Net?

For some reason, David suddenly remembered the owner of that frenzied and villainous voice in the Gloomy Region...

Damn it! She was involved too!?

"Rose!!!" The infuriated War God Tempas was already gritting his teeth as he roared out Her name.

Rose, a synonym for chaos, darkness, destruction, evil, and trickery.

In that moment, David finally realized, belatedly, that a scene from the Pantheon Domain—difficult to recall due to dimensional differences—finally came to his mind.

He also finally understood why Tempas was so angry.

He had been played by both goddesses, Tiamat and Rose.

Tempas knew his divinity had been stolen and taken to a lower plane, but he was unable to pinpoint the real schemer behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, David, who was both inside and outside the plot, felt somewhat confused.

He did not know if the conspiracies of these two goddesses were perfectly coordinated or if they had started even earlier.

Perhaps they had begun back in Spider Nest City?

After all, the behavior Rose exhibited at that time couldn't really be classified as 'villainous' or 'trickery'—only her anger was real.

So much so that for a while, David even began to underestimate this goddess renowned for her deceit and betrayal.

But the Spider Goddess Rose, whose name had been called out, simply lurked in her deep pit Magical Net within the Abyssal Depths. She erupted with bursts of evil and joyous laughter, showing no immediate intention of taking action, instead watching intently like a sparrow hawk.

The Divine Realms, now touching, began to converge. That silent collision was deafening to David's ears. The terrifying aftershocks from the clash of divine powers made it impossible for him to get close. Indeed, he was being pushed even further away by a silent and invisible tsunami of divine force.

Countless Demons, serving as cannon fodder, were already charging toward Tempas's Divine Realm in an endless stream over the 'Bridge of Evil Spirits'.

The multicolored dragon disciples, having also completed the connection to their Divine Realms, roared as they spread their wings and took to the air. Braving the dense rain of arrows and thrown javelins, they showered their various Dragon Breaths onto the sea-like army formations of Warrior's Rest.

This was a scene that should have shocked even the Dragon Capital, but at this moment, David had no interest in admiring it.

"Mother!" David noticed something was wrong with Dragon Mother Pafila and roared with all his might.

The legendary Red Dragon hovering at the border of these Divine Realms was bleeding from between her scales.

This was ultimately a battlefield of gods. Even if she had forcibly borrowed the sliver of divinity David had stolen, she was still just an ordinary dragon.

How could an ordinary dragon participate in a struggle between gods?

Only at this moment did David finally understand what his 'mother,' Pafila, had done and was doing.

David's heart churned with a mix of emotions; he felt an indescribable and powerless sensation.

But at this moment, it seemed he could do nothing.

"SIGH." A sigh seemed to ring in David's ear.

"Mom?" David looked up in surprise. Pafila, in the midst of the battlefield, didn't seem to look at him directly, as if she were secretly talking to him, one dragon to another.

After a long silence, Pafila, who seemed unadept at expressing herself, finally spoke:

"I knew it would be like this, which is why I didn't want to bother with you earlier.

"Do not be sad or sorrowful about the departure that is to come. I'm not doing this for you—at least, not entirely for you."

... David thought. Saying something like that at a time like this... Mother, aren't you being a bit too hurtful to a dragon?

Departure?

This word, which made David vaguely fearful, caused him to tremble.

But ultimately, it was for me, wasn't it?

David opened his mouth, but the words caught in his throat.

In this world, Dragon Mother Pafila was perhaps the only one toward whom he ever felt guilt and indebtedness.

Not to mention the almost unconditional protection she had given him in the past, the key was a secret in David's heart that he could never tell her. That is...

"I actually know that you're not my real child—at least, not in soul.

"You must be wondering how I knew, aren't you? HMPH.

"You even think I've been watching you. Well, the entire territory has actually been under my magical surveillance. Your little actions back then—I saw them all.

"More precisely, from the moment you appeared in my egg, I sensed something was off. I even screened your dreams, and this opened the door to a new world for me.

"If you feel angry about it, you should. I'm sorry; what can I say? I was just too bored back then.

"I don't know if I ever told Tania—at least, I don't think I told you—but I was actually hatched and raised by a Brass Dragon.

"You yourself have raised a Brass Dragon, so you should know how noisy they can be, how they can drive a dragon mad.

"So, every time my mother started nagging and bombarding me with information—yes, 'bombarded' should be the right word—I was powerless to escape. At such times, I could only focus my attention elsewhere. Initially, it was by reading the Draconic Heritage. After I finished that, I could only learn Magic and Martial Techniques."

The secret Dragon Mother suddenly revealed made David nearly plunge from the sky.

What the hell! She actually knew! How did she find out? And how?!

Damn it! No, don't tell me you've put some kind of 'surveillance' on me!