Chapter 18
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Become My Comrade
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Humans, upon death, have their souls separate from their flesh.
The moment breath ceases, the body remains on the earth while the soul is drawn upward.
The Gate of Heaven.
At the entrance to the realm where only gods dwell, the human soul stands before the judges.
There, one's life is reviewed.
The sins committed and the good left behind, the promises kept and the responsibilities ignored.
All of it is weighed on the scales to determine whether fate sends them to heaven or casts them into hell.
At the very least, humans are granted this final mercy called 'judgment'.
But gods are different.
Gods are beings whose flesh and soul are inseparable from birth.
Their very body is their soul, and their soul is their power.
Thus, there is no 'post-mortem judgment' for gods.
A god's death does not mean the soul departs—it means their very existence plummets.
Gods who cannot return to the heavens fall to the depths below.
Infinitely.
Endlessly.
To the place reached only by those who violate this world's greatest taboo.
Purgatory.
It is not a land of punishment.
Nor a place of salvation.
Purgatory is the final space where 'opportunity' still lingers.
An endless wasteland.
A world where light, time, and direction are all ambiguous.
Legend has it that there is only one exit.
If one can find it, they can return to existence.
However.
The time it takes to find that exit could be thousands of years, tens of thousands, or an eternity.
And most give up before then.
They lose their will, their sense of self wears away, and ultimately, they vanish completely, forgetting even the fact that they once sought it.
For gods, Purgatory was an end more cruel than judgment.
'...No way.'
As Aurelion's consciousness sank beneath the shattering sky, his final thought lingered.
'To think that I... would be cast into Purgatory by the hand of a mere human.'
It was not fear.
Not anger, nor hatred.
It was the complete negation that a being born as a god and lived as one faced for the first time.
'Still... when did it begin?'
As Aurelion's consciousness drifted further from the heavens, his thoughts grew clearer instead.
'When did humans... surpass dragons and begin reaching for the power of gods themselves?'
Mere vermin, at best.
That was how they had been defined.
Weak from birth, preying on each other, destined for extinction without the gods' intervention.
So the gods managed them, nurtured them, and when necessary, culled them without mercy.
Yet as that thought crossed his mind, a strange tingle stirred in a corner of Aurelion's heart.
Like watching a crawling child grow into an adult who stands farther than oneself.
It resembled the joy and loss mingled in an aging parent's gaze upon their grown child.
Come to think of it, had he himself viewed humans merely as 'materials' or 'tools'?
The ominous currents among the gods.
The cracks forming in the heavens.
Too focused on those, he had failed to see the potential growing right beside him.
'If only...'
Aurelion gripped his thoughts amid this bitter realization.
'Instead of threats, I should have chosen 'negotiation'.
Gods were always in the position of teachers.
To humans, to dragons—even the ancient dragons were no exception.
Aurelion, known among them as the Sage and the god who governed life, had preached knowledge and order to countless dragons.
However.
He had never once considered the possibility of receiving teachings himself.
That arrogance now returned as shame.
But what could be done now?
Everything was already over.
In his fall toward Purgatory, Aurelion recalled one final legend.
The tale of gods who never escaped Purgatory.
Gods who should have vanished completely from existence but, in rare cases, were said to reincarnate as humans and start anew from the mortal realm.
'If...'
As his consciousness faded, Aurelion thought quietly.
'If I am born human in my next life, if I cannot escape Purgatory...'
Then, not as a god but as a human, not as a teacher but as a student, he would live in atonement.
With that thought as his last, Aurelion's consciousness sank completely into darkness.
...Or so he thought.
"Are you coming around?"
A voice both unfamiliar and familiar.
Aurelion faintly parted his eyelids, first recognizing that he still 'existed'.
Not the void and mad labyrinth where fallen gods plummeted—Purgatory.
Not that eerie darkness, but a ceiling all too familiar spread before his eyes.
"You are undoubtedly..."
Even speaking made his body react with heavy sluggishness.
"The human who served Lady Elysia—"
"Kim Jinwoo."
A calm reply.
"Oh, and by the way, the Lady is sleeping soundly in the bed over there, so I'd appreciate it if you kept it down a bit."
Only then did his vision sharpen.
This was not Purgatory.
It was the lodging he had formally prepared in the past for the occasional gods who visited the dragon's nest.
He lay atop that very bed.
And beside it sat a human, calmly tending to him.
Kim Jinwoo.
Aurelion could only stare at the man in silence for a moment.
