Goddess Kaleidoscope

Do you think I'm acting strangely?

"No! Most elderly people dream of becoming young again. I just think you were quite handsome when you were young, High Priest."

Slightly embarrassed, Lude scratched his cheek. Seeing that Elijah hadn't noticed anything amiss, he didn't point it out.

Suddenly, the surrounding scenery changed rapidly. The white mist quickly dissipated, revealing a tranquil and pleasant rural village. Elaine told Ludwig that they were now in Romian's dream. No sooner had she spoken than the main character appeared, carrying a basket filled with freshly picked fruit and a bunch of wildflowers.

The little girl seemed very energetic, greeting every villager she met along the way with enthusiasm, but she forgot to mention Lud and Elaine. Elaine whispered to Lud that she had used a little trick; the two of them were now bystanders. Romian couldn't see them, but it was as if they were watching a 3D movie, where the surrounding scenery would move on its own simply by standing still.

Lude guessed that this must be the village where Romian had once lived, and a rare mixed-race village at that. The villagers included not only humans, but also friendly demi-human races such as halflings and mixed-blood elves who had integrated into human society. Romian would not be discriminated against here.

Upon seeing the target appear, Lude immediately followed without making a sound, seemingly calmly accompanying Romian to the front of a small tavern.

As soon as Romianne entered the restaurant, she excitedly called out to a female demi-human waitress who was wiping tables in the lobby.

"Mom! I brought back the apples you asked for."

Looking at her mother appearing in Romian's dream, Lude suddenly understood why her father was so fond of a demi-human. Neither mother nor daughter were pure-blooded demi-dragons; the mother was only half-dragon, so compared to her daughter, she only had a higher percentage of scales covering her body. By human standards, her face was quite beautiful, and she possessed a mature charm.

Upon seeing Romian return, the mother put down her plate and gently embraced her daughter, a scene that appeared incredibly heartwarming. However, this rare tranquility was abruptly shattered the next second by the sudden intrusion of a human male.

End of this chapter

The man who suddenly barged in looked to be around thirty years old. He was a handsome, masculine man, and judging from his clothes, he was probably a mercenary. He had a long sword hanging at his waist, which was covered by a cloak.

As soon as the other person entered the restaurant, they spoke in a very urgent tone.

"Leona! Pack your things quickly, take Romian with you, and leave this place immediately."

"Bourne, what happened?"

"There's no time to explain. Adrian sent me. Hurry up and pack your things. I'll tell you more on the way!"

Urged on by a man named Byrne, Romian was taken upstairs by her mother to pack her things, while Byrne hurriedly locked the front door with a bolt and observed the situation outside through the cracks in the tavern window.

It was only then that Lud noticed that Bourne had a pair of pointed ears under his hood that were different from those of humans, but his complexion was somewhat rough, so he was probably a hybrid of human and elf.

Not long after, Romian and her mother came down from the tavern with their luggage, but then Bourne's expression changed, and he suddenly left the window, shouting loudly at the mother and daughter.

"Get down!"

No sooner had Bourne finished speaking than a fireball blasted the tavern door to pieces, and a group of villains wielding sharp blades rushed in. Bourne immediately drew his longsword and engaged them in battle.

The sudden fight scene caught Ludwig and Elaine, the audience members, off guard. They could see that Bourne was highly skilled in martial arts, but he was outnumbered and had a magician as an ally. Therefore, he could only fight and retreat, desperately protecting the mother and daughter behind him.

Romian was pulled by her mother and fled quickly through the back door of the tavern, but they were ambushed. Two burly human men with fierce faces blocked their way. One of them was carrying a blood-stained battle axe, and behind him lay several murdered villagers lying haphazardly.

This scene terrified young Romian, and her mother, Liana, quickly shielded her behind her to prevent her from witnessing such a bloody sight.

"Who are you, and what do you want?"

"Just consider us robbers. Letting filthy bastards like you continue to breathe is simply polluting the environment!"

Two menacing-looking men were about to approach with cold smiles. But before they could get close, Leanna suddenly flung out a small golden sphere. The sphere exploded in mid-air, emitting an exceptionally dazzling golden light. Caught off guard, the two men were both hit, clutching their eyes and groaning in pain.

At this moment, Bourne, covered in blood, chased after them. Seeing that the two burly men blocking his way had been attacked, he did not hesitate at all. With a flash of cold light in his hand, the two heads fell to the ground. Then he grabbed the mother and daughter and ran away.

"Quick, follow me!"

Romian, pulled along by her mother, ran wildly behind Bourne. The once peaceful village had been turned into a sea of ​​fire, filled with bloody slaughter and wailing.

Looking at all this, Ludwig was also somewhat shocked.

"That's way too much!"

If the sole purpose was to eliminate a mother and daughter, massacring the entire village would have been completely unnecessary, which puzzled Lud and made him vaguely feel that there might be some hidden story behind it.

Under Bourne's protection, the mother and daughter successfully escaped the village, which had been reduced to a sea of ​​fire, but they still couldn't shake off the pursuing soldiers on horseback.

