Gyuliedistodius was still young among dragons.
And so his fury over the current incident burned all the more fiercely.
Toward the humans who had committed the outrageous act of abducting a dragon child — and toward the Upper Layer, who responded to such humans with wishy-washy hesitation, as though bestowing mercy upon them.
Humans who dared perpetrate such outrage should simply be annihilated along with their entire nation. That was Gyuliedistodius's unvarnished opinion.
To a dragon, all non-dragon species were nothing more than equally inferior beings.
From the moment of their birth, dragons were guaranteed to one day stand in the realm of gods. Against such creatures, what else could one call a fragile species that perished before nearly any of their number even reached divinity, if not "inferior"? Gyuliedistodius genuinely did not know.
Dragons were the supreme race — the ones who ruled the world.
If a species submitted and served dragons, that was fine. But any species that spat in a dragon's face deserved to be destroyed.
To be content with destroying only the offending nation rather than the entire species — surely that was a display of extraordinary mercy on his part.
That was how Gyuliedistodius saw it. Yet the judgment handed down by the Upper Layer was even more merciful than that — so mild, in fact, that he could only call it tepid.
"Tch."
He clicked his tongue in irritation.
Gyuliedistodius was currently transformed into a human.
Though young, he had already reached the realm of gods. Shifting his shape was effortless for one such as he.
No matter how small and insignificant the human form was compared to his true body, he could transform into it without the slightest difficulty.
Disguised as a human, Gyuliedistodius walked through a city built by humans.
His objective was to search for the abducted child.
He was to assume human form, exercise extreme caution so as not to disturb the humans, and act accordingly.
Destruction of any kind was strictly off-limits.
Those were the orders handed down by the Upper Layer.
Tepid.
Far too tepid for comfort.
If Gyuliedistodius simply exerted his power, crushing an entire nation would be trivial.
Would it not serve as a sufficient warning to humans if he destroyed a nation as punishment — so that they would never dare attempt something so foolish again?
He had already pinpointed the location of the abducted child.
Gyuliedistodius was a dragon who excelled above all others in spatial abilities. Using that power, locating a fellow dragon was simple.
And yet, despite knowing exactly where the child was, he had been unable to act.
The will of the dragon Upper Layer demanded that, if possible, the matter be resolved by human hands.
Rescuing the abducted child was trivially easy.
But since it was humans who had taken the child, the responsibility for retrieving them should likewise fall on humans.
Therefore, humans would be the ones to rescue the abducted child.
That was the conclusion the dragon Upper Layer had reached.
Gyuliedistodius was to serve as insurance — a failsafe in case the child came under imminent danger. Until a genuine crisis threatened the child, he was not permitted to move.
Gyuliedistodius found this deeply unsatisfying.
The foul air of the human city only soured his mood further still.
Vehicles called cars spewing exhaust fumes, towering structures called buildings constricting the sky, and humans swarming every road as though they owned the place — all of it was infuriating beyond measure.
It was only natural that he felt the urge to blow every last bit of it away on impulse.
Why the Upper Layer allowed such creatures to run free was beyond his comprehension.
What Gyuliedistodius felt was not, for dragons, an unusual sentiment.
On the whole, dragons genuinely believed that their race was the supreme existence — the one meant to rule the world.
Because of this, many dragons harbored quiet displeasure at the fact that inferior creatures like humans were not under dragon dominion, but instead maintained their own independence and self-governance.
If there was any difference between Gyuliedistodius and the Upper Layer, it came down to knowledge — whether one knew or did not know.
That there existed beings even a dragon could not easily meddle with.
A young man bumped into Gyuliedistodius's shoulder.
He was the male half of a young couple walking together.
The young man did not even realize he had collided with Gyuliedistodius, laughing with his lover as he strolled past.
In that instant, Gyuliedistodius's fury ignited.
An inferior creature had bumped into him and then simply walked away without so much as acknowledging it.
Such an insult could never be tolerated.
Combined with the irritation he had been bottling up, Gyuliedistodius moved to kill the young man for his transgression.
A single blow to the crown of his head would be enough to kill a fragile human.
In the next instant, the young man's skull should have burst apart in a shower of fragments.
"I will issue a warning. Physical interference with nascent life-forms is not permitted."
A hand gently grasped Gyuliedistodius's wrist.
It looked as though the hand merely rested against his skin, yet his movements had been completely halted.
Even as shock jolted through him and he tried to recoil, his body would not obey.
"What is this!?"
The words burst out of him in agitation — even he himself did not fully grasp their meaning.
"Hostile action by a dragon species against a nascent life-form has been detected. Execution of such an act would constitute a violation of the standing mission. Initiating elimination."
In response to Gyuliedistodius's meaningless outburst, the figure who had seized his hand delivered a factual confirmation in a flat, dispassionate tone.
While fixing him with eyes like glass spheres — utterly devoid of any discernible emotion.
With a gaze no different from one directed at refuse.
Gyuliedistodius had not known.
That in this world, there existed beings equal to — or greater than — dragons.
That day, Gyuliedistodius encountered one.
An anti-god combat species, angel. Upper Seraph-class individual. Stray angel,
A goddess, as she was called — a god-slaying weapon of annihilation.