Overgeared

The mental world was a representation of someone’s will. It would never fall unless that someone’s will was broken. In other words, it meant that Grid’s mental world wouldn’t collapse. He had used his tenacity to become a god. Grid’s will had never been broken, and it would never be.

However... His mental world was now crumbling, and it had nothing to do with Grid’s will.

‘What did Garam do?’

Grid was rarely this confused and immediately suspected that this was Garam’s fault.

[Giving up so easily?]

Garam also didn’t understand what was going on and suspected this was Grid’s doing. Their eyes met.

Roaaar!

The cry of a mysterious beast, which they thought they misheard at first, became louder. An unrelenting wave of power swept away the fragments of the shattered mental world.

“An old dragon?”

[An old dragon?]

Grid and Garam deduced this was the case based on the cries and turned to look at Raiders and Nevartan. There was a ridiculous question in their eyes. ‘Has Trauka been resurrected?’

[That’s impossible.]

[It’s impossible for him to come back to life. Grid, you should know this.]

‘That’s right.’

Grid did, indeed, know that. He had been the one to destroy Trauka’s soul. The purple energy currently flowing from his body was proof of Trauka’s death.

[Then who is it...?]

Garam frowned. He was surveying his surroundings when he froze. A dark green energy filled the atmosphere. The large amount of radiation produced from Garam’s light was frantically stirring. At first, he had thought this was a typhoon.

[Oh, don’t tell me...]

Garam could perceive things from very far away. He could see all the way to the horizon, and there he saw the radiation disappearing like it was being absorbed by something at a very fast rate. Something intangible was devouring the radiation and steadily approaching Garam.

This being was deadly to light. However, if it was invisible...

[The Refractive Dragon?]

Garam got chills. He was right.

[The Refractive Dragon has appeared.]

A notification window appeared in Grid’s field of view. What happened next was unimaginable. The light around him faded into darkness and half of Garam’s body was gone.

Grrrrr...

The invisible beast’s, no, the dragon god’s breath became even more ragged. He seemed very pleased. This type of joy seemed to come from being satiated.

[How could you be here...!!!]

Garam’s response was precise and swift.

The moment he realized that the Refractive Dragon was targeting the light, he quickly withdrew it. If he had acted a little later than he did, he would’ve lost all of his body instead of half of it. He slashed the Refractive Dragon with the Annihilation sword, and blood erupted like from a fountain. His counterattack had worked.

‘This ability is really...’

Grid was very impressed seeing the transparent scales of the Refractive Dragon being covered in blood.

He had an epiphany. He realized why the Refractive Dragon suddenly appeared. Could it be because Garam used the power of light to its full potential? That would make sense. The Refractive Dragon had been born solely to harm Rebecca and most likely had the instinct to chase the light.

‘So the Another Light title was disabled out of Rebecca’s consideration...??’

Rebecca was the most powerful of the Gods of the beginning. She was the one who had created this world. Because of her hostility to Morpheus, she was subjected to several constraints. However, it was likely that she was more omnipotent than Grid imagined.

Yes, it wasn’t strange that Rebecca had predicted what would happen to Garam...

‘In retrospect... She has been watching me all the time.’

He didn’t even need to think back to a long time ago. Just a few months before, Rebecca had told him this herself:

I’ve been watching you all the time.

Plus, just a few days before, she had let the whole world know that she believed in Grid while he was fighting Hanul. The system had revealed a fragment of the twenty-ninth epic, which had been hidden as a secret story.

‘I want to believe.’

Just as I am Rebecca’s hope, I want her to also be my hope.This way, I can rest assured when I one day leave this place.

Grid had found a new determination and focused on what was going on in front of him.

Garam had completely regenerated. The Refractive Dragon’s scales were soaked in blood. Their confrontation was quite grand. First of all, the refractive dragon was too big. He was clearly larger than Raiders and Nevartan. Even when using Barbatos’ Vision, it was impossible for Grid to capture his enormous size without turning his head. Besides, the dragon felt somewhat mystical because he was completely invisible, and only his blood-soaked scales were proof that he was there to begin with.

Garam, who wasn’t intimidated at all despite facing the refractive dragon, was also acting unusually.

‘As far as appearance goes, he is handsome,’ Grid thought to himself.

If a famous painter captured the current scene on canvas, they would create the greatest piece of artwork in history.

[I greet the dragon god.]

While Grid was lost in thought, Raiders and Nevartan bowed their heads to the Refractive Dragon. The old dragons worshiped him. The Refractive Dragon appeared even more intimidating now.

Grid was momentarily stunned by the sight. Dazed, he finally spoke. “It has been a while.”

The Refractive Dragon used to be Bunhelier. To be exact, he had originally been the Refractive Dragon, then became Bunhelier, and then became the Refractive Dragon again...

In any case, as a result, Grid was close to the Refractive Dragon. He was also the one who had made Bunhelier into the Refractive Dragon. In fact, Bunhelier had clearly expressed his gratitude to Grid before taking his leave as the Refractive Dragon.

[......]

