Rebirth as a Time Dragon: A DND Chronicle

In the Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus, one of the outer planes characterized by ultimate order, order is the supreme principle. Legend has it that Mechanus is the birthplace of all planar order.

It is also the location of the 'Eternal Dragon's' divine realm. After using time teleportation, Garon's body left the material world, utilizing the River of Time as a medium to arrive directly at a certain location in Mechanus.

The silver dragon surveyed his surroundings upon arrival in Mechanus. What he saw was countless gears operating in a distinct, ordered pattern. These gears meshed together, filling his entire field of vision—the sky and the ground were entirely composed of interlocking gears. The smallest gears were a few meters in diameter, but the largest were as vast as continents, comparable to stars.

Each silently operating gear meshed with others according to their own laws and operated based on a special, divine calculus that even divine powers could barely discern, forming Mechanus.

The creatures of Mechanus lived on large gear platforms, where any form of law could be found.

"Choosing the divine realm in Mechanus was indeed one of my alternate choices for an outer plane."

This Eternal Dragon, born of faith, indeed thought in ways somewhat similar to Garon.

Under normal circumstances, Garon wouldn't mind wandering around Mechanus to appreciate the scenic beauty of this plane of order, but his current visit was driven by a specific purpose, and he had yet to accomplish it.

"I give you one last chance, open the gates of your divine realm, cease your resistance. Being born from faith in me, the best fate for you upon my return is to become a part of me."

Garon addressed the space above a gear platform with a calm voice.

Time teleportation couldn't directly penetrate the barriers of the divine realm, so Garon stopped right outside the divine realm's spatial location.

There was no response.

In the extradimensional space Garon could observe, the gates of the divine realm remained firmly shut.

After a brief silence, the 'Eternal Dragon' spoke from within: "I am the master of the god of death, the supreme dragon who traverses the time and realms."

"Foul creature, whatever you are, opposing me will only lead you to a dead end."

Seeing the deity that had emerged based on his own experiences and the imaginations of his followers, Garon looked at him with pity. "You claim to be the master of the god of death, then, try calling the god of death and see if he will help you against what you call a foul creature."

The Eternal Dragon inside the divine realm was momentarily speechless.

For some reason, his disciple, the god of death, never responded to his calls.

"Kars needs to focus all his energy on dealing with the threat from the ancient god of death; he has no time to deal with a counterfeit creature like you."

The 'Eternal Dragon' rationalized the lack of response from the god of death as if it were the truth.

Hearing this, Garon shook his head and felt sad for the other once again.

For this Eternal Dragon, who considered itself Garon, reality was exceedingly cruel. If it realized it was just a substitute and not the original, it would likely go insane or collapse.

However, as a deity born of faith, its thinking was linked to the imagination of its followers, and it would not recognize itself as false. No matter the evidence Garon presented, it would stubbornly believe it was the real Garon, and that Garon was the imposter.

Such a being, born purely of faith without true substance, was not a god but merely a powerful creature of faith.

With this in mind, Garon stopped wasting words.

"If you won't open the gate, then I shall enter uninvited."

With that, Garon took a deep breath, raised his neck, and opened his mouth.

Between the interlaced dragon teeth, the power of time transformed into an almost invisible breath of temporal disintegration.

Boom! The breath of temporal disintegration headed straight for the divine realm.

Ordinary attacks couldn't touch a divine realm hidden in an extradimensional space.

But Garon's dragon breath was not ordinary.

Above the empty space, sudden waves of white light burst forth, showing vague continuous mountain ranges and lush forests within. Under the impact of the breath of temporal disintegration, the barrier-like white light gradually deformed and cracked, webbing with many fractures.

Click, click.

In the aftermath of the clash between the breath of temporal disintegration and the divine realm's barriers, the surrounding gears were affected and began to disintegrate into nothingness.

However, Mechanus, the plane of order, lived up to its reputation. As one gear disintegrated, another immediately took its place, silently operating to maintain the existing order as if endlessly supplied.

Meanwhile, Garon felt several gazes crossing vast spaces, filled

 with inquisitive scrutiny, falling upon him.

These were the native gods or demigod-level beings of Mechanus, who had noticed the abnormality caused by Garon's attack on the divine realm and turned their attention here.

