Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot
Chapter 227 - 226 - A foreign god.

Chapter 227: Chapter 226 - A foreign god.

The divine domain stretched quietly again, winds drifting lazily between the floating islands. With Jake’s scythe no longer growling at the shadows, peace returned—at least, for a time.

That fragile peace went on for four hours like a slow breath.

Alex napped underneath a mushroom the size of a wagon, and Nibbles sat atop him like a squirrel emperor in silent contemplation.

Clara had dozed off against Raven’s chest. Siris absentmindedly twirled her cryo-dagger near Raven’s ear—close enough to make a lesser man flinch.

He didn’t.

Selena sipped her sweet tea with elegance, occasionally offering Raven sips, while Arietta balanced upside down above them like a casual sky ornament, glaring whenever Clara stretched too close.

The calm was just beginning to feel dangerous when a sudden flicker of white caught their attention.

Rufus.

Near the far edge of the floating cliff, the young man, clad in red and black, stood in silent meditation, his head bowed and his arms crossed. His nanoparticle suit—dormant until now—shivered.

Then—

FWOOOSH!

The suit exploded outward in a spiral of radiant shards, nano-tendrils whirling like a machine undergoing birth.

From within, light poured forth—not just bright, but pure. Blinding.

The others shielded their eyes instinctively.

Even Arietta raised a brow. "...Well, that’s shiny."

"Light element," Raven muttered with a small smirk. "Makes sense. He always had a hero complex."

He did say that, but he had never expected it.

Unlike others, whose higher elements were somewhat predictable—except Selena—Rufus’s element was something Raven had no idea of.

In the plot, he had awakened a blood element, but his nature was different.

In the novel, Rufus was depicted as a villain who loved to kill and plunder.

Now, it was different.

Rufus had changed for the better.

Maybe that was why, instead of awakening the blood element, he awakened the pure light component.

If Raven had any doubts in his mind about Rufus still having a bit of evil inside him, they were washed away by this awakening.

After all, no matter how hard one tried, they couldn’t hide their real self from the elements.

This was Rufus’s new self—pure and bright.

It was then that Rufus’s nano-suit reformed again, now sleeker.

Golden glyphs traced across its black surface, glowing softly with power. The red streaks pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.

Rufus opened his eyes—lit with white fire.

He moved.

It wasn’t flashy—it was clean. Controlled. In one second, he retracted the entire suit into a glowing orb in his palm.

In the next, it burst back out, covering him completely in less than a breath.

"Cool," Clara said, finally sitting up. "He just turned into a literal glow stick with style."

Alex gave a double thumbs-up from beneath his mushroom. "Iron Man meets holy knight. Respect."

Rufus turned, offering a small, confident nod toward them.

Selena lifted a brow. "Did he just pose without moving?"

"Rufus," Raven called. "How do you feel?"

"...Like the morning sun on a battlefield," Rufus said with a smile. "Precise. Unyielding. Focused."

"That’s the most poetic thing I’ve heard from him all month," Jessy whispered.

Raven, however, felt like a father seeing his son grow into a good man.

’Hah... how I can still remember his smug and arrogant face from ten years ago...’ Raven chuckled inwardly.

"Man, quit actin’ like some grumpy old geezer," Omni’s voice echoed in his head for the first time. "What’s next, huh? You tryna stroll down the same cracked-up path as that lunatic master of yours?"

The sword, which liked avoiding Arietta, had been silent for a long time, but hearing Raven’s thoughts, it couldn’t keep quiet.

Raven, on the other hand, realized that he had been acting like an old man, and he quickly shook his head.

’Fuck no,’ he replied. ’Ain’t no way I want to follow that old man’s path!’

Omni somehow found it hard to believe.

Soon, the light faded, returning to a low hum around his suit.

Then, silence.

For a good while, there was silence, save for Alex and Rufus talking excitedly about their new upgrades.

Then, roots began to rise.

A soft rustling came from the garden edge, where Lia sat alone on a mossy hill. Her eyes were closed, hands resting on her lap, a single rosebud blooming at her feet.

Suddenly, the world around her came alive.

Vines uncoiled like they were waking from a dream. Flowers erupted in concentric patterns. Trees grew where there had been none, rising from stone like miracles.

Raven sat up straighter. "That’s not nature manipulation."

"No," Arietta said softly. "That’s creation."

The clouds around Lia began to glow green.

No longer was she healing or controlling plants. She was birthing them.

A sacred tree rose behind her, ancient in feel but born just now—its leaves glittering with mana.

Birds formed midair, shaped from petals and bark. A small white fox made entirely of leaves padded beside her, yawned, and curled up next to her like it had always been there.

Clara blinked. "I... don’t think that tree was there a second ago."

"Lia’s always been creative," Selena murmured. "Now she can build a forest."

Lia stood slowly, her eyes glowing a soft pink mixed with green. Flowers bloomed where her footsteps landed. She looked at Raven, unsure.

"Is... Is this alright?" She asked.

Raven smiled. "It’s more than alright. You just turned a rock into a jungle."

She smiled faintly, adjusting her cloak—and if anyone noticed the faint blush on her cheeks as Raven praised her, no one said a word.

"Creation magic," Arietta mused. "Tied to life, not just growth. That’s divine-adjacent. Dangerous, too, if left unchecked. She could sprout a forest in someone’s lungs."