However, the Refractive Dragon didn’t respond to Grid’s greeting. He still stood in front of Garam and breathed heavily. Based on the movement of his scales, he seemed to be tilting his head.

‘What? Has he forgotten me?’ Grid wondered.

Garam snorted.

[Do you think I’m afraid of a creature who has nothing but instinct?]

Nothing but instinct... Garam was mostly right. Firstly, since his birth, the Refractive Dragon had only pursued Rebecca. Secondly, even while chasing Rebecca, he changed his target the moment Garam manifested the power of light. Perhaps at this time, Rebecca confused him about where she was by temporarily withdrawing the power of light. Thirdly, he didn’t recognize Grid.

Grid remembered the Refractive Dragon’s purpose. He was the vaccine urgently deployed by Morpheus to fix Rebecca, who had been identified as a virus. Did a vaccine need to be sentient?

‘It’s likely that Morpheus deliberately got rid of his sentience.’

Morpheus had already experienced Rebecca’s betrayal, or rather, its own error. At the very least, it didn’t want to allow the Refractive Dragon, who was as powerful as Rebecca, to have free will and experience the same mistake.

In other words—

‘Bunhelier is completely gone,’ Grid bitterly realized.

Even though he had initially been on bad terms with Bunhelier, after teaming up and relying on each other, they eventually got along quite well. Their friendship had mattered. There were several moments that Grid remembered vividly. He remembered Bunhelier’s subtle efforts to change...

Garam threatened the Refractive Dragon. [Go away. I am not the light. You have noticed that, haven’t you?]

He seemed to treat the Refractive Dragon as a real monster. Raiders and Nevartan appeared thoughtful, but they didn’t point out Garam’s attitude. They also seemed to realize that the Refractive Dragon resembled more of a beast than a god.

Roaaaaaar!

A gust of wind swept in and made the earth shake. This was because the Refractive Dragon had flapped his wings once. Cracks spread across Grid’s Multiple Weakening Barriers, while Garam and the old dragon’s self-defensive actions were completely nullified.

[......]

The atmosphere became vicious in an instant. Nervous, the old dragons fell silent, while Garam glared in the direction of the Refractive Dragon as if he wanted to kill him right then and there. However, Garam couldn’t even breathe. He decided it was no longer a good idea to provoke the Refractive Dragon.

Grid also gulped. The enemy was incredibly intimidating. The back of his neck throbbed with the tension he had felt when he first encountered the old dragons. He felt intimidated for a moment, and he didn’t know what to do.

Unexpectedly, it was Grid’s clone who did something. He cast a few spells, targeting Garam. Surprised by the sudden attack, Garam turned into light. Before the spells had even reached the spot where he had been standing, Garam appeared beside the clone and stabbed him with the Annihilation sword. He’d done this out of reflex.

Garam had a vicious personality. He wouldn’t just generously forgive others who dared to surprise attack him. Plus, he had taken the power of light for granted ever since he came back to life. In other words, he hadn’t intended to turn into light right in front of the Refractive Dragon, who was clearly watching him...

Slash!

[You son of a...!]

Garam no longer paid attention to the clone, who couldn’t withstand the power of the Annihilation sword. A chill went down his spine as he realized that he had attracted the attention of the Refractive Dragon.

There was an ear-spitting explosion as a Breath filled with unimaginable power engulfed Garam. The dark-colored Breath was almost pitch black because it was thick enough to swallow up the light.

Garam’s eyes rolled back as the attack hit him. Before he could even scream, he lost most of his body. Of course, he didn’t die. Garam had inherited the power of a God of the beginning, so divinity instead of red blood flowed from his wounds. By controlling the spilled divinity and forming a dense structure, he restored his body.

[...You did a great job!]

Garam restored his head, which had burst like a watermelon, and struck Grid’s clone, who was staggering in front of him. However, he had no intention of killing the clone. He quickly withdrew from where he was because he noticed the invisible dragon approaching.

Baaaaang!!

The ground on which Garam had stepped just a moment before collapsed. Fifteen meteorites seemed to have fallen after the Refractive Dragon had swung his paw.

[Don’t you know that Rebecca is using you?!] Garam shouted angrily.

He couldn’t fight back against the Refractive Dragon and kept retreating. This was the strength of the old dragon. Garam wanted to run away right away. However, the moment he turned into light, he was afraid the Refractive Dragon would chase him to the end of the earth. Thus, Garam could not rely on light.

This time of indecisiveness allowed Grid to get behind him. In fact, Grid had been approaching Garam since the Refractive Dragon first appeared.

No, since Garam realized his potential, he had been self-destructing.

“Looking at you now, Hanul must be wailing.”

Hanul hadn’t handled the power of light properly, but it wasn’t because of Garam’s speculations. Hanul wasn’t affected by emotions. He was just afraid of the Refractive Dragon and suppressed the light’s potential.

“Hanul wasn’t lucky choosing you as his successor.”

Grid was grateful that he had a wonderful son. He remembered Lord’s glowing face as he swung his sword with all his might. This was a sword that combined Defying the Natural Order and Twilight.

The shaky purple energy moved in an arc.