It was still the empty dream, filled with darkness and endless fog.
At the same time, countless voices echoed back and forth in his ears. If one listened carefully, they dissolved into meaningless noise. But when one tried not to listen, fragments of words forced their way into the mind, compelling acceptance of the information they carried.
Agu felt unusually irritable.
It was as if all the troubles he had encountered during this period resurfaced at once. Those disobedient little ones, with their many irritating actions, appeared vividly in his thoughts.
Then came the hallucinations.
At last, his mind fixed on the feathered man who had once attempted to escape.
In the hallucination, the feathered man had completed his growth over the past two days. His body had grown taller, and the wisdom in his eyes had deepened. He led the other feathered people in resistance against Agu's rule.
"God's grace should not fall on you alone. His mission should be completed by me!" the feathered man declared.
In the next instant, a fierce murderous intent burst from Agu's eyes.
This was what he could not tolerate. It was also what he feared most.
At the beginning, he had not cared about such thoughts. He only regarded himself as the creator of the feathered people. It was he who diverted life and guided the emergence of living beings, including his own kind.
But as the feathered people matured day by day, their forms grew increasingly similar to his. Some even displayed wisdom and courage that rivaled his own.
This was when the worry first appeared in his heart.
Because now, they were not so different from him.
A fear of being replaced emerged within Agu. Although it surfaced only occasionally and he never treated it seriously, it existed nonetheless.
After all, his position remained stable. Though those little ones loved to cause trouble, they respected him greatly once they matured.
Yet within this dream, Agu's emotions slipped beyond his control.
That small, suppressed fear transformed into the outcome he dreaded most, and it truly provoked him.
Meanwhile, the other feathered people also experienced disturbances in their dreams.
They twisted in their sleep as strange and distorted scenes unfolded before them. The most vivid image was of Agu suddenly revealing a fierce intent to kill them.
As they gradually came to understand the world, they also began to feel insecurity.
Their lives, their food, and even their freedom within the shelter were controlled by Agu. This constant dependence inevitably brought a subtle sense of unease.
Normally, such feelings were rare.
But within the dream, they were endlessly magnified.
As the unspoken contradictions between both sides intensified in their subconscious, bloody and terrifying scenes began to appear. These visions sank deeper and deeper into their minds.
When they awoke the next day, the specific images from the dream had already faded. However, the emotions remained.
Thus, that morning, the atmosphere inside the shelter felt unusually heavy.
Agu shook his head and forced those lingering emotions away. Then he walked toward the entrance and tore open a proper doorway in the shelter.
Previously, he would simply lift one or two pieces of wood to enter or exit, placing them back afterward.
Now, the appearance of a true door symbolized that Agu had officially relaxed his restrictions on the feathered people.
The feathered youths, who had grown into adolescence, ran across the land outside and soared into the sky once more.
However, after a brief period of excitement, they gathered again and followed Agu to a distant valley.
It was clear that during this time, Agu had begun to establish certain rules.
In the valley, behind Agu, leaned a massive object against the mountain wall, concealed beneath layers of vines and leaves.
During this period, Agu had elevated the craft of weaving vines to a new level.
He stripped the bark from the vines, dried them, and twisted them into strands suitable for weaving. While weaving, he incorporated flat and sturdy leaves, binding them together to form a large covering.
Now, as all the feathered people arrived, Agu pulled down the woven shelter and revealed what lay behind it.
It was a massive slate engraved with numerous symbols.
These symbols were words.
Agu possessed the ability to perceive all things. He had witnessed the records formed within the world of Genesis in response to the actions of God.
Those records were not ordinary words, but a higher form of structured information.
Agu could perceive and comprehend them, yet he could not reproduce them in their original form.
Therefore, he simplified them.
He captured fragments of their shapes and engraved them into stone, forming a tangible medium for information.
The carved patterns upon the slate were the written language created by Agu.
In recent days, he had been teaching the feathered people how to recognize and understand these words.
This enormous slate had been taken directly from the valley's mountain wall.
Alone, Agu struck along a natural fissure in the rock. By carefully controlling his strength, he detached a large slab with a relatively flat surface.
He then used stone flakes and his own claws to refine and shape it into a slightly convex tablet.
The carving required immense effort.
The stone he selected was extremely tough, and his claws were worn down considerably in the process.
This difficulty gave him the idea of creating tools.
Although his claws were sharp, he possessed only one pair, and he was only one individual.
The claws of the other winged people were not nearly as strong as his.
One important reason he had chosen to breed winged people was his understanding that individual power was weak and insignificant. He alone could never transform the entire world.
He needed his own kind.
They were his helpers.
With this thought, Agu strengthened his resolve.
Meanwhile, the other winged people lifted their heads and carefully read the information carved into the stone.
"Feathered People Ceremony."
The text described that the winged people were created by God. God created the world and then created them.
Because they were God's creations, they possessed wisdom and bore the responsibility to inherit His glory and perfect the world. Therefore, they must regulate themselves and refrain from reckless actions.
To regulate one's behavior was to follow ritual.
"From the moment a feathered person receives a name, he becomes an independent individual and must begin his own journey."
This was the first sentence of the ceremony.
And today, giving names would be Agu's most important task.