Chapter 682: [682] Priestess.


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    Ariel, the primordial dragon of Death, and one of the few beings as old as time, had four children. Shi, the supreme dragon of death, Valus, The supreme dragon of Darkness, Kk, The supreme dragon of Shadow, and Lanesha, the supreme dragon of ice. Two daughters, two sons.


    Her children had inherited her attributes, those that resonated with death, and although one may have died, three still existed. Valus, Lanesha, and Kk.


    Lanesha was n''s guardian dragon, as well as Jame''s in the previous iterations, so n knew about her the most, and at the same time, the least. Her rtionship with James irked him, and it was safe to say that was why he was still wary of her from time to time.


    Other than that, she was a great dragon, and the most helpful too. Far more than one he had not even met with in a while. Shi was dead, assassinated by an enraged Primordial being for reasons unknown. The Shape Shifter of the divine, Trickster of the profane had killed her, and thus that sprouted a war where Ariel nearly annihted everything rted to him.


    Nearly everything. Shi was also Kazikato''s mother, who had given birth to him before meeting her eventual demise. How Kazikato was exactly born was still a mystery.


    "That leaves Valus and Kk."


    Both of them, were dragons n had little to no information about, especially Kk. He had gained some insights about Valus, in light of these recent dreams... or visions. Whatever they were called.


    Valus was worshiped, by the races that House Shivalkn protected, strangely so. This was strange, if his memories served him correct, Dragons hated being worshiped like gods. That was what the God beasts did, and how they derived their powers. Though, every dragon was a bit entric. So it may be his preference.


    They were also devout, incredibly devout to him. n had encountered at least five churches in proximity to him, each that worshiped Valus like a god, with grand statues of him made from obsidian in the center. He had gained some new information about him whilst hiding in these churches as well.


    He did not encounter any dragon tongue scriptures, but something else, his names. Valus went by many names.


    The seeker of truth, the gatekeeper, the herald, the guiding light, The beacon, The guardian, the truthful, The truth keeper, and the list went on and on. Each one a mystery of its own. The most intriguing were the Guiding Light, Beacon, Gatekeeper, and Seeker of Truth.


    Guiding Light and Beacon were odd, why was the dragon of darkness called that? n wondered, but could not find any answers before the churches were destroyed.


    All he found were texts, scattered around the churches. Holy scriptures, he guessed that was they were. They were all almost unrecognizable, burnt and torn.


    He had to piece together the meaning himself, using multiple pages he found in the churches.


    Guiding Light, and Beacon were the most prominent ones he found, as ironic, or strange it was. Guiding light, was apparently a name that was incredibly old, one Valus had gotten in an era long forgotten.


    ''The little one is our guiding light, the lighthouse to rest, to home.'' It was strange, how this passage referred to Vaus as ''little one'' but he disregarded it. Focusing on the others, scavenging for information from the pages whilst on the run. He found one that referred to him as a beacon, this one more detailed.


    ''He is our beacon in our direst times, lead us to the light, oh darkness.''


    ''Guide us...''


    ''Show us the way, oh darkness.''


    He couldn''t decipher any more than that, everything else was burnt beyond saving, nevertheless, he did find out why the supreme of darkness had names the opposite of his elements.


    He was apparently a beacon for the believer, when they were at their lowest points, in dire situations, at the verge of death or the unknown, he was like a light that would show up, and tell them where to go, the path to the light.


    That was probably why they worshiped him, and why they called him the Guiding Light, and Beacon. Beacon was a fairly new name, whilst guiding light had older foundations.


    ''The Dark Elves had great imaginations...''


    n thought, trying to understand an illustration in one of the pages, as broken as it was. Most of the scriptures were written in thenguage of the elves. The Duergar had few literary works pertaining to Valus. The elves were the ones with the most reverence to him.


    For what reason? He probably saved them, or something like that. He was unaware right now what the reason truly was.


    That was the end of the pages n had procured, and stopped running. The two dragons hade to a stalemate, both retreating, Valus was riddled with wounds, whilst Aranus had a few. He had realized that his vision would end with the death of Valus, like it had previously. Until then, he had to use this brief moment of respite to acquire more information, whilst the Supreme of Darkness took his final few breaths.


    He went inside another church, bypassed the statue of Valus, He found out that all churches had a small room behind the statue, where most of their scriptures were stored.


    "Oh. There is... a door on this one."


    n sighed, all the churches previously had no doors to the room, this one did. It was made from Obsidian, a popr material for construction in this realm.


    n opened the door by brute force, he was actually happy that there was one here, it could only mean that the scriptures inside were intact, right? HE was looking at an entire room filled with information.


    Precious information... probably the reason he was having these visions.


    He threw the door to the side, and took a look inside, forcing the dust out of the way with


    mana.


    He stepped inside, yet his foot...slipped? He looked down, and almost jumped back when he realized he had stepped on the foot of a corpse.


    The corpse belonged to a woman, and unfortunately, it was the only thing present in the


    room, unfortunately.


    ''She tried locking herself in to escape the chaos... No that can''t be."


    One might think that the woman had tried to save herself by locking herself in the room until


    the chaos outside subsided, but that could not be the case.


    Her... Condition was not one of a person who died out of starvation, her body was ripped apart. She had been locked in here.


    She was an elf, not a dark elf, but a normal elven woman, her guts were spilling out of her body and her left leg was gone, torn out from her body. Her lower jaw was gone, nowhere to be found. She was also wearing a blindfold.


    She wore rather simple garments, a robe adorned with golden lines. The original color of the robe was obscured by the blood and dirt on it.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Something that confused him was that the woman had rtively short ears for an elf.


    The elderly elf he had seen in the meeting back at Shield had longer ears.


    "Maybe it''s something to do with age."


    Perhaps the length of an elf''s ears depended on their age. Like how the strength of a dragons


    scales depended on age too.


    The woman also had strange lines on her body, forming all sorts of shapes, n saw one line run straight up her arms. Her clothes covered everything else.


    Her other leg, the only one she had, was in a sorry state due to him stepping on it.


    There were no sights of rot on her body, it was as if she had died just now, moments prior


    before his entry. But that could not be, her blood had dried long ago.


    Her body simply couldn''t be in such a fine state. There was no sign of dposition besides


    the dried blood.


    "Well, magical it is, like everything else."


    It wasn''t that surprising, he had seen worse stuff than this. Moving the corpse aside, n


    searched the room for anything of use.


    But it was empty, besides the corpse.


    He checked everything, but this ce was a dud. Except for the body of the woman.


    He left the room, but stopped abruptly, just behind the statue of Valus.


    He looked behind, at the corpse, sighing.


    "Where am I even going to bury her? The ground is all darkness..."


    He could not ce her in his inventory, but he could not just leave her here.


    He went back, and picked up the body, an odd idea emerging in his head.


    Perhaps stupid as well.


    Leaving the church, he found a spot free of rubble, he ced the body there, on the empty


    ground... Or darkness.


    The woman''s body fell in, like it was water and n only hoped it would be a proper burial in


    this realm.


    Anything that was not an insult would suffice.