Blood Nemesis

"You are one resilient creature."

A loud, thunderous voice spoke.

Oliver felt his thoughts scatter and reform as he heard the voice.

'What happened? Did I lose consciousness?'

Oliver struggled to open his eyes.

The last thing he remembered was the golden armour solidifying around him. And before he knew what was happening, he was plummeting to the ground.

'Did I lose consciousness at that time?' He wondered.

For Oliver, losing his consciousness was a rare situation. After surviving all kinds of torture in the Abyss, he was used to excruciating pain and tiredness. So, how could he lose consciousness while he was in a comparatively better shape?

'Open, your damn eyes.'

Oliver screamed in his mind and tried to see. But his eyelids were heavy and difficult to move…

'...wait a minute…I don't feel my eyelids…'

'Where am I?'

Suddenly, Oliver stopped trying and lifted his head to turn around.

Instantly, the bright light of the red sun drilled into his eyes. His eyes were already open, and he could see.

For the past few seconds, he was just facing the wrong way.

'The dark dimension.'

The red sun he was seeing was the location marker of his death. Every time he died, he would be pulled into the dark dimension before he was revived.

'Did I die?'

The blazing red sun was close by.

'I am sure I didn't. So, why am I here?'

'And…who spoke just now?'

In panic, Oliver twisted his head around to look all around.

This was the first time he heard someone speak inside the dark dimension.

"Where are you looking, human? Look up."

The loud voice spoke again.

Oliver was just a blob of blood in space. He spun his head quickly to look in the direction of the voice.

Far away, hidden partially behind the massive red sun, another sun was shining.

It was golden in colour and was similar in size to the red sun.

"Where are you?" Although he initially panicked, Oliver quickly regained his composure and asked, "Who are you?"

Both questions struck the crux of the issue.

No one was supposed to be present in the dark dimension except for Oliver himself. He had never come across a similar situation before.

So, Oliver wanted to figure out the identity of the foreign individual quickly.

"HA HA AH HA HA…"

In response to Oliver's question, the golden Sun laughed.

The voice, thunderous and majestic, again reverberated around him.

This time, Oliver was prepared, so he was not startled by it.

As it laughed, the golden Sun also began to move, coming around the red one as if it were the end of the eclipse.

"Resilient one, did you not see me? Look at me. Do you really not know who I am?"

The sun asked.

Oliver paused his search to find other blood blobs around him, which he was secretly doing to find a revived spot and looked closely at the Golden Sun.

It was a golden ball of plasma, just as threatening and huge as the red sun. Additionally, it exuded a sense of familiarity that Oliver recognised.

"Golden Armour!" He voiced his doubt.

"You finally figured it out." The sun laughed. "But I am not just an armour." As it spoke, a small blob of plasma separated from the Golden Sun and began to take the shape of an elongated creature.

The Golden Sun continued to orbit the Red Sun like they were a binary star system.

Meanwhile, the elongated blob flew straight towards Oliver.

Watching it near him, Oliver panicked. He prepared to move away from the massive flow of plasma, fearing it might incinerate him.

However, along the way, golden plasma twisted and turned to take the shape of a familiar creature spoken of in legends.

"A Dragon!"

It had two horns on its forehead and an elongated, snake-like body. It was undoubtedly a dragon. The wingless serpentine creature also had four legs and a scaly, armoured covering it.

The golden whiskers of the enormous creature fluttered near Oliver and stopped gently before him.

Oliver paused and stared back at the giant eye observing him.

"A giant golden dragon!" He muttered.

"You are the consciousness inside the armour?" He wondered aloud.

"You resilient, vile creature, are you shocked to see my true form?" The vast mouth of the dragon opened, revealing hundreds of razor-sharp teeth as it spoke.

"Vile?" The blood blob, which was Oliver, trembled, showing his irritation at being called a vile creature.

'Who the hell does this rando dragon think he is to call me vile?' Oliver thought silently.

"Temperamental Goldie is judgmental." He commented fearlessly.

This time, all the fear in him had disappeared. For some reason, once the golden dragon approached him, Oliver felt that it couldn't harm him.

If it really had the thought of harming him, or it could have, it would have done it a long time ago.

But instead of doing anything like that, it was conversing with him, although it thought Oliver was a "vile creature".

Once he thought of that, a slight smirk graced his lips. However, the blood blob lacked sufficient definition to reveal his true expression. So, the dragon couldn't see it.

"Judgemental…Aha ha ha…was it through pure luck?" The dragon laughed.

"Perhaps it was fate, meeting you. After all, luck cannot be dismissed as nothing in the domain of the divine."

"Ha ha ha…"

The dragon muttered something and laughed again.

'Am I that funny? Should I become a stand-up comedian after reviving? Hold on. Wait a minute, how did an upstanding citizen like me die in the first place?

'Did the damned goldie do it?'

Oliver wondered as he gazed directly at the creature before him.

In the darkness, illuminated by the Red and Golden suns, both of them were floating together, standing close by, gazing at each other.

"Tempermental Alien Golden Dragon Armour, please introduce yourself before saying anything else. You seem to know everything about me, and yet I know nothing about you. It's time you reveal your identity." Oliver said, breaking the thought of the golden dragon.

"Oh! Vile creature. I was impolite. Let me introduce myself."

'Again with the vile creature.' Oliver cursed under his breath but still paid attention to what the dragon was speaking.

"...I am the Divine Dragon of Justice, The Immortal King of the Dragon Realm and the last remaining Dragon Deity of the God Fall Era…" The dragon paused, lifting its head proudly.

Then, with incomparable seriousness, it said.

"I WAS A GOD."

"Oh! Okay." Oliver turned to leave.

"Uh!"

The dragon was too stunned to speak. It was expected that Oliver would experience some kind of shock, horror, or similar feeling.

But he just said okay and turned to float away.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" It screamed, thunderously.

It couldn't understand the vile creature before it.

"Bye-bye, little goldie. Let's meet another time. I have to go to the world of the living. Bye bye…"

Oliver nonchalantly said and floated to the nearest blood blob he could see.

However, before he could, the golden dragon swiftly came around and blocked his path.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

"DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT A GOD IS?"

Exasperated, the golden dragon asked.

"I don't give a rat's ass about any fucking god."

"UHH!"

The dragon choked, its eyes widened.

"YOU!"

"Bye bye…"

Oliver ignored it and drifted towards the nearest blood blob. He didn't have time to waste.

As far as he remembered, the city was still being besieged by the blood beetles. He had to leave quickly and make sure everyone was alright.

"Wait a minute, we need to talk."

Suddenly, the Dragon's voice lost all its grandiose-ness and said.

It quickly stood in front of Oliver again.

"What…" Oliver asked, annoyed.

"Please allow me to speak with you while we are not here. Currently, I am limited to this space." The dragon begged.

"Does a god need my permission?"

The dragon sighed silently.

"The laws of the world restrict me. I don't have the authority or the strength to break away from the restriction."

"Oh!"

The last couple of words piqued Oliver's interest. There was information to be gained from this has-been god, he deduced.

Still, his mind was set on reviving first.

"Can you speak to me after I revive, if I give you the permission to do that?"

"..."

The dragon nodded gloomily. It felt aggrieved, being treated like a side thought.

But what could it do?

It was neither strong enough to break the restriction imposed on it nor was it wise enough to trick Oliver into releasing him.

As someone who had observed Oliver for months, it knew how complex the thought of the human before him was.

There was no point in even trying to trick him.

That was why it chose an honest approach to gain freedom.