Child, do you still firmly believe yourself to be a Shadow Chosen?"

Amber opened her mouth, seeming to hesitate for a moment, but soon straightened her chest: "Of course!"

"Frankly, I don’t believe there’s any spiritual connection between you and the Shadow Goddess at all, I can’t even see any faith-related link to a god from you, no matter how confident you are, my judgment remains the same," the Dragon God looked at Amber, his tone calm, "but I am willing to believe in your uniqueness... even if you’re not a Shadow Chosen, you are indeed special, and that intrigues me."

"Unique?" Amber scratched her head, "What do you mean?"

The Dragon God gave her a profound look, yet said nothing.

Then this god stood up from His seat—an action that took Gawain by surprise—and spoke to those present: "It’s getting late, we can leave it here for now."

Gawain was somewhat surprised and instinctively began to speak: "But I still have many questions..."

"Yes, I know you still have many questions, especially questions about the gods, about Talronde," the Dragon God cast a meaningful look, "I will answer you, but not today.

"Do not rush to hear answers from a god’s mouth, you’d best see for yourself first.

"I hope you can first visit Talronde properly, use your own eyes to seriously look at it, look at... this ’Eternal Cradle’ under divine protection. After you’ve seen it, our next exchange might be smoother.

"You will know what you want to ask, and you’ll understand my answers better."

Gawain showed a thoughtful expression.

Then he nodded: "Alright, that’s considerate of you—we should not refuse."