Chapter 419: The God-Bearer

    Mid Morning - Mid Winter : Acardi Research Facility | Eastern Bahamut

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    *Puff-Creak* Leaning back in the chair, unable to pull my eyes off the screen, my mind raced so fast that my surroundings simply went dark. There was so much to digest that I had unknowingly used my divinity to bend time, but even that wasn''t enough.

    After reading through the nearly twenty thousand entries logged by the scientist, my curiosity roared with the blaze of a mythril furnace, quickly igniting an endless ocean of information I had just filled and flooding my mind with the nostalgia of digesting my dragon inheritance as a hatchling.

    However, the nostalgia wasn''t solely from my mind''s forge roaring.

    -This... This is familiar...- Standing up and staring at the bright screen with wide eyes, I scrolled back to reread them, the logs mentioning of the ''draconic ancestor'' missing its head, the Acardi higher-ups fearing something, and the concept of ''artificially creating a god'' brought forth an indescribable mix of emotions from the depth of my soul, a mix of pity, uncertainty, and excitement.

    It was a mix of sensations that all stimulated memories that didn''t exist in my mind, the infuriating sensation of being so close.. yet so far...

    However.. this time was different.

    After letting my mind race, and focusing as hard as I could on the sensations, one started standing out, growing stronger with every passing moment until finally, an image appeared in my mind, the sight of looking down over a mountain range, collapsed on its side, as a massive, glossy black area poured out liquid as if countless pipes drained a reserve of oil.

    It was Bahamut, the true ''God of the Strong'', lying dead on its side, creating lakes with the blood leaking from its fresh.. indescribably clean wound.

    It was the draconic ancestor, a being that helped lay the foundation for dragons as they are today, yet as I looked down upon it from over the clouds instead of reverence, or fascination.. I felt.. pity...

    A pity coming from the very core of my being that was so overpowering it quelled the blaze in my mind, suffocating the uncontrollable fire and letting my mind settle.

    But while it pulled me back to my senses in an instant, it only caused the forge to grow hotter. -I.. killed him.- Looking up through the ceiling at the unfathomably heavy mana pressure from the gave sat on my aura, I didn''t feel an ounce of regret. -I wonder.. why...-

    Rushing to dig at the source of the image knowing it stemmed from an indescribably ancient memory, I wanted to grasp at strings no matter how loose, but after going back and rereading the logs dozens of times, nothing else ever surfaced.. even if they were close... -Looks like I might be more familiar with this whole situation than I expected though...-

    After rereading everything so many times I nearly had it memorized, I had managed to piece together details and references throughout the logs, and piece together connections with other things I experienced, such as the artifact I touched as a hatchling being a close match in concept to the artifact Andrew Borealis described.

    An artifact meant to create a body that a god can reside in. -Even if the artifact I touched used different genetics from his project.. that artifact fits the bill he wanted to fill out...- So, after looking through the logs for external references one more time, I took to the rest of the computer, reading through the endless other logs, data entries, and legal documents in search of the artifact and rune blueprints Andrew mentioned endlessly in the latter years of his logs.

    I wanted to find the artifact he designed. The culmination of the lifetime''s of work, talent, and knowledge of an Acardi researcher.

    Until eventually, after finally figuring out how to access the buffer, it appeared...

    But rather than making my mind race to answer questions.. it made everything go quiet.

    Before my eyes was the blueprint of an artifact with runic circuitry so advanced it was almost sickening, so efficient it felt inorganic, yet pieced together by hand like a huge, endless puzzle.

    It was the final prototype of Project Re-XK, the series of artifacts combined into one...

    The God-Bearer.

    -So this.. is the peak of Acardi technology...- It was a conglomeration of artifacts that would completely rewrite the genetic code of one of the Acardi, switching their genetic legend to that of an organism native to Delphi while weaving in changes and improvements like a series of mechanical, intelligent viruses.

    Using a perfect blend of mana and science, it was clear the artifacts were well beyond the likes of anything I had seen from the Acardi up until that point, making even the most advanced devices I had seen look so simple it was laughable.

    However, there was one exception to that.. a certain memory threw a wrench into that vision. -This...- Envisioning the artifact I touched as a hatchling laying next to it.. my mind bent. -How...-@@@@

    But after a bit of thought, I started from where we left off last time, explaining that the mana well was actually a grave before moving onto the many details I found in the lab regarding the artifact I touched as a hatchling.

    "To think such a monstrous creature existed... For its body to still be so full of mana, it must have truly been a god above the class I can fathom... It makes me wonder how it died though, and how it got buried like it did..."

    Finding her questions excruciatingly similar to the ones I was asking myself just a few days ago, I wanted to laugh. "Well, I can actually answer that." Averting my eyes, I felt a bit of anxiety trying to tie my stomach in a knot.

    Noticing my unusual shift in demeanor, her curiosity instantly turned to concern.

    Concern that only worsened my anxiety... -But.. I trust her...- Lowering my snout, I turned my eyes back to her. "I killed it, and presumably buried it too."

    Her eyes instantly went wide as a ripple spread through the pool from her tensing up. "Why..?"

    Shrugging, I carefully pulled my wing off her and leaned away slightly. "The memory was incomplete, but I don''t seem to regret it at all. Rather than something like guilt.. I felt pity."

    Falling silent, Hera pulled herself off my side, clearly still deep in thought.

    But that wasn''t surprising. After all, I just admitted to killing the being that was the foundation of the draconic race on Delphi.

    However, rather than looking disgusted, fearful, or panicked as I worried, she remained inexplicably calm. "As..?"

    "Nott."

    "Then what does it matter?" Speaking so bluntly she sounded annoyed, she somewhat angrily pushed herself into me and looked me straight in the eyes. "I know you better than anyone. The real you. You definitely had a reason."

    -More than likely...- However, there was no way to tell if I hadn''t simply changed since then.

    "If you were strong enough to kill a creature like that, you were also strong enough to clean the mess that''d follow its death, and that''s assuming you didn''t actually have a reason for it." Smiling, she relaxed and laid her head down on me. "Look, I know you''re worried about discovering you have blood on your paws just like Bahamut, but I want you to keep this in mind." Capturing my gaze, her beautiful irises pulled me in. "If you think I''m going to change the way I see you because of something you did in a past life where you weren''t a native to this world, nor a dragon, you might as well save the thought."

    Nuzzling herself into me, she used her aura to lay my wing back over her.

    "No matter what, I will be by your side, okay?" Lowering her gaze, her voice hushed to a mumble, and her body completely relaxed. "No matter what..."

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