Lord of Dawn! (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival)

Endless light and heat poured from the sun. Before it even descended, the forest burst into flames, and countless animals fled as if driven mad.

On the ground, the primitive people looked up at the sky.

The next instant, they clutched their eyes and screamed.

Mortals must not look directly at a god... Understanding dawned on Jiang Hao.

Then his eyelid twitched.

Dawn Lord Amon Aito had been waiting for him here... The detail he had overlooked came back to him.

Before his death, Baron Ian Albert had said, "Great Dawn Lord Amon Aito above, an evil god is trying to devour my soul! Please save your believer. I don't want to be devoured by a false god. I want to go to your kingdom!"

Gods could sense their own divine names.

Whenever their names were spoken, they knew.

That was the nature of gods.

The baron had mentioned Jiang Hao's name and called him an evil god. That had caught Dawn Lord Amon Aito's attention and brought down his wrath.

He intended to destroy Jiang Hao, the False God.

Realizing this, Jiang Hao raised the Yata Mirror and turned its face toward himself. His reflection appeared in the Eight-Foot Mirror.

With a thought, he created a mirror-image double.

Jiang Hao immediately sent the double into the sky as a streak of light. It crossed the forest and fled into the distance.

This was the sun's authority.

The sun shone its light on all things.

Though traveling as a streak of light was nowhere near the speed of light, it was far faster than fleeing normally.

As Jiang Hao's mirror-image double moved, the sun overhead moved with it, locked firmly onto him and descended rapidly.

Jiang Hao seized the chance to become a streak of light himself. Keeping low, he swept through the forest in the opposite direction.

He did not stop for his primitive followers. The Lord of Dawn's wrath was directed at him; they had only been caught in its path. Once he left, they would be safe.

A minute later, just as the sun was about to strike his mirror-image double, Jiang Hao used the Yata Mirror in his hand to sever their connection.

The fleeing double vanished as abruptly as it had appeared.

Boom!

The sun struck the ground. The forest caught fire, and the world became a vast furnace.

In the forest, the primitive people who had just recovered stood stunned, staring at the distant blaze.

Had the sun fallen?

Had it destroyed the forest?

This must be our lord's wrath.

As if struck by revelation, the tribe's priest shouted to the others. They began dancing in place with strange steps, singing and praying that the Sun God would forgive their tribe.

The Sun God they prayed to had already reached the sky above a city and plunged into it in the blink of an eye.

This was Ganzros City, from Baron Ian Albert's memories.

A large city with a population in the hundreds of thousands.

Its population supported many temples, and the largest belonged to Lady of Night Shar.

Lady of Night Shar and Dawn Lord Amon Aito were both among the Seven Primordial Gods. Surely the Lord of Dawn would show some restraint and refrain from bringing divine punishment down on such a city.

After all, believers were a god's flock. Slaughtering another god's flock on a massive scale could easily start a divine war.

But the next instant, a blazing sun rose once more.

Two suns hung in the sky.

The Lord of Dawn had made his position clear through his actions.

The False God must die!

"The Lord of Dawn doesn't care about the other gods at all?"

Jiang Hao froze for a moment. Then he turned the Yata Mirror and created another mirror-image double. At the same time, a black vortex appeared in his mind, ready to take him back to Blue Star.

This time, he would not return until he had become a True God.

But at that moment, the sky suddenly darkened. Even light as dazzling as the Eternal Blazing Sun could not pierce the dense night.

A bright moon rose slowly through the darkness.

A woman with indistinct features and a black veil stepped out of the moon. Her eyes were pitch-black, betraying no emotion.

Lady of Night Shar!

Understanding dawned on Jiang Hao.

She extended a fair-skinned hand and closed it around the blazing sun. The sun in the sky looked like a ball held in her palm.

At the same time, Lady of Night Shar spoke slowly. "Two choices. Leave at once, or fall."

Jiang Hao, who had been about to flee back to Blue Star, stopped when he saw the sudden turn of events. He kept the black vortex open, though, ready to run the moment anything went wrong.

"He is a False God. He must be destroyed!" The Lord of Dawn's commanding voice came from the void beyond the world.

Bang!

The sun in Lady of Night's hand shattered, scattering into specks of starlight.

In the void beyond the world, the Lord of Dawn fell silent for a moment. Then his commanding voice came again. "Once he leaves the protection of the night, my divine punishment will descend again."

With those words, the moon faded and the darkness covering the sky slowly receded. Lady of Night was evidently leaving.

"Thank you for your protection, Your Highness, Lady of Night Shar." Jiang Hao hurriedly bowed toward the sky. She had acted to protect her shepherds and flock, but there was no denying she had helped him too.

Once the night had completely withdrawn, Jiang Hao thought for a moment and changed his appearance to that of a local young man. Then he headed for the tallest Wizard Tower in the city.

He needed to learn about this world, and its mages were its most learned scholars.

In Ganzros City, Archmage Tingen stepped out of the city lord's residence.

The Lord of Dawn's wrath had terrified the nobles. They had summoned the mages to ask what had caused it and how they should respond...

As if there were any way to respond.

Mages might pride themselves on pursuing truth and show little respect even for gods, but that did not mean they were fools who could not face reality.

How could a mage who had not even reached Legendary rank deal with a god's wrath?

It would take a Demigod at the very least, or a Legendary mage wielding a Divine Artifact.

On his way back to his Wizard Tower, Tingen suddenly stopped. Its Alarm Spell had told him someone had broken in.

"Well, that's interesting. Someone actually dared to break into a mage's Wizard Tower."

"Is it one of those savage warriors? A knight who fancies himself a noble-in-waiting? Or an adventurer scraping a living in the gutters? Maybe some other brute with more strength than brains?"

He did not consider the possibility that the intruder was a mage.

A mage would have been able to avoid a simple Alarm Spell. Nor would one trespass in another mage's Wizard Tower.

Tingen smiled like a cat toying with a mouse. "Whoever you are, you're not leaving now. You'll make a fine addition to my collection."