"A demigod-level being, a dragon of time?"

In a divine realm somewhere in Mechanus, the Arbitration Dragon God, Landis, was slightly taken aback upon recognizing Garon, falling into thought.

Simultaneously, with a clear cracking sound, Garon's breath of temporal disintegration tore open a gap in the divine realm's barriers.

The breath of temporal disintegration continued unabated after breaking through the barriers, penetrating the divine realm and tearing through towering mountains, turning countless rocks and woods to dust in the waves of time.

Whoosh!

The silver dragon flapped its wings, transforming into a direct beam of silver light, and entered the divine realm through the gap in the barriers.

"I didn't expect you to actually dare to invade the divine realm."

"Foul creature, you are audacious."

Garon's gaze swept over the mountains and forests, finally locking on a temple at the highest point of the divine realm.

The Eternal Dragon hovered in the sky, using a pair of platinum eyes, identical to Garon's, to watch him, its divine glow as bright as the sun, with profound divine power bolstered by the divine realm.

As it spoke, the originally clear and sunny space of the divine realm suddenly changed with the deity's anger, becoming oppressive and dark.

Dark clouds rolled in, and silver lightning danced among them, with winds howling so fiercely that they uprooted some of the thinner trees.

The atmosphere was extremely oppressive, as if the sky might fall at any moment.

In the swirling divine power, the Eternal Dragon's body expanded inch by inch, soon becoming as majestic as a mountain, with dragon wings tens of thousands of meters long covering the sky like a canopy.

"Counterfeit deity."

"Challenging divine authority."

"Invading the divine realm."

"Foul creature, your crimes can only be cleansed by death."

Bolstered by the rules it had forged within its divine realm, feeling the surge of power within, the Eternal Dragon was confident.

It adopted a superior attitude, looking down from the sky at the silver dragon below, which seemed tiny compared to its divine body, preparing to judge Garon.

Garon, at the center of the storm and thunder, showed no fear on his face, instead looking curiously at his surroundings.

"Being able to boost a demigod to weak divine power, and not just the lowest level of weak divine power."

"No wonder they say that deities are at their strongest in their own realms, under their own rules."

Garon murmured to himself.

As the Eternal Dragon grew in power, Garon also felt the divine realm's rules trying to suppress him.

In Garon's eyes, chains of rules engraved with mysterious runes burst forth with brilliant light, attempting to suppress him within their luminous reach.

In response, Garon drew a stream from the River of Time, forming a barrier of years around him.

The barrier of years around Garon's body isolated the suppressing light of the divine realm's rules.

No matter how the chains of rules trembled and released power, they could not breach the barrier of years.

The Eternal Dragon's gaze sharpened, and the chains of rules ceased their broad release of light, instead wrapping around Garon's body, densely layering until Garon was almost wrapped like a dumpling.

"But ultimately, you are just a demigod."

"The divine realm you've forged is just this."

Within the sphere covered by the chains of rules, Garon's voice rang out faintly.

At the same time, the silver dragon's body also began to swell, and in a blink, it transformed into a colossal being as vast as the stars. The mountains standing in the divine realm seemed like mere mounds compared to him.

Just standing on all fours, Garon's shoulders reached into the sky.

With his full giantification activated, Garon's form was now significantly larger than even the master of the divine realm.

As for the chains of rules that had been wrapping around Garon—they had all collapsed.

As the divine realm's rules were disrupted, the land cracked, mountains began to fall, and various cataclysmic events occurred in succession.

Garon's dragon wings, which blotted out the sky, swept fiercely.

Whoosh!

A tremendous storm erupted.

"O god born from faith in me."

"Now is the time to abandon your will and submit to me, become me!"

The silver dragon vanished on the spot, charging toward the Eternal Dragon amid a storm of wind and thunder, with the entire divine realm trembling, earthquakes and tsunamis, and even spatial fractures erupting simultaneously.

Strangely, although the distance was not far, the space between Garon and the Eternal Dragon seemed endless. With Garon's speed, he should have closed the

 gap instantly, but the Eternal Dragon had used the divine realm's rules to alter the surrounding space.

As Garon approached with a majestic, prison-like dragon might, the Eternal Dragon felt a pang of panic.