Seeing that the assassins were about to catch up, Bourne made a decision: he would stay behind alone to cover their retreat. He told the mother and daughter that beyond the woods ahead lay a canyon, with only a suspension bridge spanning it.

As he spoke, Bourne handed Leanna a very fine dagger and told them to cut the ropes of the suspension bridge immediately after they crossed, and not to worry about him.

And so, Bourne stood guard in the middle of the road with his sword, while Romian was dragged along by her mother and kept running forward, only managing to catch a glimpse of his back.

The mother and daughter ran all the way and soon arrived at the suspension bridge that Bourne had mentioned, but at this moment two assassins also caught up on horseback. Bourne obviously failed to stop them all, so he missed two of them.

Seeing the assassin about to rush up, Leanna suddenly nudged Romian, letting her cross the bridge first. She knew that if the mother and daughter crossed together, they would likely be caught by the assassin halfway across, so one of them had to stay behind to buy time for the other to cross.

So Leona decided without hesitation to sacrifice herself!

She drew the dagger given to her by Bourne, and softly chanted an incantation. Instantly, a blazing flame ignited on the surface of the dagger, clearly indicating that it was a magical weapon.

Despite her reluctance, Romian ran across the bridge first, her mother shouting at her. Her mother remained alone at the bridgehead, fighting two human assassins. Although the two sides were vastly different in strength, and Romian was quickly severely injured, she managed to hold them off with a ruthless, death-defying spirit, buying her daughter time to cross the bridge. Then, with her last ounce of strength, she cut the rope with her magic dagger and shouted.

"Romian, live on!!!"

Romian's dream abruptly ended there. Elijah, her face streaked with tears, sobbed as she told Ludwig that Romian had likely been awakened by the nightmare. Although Ludwig couldn't manage to talk to her, he did learn about the child's extremely painful memories.

Lud sighed and asked Elijah to wake him up. Lud felt a distortion around him and returned to the real world from his dream. Then he heard a commotion outside the door.

Lude got up and followed the sound to Romian's room. The girl was indeed awake and tried to run away as soon as she opened her eyes, but was held down by Aina and Shanis, who had been guarding her. The room was in chaos for a moment.

Lude stood at the door for a moment, then finally knocked.

“Miss Romian, shall we talk? Talk about your mother, Liana, and Uncle Bourne. I am not an assassin, but a priest. This is a very ordinary village, just like the place you once lived. Believe me, Bourne and I both want to protect you.”

Ludwig sounded very sincere; at least in his desire to protect the weak, he was 100% serious.

Perhaps upon hearing her mother's and uncle's names, Romian, who had been struggling violently, quickly calmed down. Rude, hearing that things had finally quieted down inside, pushed open the door and went in, only to see three girls on the bed, entangled in a very indecent position.

Seeing the confusion in Romian's eyes, Rude smiled, touched his chest in a priestly gesture, and then introduced himself.

"Hello, Miss Romian, my name is Lu De, and I am a priest of this Medicine God Temple. May we sit down and have a proper chat?"

End of this chapter

Because of her mother's and uncle's names, and because Ludwig looked kind and gentle and didn't seem like a bad person, Romian managed to settle down.

Lud told her that they were currently in Pine Village on the northern border of the Kingdom of Duran. About half a month ago, the hunters in the village discovered that a large group of demi-humans had suddenly appeared and set up camp in a ravine less than thirty miles from the village.

Considering that there were tens of thousands of demi-humans in the camp, and most of them were not friendly races to humans, the village was very worried about being attacked by them, so they had been closely monitoring the camp's movements.

During this time, they discovered through observation that the ratmen in the camp seemed to be acting strangely.

Rudd didn't speak ill of the ratmen to Romian's face because he knew how much Romian trusted them. If he told her the truth, she wouldn't believe him. So he used a more tactful way of speaking.

"Miss Romian, according to our personnel's reconnaissance, you have been revered as the Dragon God Priestess by the Ratmen, is that true?"

"Ah."

"Have you ever witnessed this dragon god manifesting?"

“No… Sister Mina said that the Dragon God refuses to show himself because we believers are not sincere, so he refuses to appear.”

"But don't you find it strange? This so-called Dragon God is actually encouraging his followers to plunder innocent and weak people. Even the God of War, who symbolizes slaughter and war, only advocates in his doctrine that it is natural for the strong to dominate the weak, while clearly stating that bullying the weak is a despicable act that dishonors the dignity of the strong. This Dragon God doesn't seem like a benevolent being at all! Haven't you ever suspected that the Dragon God might be an evil demon in disguise, and that the ratmen and other demi-human races have fallen for his trick?"

"This……"

Hearing Ludwig's "analysis," Romianne also became puzzled. Although she was young and inexperienced, she could easily distinguish between good and bad.

When the ratmen, in the name of the Dragon God, called on all the demi-human races in the Void Forest to unite and plunder humans, Romian instinctively felt that this was wrong. However, she was easily fooled by the trusted Mine, who said that the Dragon God was just pointing out a way for these demi-human races, who had long been oppressed by humans, to survive and take back everything that rightfully belonged to them from humans.