"...You say that like a warning," Siris said.

"I say that like a possibility."

Soon, it was quiet again.

Time passed. Hours. The stars overhead began to shimmer more vividly as the divine domain shifted into what resembled dusk.

Only two were left, including Raven.

For now, however, only one was left.

Graye.

She sat slumped in the grass like someone taking a nap after a long festival, hands folded on her lap. Occasionally, she snored.

"Should we poke her?" Jessy asked.

"No," Raven said quickly. "Trust me. She’s just..."

He paused.

A tremble.

Graye’s fingers twitched.

Then—

BOOOOOOM!

An eruption of white and violet flame blasted out from her body—not outward, but upward, like a column of divine fury shooting into the sky.

The clouds parted. The floating island cracked beneath her. Space trembled.

Raven’s instincts screamed.

Clara stood. Siris readied her dagger. Jessy clenched her fists. Rufus braced himself. Jake vanished into the shadows on reflex. Even Nibbles flicked a nervous glance at Raven before raising a tiny sign: "MAYBE RUN?"

But it was Arietta who reacted most sharply.

She snapped her fingers—barriers wrapped around the group instantly. Her eyes narrowed, glowing with divine light. For the first time since they entered the domain, the laws of the realm faltered.

Her laws.

"Impossible," she muttered. "That flame... It’s not mortal."

Raven stepped forward, his voice low. "So, what is it?"

Arietta nodded, serious now. "That fire—white and purple. It’s... Divine Flame. Above all, they are not mine. She’s awakened something beyond what should be possible."

The fire pulsed.

Then pulsed again.

Each time, the domain itself rippled—divine energy being rewritten at its edges.

Graye stood.

She looked like herself—no armor, no fancy pose.

But behind her, a phantom flickered.

A massive figure. An armored knight made of fire and stardust. A sword of collapsing suns hung on its back.

Then it vanished.

Graye blinked, rubbing her eyes. "Uh... did I explode?"

"You awakened," Raven said softly, stepping toward her. "You lit up the sky."

"Neat," she grinned, unfazed. "Do I get to punch something now?"

Arietta, floating down beside Raven, stared at Graye for a long moment.

Then she said flatly, "I’m charging her triple rent."

Graye grinned wider. "Worth it."

Raven exhaled. "Alright. You’ve all awakened. Now..."

He looked at the stars above—now gleaming with threads of fate intertwining.

"Let’s take a small break before I try the awakening."

.............................

A while later.

Soft starlight bathed the divine domain, casting the floating islands in pale blue hues.

The breeze had calmed, now whispering through leaves and stirring the edge of Arietta’s silken cloak as she sat beside Raven on the grassy overlook.

Clara leaned on his other side, arms wrapped around her knees, while Selena stood just behind, arms crossed and eyes focused on the horizon—ever watchful, as if expecting the sky to split again.

Down below, Alex was dragging Jake and Rufus into a makeshift game of "don’t touch the floating rock," while Nibbles refereed with a tiny whistle made of acorns.

Jessy lounged nearby, half-asleep, while Lia and Siris were busy talking to plants.

Siris couldn’t talk to plants, but Lia was translating it for her.

Then there was Graye, who, of course, was trying to suplex one of the floating boulders to prove she was still "totally normal."

Clara shook her head, amused. "She really just... went right back to being herself."

"Exploding sky or not," Selena murmured, "she’s still the same loud bruiser."

Arietta, for once, wasn’t smirking.

Her golden eyes were focused, narrowed slightly. "No... She’s not just a loud bruiser. I knew something was off the moment I felt her divine tales."

Raven turned toward her.

Arietta folded her arms beneath her chest, legs crossed mid-air like she was perched on an invisible throne. "I felt it again just now when that figure flashed behind her... divinity. Old. Powerful. Foreign."

"Foreign?" Selena asked.

Arietta nodded. "It wasn’t from this realm. Or the divine halls. Or the deeper layers of the Abyss. That power—her flame, her phantom—it doesn’t belong to anything I recognize. And I know all the gods worth naming."

Clara frowned. "You mean..."

"Yes," Arietta said, her eyes narrowed. "Graye is the reincarnation of a god. One I’ve never met. One not of this realm."

Silence.

Then, Raven exhaled, slowly and heavily.

"Doesn’t matter," he muttered. "Whether she’s some forgotten god or space emperor reborn... Right now, she’s just Graye. Our dumb, overly strong teammate who asks for kisses and punches rocks for fun."

Selena chuckled.

Clara smiled faintly.

"And if she ever does remember who she was..." Raven continued, resting back against the grass, "We’ll deal with it then. Until that day comes, she’s the same dumb girl we know."

Arietta closed her eyes, thoughtful. "...Fair."

With that, this topic was put to rest.

After all, Raven had already guessed that Graye was a reincarnated god long ago.

Yet he didn’t care because he knew the plot of these types of stories.

Graye would turn out to be a very powerful goddess who was forced to reincarnate by other gods.

Later, when she was strong enough and had awakened her memories, she would go back to where she came from to get her revenge.

But guess what? She was not the protagonist of this story. It was Raven.

So, no matter how strong or flashy her background was, it would still be a hurdle like any other for our Mr. Protagonist.