The Red Dragon Just Wants To Do As It Pleases-Chapter 544 - 335: The Source of Error
This was a graveyard that buried the entire Elven civilization and its history.
And this Elven divine abomination was like Mount Jingguan, towering into the clouds, built from the corpses of beings from the entire plane.
Perhaps because of this, having 'eaten too much,' it had become incapable of moving in the physical sense. It was forever trapped in Ferodiel, hungry and starving.
So its Despair transformed into countless invisible hands, pulling all the 'food' it could reach to its side, which already stank to high heaven. The chains that had fused with its flesh spread across its body, forming cages called Denial, binding them tightly by its side, waiting to be consumed and decayed.
And in the belly at the mountainside lay its stomach for feeding: several intestinal tubes with Elven faces at their ends, yet actually larger than the neck of any Ancient Giant Dragon, ignorantly looked up to the sky in lament. Their eye sockets empty, they wept viscid, malicious pus while blindly nibbling at their own lower halves, piled up from the corpses of Mount Jingguan.
David recognized one of the 'gut dragons.' It was indeed his old acquaintance, the Spider Goddess Rose, with whom he had dealt for many years. Or perhaps, it would be more appropriate to call her Arlosh.
The moment he saw her, the Authority within David allowed him to perceive the Authority she now represented as part of the divine abomination—Ambition.
Soon after, David guessed the identity of another gut dragon that was angrily biting at her—Corellon, the chief Elven deity. The Authority he represented... was named Cowardice.
Faced with Rose's relentless entanglement and biting, he could only instinctively keep retreating and pleading for mercy, trapped in an unending cycle.
Another, slightly younger face most likely belonged to another of their children, Velan, the Lord of Masks.
Each of these gut dragons represented one of the Elves' cardinal sins. Or rather, the sins as recognized by this Elven divine abomination of Despair.
Above these sins were eyes enough to cause any sufferer of trypophobia to drop dead on the spot. It seemed as if the eyes of all the beings it had devoured from the entire plane had been gouged out and gathered here. They ultimately formed something even more magnificent and bulbous than the Eye of Sauron atop the tower in *The Lord of the Rings*.
Upon their arrival, they were scrutinized by the malevolent Eye representing Obsession, which always coveted everything.
And atop this Mount Jingguan, at the peak of its chest cavity, was a human, only his upper half exposed. He clutched the Staff of the Traveler, yet was bound and shackled by those chains.
"AO..."
The scene before them was like someone coming to the 'backend' for maintenance upon noticing a program malfunction, only to be buried alive by the chaotic mess of code. Yes, in David's Greedy gaze, this AO was nearly buried alive by this divine abomination. After Denying each Authority he held as the creator god, a mountain constructed of countless failures, tragedies, and predestined doom arose.
And now, even AO had become part of it: Lament.
It wasn't until David personally witnessed all this that he looked with lament toward the unfortunate Supreme Deity and offered a bow of respect. Undeniably, this was a world administrator worthy of respect.
Relying on the connection of Authority springing from the same source, a crucial moment occurred. When David, who possessed the Eye of Greed, made eye contact with the Eye of Obsession in the chest of the Elven divine abomination, information flowed spontaneously between their shared source. Many of his past confusions unfolded, as if clouds were parted to reveal the sun.
So, the Elven kinsman trapped in Despair and transformed into this divine abomination was actually himself. Or rather, it was the original self who had transmigrated to become a High Elf. Unlike the version of himself who transmigrated to become the Red Dragon David Uthos—seemingly the unluckiest yet actually the luckiest—this Elven version of himself had fallen into another extreme. What appeared to be an incredibly fortunate birthright was, in essence, an accursedly hellish beginning.
In that timeline, David was reborn as Moravi, the eldest son of the chief Elven deity Corellon and the then-Elven queen, Arlosh. He faced an infantile father of immense power, arrogant yet cowardly at heart, never willing to directly face and assume any responsibility. His mother was a domineering figure who constantly coveted the supreme Elven throne; suppression and control were second nature to her, and she used her own child as a means to realize her boundless Ambition. Furthermore, he had a sick brother. Born a few years too late to ever grasp the crown, and secretly instigated by their mother, this brother always harbored Hatred for his elder sibling.
