It didn't take long.
Once Petra and the others finished preparing dinner, everyone gathered around to enjoy the meal.
At the head of the table, Orsaga casually chopped off the roasted suckling pig's head and dropped it onto his plate.
After all, no one else there had any intention of eating it.
Ignoring Orsaga's pork-head moment, Alison gestured toward a colorful dish made from dozens of fruits and vegetables. Smiling, she explained to the others:
"This is a traditional dish from my homeland. Give it a try."
As elves, Alison and Golariel could eat meat, but their physiology naturally favored vegetarian meals.
Even though the two of them had long since ascended to the power level of greater Demons, that didn't change their dietary preferences.
After everyone had eaten for a while—
The doorbell suddenly rang.
All eyes turned toward the entrance.
Even the weakest among them had achieved High Rank Demon strength over the past few decades, and they immediately sensed the tall figure waiting outside.
"I'll get it."
Orsaga stood up and motioned for them to continue eating while he strolled over to the door.
He walked down the hall and opened it with a casual push.
Standing there was Ra, a towering figure.
No unnecessary pleasantries were exchanged.
As soon as Ra saw Orsaga, he handed over a glowing orb about the size of a clenched fist.
"This is what you asked for."
Orsaga took it and examined it carefully. After confirming it was the real thing, he snapped his fingers.
A sleek, black USB drive appeared in front of Ra—10 centimeters long, 3 centimeters thick, with a storage capacity of 800 petabytes.
Inside it?
Technology that was 1,000 years ahead of Earth's current level.
Medical science, materials engineering, agriculture… it covered nearly every known discipline.
If fully understood and applied, this single drive could allow humanity to skip several entire technological stages—going straight from small orbital stations, past large-scale space facilities, directly into planetary terraforming on the Moon and Mars.
Ra accepted the drive and gave a satisfied nod.
Then, without another word, he vanished from the spot.
---
With the door now closed, Orsaga looked at the object in his hand.
Inside the glowing orb was a shard no larger than five or six centimeters.
A wide smile spread across his face.
'All that mediocre tech… for this?'
He didn't say it aloud, but his expression made his thoughts clear.
The others immediately noticed.
Even among them, it was rare to see Orsaga show such visible interest in anything. Iris couldn't help but ask:
"What is it?"
Orsaga didn't bother hiding anything.
"A Star God Fragment. A piece of an extremely powerful lifeform."
"Star God?" the others echoed, unfamiliar with the term.
Orsaga offered a brief explanation:
"It makes sense you've never heard of them. This species has been dormant for eons. They were born in the early days of the universe—among the oldest known beings in existence.
Formed from massive clouds of gas and pure energy, Star Gods were essentially born as energy-based lifeforms of colossal scale—large enough to literally shroud entire stars with their bodies."
"And yes—stars were their primary food source. Over time, as they consumed solar energy, stars would gradually go dark and die. Eventually, for complex reasons, they evolved physical bodies and were no longer pure energy. With that change, they managed to defeat the Old Ones, another ancient race, and went on to conquer the entire galaxy. This shard comes from one of them—specifically, the Void Dragon."
Elsa's eyes widened.
"You mean… they were once powerful enough to rule the entire Milky Way?"
She understood full well how many dangerous beings roamed beyond the solar system.
To dominate all of them? That was no small feat.
Orsaga, having long since explored galactic history via time manipulation, replied with certainty:
"Yes. Absolutely."
Curious, Elsa continued,
"Then how did such a powerful species… just vanish?"
Orsaga chuckled.
"After they crushed their enemies and took control of the galaxy, they discovered something… Consuming their own kind made them stronger. So naturally, they turned on each other. And the civil war that followed eventually led to betrayal—by their own servants."
"Most of the surviving Star Gods were sealed away or dismantled into tools. As for those former servants… after defeating and imprisoning their masters, they themselves went into dormancy due to the cost of the conflict."
Hearing that the once-mighty Star Gods got taken out by infighting, the group collectively grimaced.
It was the most anticlimactic fall-from-glory story imaginable.
If they'd had even an ounce of self-restraint or strategic foresight, things would've ended very differently.
But clearly, real history didn't always follow logic.
The Star Gods had won the galaxy—and immediately suffered a catastrophic drop in collective IQ.
From victory… to implosion.
Golariel casually speared a piece of fruit and asked,
"So that guy, Ra… where did he get the fragment?"
"This planet," Orsaga said. "Back during the ancient war between the Star Gods and the Old Ones, a heavily wounded Void Dragon crash-landed here—on Earth. It lay dormant for countless years, until it barely managed to awaken a few millennia ago. At the time, Ra—going by the name Saint George—was living nearby."
"When he heard rumors of a 'monster' in the region, he went to investigate. By sheer luck, the Void Dragon hadn't recovered its strength yet, so Ra managed to defeat and seal it once more. This Star God Fragment came from that sealing site. He traded it to me in exchange for advanced knowledge."
As he finished speaking, Orsaga casually crushed the orb's outer containment layer.
Before its energy could surge out, he tossed the shard directly into his mouth and swallowed it.
He chewed a bit, then added,
"Compared to the Warp-aligned Chaos Gods, the Star Gods were pure material-universe entities. They were essentially physical manifestations of universal laws. So by studying this Void Dragon fragment, I may be able to develop a method that allows me to travel more freely between the Warp and the physical universe."
_____
T/N:
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