Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1016 Do you want to lift the restrictions?
Built on a 12,000-meter-high peak, Idoriya, the city of the Dragon King, is extremely majestic and spectacular. It is located in a frozen snow valley that seems to have been split open by the sword of God since the beginning of the world. Its depth is bottomless, and it is surrounded by gloomy snowflakes and the howling of storms all day long. Towering towers and solemn palaces cling to the smooth cliffs like a honeycomb, standing tall in the wind and snow, extending to the end of the horizon. In addition, there are no city walls, no streets, and no steps to climb, which fully reflects the arrogance of the dragons: if there is no way to overcome the obstacle of 12,000 meters in height, then you are not even qualified to enter this city, let alone be taken seriously by the dragons.

Perhaps influenced by the dragon style, these buildings are incredibly large. Even the smallest tower is built like a king's castle. When humans who strayed here looked up, they would vaguely think that they were actually an ant lost in the kingdom of giants. Only by raising their heads as high as possible could they barely see the top of the city, the gray-black ice rocks polished by wind and snow into silence and dullness.

The endless wind and frost of a thousand years tell the glorious history of the dragon race. From time to time, the sound of a giant dragon's roar can be heard from the ancient buildings. The roar echoes between the valleys and cliffs, shaking the frost and snow on the ice walls. The shadow of the terrifying giant dragon flies across the misty sky, casting a shadow that covers the snowfield at the foot of the mountain. As it hovers, the blue sheep and snow-toothed tigers that are chasing it flee in panic.

Alice is the only person that the proud dragons are willing to welcome when they come to the Dragon King City. Ordinary dragons may not know her true identity as the young queen, but they know that she is a good friend of the Dragon King and is highly trusted and respected. Three thousand years have passed since Her Majesty the Goddess left Eden. The Dragon King will only restrain his pride when facing gods of other races. If the Truth Sage of the Human Race comes in person, or the King of the Mirror Elves comes to visit, they should indeed be treated like this.

She was even able to ride on the back of a giant dragon and fly to the top of the main peak of the Hogarth Mountains, where the Dragon King lives, the Holy Sky Dragon Temple that is known to everyone on the continent of Eden. It was originally called Dragon Sky Palace, meaning the palace where the Dragon King lives. But after the departure of Her Majesty the Goddess, the Dragon King Nigflaim believed that the dragons could not do without the guidance of God. Although he could not be compared with Her Majesty the Goddess, he was willing to inherit Her will and contribute to the development of Eden and dragons. Therefore, he called himself the Dragon God of the Void Realm and changed the name of Dragon Sky Palace to the Holy Sky Dragon Temple.

After that, gods of various races emerged one after another, all claiming that they inherited the will of the goddess, which was justified. After all, the world was created by gods, creatures were nurtured by gods, magic and civilization were also bestowed by gods. Gods are so important to mortals, how can this world lack the guidance of gods?
Including Nigflam, those mortals used this reason to convince Alice and let her acquiesce to this matter. Although Tiantis did not agree very much, when she mentioned these mortal gods, her tone was very contemptuous, calling them false gods, but this was after all an internal matter of civilization and fell within Alice's scope of authority, so she did not forcibly interfere.

However, at that time, Tiantis also said something meaningful that Alice still remembers clearly: "Watch carefully, Alice, don't let your guard down, use your eyes to witness, do they want to be gods like Mother, or do they want to be the gods they wish to be?"

What kind of God is the one I desire?

Alice hadn't figured this out yet, and the dragon beneath her had already lowered its altitude and hovered in front of the square of the Holy Heavenly Dragon Temple. The towering walls, the towering spires, the continuous buttresses, the magnificent and gorgeous main hall, the exquisite side halls like works of art, the winding corridors, and the stained glass windows that sparkled in the sun... It was said that it took two hundred years to rebuild the palace, and Nigflam gave it more religious holiness and solemnity to make it more suitable for the identity of the Dragon God.

Alice thanked the dragon that brought her here, and then walked towards the main hall. She felt empty as she passed through the square, the vestibule, the corridors and the arches. She felt a sense of loneliness from ancient times. She was not used to this loneliness and once asked Nigflam if he would feel lonely living here. But Nigflam said that gods should be lonely because they were not understood and did not need to be understood.

But she didn't think so, because the Cathedral of Heaven was also very large, and only she, Tiantis and her mother lived in the Cathedral of Heaven. But she never felt lonely in that empty city, even after her mother left.

Mother is not a lonely god. She has many friends on Earth. She also tries to understand the civilization of Earthlings through games and other works of art. What makes her happiest is that someone can understand her. For this reason, she established the Game Command Company, with the slogan of "Creating a World", and gathered many like-minded employees.

So, what Tiantis said might be right.

The god that Nigflam wanted to be was different from the god that Mother was.

Once the footsteps echoing in the corridor stopped, the lingering sound continued to spread faintly, hitting the edge of the wall and reflecting back, forming an empty echo. Alice raised her head and her eyes fell on the main hall door. She gently reached out and pushed. Although she didn't use much strength, the heavy stone door made a creaking sound that made her teeth ache. It slowly and heavily opened inward, like a giant beast crawling and sleeping, finally opening its mouth and inhaling the first wisp of cold frosty wind. Light, dust and snowflakes could not wait to pour into the hall through the gaps, flying towards the unreachable dome as if they had lost weight, and also passing through a pair of noble golden eyes.

The owner of the eyes waited for a long time, and when he spoke, his voice was as long as the wind and snow, and as heavy as the mountains under his feet: "You are here, Alice."

"kindness."

Alice raised her head, and in her eyes she saw a huge figure as majestic as the palace. She said softly, "Long time no see, Nigflaim."

