In the snowy Orna Mountains, a lone metallic humanoid trudged up the tallest peak. The path he followed was well maintained by the Frostaxe Clan orcs who inhabited the region, as it led to a being of great power and reverence.
At the end of the path, the metal puppet entered the opening of an ordinary looking cave that was anything but. As he stepped inside, he looked ahead to the end of the tunnel, where a massive eye had been patiently awaiting his arrival.
A deep voice rumbled through the cave upon seeing the puppet.
"Ah. The last Azrem Dwarf. Welcome, it's been too long since I last spoke with your kind."
Torben, the last Azrem Dwarf, at least in spirit, approached and said, "Hello, Orna. You already know why I'm here."
He skipped the pleasantries and went straight to the point; there was no reason to beat around the bush.
"Indeed, and I will stay true to my word and tell you what happened, at least from my understanding of it. Before I begin, how much do you know and recall of the war?"
"Hmm... hard to say." He responded uncertainly. "It's been too many years, so my memory might be hazy on some details, but I remember most of the big events. The last major one I can recall was the rebirth of Ophis and his new title as the God of Rebirth."
"That is fine. What I'm about to tell you happened a few months after that event." Orna replied, understanding that mortals lacked the perfect memory he possessed.
He began, "With Ophis, Caela, and Neitarel leading the counterattack, many enemy gods perished. Throughout the battles, some of the enemy gods surrendered. Neitarel wanted to slay them all, but Caela and Ophis disagreed. Since they were in the majority, the enemy gods were allowed to live under the condition that they provide us with information."
"The captured gods agreed, and to uphold the deal, they came to me to oversee it. That was when I first met the God of Bliss. He also signed the deal, promising information in exchange for his safety. But afterward, he came to see me."
"He visited you? Why? Did he offer you some kind of deal?"
"Unfortunately, no. If he had, I would have had an easier time identifying the trap he laid." Orna's confidence in making deals was well known; his ability to identify risks and rewards was second to none.
"He came simply to converse with me. His excuse was that, due to the deal he had signed, he could not participate in the war, so he chose to spend his time with me, away from the conflict. I was foolish to believe that was his true intention."
"What did he do?"
Orna paused before responding, "Do you know of the sins of dragons?"
Torben shook his head. Despite his extensive knowledge, he knew little about dragons beyond their immense power, especially since the only two dragons the world had ever seen were both gods.
"When dragons are born, we inherently begin at a much higher level than mortals. Even as hatchlings, the average dragon can easily defeat what the world now considers a C-Ranker. But that power comes at a cost, what we call 'sins.'"
Torben was somewhat familiar with the rank system Sol had briefly explained to him, but the idea that a dragon hatchling could be so strong from birth made him wonder just how quickly they could ascend to godhood.
"Sins are something we dragons are born with, and the more potential a dragon has, the more sins they carry. Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth, these are the burdens we must bear for our power. These aren't simply traits we can ignore. Our entire being is driven to commit those sins at every opportunity, and they always lead to our downfall. The average dragon has only one sin, but, as I said, the more sins one is born with, the greater their potential. I was born with four."
"Four?! But I've never heard of you acting in a way that reflects those sins."
Torben was shocked. With Orna burdened by so many sins, he couldn't recall a single instance of the dragon behaving in a sinful manner. Some might argue that Orna's long slumber was a sign of sloth or that his passion for trade indicated greed, but the former could be attributed to his need to recover from his injuries, and the latter was even less likely as nobody made deals fairer than him.
Orna hummed in confirmation. "Yes. I carry pride, greed, wrath, and sloth."
"But how can that be? I know for certain that can't be true for greed. No one is fairer than you."
Orna was always the first to point out greedy behavior even if it benefited himself, and it was because of his trading practices that the Azrem Kingdom once boasted one of the best and fairest economies in the world during its heyday.
"That is because of the laws I practice and embody. You may come to understand this yourself one day, but when you consolidate your law, you don't just wield it, you become the embodiment of it. When you embody a law, your personality and nature are changed by it. This is why I practiced the Laws of Trade and Frigid Winds, the first to neutralize my greed, and the second to quench my thirst for blood. As for pride and sloth, with only one more law I could practice, I chose the Law of Dragons, which lessened the effects of all sins slightly, enough to avoid being consumed by them."
"So laws change one's nature? Aren't you afraid that you aren't yourself anymore, but something else?"
Torben couldn't see why anyone would become a god if it meant becoming a completely different person. He would hate to have his morals suddenly change and later do things he would have never approved of before.
Orna understood his concerns and addressed them. "Personally, I believe I am better for it. I allowed it to change my nature for the better, but for those who don't wish to be changed, they can resist it during their ascension to godhood. You will still change somewhat, but nothing as substantial as my transformation. But to return to my tale: while pride and sloth had been weakened, they are still very much present, just not to the same degree as before. Every time the God of Bliss visited, he would talk for days on end. I never found it odd, as I enjoyed the company. Few gods visited me, and those that did usually wanted something, so it was a pleasant change of pace. But as weeks passed, I felt myself yearning more and more for sleep. At the time, I believed it was my sin of sloth urging me to enter hibernation, and I ignored it as I had before. But as the days went by, my desire for slumber grew, and before I knew it, I entered hibernation."
"And while you were asleep…" Torben could easily guess what happened next.
"As you suspect, I was later awakened when I was suddenly inflicted with punishment by my own Law of Trades. I did what I could to mitigate the punishment, but even I was injured to the point where I was forced back into hibernation again."
It was comedic in a way. First, he was lured into sleep, only to be woken up again and sent back to sleep right after. But no one was laughing, as during this time, two nations had fallen.
"The next time I awakened, the war was already over, with both your people and the Mystic Blood Clan nowhere to be found. I didn't need to search for the reason why, the fact that I was punished by my own law meant I had failed to uphold my deal to protect you, and by then, it was already too late. It was only recently, when I saw the spawn of the God of Bliss, that I realized it wasn't my sin that caused it, but his influence that exploited it. How he knew of my sin, I am not sure, there are various means to learn of such information."
Though Torben finally knew what had happened to his people all those years ago, he still didn't feel any better. He would never say it out loud, but he still blamed Orna for what had happened. If Orna had realized what the God of Bliss was doing before it was too late, all of it could have been prevented.
Still, Torben had one more question. "What became of the God of Bliss?"
"Him? He broke the deal with his actions, and unlike me, he didn't survive the punishment for breaching it. He wasn't the only one, seven captured gods perished from breaking my contract. I assume they were all connected to some plan, though I can't confirm whether or not that's true. I only know that they broke the deal."
"I see… I have one more question, but it's about something else."
Orna didn't mind. "Ask away. I'll answer to the best of my ability. It's the least I can do."
Orna still felt indebted to the Azrem Kingdom for his failure to protect them. Even though he had paid the price for breaking his deal and technically owed nothing, he knew that his punishment didn't compensate for or bring back those who had perished.
Torben nodded and brought up a question that had been lingering in his mind for countless years, since it first arose. This curiosity had only grown stronger when he met Sol and heard his explanation of it.
"What is the system?"
The answer he received from Orna only brought more questions, ones that made him even more curious. To find the answers, he would need to travel to the site of the final battle.
This was the start of Torben's journey.