His choice - III

-"The dragons were used to kill deities. ■ tricked us from the start."

The narration of the story began with those lines, and Jaden heard them with his whole attention. The tale of the far past that one couldn't possibly even fathom.

The dragons that stood against humanity and other races all acted upon the will of ■. The deities were annihilated without any exceptions by them.

And humanity aided them in achieving the said deed. The first thing that happened was, mankind trusted the dragons and proceeded with hunting down deities. But that was just half the truth.

What exactly happened was that ■ used dragons carefully in order to get rid of deities. The dragons were smart creatures, so how did they end up getting involved without realising a thing?

■ used the existence of □ to incite humanity to wage a war against deities who claimed to be the creators of the world. After that, it had the dragons approach humanity on the pretence of aiding them with it.

■ had planned everything carefully from the very beginning. The war of humans against deities. The interference of dragons in it. Everything was set-up from the starting point.

Unlike the people, □ had already caught on to ■'s ploys. Despite the countless warnings □ gave to humanity, no one suspected a thing.

■ played a small trick on the dragon's side to trick them too. They, who had no idea about it, played the role of pawns in that little game of chess.

'A trick...?'

Apparently, a baby dragon was abducted by deities. Upon searching for it for a few months, they found the dragon cub, but the whole situation had become a mess. The main issues that arose were a total of three things.

First, the place they found it was a certain deity's territory. That place was inhabited by no monsters or other creatures.

Second, the deity supposed to be living in that area was nowhere to be found. The deities never left their area due to various reasons. And how did that become an issue for dragons?

The third fact was something that the dragons couldn't stomach. They surely found the dragon cub, but it was no longer alive. The species called dragons were known for their pride and ruthlessness towards enemies.

The dragons tried searching for the deity, looking over that area without holding back. At that time, there were countless dragons dispatched to hunt down the deity who killed a dragonborn.

But that was hopeless. Even after searching for the deity for a whole year, no results were yielded. That's where the true tragedy actually unfolded. Someone approached the dragons with an offer they couldn't decline.

It was ■ who said that it would let the dragons have the greatest revenge one could ask for. After a long time of seeking revenge, the dragons, who were frustrated, accepted that offer.

After that, one question remained unchanged; how would they possibly be able to interfere in a war that had been going on for about a year? That's because ■ revealed the existence of □ to the world a long time ago.

The most suspicious part was that the dates of the abduction of the baby dragon and the start of the war of humanity against the deities were overlapping each other.

How did no one notice that? No, how come they kept on going with the flow as if it were all natural? A coincidence? Surely not. Everything that happened was beyond suspicious.

'So...'

■ tried and succeeded in manipulating the dragons. It used their revenge for the sake of his motives. Humanity on the verge of extinction, and dragons ruling all over the continent: Was that ■'s goal all along?

By the time anyone caught on that something was amiss, the war was already long over with humanity's victory. The deities were all massacred.

As soon as the war ended, the very dragons who once stood side-by-side with humans and other races turned against them. All of it was done according to the directions given by the ■.

No one had a clue as to what had actually happened for the dragons to turn against them. Neither did they ever manage to find the reason for it.

The only thing they knew was that the dragons had betrayed them. Since the war had just ended, the forces on humanity's side were still in bad condition when they attacked. That's why the losses suffered were far worse.

'There's still something that doesn't add up...'

Jaden's thought was too accurate. If the situation was that grave, how was it that all the races were still alive? The enemies were the dragons, who could annihilate a whole nation by themselves.

It was strange that the dragons failed to achieve it. Could it be the same reason why everything went on for over two hundred years?

Jaden's questions were ones no one could possibly answer. And so the narration continued without him speaking a word.

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-"It might've been the end if not for 'them' deciding to stay by humanity's side."

'Them?'

First, the dragons, then □ and ■, and now some other being? As Jaden was thinking, he had a clue what that term referred to.

When the dragons stood against humanity, all races saw the line of extinction for the first time. All the races might've perished if not for 'their' interference.

If only □ was there, that situation would've been avoided to some extent, at least. To their misfortune, □ had disappeared once the deities were all hunted down.

No matter how much they tried to search for □, it was nowhere to be found. As if it had vanished into thin air without leaving any traces behind.

And on the other hand, ■ had started to show its true colours to the dragons. The 'divine beings' that had been awaiting the return of □ heard some shocking news.

'Diving beings? A news?'

Diving beings, the existences that looked over the continent in place of □. They were the very ones who were ordered by □ not to interfere in the war.

There were around thirty divine beings at that time. The powers they possessed were definitely on par with the dragons, but sadly, dragons outnumbered them by a huge margin.

The news they heard wasn't anything official but only rumours. A strange rumour had become the talk of the continent before anyone could know its validity.

'Basically, ■ started spreading that rumour? What was it even about?'

-"The rumour was the spark needed to ignite the flames of war between the divine beings and the dragons."

According to the rumours, □ had been killed by the dragons. With all the people talking about the same topic, the divine beings ended up concluding it was the truth.

The orders to not interfere in the war between humans and the deities were indeed fulfilled. It was all due to the brains of a certain divine being that they noticed the loophole in the □'s orders.

They never got involved with that war but instead started a new one. The divine beings had chosen the side of humanity once again after a long time.

And the ones leading the divine beings were '%%'. The remnants of the past that had begun to be erased. The proof that □ once existed.

No one knows for certain if □ had actually passed away or if that was all a lie that someone spread intentionally or by mistake.

The only thing they knew was that □ was nowhere to be found. Maybe that mystery will remain unsolved even after hundreds of years.

After all, unlike mortals, who would pass on incomplete tales to future generations, immortals like dragons and divine beings were the only ones aware of the truth.

■ had been altering the past all the time, while the dragons and the divine beings had their attention all directed towards the chaos it had created. And sadly, no one could even notice it.

'Doesn't that mean...'

That's right. Future generations might not even be able to reach one percent close to knowing the truth. ■ might turn out very well to be almost impossible to kill by then.

The game of chess ■ had started in motion long ago. And with the disappearance of □, all the required pieces had been gathered. But there was a major miscalculation in ■'s plans.

Chess always has six types of pieces: pawn, bishop, knight, rook, queen, and king. The pawn could be promoted to anything but king upon reaching the final square.

If one had to look at the plots that had unfolded till then, the game had reached the point where ■ was the only piece available on one side. ■ was the king.

Despite him being the only piece left, another side had already lost the game. □, their king, was missing. That's why it was already a hopeless war.

Everyone had surely lost all hope by then. But then one strange move was made by the losing side. A pawn reached the final square. That was its chance to get promoted.

The piece it chose to be promoted as wasn't any of the four pieces it could become. The piece without which the game had been frozen finally rose onto the battlefield.

-"The pawn had been promoted to king."

Jaden's eyes wavered at those words. According to narration, the beings considered as the weakest pieces, the pawns, were actually the strongest species in the world. Then a sudden sound fell upon his ears.

Tssssrkkk tssrrrkk

[■ Records: 3/3]