Although it was in its own divine realm, it was not entirely reassured.

However, upon hearing Garon's words, that flicker of panic instantly turned into fury.

"Become you? Impossible!"

"I am me, the god of the Temporal Dragon Cult, the great and supreme Eternal Dragon, Garon O'Relian!"

After a furious roar, the Eternal Dragon used its authority over time.

Temporal inversion! In an instant, an invisible divine force stirred the River of Time, causing the front half of Garon's body to accelerate suddenly, while the back half froze, thus tearing his body apart.

Or so it should have happened.

But in reality, nothing happened.

The River of Time was affected by the authority of time, but when the surging temporal power touched Garon, it stopped as if a docile cat had been tamed.

The Eternal Dragon's face showed astonishment.

It was hard for it to accept such an outcome.

Despite being amplified by its divine realm and being in its strongest state, it seemed powerless.

"Am I really a false god? Is he my true form?"

The Eternal Dragon's expression changed, gradually becoming crazed.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible."

"I am Garon O'Relian! I am not a false god."

As Garon closed the spatial distance in the divine realm, a mountain-sized divine dragon claw came crashing down.

The Eternal Dragon reacted quickly.

The River of Time around it sped up, allowing the Eternal Dragon to dodge Garon's attack like lightning and seize the opportunity to tear at Garon's facial armor.

At the same time.

The black scale rings on Garon's dragon wrist suddenly began to rotate counterclockwise.

In the reversed flow of time, the Eternal Dragon found itself unable to control its body and was instantly returned to its original position.

Thus, Garon's massive claw landed heavily on the Eternal Dragon's head.

Crunch!

With a dull thud.

The Eternal Dragon's head was severely twisted, pulling its body to crash into the ground. The force of the impact flung its entire body, smashing a large area of the divine realm's land, crushing mountains into collapse.

If it were any other top-tier demigod, they might have been able to contend with Garon in their own divine realm for a while.

But this 'Eternal Dragon's' capabilities were almost a degraded version of Garon's, and when facing Garon himself, they were completely countered and ineffective.

The ground shook and dust flew everywhere.

The Eternal Dragon, shrouded in dust, had most of the scales on one side of its head shattered, and three of its horns were broken, making it look particularly miserable.

Under the cover of divine power, the Eternal Dragon's injuries healed at a visible rate.

It was unwilling to accept this, roaring in anger and fluttering its wings to rise from the ground.

But just as it took flight, the Eternal Dragon was immediately smashed back into the ground.

Looking at the Eternal Dragon he had smashed into the ground, Garon shook his immense dragon wings and dove down like a meteor.

Crash!

With a tremendous impact, the ground broke apart, splitting and nearly collapsing the divine realm's space.

"Why is this happening?"

"Impossible, I am—"

After being smashed into the ground twice in succession, the Eternal Dragon let out a frustrated roar and raised its head.

"Shut up!"

A dragon claw broke through the swirling dust and entered the Eternal Dragon's view, then grabbed its head and pressed down hard.

Holding down the struggling Eternal Dragon, Garon repeatedly applied temporal explosion and temporal division to the divine body, causing damage and depleting the divine power of the body.

Before long.

The Eternal Dragon's body began to turn slightly transparent, its appearance numbed from the constant ineffective resistance, its platinum eyes losing their sparkle.

At this moment, the Eternal Dragon's divine power was less than one percent of its original strength.

Garon released his claw and looked at the Eternal Dragon's head.

Deep inside its head was a spherical crystal, providing vitality and divine power, the core of this divine body, also known as the divine core.

"Only one type of time authority."

Garon's gaze swept over the divine core, and he extended his mental power to touch the divine core, analyzing its composition.

During this process, the divine core offered no resistance; in fact, it was quite cooperative.

Because it was originally meant to be Garon's divine core.

If Garon had not left this timeline, the accumulation of faith over a long time would have coalesced into a divine avatar.

At that moment, the divine realm space shook violently.

Garon's gaze shifted, looking upward to the right.

In his field of vision, a dragon covered in silver scales but dim in color, having

 breached the perforated divine realm barrier, arrived inside, quietly watching Garon and the Eternal Dragon, its gaze shifting between the two.

The dragon of justice, the arbiter, Landis.