……

As a guide and agent of civilization, Alice often travels between continents and countries, sometimes as an adventurer, helping people solve their problems, and sometimes as a simple traveler, experiencing various customs and cultures. The only one who can compare with her in terms of freedom is probably the equally free and unrestrained traveler fairy.

During her long journey and adventure, she made many friends, but only a few knew her true identity, and Nigflam was one of them. When he met Alice, he was still a young dragon, living a wanton and flamboyant life. Before he ascended the throne, he had already declared that he would become the greatest dragon king in the history of the dragon clan. I'm afraid he didn't dare to imagine at that time that he would disdain the title of dragon king that he once longed for, and instead take the crown of the dragon god.

When I saw him again today, the giant dragon in front of me looked as old as a twilight. On its huge body, which was as big as a mountain, there were traces of vicissitudes of time. The black scales that had been beaten by the wind and snow of Hogarth day and night, but were still as tough as an iron helmet, were now mottled. It made people sigh: "Nigflaim, you are getting old so fast."

"After all, time always passes quickly." Nigflam replied: "Kempera died in an accident, Anthony died of old age, Numan-Ersu died heroically in anger, and Evan never woke up after a long sleep... People of the same generation are as sparse as stars. It is a gift of time for me to be able to crawl here and linger." Hearing this, Alice couldn't help but show a trace of loneliness in her eyes, because the people Nigflam mentioned were all her old friends, good friends she met when traveling around the continent. Kempera was the Grand Duke of the Blood Clan, Anthony enjoyed the reputation of a great wizard among humans, Numan-Ersu was the king of giants, and Evan was from the feather elf clan... She once thought that the people who would accompany her for a long time could not escape the fate of death in the end.

When mortals are born into this world, their fate is already determined.

Only Nigflam, though he mentioned these names, showed no warmth or emotion in his eyes, and was silent as if he had a heart of stone. Only those who knew him best knew how arrogant and cruel this dragon who dared to usurp the throne and claim to be a god was. Under that seemingly old body was the most tenacious soul in the world, and he vowed to fight his fate to the end.

For this reason, he contacted his long-lost friend Alice. Originally, since the last time, the real king Tiandis proposed to them to limit the absorption of magic power in order to maintain the stability and balance of the magic power circulation system, and they agreed after repeated consideration, the two sides have not contacted each other again. Although this plan was not proposed by Alice, and it had no effect on the status of Nigflam and other living gods, it was the first time that the guardian and arbitrator of the world blatantly interfered with human civilization. As a guide and agent of civilization, Alice did not stand on the side of mortal civilization, but assisted Tiandis to restrict the development of mortal races. This made them smell the smell of danger, so they took the initiative to distance themselves from her.

Despite this, Alice didn't seem to notice this deliberate alienation. After meeting again, she still greeted her friend in a familiar tone, joked, and talked about some things in the past. Nigflam followed her topic without showing any impatience, as if he was really just an old dragon who liked to reminisce about the past and immerse himself in memories.

Until Alice remembered the real purpose of this trip.

"By the way, Nigflam," she asked curiously, "You said you had something important to discuss with me, what was it?"

The ancient and huge dragon god slowly lowered his head and fixed his bright golden eyes on the tiny girl. His body was like a mountain, occupying almost half of the palace. This scene was a strong and shocking contrast, which made people's breath almost stagnate. He was thinking about how to start, whether to be euphemistic or suggestive, but he felt that neither of them suited his character, so he simply chose the most direct way.

"I hope you can help us convince Lord Tiantis," the dragon's gaze was deep, deeper than the snow valley under the city of Idoriya, "Remove the restrictions on the mortal race, so that we can freely use magic power and the treasures bestowed upon us by the goddess."

"..."

Alice didn't react at first. After a long while, her eyes slowly widened and she asked in disbelief, "What did you just say, Nigframe? Asking Tiantis to lift the magic restrictions on mortal races? But didn't you agree to that plan yourself? And you said we, that is to say, except for you..."

"Isabel, Caesar Julius, Muel, Ganzel, Farano..." Nigflam spoke each name slowly and firmly, each name carrying a great weight. Isabel is the sage of truth of mankind, Caesar Julius is the king respected by the seven sea mirror elves, Muel is the leader of the dust elves, Ganzel is the king of giants, Farano calls himself the king of wings of the feather elves, and of course, they have another common identity, that is, God.

There are two kinds of gods that mortals fear: one is the god who created them and gave them form and wisdom; the other is the god who rules them and controls their life, death and power.

"This is the result of our joint discussion." Nigflam said slowly, and the breath exhaled from his silver-white dragon teeth enveloped the palace in a faintly restless atmosphere. "And we think this is very necessary for all mortals."

"But why? You all agreed to it, and even promised Tiantis that you would abide by it." Alice looked around, looking for other people, but the palace was empty. Apart from her, there was only the old dragon in front of her. "Besides, since this is the result of your discussion, why don't others come forward? For such an important matter, a joint meeting of all races should be held to discuss and reach a conclusion, right?"

This is the rule that Alice set as the guide and agent of civilization. Any major event involving the entire mortal civilization must be attended by representatives of various races, and then discussed and voted on before implementation.

But Nigflam didn't think so: "The so-called meeting is just a cumbersome process. We are the gods of one tribe, and the decision we make together is enough to represent the will of all tribes. As for why they don't show up, it's just that it's not convenient, so I did it for them."

The real reason was that the Reality King Tiantis had always been worried about these living gods. She controlled the authority of the Heavenly Temple and could monitor the magic power of the entire Eden. If the gods of various races gathered together and involved the Fantasy King Alice, it would definitely attract her attention. Before the matter was settled, the gods of various races, including Nigflam, did not want her to know the news.

It all depends on what decision Alice will make.

Give me some meow