"That logic sounds fine, but it is not that simple." Safas shook his head and stroked his beard. "First, after so many years of planning, and with the support of the Abyssal Gods, Edward is destined to reach godhood. More precisely, it is not that he becomes the God of Fate."
"It is that the God of Fate revives in order to become Bahamut through Edward. The Fate is the wheel of history, and it cannot be stopped. At best, you can only delay it, or force an incomplete Fate to appear." "Even if it is incomplete, once Edward as a crippled Fate defeats that Black Dragon and takes back the true name, he will become a complete Fate. Past, present, and future will all fall under his reach."
The Fate was crucial, because it was a key point in the arrangements of the gods. Once it gained the backing of Fate, the veil of reality would be torn apart by Rend and return to the Abyss, and that would only be a matter of time. Even missing the final proof only blocked Edward at the last step, but as a crippled version, he would still have the support of the gods behind him, and his strength would not be simple.
"But does that not still mean the same thing? Just let Belial kill them all." Bella thought it through. In the end, the goal was the same, so why not finish it in one step? To her, this was just another Evil God crawling out of the ground. She had already personally helped that Black Dragon crush two of them before, so what was one more?
Bella was an AI, so her problem-solving method always favored the most convenient route. That meant killing everyone who caused trouble or dared to cause trouble. If their side could crush them with raw power, why bother with twists and schemes?
"You still do not really understand. Even I do not fully grasp the true Fate, but even a half-broken one would not be…" Safas felt the two of them were still too young. They had not seen how terrifying a true god could be. After all, the one who got beaten like a dog by Belial was Edward, not the Fate itself.
Let that Black Dragon just roll over everything? With buffs from the Abyssal Gods for sure, and the unpredictable authority of Fate, fighting a god head-on in the enemy's Divine Kingdom domain and killing it directly? Safas felt it was better to sneak around and find the original the Lord Bahamut and strike in the dark. That would be safer, and it would also prevent the Fate seat from falling to the Abyss side.
Yes, he had seen that scene. That Black Dragon empowered by Holy Sword Authority had crushed Augustus and Elfido with unstoppable force. But setting aside the gap between gods and mortals, who would think of fighting someone head-on in their home base? Once Edward truly became the Fate, it would not even be a matter of combat power anymore. How do you even fight a Shard that is a vague concept created by humans?
Besides, even killing Edward would not solve anything, because Fate is still Fate. No matter what, it always exists. "But when the time comes, will it not still be Belial holding the front line? If we just kill the other side directly, would there really be so many problems?"
Bella was very clear about this. The final goal did not change, so why not go straight to the end? This way of thinking made Safas feel his blood pressure rise. He truly felt outdated, with a deep gap in understanding between himself and modern youth.
What do you mean kill it and be done… even if that was true in theory, the problem was that thing could not be killed. "…Forget it. You will understand when the time comes. By the way, Lilith, do you also think there is no problem with this?"
Safas turned to his usually rational disciple, a proper Mage at that. Surely she would not be this reckless. "…More or less."
Lilith calmly shrugged and looked away, not wanting to say more. With Bella acting as her electronic mouthpiece, everything had already been said. "…Sigh."
At that moment, Safas truly felt old. Fine, they would just take it one step at a time. His own plan was clearly more stable and did not even conflict with theirs, so why did everyone insist that killing the first step solved everything?
"By the way, that dragon… I mean Belial. What exactly is his background? Is he really just a discarded flesh body from half of Bahamut's reincarnation?" "And what did he even do in the past to turn Lilith into this?"
He could not figure it out. Being able to personally draw out Dawn's intervention, to wield the power of the Holy Sword, and possessing such absurd strength, none of it seemed simple. Safas suddenly felt that what Bella said earlier might make some sense. Maybe this was really the gods of Bahamut thinking on a different level, pulling a hidden move to fool everyone.
"All right, the dragon is not here right now. But actually, it will not be long. Once Belial finishes some small matters, we should be able to meet him. He already sent me his route and map." Lilith raised her hand and projected a map again. It was created from Belial's scan of the surrounding terrain, clearly marking the route and final target. Safas found it oddly familiar.
"…Lilith, looking at you, it seems like you already know what that dragon plans to do?" "Is that not obvious?"
Bella jumped out and pointed at the final red dot on the map, which was Imperial Capital of the Faris Empire. "Obviously he is going straight to kill Augustus. We just wait on the side, and once he finishes killing, we are done."
"…His strength is indeed very strong, but are you not being a bit… extreme?" Why did it feel like finding the target, charging in, killing them, and calling it done was treated so casually? Did no one care about follow-up problems? He thought about it again. The target was an emperor with decent strength, but still, killing him outright did not actually sound wrong.
Safas felt he needed to calm down, or his thinking would be dragged off track.
Far away from here. Dragon Valley.
Sylvia got up as usual, rubbed her head, sighed, and walked into a nearby cave to check on someone who had been unconscious for a long time. "Ham… still not awake?"
She looked at the girl on the bed as always and recorded the day's changes. The little dragon girl lying there had changed slightly in appearance compared to before. Ham looked paler, almost glowing, and her originally black hair had turned silver-white with a faint golden gradient.
The shape of her horns had also changed, becoming a platinum color like precious metal. There was no obvious change in her aura, but to Sylvia, she now felt strangely close. Compared to before, she seemed no different, but if one had to say something, it was as if she had returned to her original state.
Perhaps this was what Bahamut originally looked like, even if it was only half. That change and faint feeling were enough to make Sylvia believe it. The silly child she picked up, whom she thought would be her successor, turned out to be an ancestor in every sense of the word.
Even knowing the truth about Bahamut, Sylvia still habitually called her Ham and cared for her as before. She brought hot water, wiped her body, checked her sleeping posture, and skipped feeding since it was unnecessary. These were the only things she could do, usually three times a day.
After finishing, she set up a Spatial Magic restriction in the cave and left. Half an hour passed. Then an hour.
At a level beyond elements and Magic, unseen by others, strands of faint light wove together into a humanoid figure draped in white cloth. It slowly walked into the cave, ignoring the spatial restriction. She entered Ham's room, looked at the sleeping dragon girl, smiled slightly, raised the long-handled hammer in her hand, and brought it down on her head without hesitation.
"Smack!" A tender white hand caught the hammerhead. The long-sleeping girl slowly sat up, her pupils now a striking shade of deep blue. Without yawning, she rolled her eyes at the white-clad figure by the window.
"I am telling you, could you not let me sleep a bit longer? And if you are going to wake someone, do you have to hit their head? Where is your bell?" "So what should I call you now?"
She kept smiling, while the other gave her another eye roll. After a moment of thought, she sighed. "I will just be Ham. That long string of names is annoying even to say. Whoever wants it can take it."
"Fine, Ham it is. As for ringing bells, you and I both know why. If it were not for how things were back then, who would climb a mountain at six in the morning to ring a bell? Everyone is lazy." They casually mocked things that would shatter old believers' views into Shard, yet neither of them cared. Then Ham closed her eyes.