Especially since this David had reincarnated as a divine, nearly immortal, second-generation Elven god. Staying in such a Despair-filled environment for hundreds or thousands of years without escape, it would have been stranger if he *hadn't* gone mad. Perhaps if 'he' hadn't also had his sister Elystrea, who represented Shame and served as a pressure-release valve, this descent would have been even faster. But such a hellish beginning often determined its tragic ending from the very start. The 'David' of that world, under the growing, irresistible Despair within his heart, eventually transformed into a crazed divine abomination, wanting only to utterly destroy this miserable world. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
Finding they could not resolve the 'divine abomination' they had created, Corellon and the Elven queen Rose did not hesitate for a moment. They cast their Elven firstborn directly into Ferodiel, which was already beginning to disintegrate due to corruption, and fled to Toriel with a portion of their loyal Elven followers.
But they all underestimated 'Moravi' and the Authority he possessed.
After completely swallowing Ferodiel, 'Moravi' became insatiable, like a Tyrant's Egg brewing with curses. He reached his thousands of invisible hands, embodiments of Despair, into the surging river of time. Ultimately, he polluted and devoured the entire river of time and all possibilities.
AO tried to stop him. However, faced with 'Moravi's' almost irrational, cheat-like power, AO was simply 'piled to death,' forming the magnificent Mount Jingguan.
And before his remaining consciousness was completely consumed, AO still attempted other measures. He left behind two contingencies.
First, he utilized 'Moravi's' lingering 'pure wish': 'If I have another life, I damn well won't be an Elf again!' Using this, AO sliced away the 'primal,' uncorrupted part of 'Moravi' and cast it back into the river of time. This, one could say, fulfilled 'Moravi's' dying wish not to be an Elf.
Along with this, he also cut away the parts of the thoroughly corrupted Authority that still held 'enterprising' meaning, namely the Seven Deadly Sins: Arrogance, Jealousy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust.
Yet, merely these fragments of severed Authority, combined with His prolonged absence as the Supreme Deity, still triggered a great upheaval in Toriel. This involved a calamitous theft: the three death gods stole the Fate Tablet He had left behind in the Pantheon.
AO then drove the avatar He left in the Camp of the Polaris to launch the infamous Sundering, and through it, urgently amended an important rule: divine power would henceforth be tied to the number of a god's followers.
As it turned out, all gods had misjudged AO's intentions. This deity, already deeply trapped in Ferodiel, had a specific intention for this rule. He aimed to prevent 'Moravi'—upon breaking free—from corrupting all deities and even their believers through the Chains of Faith. This would create a new protective layer, buying time for the nascent hope's growth.
However, even AO still miscalculated two things: He miscalculated the speed at which 'Moravi' would pollute the world. But He also misjudged the speed at which David would grow once more.
In a mere eighty years, David had returned. He had gathered 'reinforcements': the entire Dragon God faction and millions of his 'counterparts' from parallel timelines, all standing here once again, before the very source of all mistakes.
David looked up, locking eyes with the malevolent gaze of the divine abomination 'Moravi.'
"Honestly, I'm starting to sympathize with 'you' a bit," David said, "but it's also time to end this lamentable cycle."
Through the connection of their Authority and the interactive flow of information from their shared source, their thoughts and intentions lay bare to one another; there were no secrets left between them.
With a sonorous CLANG, David, rearing up before the cliff, faced the divine abomination that reached for the clouds and drew his crimson Sword of Strength.
He brandished the sword, pointing it at the divine abomination.
"ROAR!!!!!"
Amidst the Hate-filled roar of the divine abomination 'Moravi,' the gut-dragons in its belly, representing each cardinal sin, also howled in agony. They spewed forth an overwhelming torrent of venom imbued with Cowardice and Ambition's putrid fluid, like rotten Dragon Breath...
It surged towards them, covering everything.
