Chapter 194: Misunderstanding

The appearance of the Bronze Dragon, one of the good-aligned metal dragons, immediately caught the attention of the other two goddesses on the battlefield.
The Bronze Dragon is one of the smaller species among the ten major dragon races, with an adult length of only about forty to fifty feet. Yet, as dragons, they possess immense combat power.
In addition to their strong physiques and close-quarters combat abilities, dragons can cast spells just like mages. Intelligent dragons can learn spells used by elves or humans, in addition to dragon speech magic, and they also have innate spells from various domains. For example, Bronze Dragons can unleash spells from the domains of animals, order, and water without having to learn them.
“What a mysterious little guy—capable of summoning a dragon. I wonder if he used the Dragon Oath or the Bond of Dragons?”
The Goddess of Night stared intently at the human mage, Donald, with great interest.
The Dragon Oath mentioned by her is a famous sub-legendary artifact created by the dragon gods to bestow upon ancient mortal heroes who greatly aided the dragons. With the Dragon Oath, one could summon a dragon within a range of a thousand miles by offering gold coins and gems.
The Bond of Dragons, on the other hand, refers to the shed scales of a dragon, which carry the dragon’s own essence. These scales are given only to creatures with whom the dragon has a close relationship. By infusing magic into them, a dragon elsewhere can sense it and come to help.
The value of the two is incomparable—one has limited uses and can only summon one dragon, while the other allows any dragon of the same faction within range to come to aid.
However, the Goddess of Agriculture, the true god who first paid attention to Donald, said nothing to these two guesses by the Goddess of Night, instead remaining deep in thought.
Donald had no idea what the avatars of the two goddesses in the distance were thinking, and even if he did, he had no time to ponder further.
Bronze Dragons generally have two types of breath attacks: one is lightning, and the other is the gas breath they had just used.
The gas breath of a Bronze Dragon is a repulsive gas with enchantment-based coercion effects that affect the mind, preventing enemies from approaching. It was this conical gas breath that drove the Spider Queen away.

Although they are smaller in size and less combat-effective than the Golden Dragons, as well as the enemy factions’ Red Dragons, Black Dragons, and Blue Dragons, Bronze Dragons are extremely war-loving and skilled in combat. Even if they are not strong enough to defeat enemy dragons like Red Dragons in one-on-one fights, they can employ diverse combat tactics, using spells such as mist creation and water control to blind or hinder their opponents and gain an advantageous fighting position. Of course, this is in relation to other dragons; thanks to their innate racial advantages, Bronze Dragons of the Golden rank can easily overwhelm humans of similar strength. The Spider Queen may disregard two human Silver Mages, but she certainly cannot ignore a Golden Dragon. There is essentially no possibility of friendship between the good-aligned Metal Dragons and the evil Dark Elves, let alone abyssal demons like the Spider Queen Flora. Upon seeing the Spider Queen’s clone, this newly born Bronze Dragon, Nozdorm, will attack immediately, even without orders from its master. With Nozdorm, a Golden Bronze Dragon, leading the way, Mages Donald and Mael can cast their spells. By the time the Spider Queen returns from her gasp, Mael the old mage will have prepared his spell. He casts the fifth-level spell “Summon Loyal Servants,” which can randomly summon four deities from higher planes as allies—possibly from any of the three factions: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, or Chaotic Good. Deities are celestial beings with divine bloodlines; most true gods from non-evil or dark factions prefer to recruit these celestial beings as messengers and servants. Since these beings are generally beautiful and sacred in appearance, they are called deities by the creatures of the main world. Against evil forces, these celestial beings are undoubtedly the strongest allies. According to Donald’s understanding, deities are the angels from legends of past lives; of course, only a few races truly resemble angels. Clearly, Donald and his companions are very lucky. Although the deities summoned this time are not as legendary and powerful as the Celestial Servants, they are still Horned Messengers of the Golden rank, accompanied by three Phoenix Angels of roughly Silver rank, rather than useless Bronze-rank messengers like the Masthead Messengers or the Holy Light Messengers. As powerful members of the Subcelestial race, the Horned Messengers belong absolutely to the Lawful Good faction. Upon seeing the Spider Queen’s clone, they attacked without fear at all.

