Goddess Kaleidoscope

"This is a major event, one that concerns the very survival of the world."

After thinking for a moment, Lude decided not to hide the truth about the Fire Seed Land from Lot. The dragons held a rather detached position in this world. Although they acted erratically, they generally belonged to the lawful faction.

After listening to Ludwig's account, Lott frowned, seemingly trying to recall something.

“The giant tree… I do recall the Queen mentioning it a long time ago.”

"What did they say?"

"It's been so long, back to our childhood. We Frost Dragons are the Queen's personal guards, living on the ice plains, which gives us more opportunities to be close to Her Majesty than other dragon species. Before Her Majesty fell into despair, she loved playing with the children of her tribe and telling them stories. Her Majesty said that the myriad worlds are like leaves, never two are exactly alike, each world has its own unique way of operating, and the races living in these worlds may not understand these mysteries."

"And what about your dragon race? Do you completely ignore it?"

"Our duty is to stand up when this world is threatened by warp demons, and to refrain from interfering as much as possible otherwise. If the world is about to be destroyed and the locals don't care, then we have even less of an obligation."

"How about giving me a hint?"

"Of course, that's no problem, but you'll have to figure out a way to wake the Queen first."

Pointing a paw at his own queen, Lotte shrugged helplessly. It wasn't that he didn't want to help, but he himself was unaware of the situation.

The two, one human and one dragon, were chatting idly when Kanna, who had gone back to get something, returned.

Without carrying Lud, Kanna's top speed was comparable to that of the Dongfeng-17. The round trip took only an hour. As soon as she landed, she handed a long, thin wooden box to Lud, which made Lotte, who was standing next to her, a little curious.

"what is this?"

"An alarm clock exclusively for dragons."

"Um???"

Amidst Lotte's puzzled gaze and Conna's disdainful look, Ludwig opened the box and took out a magnificently crafted greatsword.

Lude first saw this thing in the hands of an adventurer who treated it as a family heirloom. It also came with a dragon-skin book with a really cool-sounding name—"The Complete Guide to Dragon Slaying".

However, Lud later learned that this thing was a trap, a prank concocted by some dragon prankster. The seemingly cool magic sword actually contained a unique spell specifically designed to target dragons. As soon as the sword was drawn, it would emit special sound waves that only dragons could hear, enough to scare even the deepest-sleeping dragon into taking flight.

Those who experienced the dragons all said the effects were outstanding, and then they began hunting down the instigator all over the world.

It's worth mentioning that the adventurer wielding the sword isn't currently in Pinetree Town, but the scoundrel dragon that sells the sword is. So, Rud tells Kanna to go back and find the real culprit, as he doesn't believe the guy doesn't have any in stock.

After obtaining the "Dragon-Slaying Sword" he needed, Lude looked up at the sleeping Dragon Queen and muttered to himself.

"Hopefully this will work."

The moment the magnificent longsword was drawn from Lud's sheath, a unique sound wave, inaudible to the naked ear of ordinary humans, reverberated across the vast snowfield. Lud himself showed no reaction, but Kanna and Lott both clutched their heads in agony.

Unbeknownst to Lu De, the Dragon-Slaying Sword in his hand was actually a 2.0 version upgraded by a certain unscrupulous playwright based on "user feedback," boasting a significantly improved wake-up effect compared to version 1.0. Upon hearing that Lu De was going to wake a senior dragon, the playwright immediately brought out the best sword in his house.

And the effect of the Dragon Sword 2.0 truly lived up to expectations; the Dragon Queen, who had been motionless, suddenly reacted.

The ice covering the Queen's body cracked instantly, accompanied by a deafening roar. A dragon claw that blotted out the sky slammed down towards Lud's location, its posture resembling someone who had been woken up trying to smash their alarm clock with a single blow!

Seeing the giant claw descending upon him, Lud dared not take it head-on. The Dragon Queen possessed strength equivalent to a sixth-tier god, and was herself a super dragon with divine nature. Therefore, Lud himself was unsure whether a typical divine magic barrier could withstand such a blow. So, he immediately dropped his greatsword and launched himself forward, barely dodging the attack.

Awakened, the queen roared, her dragon's roar shaking the entire ice field and shattering the ice sheet over a radius of hundreds of kilometers.

The super dragon shook its enormous head, opened its eyes and looked around. It quickly spotted Lot, who was trembling with fear, and two unfamiliar faces not far away.

"Who is it? How dare they wake me!"

The Queen's voice clearly carried a hint of morning grumpiness. Lotte gave Ludwig a pitiful look, then gestured for him to proceed. At times like these, a hero had to step forward to bear the Queen's wrath; why couldn't it be someone else?

Although Lud was also panicking, he knew he couldn't push someone else to take the blame at a time like this, so he took the initiative to step forward and greet Isabella, who was baring her teeth in anger.