...It was strange.
He had clearly been defeated.
He had lost his divine dignity and fallen to a mortal from the lower realms.
In that case, there should have been only one outcome.
Oblivion or Purgatory—neither allowed for 'still being alive'.
As he tried to move, he noticed bandages wrapped around his body in places.
"...What in the world were you thinking, leaving me alive?"
Aurelion asked lowly, not hiding his wariness.
"Attempting to slay a god is a grave sin in itself. What you have done cannot be excused by mere words."
After catching his breath, he continued coldly.
"Even killing me, the very person involved, to end this here would not suffice—yet you healed me instead. ...I cannot comprehend it."
At those words, Kim Jinwoo glanced back briefly.
Elysia, exhausted and asleep after the battle.
And Miya, curled up like a cat beside her, sleeping.
After taking in the peaceful scene, he chuckled softly and said,
"Simple. Our goal was never to kill a god in the first place."
"...What?"
Aurelion's brow furrowed slightly.
Kim Jinwoo shrugged.
"From start to finish. We never wanted war with dragons, nor to pull down a god."
Then, looking Aurelion straight in the eye, he spoke more clearly.
"We came here only for eternal peace between dragons and humans. Lord Aurelion."
At those words, Aurelion dimly realized for the first time that the battle he lost was not merely one of strength.
"I see... Indeed, if your aim had been to kill a god from the outset, you wouldn't have met me like this."
Aurelion murmured quietly.
And with that, he grasped the rough reason for his survival.
He was no lowly god ruling a rural pond—this was one of the five ancient dragons who had ascended to the ranks of high gods governing life.
His disappearance would be a major incident.
It might be concealed for now.
But this was the dragon's nest.
Within it dwelled countless dragons who revered him as a god.
If the gods of heaven noticed something amiss, descended here, investigated, and concluded 'Aurelion was slain by the Duchess of Valenhardt'?
From that moment, the Valenhardt Duchy, where Elysia belonged, would be marked as 'precedent for humans slaying a god'.
That meant a dangerous force defying all gods.
It would classify them as hostile mortal races.
Once branded so, the Valenhardt Duchy might never even have its name preserved in history.
Nations whose names were erased from records.
Those that existed but were treated as if they never had, among the many fallen countries.
In the past, many nations that insulted or challenged gods had been punished through such historical erasure.
Names, histories, achievements—all vanished.
"Is that why...?"
Aurelion slowly closed and opened his eyes.
"That's why you kept me alive. Mercy toward me, and insurance for Valenhardt at the same time."
To be precise, it was indeed mercy.
Sparing him as a god.
And a choice to protect Elysia and her nation from heavenly retribution.
Moreover, even he, having survived, had no standing to punish them.
A defeated god could not presume to judge the victor.
"Wise."
Aurelion gave a curt evaluation.
"If the heavenly gods learned I suffered such wounds from mortals, I would face reprimand for diminished divinity."
"Well, yeah."
Jinwoo agreed lightly.
"So, we both quietly sweep it under the rug, like it never happened."
Kim Jinwoo, was it?
To think, in the heart of a battlefield where god and human clashed head-on, he hadn't fled but calculated such outcomes.
An ordinary human would have been awestruck or trembling in instinctive terror at the sight alone.
To plan 'post-battle handling', even factoring in a peace treaty amid that.
'He chose to avoid the worst outcome... This is more than mere perceptiveness.'
Aurelion finally realized.
The man in Lady Elysia's heart.
The one who gave her the courage to fight.
"I see..."
A faint smile tugged at the ancient dragon's lips.
"Certainly, from a loser's perspective, this is a favorable match."
He slowly raised his upper body and continued.
"So be it."
As a god and a defeated one, and as minimal courtesy to those who spared him.
Aurelion bowed his head toward Kim Jinwoo.
"I am grateful for this matter. Child of the lower realms."
But at that moment.
"No need to bow already."
Jinwoo waved it off with a laugh.
"Haha, it's too early for that."
"...Too early?"
"Now it's our turn, as the 'victors', to make a request of you, the 'loser', Lord Aurelion."
"Hm?"
A short sound of surprise escaped.
Aurelion knew instinctively.
These next words were the true main point.
The real demand, blending human malice and pragmatism beyond even a god's imagination.
"Lord Aurelion."
Jinwoo lifted the corner of his mouth slightly.
"From now on, you must step out of the Dragon's Nest and become the 'Guardian Dragon' of our Valenhardt Duchy."