Poor little Romian had only witnessed the cruelty of bad people, but was unaware of the wickedness of villains. Coupled with the previous hatred of killing her mother and Minnie's constant indoctrination of the concept that "humans are all evil", she was confused and easily believed this sophistry.

Rudd's analysis cleverly attributed all the evil to the dragon god who had not yet awakened his self-awareness. Although the ratmen were its accomplices and lackeys, they were also pitiful victims who had been deceived. This made Romian, whose doubts had been rekindled, subconsciously begin to believe Rudd's words.

Seeing Romian deep in thought, Rude knew that was about it. His priority now was to calm her down and keep her at the temple for the next few days. Once he successfully stopped the ratmen's god-making plan, he could slowly explain other things to her.

Romian settled down in the temple for the time being, and Lud did not reveal her existence to the outside world. The village was still in the midst of tense preparations for war.

Thanks to the telepathic connection between the gods and their messengers, Lud was not clear about the specific situation of Hume, who was working as an undercover agent in the enemy camp. However, Fallen Leaf assured him that his master was safe and sound and that they did not need to worry about him for the time being.

Two days passed quickly. The village prepared for the attack, while Hume sent them an important message via crows. Due to a series of unusual disturbances recently, the rat-man's high priest, Midi, fearing that things might get complicated, was preparing to hold the final stage of the awakening ritual ahead of schedule.

Interestingly, the other side did not discover that Romian, the key sacrifice, had been switched. Hume pretended to regain consciousness the next day, then deliberately acted as if he were very weak.

In light of this, Lud made some modifications to the original plan. Their initial intention was simply to rescue Romian, who was to be sacrificed, so that the ratmen's plan to create a god could not proceed.

However, this plan has a flaw: it can only halt the ratmen's god-making project, but cannot truly destroy it. Because the blood pool and the faith they have collected still exist, the ratmen can easily find other new sacrifices.

Therefore, now that Romian has been switched out, Lude believes their plan can go even further and completely overturn the pool!

The rat people's plan to create a god is not a legitimate one. According to the information Hume obtained from the Black Day Bible, when the god conceived in the pool of blood awakens, it will crave both spirit and flesh and use this to shape itself.

The spirit is the pure soul that has fallen into the abyss, while the flesh refers to the living who offer their blood to the pool of blood. The drop of blood is a contract of sacrifice, and even if the person offering it is unaware of it, the contract can still be established. The stronger the flesh and blood offered, the more the newborn god will like it.

Following this idea and process of creating a god, Lud immediately came up with a plan that could kill two birds with one stone.

However, the ratmen are currently unaware that due to Lud's series of misdeeds outside the camp, ideological differences have arisen among the believers. The newly collected faith has been "contaminated," but it is still forcibly brought together.

This made Lud himself curious: if the fire of origin were used to "ignite" such a mixed form of faith and awaken its self-awareness, what kind of indescribable new god would be created?

On the day of the attack, Lud and Sharo reviewed their troops in the village's threshing ground. There were five hundred militiamen from Pine Village, plus a battalion and one hundred and twenty-two Overseer Knights that Sharo had brought from Wolfhelm. Sharo also gathered up two other squadrons from Riverwood and the eastward patrol, forming a fairly decent mobile force.

However, the two knew that these six hundred-plus men were not enough to fight against the tens of thousands of demi-human allied forces; the difference in combat strength between the two sides was enormous.

The villagers were in high spirits because they believed that the dragon would lead the attack in this battle, so they were not worried about losing. The young knights, on the other hand, trusted their young lady, Sharo, and were eager to earn military merit by charging into battle.

Amidst the expectant gazes of the crowd, Ludwig, now dressed in a white robe, stepped onto the stage, raised his priest's scepter, and shouted.

"Young warriors, whatever your beliefs, the great feat you are about to accomplish together today will surely be blessed by all the benevolent gods. So my children, hold your heads high and stand tall, your loved ones will be proud of you. Let us create victory together!"

End of this chapter

Inside the ratmen's camp, High Priest Midi was directing his men in preparation for the final awakening ritual. Gazing at the boiling blood pool, the old rat was brimming with confidence; he could already sense a power within the pool that was different from magic, yet incredibly strong.

Meanwhile, inside the main tent on the other side, Miner was pretending to take gentle and attentive care of "Romian," who was bedridden due to physical weakness.

The Ratmen have not yet investigated the incident that occurred three days ago. They only suspect that someone attempted to kidnap their Dragon God Priestess, but the attempt was thwarted by passing guards.

This incident, to some extent, forced Midi to further accelerate the process of creating gods. As long as they created this super weapon of gods, no matter what tricks their opponents in the shadows might try, they would be no threat!

On the bed in the room, Romian was sleeping. The girl's face was pale and her breathing was weak. Minnie, sitting at the head of the bed, was holding a steaming bowl of meat soup and gently blowing on it.

Seemingly drawn by the aroma of food, the girl lying on the bed slowly opened her eyes. Seeing Mina watching over her, a weak but very happy smile appeared on her face.