"Greetings, Your Majesty the Dragon Queen. Please forgive me for waking you in such a rude manner. There is a reason for this. I was entrusted by the goddess of wisdom, Kumirad, and had no choice but to do so."

"Kumilad?"

Isabella, who had just woken up, seemed to have her brain not fully activated yet. After thinking for a while, she finally remembered who Kumirad was. Then she looked down at Lud. Compared to the behemoth that was tens of thousands of meters long and whose eyeballs were the size of a five-story house, Lud was as small as a speck of dust in front of her.

"Human, what's your name?"

"My name is Rude, and I am a priest of the Pantheon."

"You're irritated; you must have been to that place."

"...Yes, the reason I've come to see you is because there's a problem there."

Seeing that Isabella knew about the Land of the Fireseed, Rudd went straight to the point and asked for her assistance. However, considering that Adai had killed Isabella's chosen successor during the War of the Gods, he omitted the part about her, saying that he had heard mysterious whispers in the Land of the Fireseed.

Queen Isabella was surprisingly understanding. Although she was initially grumpy when she woke up, she wasn't actually that short-tempered. So, once she calmed down a bit, she was able to patiently listen to Lud for the rest of her story.

"Priest, I forgive your rudeness, but I don't want it to happen again."

"Don't worry about that, I didn't want to either."

“Then repeat the language you heard to me, but I can’t guarantee that you’ve definitely learned it.”

"I am already extremely grateful that you are willing to help."

Seeing that Her Majesty the Queen was so agreeable, Lud quickly took out his notebook and read aloud the pinyin reading chart written on it. The Queen listened very carefully three times in a row, and then frowned and said.

"Although your accent sounds strange and some of your short sentences are problematic, I did understand some of it."

"You know this language?"

“I know, this is the language of the Red Ravens. They were a branch of your human race, and they disappeared more than 10,000 years ago.”

"That long ago? How did they die?"

"Of course, they were wiped out by your ancestors, who were also human."

For Isabella, history from over ten thousand years ago felt like it had just happened "not long ago." She told Rud that the Red Ravens were once the elite of the human race, the first group among all the highly intelligent beings in the world to develop civilization, and even the concept of "faith," which later gave rise to religion, was first conceived by them.

Unfortunately, being first to market is not an advantage that can be maintained indefinitely.

Although the Red Crows began their civilization early, creating their own faith and giving birth to the world's first gods, they reigned as the world's dominant race for over a thousand years under their protection. However, the Red Crows themselves were not a very powerful race. Therefore, with the rise of other races, the Red Crows' advantage disappeared, and they were quickly defeated by other emerging powers.

The new humans more than 10,000 years later, not only do they not understand the language of the Red Crows, but they also have no idea that the Red Crows ever existed.

Without Isabella, a witness to civilization with an exceptionally long lifespan, Lud would never have been able to decipher these words.

With Isabella's help, Lud quickly completed the translation of all the words. Isabella even determined from the grammar that it was priestly language, because it was extremely rhythmic and therefore sounded like singing.

Roughly translated, it means... All lives eventually return to their origin, and the souls need to be guided by the gods of the dead to go to the source for the ultimate judgment to determine whether this world still has any value to continue existing.

This is Luther's translation into plain language, removing any ambiguous parts from the original text.

I understood it, but it didn't seem like I fully understood it.

Just as Lud was pondering the deeper meaning behind those words, Isabella, who was lying on the ice field, was tilting her head and looking down at Lud, or rather, at a white-haired little girl hiding behind him.

In fact, from the moment she opened her eyes, Isabella had already noticed this little creature whose physique was different from that of an ordinary dragon. Seeing her change size at will and transform into a human girl, the well-informed dragon queen realized the relationship between her and the gods of this world. Her expression remained conflicted, as if she was weighing certain pros and cons.

Kanna also noticed that this ridiculously large and strange aunt was staring at her, so she shrank behind Lude and didn't dare to move.

After hesitating for a long time, Isabella finally made up her mind. The super dragon deliberately coughed lightly and spoke to Lud in a very polite tone.

"Human priest, I have translated this passage for you. How about you do me a small favor in return?"

Isabella's tone suggested she was negotiating with Lud, but her eyes never left Kanna.

Lude also noticed that the Dragon Queen was staring at Kanna and instinctively became alert.

"What...can I do for you?"

"I want her."

In front of Lud, a former police officer, Isabella, whose actual age is at least fifty thousand, uttered a remark that could land her in a life sentence. Lud frowned slightly. Although he knew that her true intention might not be what he had just imagined, he couldn't help but cast a very wary glance at the Queen.

"Your Majesty, please have some self-respect. Kanna is still a child."

"Still a child? That's even better!"

