Chương 120: Scales And Justice

My wingspan blots the sky. My scales are a canvas of black void and beautiful stars. My mane melds into the world's embrace. My eyes glimmer like white suns. My tail flows behind me like a beautiful, colourless ribbon.

'Who are we?'" I am Quash, the dragon god of annulment!"

'Why are we a dragon?'" To accept validation's affection."

'Who is validation?'" Magnificence! Beauty! Acceptance! The one who found me and refused to discard me!"

'Why are we happy?'" For the one who accepted an outlier into their tribe, I devote myself to you." Her wingspan was large and by no means dainty. Her scales were white and gold. Her mane was silver and shone beautifully. Her tail could crush mountains. Her eyes glowed as MY suns.

'Why are we sad?'" Human greed knows no bounds… They killed her and killed our children, they turned her flesh into armor, they ground her bones into weapons, and our younglings were fed to theirs, their shells were turned into jewelry, and their undeveloped bodies were turned into trophies."

'Why can't we cry?'" My body is false, my life was annulled before it began, I am no husk, I was once a man, then a monster with nowhere to call home, no solace, no love, no acceptance, the pleasures of life evade me for I am not alive nor dead."

'Why did they make us do this?'" Millions are dead, I do not care to pretend I am a dragon anymore, I do not care to play with their codes of ethics no longer, their hubris led to their extinction, their hubris led to my pain." This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

'What have we… done?'" I am no man, I am no dragon, I am neither a god nor a devil, nor Quash, the dragon god of annulment! I am unsure if I even am, but I have acted, I fear my power more than any other could fathom, I did not kill millions with fiery wrath, stomp their homes, kill their livestock, or blight them."

'Then how did they die?'" I decided…"

'…' June's eyes flickered between memory, static, and reality before returning to memory again. Some things were censored, hidden, removed… and repressed. He watched the world quietly rapture like a god, he heard their prayers, he saw the life leave their eyes, he dreaded his path clear of consequence, clear of death, he felt hopeless despite having the power to create.

The sensation of omniscience, staggered by choice, made the world around him crumble helplessly, and he slowly closed his circle of perception further and further until he saw nothing. This was not godhood. This was a child shutting its eyes to the harshness of its reality. A power without a place, an existence that dwelled outside the gap and bridge simultaneously. The problem was, why was June able to comprehend it?

He curled into a ball, feeling his chest and body tense and pull themselves together violently; the rain slipping into his ear and the mud caking onto his body didn't take precedence as his digestive fluids bubbled out of the side of his mouth through a riverbed in his cheek that was dissolved through by a flow of stomach acids.

It felt like his body was fighting the memories; his mind wanted it, but pushed it away, creating lapses and gaps each iteration as the memory slowly eroded into the sensation of flight, and a screaming grief that became harder and harder to understand with each whittled loop. And just as fast as he fell, he stood back up after a few moments of convulsing. The memory had turned into bare bones sensations, feelings rather than thoughts, or senses.

Almost as if June was born with wings, he understood what it felt like to soar, but recalling that emotion made his heart grow heavy for reasons that eluded him. He turned to the two frightened followers, opened his mouth, raised a finger, dropped it, and continued walking without explanation. His blood felt colder, his stomach felt… different. The experience of flying outlasted his time alive by a long shot; walking felt… novel?

'Voice? What just happened?' The sound of rain continued, indifferent to his awaited response.

'What did you just do to my body?' June's eyes suddenly blurred, and a bout of lightheadedness spurred within momentarily before he raised his head to be greeted with spirits.

'I… didn't focus? Did they all just show themselves now for some reason?' The spirits chirped and made novel imitations of their past encounters, but for some reason, June was able to hear them properly; there was no second of parsing intention, it immediately clicked within his mind.

'Voice? What's going on?' The water spirit that followed him from the beginning chirped.

'What do you mean something is approaching?' The familiar water spirit chirped again.

'Two things?' June squinted his eyes to see around him, but even with exceptional vision, the veil of rain surrounding him was still just as impenetrable. The spirit chirped once more.

'Yikes? What do you mean yik—' The Wendigo leaped through the veil of water and bit into the unfortunate Aspirant following June, and swept its fist through Martin's skull, bursting it like a watermelon.

"SHIESE!" June closed the distance between himself and the Wendigo and leaped into its body like a torpedo to knock it back a few feet. He looked at the dissipating bodies of Martin and the Aspirant, and clenched his teeth. His mind raced to find a way to incapacitate the unkillable monster. The Wendigo bared its teeth at June and prepared to lunge, but stopped mid leap. The faint beat of a taiko drum approached from beyond the veil.

'Tch!'