Episode Two of Today Gülie had taken action.
Even for Gülie, a dragon making off with a star's energy was completely unexpected.
The sheer audacity of one's own kind left him speechless.
But what was done was done.
And it wasn't hard to imagine that, left as things were,
He was certain she would willingly offer up her life, saying something like, "Because that is my mission."
Against this, Gülie insisted that he should be the one to fulfill that duty.
As a dragon, he should bear the responsibility of his kind.
But Sariel shook her head at this.
It wasn't because she was worried about Gülie.
It was a far more practical problem.
Namely, the fact that Gülie's power was simply insufficient to make up for the lost energy.
Gülie was a god too, yes, but his power was overwhelmingly inferior compared to Sariel's.
There was no way it could cover the energy of an entire star.
To save the star, Sariel had to be the sacrifice.
He understood that.
But he couldn't accept it.
Sariel had fought on behalf of humanity.
She had worked on behalf of humanity.
There was no way he could accept that this was how it ended.
Gülie thought.
How could he save Sariel?
Run away together to another star.
There was no way Sariel would agree to that.
There was no choice where Sariel abandoned the star and humanity.
Which meant the only way to save Sariel was to save the star.
And to do that, he had no choice but to rely on another god.
The gods on this star were Sariel and the dragon.
The dragon had left Gülie behind and departed the star.
He couldn't very well rely on that dragon for this matter.
Which meant he needed to rely on a god other than the dragon — one somewhere out in space, beyond the star.
That said, it was no easy task.
The dragon was deeply involved in this matter.
The dragon had built up a massive force even across the cosmos.
Very few gods would stick their necks into something the dragon was entangled with.
Of course, it wasn't zero.
There were factions opposed to the dragon, and if he asked them for help, things would move.
But that was a double-edged sword.
After all, Gülie himself was a dragon.
If he were simply killed on the spot, that would be one thing.
But it could escalate into an attack on the star where Sariel resided.
And opposing the dragon meant a force on par with or greater than the dragon itself.
If such a force made a move, it would provoke the dragon in return.
Especially on a star where the dragon had just finished dealing with things — the dragon wouldn't simply stand by.
In the worst case, two great powers would collide.
Then what about the angels?
This was another option he couldn't count on.
Angels were a race that faithfully followed their given missions.
Exceptions existed, but for the most part, they couldn't be reasoned with.
Again, if only Gülie were killed, that would be one thing, but Sariel — a rogue angel — might become a target too.
And the angels were also a force that stood against the dragon.
Calling in the angels would likewise provoke the dragon.
Moreover, the current balance of power among the gods was an extremely fragile equilibrium.
A single misstep could spark a clash between the great powers, and from there, the fires of war could spread.
If that happened, the first to suffer would be the star where Sariel resided.
He had to avoid provoking the balance of power among the gods as much as possible.
Given all of this, the one to turn to was a stray god who belonged to no faction.
A god who, even if provoked, the dragon couldn't recklessly move against.
And on top of that, a god eccentric enough to agree to such a request.
There was one god who met these stringent conditions.
*"Well now, this is shaping up to be quite the interesting affair, isn't it?"* And so, Gülie had managed to arrange a meeting with that god.
Whether it could truly be called a "meeting" was debatable.
An impenetrable darkness stretching in every direction.
That was where Gülie stood.
The other party's form was invisible — only a voice could be heard.
Gülie had certainly teleported toward that god.
He knew where that god resided, at least.
Because it was widely known that this was a god you absolutely must not meddle with.
They went by many names: the Final God, the God of Death, the Evil God, the Absolute Contradiction…
A god with countless names, yet whose true name remained unknown.
A stray god who belonged to no faction, yet wielded power so immense that no faction could afford to ignore them.
"Please, I beg for your aid. God without a name."
*"Ah, it must be inconvenient not having a name. Let's see — why don't you just call me D?"* From within the darkness, the voice of the god who called herself D echoed.
Gülie was a god, even if a lesser one.
Yet even Gülie's eyes could not penetrate this darkness at all.
Worse than that, even the sensation of his own body was fading.
It felt as if everything was being swallowed by this darkness.
But Gülie could sense that if D so desired, this would no longer be mere illusion.
He had teleported to this very space of darkness.
He suspected it had been isolated through spatial abilities, but suspicion was all he could manage.
The composition of the spell, its structure — he couldn't grasp any of it.
The moment he was trapped in this space, Gülie had become powerless to do anything.
The difference in their power was that vast.
All Gülie could do was recount the situation and beg for assistance.
Given the disparity in power, the fact that he hadn't been killed without a word was arguably a mercy.
Gülie was tasting fear for the first time since birth.
He had felt a faint trace of fear when he first met Sariel, but this was incomparable.
He, a dragon, felt like an ant about to be crushed.
And this fear didn't stem solely from sensing the difference in power.
The god who called herself D was utterly unfathomable.
Asking D for help was more like a gamble.
It was true that among all the gods who might be able to save Sariel, D best fit the criteria.
And the likelihood was higher than with any other god.
But whether D would agree was an unknown.
D's guiding principle was simple: "Is it interesting or not?"
That was all.
If D found it interesting, D could become a savior or a destroyer alike.
That was what D was.
An utterly irrational existence.
The dragon, Sariel, and the other gods — as far as Gülie knew — all operated under some measure of order.
Even when the dragon made off with the star's energy, Gülie had felt not only disbelief but a grudging understanding.
Because that was the dragon's logic.
He was self-aware enough to know that he, Gülie, was the one who was un-dragon-like.
Dragons had their own way of thinking, and they acted according to it.
There was a clear logic behind it all.
But D had no such thing.
D acted on whims, with no order to speak of.
And to make matters worse, this god possessed overwhelming power.
Despite acting alone, D commanded a level of power that even a massive force like the dragon had to be wary of.
But precisely because of that, D could save Sariel.
If D had the power, and if you could make D think it was "interesting," then D would act.
*"How interesting."* And so, the gamble succeeded.
*"Very well. I'll lend you my power. However, what I can guarantee is the continued survival of the star and Sariel at most. Whether those two are truly saved — put your faith in the people on the ground."* He had won the gamble.
But it also marked the beginning of Gülie's long and bitter battle.