Seeing this dragon god, the Eternal Dragon's dim eyes brightened, shouting, "Arbiter Dragon God, please assist me in exterminating this foul creature."

Landis gave the Eternal Dragon a cold glance and did not respond.

He turned to Garon, speaking in a tone full of reason and order, "I observed this Eternal Dragon when it established its divine realm in Mechanus."

"At first, I thought it was a time dragon that had ascended to godhood, but I was quickly disappointed to discover that it was merely an ordinary god born from faith."

"Now it seems that it was born because of you."

Pausing, the arbiter dragon god looked intently at Garon, saying, "Is that right? The true Eternal Dragon, a time dragon from another timeline."

Garon smiled faintly, replying, "You are correct, worthy of being a pillar among our dragon gods."

Due to his origin from another timeline, Garon possessed a unique quality that made him somewhat incompatible here, something that ordinary beings might not notice but were often inexplicably drawn to. However, a dragon god like Landis could still perceive it.

"So, are you a dragon god in your timeline?"

"I see no trace of divine power on you."

Landis was slightly taken aback.

Garon raised his chin slightly, responding, "Being a god or possessing god-like power isn't something that can't be achieved."

"Indeed."

Landis nodded.

This inherently cold dragon god now felt a curiosity about the timeline Garon came from, asking, "How is the situation with the dragon gods in your timeline?"

Garon candidly replied, "We have defeated the elven god pantheon and are gradually reviving our former glory."

Landis's eyes brightened, and a rigid smile appeared on his dragon face, "That's excellent. Then, in this timeline, might there also emerge a time dragon like you?"

Garon considered, then earnestly said, "There will be, but perhaps with some differences."

"If you discover his existence, you can secretly support and protect him. Of course, if appropriate, you can also give him some hardships to ensure a more robust growth, letting him experience a youth that isn't too dull."

Landis nodded, "I will remember that."

Simultaneously, Garon's gaze shifted slightly as if he had thought of something, speaking softly, "Landis, there's something I think the dragon gods here should know."

"A part of the true spirit of the Ninefold Dragon God is sealed by the Utmost Dark Axe, preventing his revival."

"Go to the Inferno of Terror, seek the lair of the Lord of Horror, find the Utmost Dark Axe, and you may have a chance to revive the chief god of the dragons."

Just then, Garon thought of a good idea.

Using the different flow rates of time across timelines, he could leverage the power of the dragon gods here to locate the Utmost Dark Axe.

Once the dragon gods here successfully revive the Ninefold Dragon God, Garon could directly obtain the specific location of the Utmost Dark Axe when he returns, making it easier to revive the Ninefold Dragon God in the main timeline.

Landis's expression turned serious, "I will inform the other dragon gods."

Without delay, Landis bid farewell to Garon and quickly left the battered divine realm.

"I hope this plan succeeds."

Watching Landis's departing figure, Garon mused silently.

At that moment, hearing the conversation between the two, the light that had just risen in the Eternal Dragon's eyes completely dimmed.

Crack, crack.

The divine core shook, and tiny cracks began to spread inside and outside the Eternal Dragon's divine body.

This god, born of faith, realizing it was not truly an entity of faith but a false existence, gradually began to fade.

But Garon did not allow it to fade.

Under Garon's will, time flowed backward, restoring the recently cracked state of the divine body.

Garon lowered his head to look at the ashen-faced Eternal Dragon, calmly saying, "I give you two choices: one is to resist my will, to be completely erased by me, leaving behind only an empty divine core."

"The second is to become a part of me, merge with me, to become the Garon O'Relian you have always longed to be."

The Eternal Dragon didn't ponder for long.

Under Garon's gaze, it quickly nodded, speaking with a hopeful and apprehensive tone, "I choose the second option, I want to become you."

After a series of blows, it had finally recognized reality, knowing it was the counterfeit, and thus no longer resisted Garon's words.

"Very well, you have made the correct choice. Together, let's witness this wonderful world."

Garon

 extended his dragon claw, touching the Eternal Dragon's facial armor.

The Eternal Dragon took a deep breath and closed its eyes.

At that moment, strands of the power of time mixed with Garon's mental will flowed into the Eternal Dragon's divine core, leaving Garon's mark upon it.

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