"..."

Seeing the Dragon Queen lose her composure like this, Lude silently looked at Elder Lot beside him, who turned his head away guiltily, as if to say, "Don't look at me, I didn't see anything."

Fortunately, after a brief moment of excitement, Isabella realized that her statement was indeed a little problematic. She quickly explained that she didn't have any bad thoughts about the child, but rather that she saw the potential for her to become a super dragon and therefore wanted to take her as her apprentice. She hoped that Rude and the god behind him could break the contract with the child and return her to the dragon race to be raised.

Isabella, with her keen insight, had long ago discerned that Kanna had received a divine blessing. Similar situations were not unprecedented among dragons; native gods were quite willing to recruit dragons as "foreign divine messengers." Especially for those lower-ranking gods whose own strength was relatively weak, directly recruiting a dragon as a henchman was far more effective than divine messengers they created themselves!

However, Kanna's situation is clearly different. It is probably because she received divine power while still in her egg, which greatly enhanced her talent for growth as a dragon. At such a young age, she already has the potential to become a super dragon.

In fact, the well-informed Isabella knew long ago that the power of the local gods could indeed help improve potential and aptitude, but to receive such a gift, one had to become a follower of the gods. Therefore, while Isabella would not stop her fellow countrymen from working for the local gods, she never advocated such behavior, nor did she ever think of using the power of the local gods to cultivate her own successor.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, Lud knew that Isabella wanted to bring Kanna back to her tribe to be groomed as her successor. This request was both reasonable and justifiable. In fact, the Queen didn't force Lud to comply unreasonably; instead, she spoke to him gently and sincerely. This sincere attitude made it difficult for him to refuse directly.

But Kanna was someone Lud had raised since she was a child, and he was entrusted by Nidhogg and Tawawa to care for her. Therefore, even if it was the Dragon Queen's request, he had to first inform the child's biological parents.

After a moment's consideration, Lud explained his situation to Isabella.

"Oh! So you started injecting divine power even before the egg hatched? How come I didn't think of that before... But what you said makes sense, we should tell her parents. I never thought that a male dragon would be willing to learn from humans, form a family, and maintain a long-term partnership. Some interesting things happened while I was dozing off."

Instead of complaining about Isabella sleeping for over three hundred years while taking a nap, Lud expressed his heartfelt gratitude for Isabella's understanding. You see, when he first woke her up, Lud was actually quite worried that she wouldn't be able to communicate.

After all, this person's "morning grumpiness" is no ordinary thing!

After their meeting with the Dragon Queen, Rudd and Kanna set off back to Pine Town. Before leaving, Isabella said that now that she was awake, she wouldn't be sleeping again for a while and would visit in a couple of days.

It's easy to see from this that Isabella really liked little Kanna, and was afraid that this promising young girl would run off with those gods again.

Back in Pine Town, Lud immediately sought out Kumirad to analyze the translated text together. The goddess of wisdom repeated the words several times, extracting and marking several "keywords" from the text.

"The gods of the dead... Now that you mention it, I do have some recollection of it. Among the first generation of gods who have already perished, there was indeed a 'god of the dead,' but his divine position was later split up."

"Speaking of which, Melchiorda is a second-generation god, so why doesn't she know about the Red Ravens?"

"It's normal that she doesn't know. The generational division of gods only started with my generation. Since tracing back can only go to the group before Melchiorda, we naturally consider them the first generation of gods. Besides, gods are born of faith and die if they are unknown. Who would want to see an ancient god who has already died suddenly resurrected and start attacking them?"

"That's true."

According to Isabella, the ancient Red Raven civilization was a theocratic matriarchal society. Their religious totem was a large, luminous tree that symbolized the entire world. The tree had thirteen branches on its trunk, each managed by a corresponding deity. Mortals were the leaves and flowers that grew from the branches.

It is worth mentioning that in the doctrines of the Red Crows, they worship a total of fifteen gods. In addition to the thirteen gods who manage the branches, there is a supreme mother god who symbolizes the tree itself and a god who is responsible for guarding the roots.

In the mythology of the Red Crow people, all the gods have their own duties and do their best to protect the normal operation of this world (the giant tree).

According to this theory, the Fire Tree actually has maintenance methods, and Melchiorda's behavior is equivalent to using the final remedy as a routine maintenance method, treating the perfectly good giant tree like roadside weeds, ignoring it on a daily basis, and then uprooting it and planting a new one when it is about to die.

Lu De thought to himself that this was very similar to his father's attitude towards growing flowers. Apart from the old flowerpots passed down from his great-grandfather's generation, which he never replaced, he had ruined all kinds of flowers in the flower and bird market downstairs. The longest-lived ones couldn't even last a month.

But even someone as unreliable as his own father wouldn't go so far as to neglect watering his plants.