And a place of death where I could use that power to its fullest.
The beings of our kind called the Elder Dragon Chiefs are, in truth, failures of real dragons.
Chimeras created through
Unlike the humanoid chimeras like
And so we were never placed under protection. We were treated as animals.
There may well have been kin who died as test subjects in places I never knew about.
Rather, there certainly were.
The one who protected us was our Master, Gülie Distihees.
That is why we hold reverence for our Master.
It's probably the same feeling that Ariel holds toward Goddess Sariel.
The only difference between us and Ariel is that we were classified as Monsters by the System.
Even from the gods' perspective, we were nothing more than animals.
And so we chose the path of becoming our Master's servants.
We gave up on mingling with humans, but refused to simply become Monsters, instead seizing the position of the Administrator's servants.
Each of us fulfilled our role, expanded the ranks of our Master's servants, and laid the groundwork for surviving in this world.
Hyuvan took on the purification of the polluted wastelands.
Iena managed the seas to keep humans from venturing into the open ocean.
Nia, Lendo, and Goka each claimed territories of their own and oversaw them.
Among all of this, I was put in charge of sealing the Demon King's Sword.
The biggest reason was that I had no territory to manage and was essentially the odd one out.
And the other reason was that my power was unique compared to the rest.
If the Demon King's Sword were ever wielded, my power might be needed at the same time.
That is why I was sealed away along with it.
My abilities were intentionally developed to specialize in one particular area.
That being: anti-god capabilities.
Abilities effective against gods.
In other words, the ability to attack the soul.
Heterodox attacks that strike the soul directly.
Corrosion attacks that command death.
Abyss Magic that annihilates the soul.
I allocated many Skill Points to these and prioritized their growth.
All in preparation for the event that a god might invade this world.
But such a scenario was almost impossible.
Our Master's superior, the higher Administrator known as D, was—according to our Master—a being whom even the gods feared.
No god would dare invade a world managed by that D.
If one did, it would have to be the most ignorant being in existence.
And so my existence was merely insurance.
A countermeasure against a god's invasion—something nearly impossible, but devastating if it ever occurred.
However, my existence as insurance was far too weak in its effectiveness.
If a god invaded, the first to respond would be our Master.
My turn would only come after our Master had fallen.
There was no way I could defeat an opponent that our Master couldn't beat.
As insurance, I was simply too inadequate.
It wasn't that we could afford to take no precautions, but even with precautions, this was as far as it went.
That was my existence.
I would only get my moment in the event that our Master was defeated—yet by the time that moment arrived, defeat was all but certain. I was the kind of existence where it didn't matter whether I was there or not.
It was almost laughable.
Insurance for the one-in-a-million chance that our Master lost, with a one-in-a-hundred-million shot at defeating the enemy.
The kind of existence that could only inspire a faint, fleeting hope of "maybe."
That was why I never understood my own reason for existing.
I wanted a stage to prove myself.
A place to unleash this power.
A place where my existence could truly serve its purpose.
This is the only place!
The piercing thrust I launched at Ariel.
Dodge was no longer possible.
A guard was no longer possible.
Ariel, for some reason, seemed to have weakened considerably.
Even though the battle had begun, she showed no sign of rising from her chair, instead leaving everything to the Taratects under her command—there was something off about that.
But when the Queen blocked the attack, that unease solidified into certainty.
Ariel had been weakened to the point where she couldn't even fight properly.
With Ariel's full power, she wouldn't have needed to rely on the Queen, the Puppet Taratects, or any of her other subordinates.
Ariel alone had the power to annihilate all of us Elder Dragons.
She simply wouldn't. She simply couldn't.
And yet, she had the Queen block an attack that—given its properties—should have left her completely unharmed even if it hit directly.
It was already decided.
Got her!
The instant I thought that, an arm grabbed me from the side.
My piercing thrust was stopped mere inches from Ariel's body.
The hand that grabbed my arm extended from empty air.
Then something crashed into me out of nowhere, and together with that something, I was sent flying, tumbling across the ground.
I hurried to regain my footing and stood up.
That was when that something came into view, and I was struck speechless.
"Master…!?"
It was my beloved Master, Gülie Distihees.
His body was battered and torn, the light had vanished from his eyes, and his vacant gaze stared into empty space.
Could it be… that he was dead…?
A presence emerged right beside me, frozen in shock.
The only reason I wasn't attacked while standing there in a daze was that my opponent was equally battered.
White garments stained here and there with blood, and the spider-like lower half of her body similarly dyed red.
One eye was crushed, and blood continued to stream from it as if she were shedding tears.
Despite that wretched appearance, the remaining eye blazed with fierce, unwavering will.
The White God had appeared before me, as if to shield Ariel.