The Herald Angels resembled beautiful winged fairies, holding a silver horn about six feet long, which was their symbol. Although they primarily served as messengers and heralds in the heavens, any evil creature that dared underestimate their strength would face severe punishment. The Herald Angels usually did not engage in close combat with their enemies; instead, they preferred to use magic to swiftly eliminate their opponents and then continue with their mission. Under the command of the Herald Angels, four Aetherians immediately activated an anti-evil spell unique to celestial beings, and three bolts of lightning instantly struck the head of the dark elf girl fighting against the bronze dragon from above. The Feathered Angels ranked mid-to-lower in strength among the Aetherians, but they perfectly embodied Donald’s vision of angels. Wielding great swords, they appeared as strong human figures, yet their arms were long and powerful white wings. Their golden eyes, sharp as eagles, possessed the best vision among the gods, making them brave and skilled in battle. Under the pressure of the anti-evil spell, the Spider Queen’s avatar hesitated for a moment. That mere fraction of a second was enough for the three bolts of lightning, along with the destructive slash from the great sword conjured by the Herald Angels, to strike the Spider Queen. However, before fighting the Goddess of Agriculture, the Spider Queen had cast several defensive spells and divine arts on her avatar, so the attacks from the four Aetherians only caused her some trouble without causing much damage. Yet, the Spider Queen, who embodied the epitome of ugliness, still became enraged. No matter how much she disregarded her image, she was still a goddess—how could she tolerate such humiliation? She was furious at these four Aetherians’ harassment tactics, but just as she tried to take advantage of the situation to kill two of them, the bronze dragon and two human mages stepped in to stop her. If she were in her true form, she would have crushed them with a single slap. It had been thousands of years since the Spider Queen was deified, and this was the first time she had encountered such a predicament; her frustration built to the point of almost exploding. After the four celestial beings, together with the bronze dragon, drove back the Spider Queen’s avatar once more, the Spider Queen, unharmed despite being hit by the dragon’s claw, flew out of the ruins and charged at her opponents once again. As the Spider Queen was once again surrounded by onlookers, the Herald Angels blew their silver horns, and a beautiful melody rang out, causing even the Spider Queen to stiffen for a moment.

Donald seized this opportunity to strike, holding a silver coin in his hand and unleashing an invisible force toward the dark elf girl.
“Ah! Disintegration! How could you cast Disintegration!”
The Spider Queen had just recovered from the abilities granted by the Horn Messenger. Unable to dodge in time, several layers of light on her body shattered like eggshells upon encountering that wave of force. Immediately afterward, Donald, wielding a blade, closed in on her. Feeling the danger, the Spider Queen let out a scream.
In a moment of crisis, the goddess summoned another shield around herself, but it was cut through like butter by Donald’s Moonblade, leaving two deep wounds in the dark elf girl’s chest and abdomen.
Normally, spells at the mortal level have little effect on true gods, unless they are legendary spells of level nine or higher, or pseudo-legendary spells known as forbidden curses.
But Disintegration was different—it was a powerful arcane spell developed by great archmages specifically to counter all forms of magic. The Spider Queen’s avatar, a manifestation infused with a sliver of a true god’s will, possessed limited power. Despite the weakening effect of the true god’s will, Donald’s Disintegration still achieved at least half of its intended effect.
A sudden attack with Disintegration shattered the Spider Queen’s greatest advantage. Now, aside from her divine shield, nothing remained. The protective spells she had cast earlier were instantly broken by Disintegration.
For an ordinary mage, this would already be the limit. Even if the opponent only had a thin layer of divine protection, it couldn’t be broken by ordinary spells, unless another level-nine Disintegration spell was cast in a short time.
But Donald was different. He possessed divine power within him. Though this divine power seemed extremely weak compared to that of a true god, it was on par with the Spider Queen’s divine shield, allowing him to easily break through her defenses and inflict significant damage on her avatar.
Especially since Donald infused divine power into his weapon twice—first to destroy her divine shield and then to cause severe injuries to the Spider Queen. Physical injuries could be largely ignored by an avatar that existed merely as a manifestation of will, but the various types of divine energy contained in the blade clashed violently with the energy within her body. She had to expend considerable divine power to expel it in order to recover. Otherwise, such injuries would greatly impair her avatar’s combat strength.

However, the Spider Queen had already used a great deal of her divine power thus far—more than half of what she brought with her arrival. When a will descends upon a powerful avatar, it’s generally very difficult to draw strength from the original body, unless some will is sacrificed to allow another descent. The now-embarrassed Spider Queen stared angrily and in shock at the young mage who had taken the opportunity to retreat, shouting loudly, “You are of the high elves’ bloodline. Which elven god sent you to oppose me?”

As Donald utilized his divine bloodline, the concealment provided by the Book of Truth was rendered ineffective. The three divine avatars present could immediately see that Donald not only possessed the bloodline of the high elves but also a divine bloodline. Under normal circumstances, only the descendants of the elven gods or their favored chosen ones would possess both of these powerful bloodlines.

But outsiders didn’t know that Donald’s two bloodlines were granted to him by the Book of Truth and had nothing to do with the elven gods at all. Still, he was happy to let the Spider Queen misunderstand him and had no intention of explaining. With the powerful elven gods as cover, not only the Spider Queen, a demon god of the abyss, but also the Night Goddess, a powerful supreme deity, would have to be cautious if they wanted to cause him trouble.

Donald’s silence was naturally taken as consent by the divine beings. The Night Goddess had a cold relationship with the elven gods and hardly interacted with them, while the Spider Queen was a rare enemy of the peace-loving elven gods. Thus, these two could not ask the elven gods for the truth.

As for the only one present who knew the truth—the Goddess of Agriculture—though puzzled, she naturally wouldn’t reveal it to these two enemies. That’s why Donald didn’t care about his two bloodlines being exposed.