Sitting down, looking at the key in front of him, Damien contemplated his path forward. Everything he had known about the dungeon, about the gods, about Ouranos....all of it had changed now. Damien truly did not like the gods. But after today's events, it seemed his hatred for them had increased even further.
The reason was, of course, the story that Vritra had told him. About the gods. The dragons. And the Lord of Light....who had turned out to be a very famous god from his world's mythos. Specifically Mesopotamian mythos.
Known as Anu.
The Supreme Sky Father.
"What does one side with?" Damien asked, looking up at the night sky. "Logic? Emotion? Or truth? How does one deal with this?"
Vritra stood beside him, her golden eyes reflecting the starlight. "With whatever you desire, my lord. Ashborn left you that message because he knew. He believed you would make the right choice no matter what."
Damien glanced at her. "What about you? Should you not feel strongly about this? It was your kind that was betrayed."
"I did at one point in my life." Vritra's voice was calm, distant. "But now... I do not practically feel anything. When Ashborn granted me the freedom I so desired, I understood at the time that both sides were wrong. But at least Ashborn chose the path that gave freedom to me and to mortals. A path that paved the way for a future hero." She looked at him. "That is you, in my eyes. So if you ask me, I pick neither side. I do not side with the gods, nor do I side with the dragons. I side with you. The Shadow Monarch. Your choice is the right choice."
Damien was silent.
How could he choose? What was the right choice?
The story Vritra had told him played again in his mind.
Before there was Heaven, before there was Earth, before there was any life, there were only the primordial gods. One of them was Ouranos. Another was the Lord of Light. And the third was the Queen of Life....Ki.
The Lord of Light, Anu, married Ki, the primordial earth goddess. Together, they gave birth to Earth and Heaven. To the rest of the gods. And to the world he now lived in, with all its races.
But one race rose above all: dragons.
A race so powerful it reached the level of gods. They were favored and loved by Ki, who chose to give them dominion on Earth while the gods were given dominion in Heaven.
And this was where the problems started.
Unlike the primordial trio, the new gods gained power through belief, while dragons gained power through ruling domains. It started with powerful gods such as Zeus, Odin, Ra....the first of the new pantheons...who decided to try and garner belief on Earth. This led to a clash between dragons and gods. A war started.
Anu and Ki did their best to mitigate this war. For a while, peace was achieved when Ashborn, the God of Shadows, made a pact of peace with the Monarch of Dragons, Antares. The two finally achieved peace, and it lasted for ages.
But that peace was not enough for some gods. They slowly created small cults on Earth, consolidating power until their greed became too much to accept peace. They made a plan.
Anu went on a long meditation trip....one that made him unaware of the events that were about to transpire.
The gods, led by Zeus, decided to assassinate their own mother. Ki. The most loved primordial by the dragons. One of the pillars of their power.
They cut the dragons off from their source of legitimacy.
Antares, in rage, waged war on Heaven. But that was all part of the gods' plan. The cults they had created slowly corrupted the minds of mortals, making them fight on the side of Heaven instead of Earth. The gods won the war.
Ashborn tried his best to recover peace, but the death of Ki was too much for the dragons. No peace was possible. The mortals tricked by the gods sided with them and the gods won the war, leading to the near extinction of dragons. The gods became the pillars of belief in the mortal world.
Anu returned from his long meditation.
He found out what had transpired.
In rage....Ki, his wife, the love of his life, had died due to mere greed for power.....he declared that he would destroy all that he had created. But his love for Ki would not allow him to kill her kin, the only remaining memory of her: Heaven, Earth, the mortals, and the gods.
So he decided to change everything.
No more free will. No more power. Anu wanted to change the laws of existence he had made so that it would remove the ideas of greed, free will, and war. He wanted to completely deny the existence of any thoughts that did not come from his ideal peace.
Ashborn could not accept that. He believed that peace could be achieved willingly instead of by force. He had a battle with his own father.
Anu made a pact with Antares and mind-controlled all the remaining dragons. He started his plan.
Then Ouranos intervened.
Ouranos had always maintained neutrality. That was his role....a being who believed only in balance. Ashborn persuaded Ouranos that this was not balance. Ouranos accepted.
The two of them fought and defeated Anu.
Ashborn lost his life in that battle. Anu could only be imprisoned....sealed in what would become known as the dungeon.
The dragons went into hiding. The gods ruled the world.
But Ouranos, who still believed in a world of peace and balance, decided to implement new rules. He created the Familia system and the Falna system to prevent further influence of the gods on the mortal world. He awaited the day the Shadow returned.....
....
Damien stared at the sky.
"Balancing between mad gods who wanted power of their own, angry dragons who want revenge for the death of their mother, and a primordial who believes life should be mind-controlled and stripped of free will." He let out a long breath. "And I am the one supposed to find an answer to that?"
He looked down at the key in his hand.
"Oh, Ashborn." His voice was barely a whisper. "You really left me with a troublesome mission."
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