“Enough.”
The voice was not loud, yet it caused all the writhing compound eyes to freeze in the air simultaneously.
“A mere avatar dares to call itself a new god?”
As the voice fell, the apocalyptic illusions that had just appeared shattered like glass in the next second, revealing a pure blue light behind them.
Starlight looked up and saw a graceful silhouette that had appeared before him at some unknown point.
She was a woman of elegant stature, wearing a water-blue gown that fluttered in the void despite the lack of wind, looking like a fairy beneath the moonlight.
In the next instant, a blue light erupted from the woman's fingertip, instantly piercing through the giant eyeball in the sky.
A piercing shriek erupted from the eyeball as all the compound eyes simultaneously burst with dark red blood.
At the wound pierced by the blue light, countless tiny tentacles could be seen writhing frantically. In the blink of an eye, more eyeballs regenerated and surged toward the woman.
“Nothing more than petty tricks. Do not let him deceive you.”
Facing the swarming tentacles, the woman merely traced several lines of light in the air with practiced ease. Then, she gently pressed her palms together, and the tentacles that had blotted out the sun froze in mid-air, unable to advance another inch.
“Who... are you?” Starlight felt his throat tighten as he struggled to force out the words.
“Hmm... it is not yet time...” The woman did not turn around, merely whispering to herself, “You should wake up now!”
“What?”
“Wake up! Kid!”
A majestic voice suddenly echoed in Starlight’s mind. Before he could react, a golden light descended from the heavens and carried him away from that grey, gloomy world.
When Starlight opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on his back on the cold, rocky ground. Seranox was half-kneeling beside him, watching him with golden eyes.
“I’m...? The Dragon God... no!” Starlight snapped into a sitting position, the sudden movement making his vision go dark for a moment.
His previous memories surged back like a tide—the corrupted Dragon God, the sacrificial magic formation, the mysterious woman in blue... He realized then that his back was drenched in cold sweat.
“Calm down. You suddenly collapsed halfway through the repair. What exactly happened?”
Seranox’s large hand pressed down on his shoulder. The grip was so firm it made Starlight’s shoulder blade ache, but this pain actually helped clear his chaotic thoughts.
Starlight gasped for breath several times before gradually recovering from his panic.
He did not answer Seranox’s question directly. Instead, he called out Noah’s name in his mind.
“Noah! What just happened? Was everything I saw real, or just an illusion?”
“Wait... slow down,” Noah’s voice became uncharacteristically serious. “You were sitting by the altar without moving an inch. How could you... and what illusion?”
Starlight quickly described the twin structure formation, the corrupted Dragon God, and the eyeball monster’s apocalyptic prophecy he had seen in the conscious space, not forgetting the mysterious woman in blue.
By the time he finished, his voice was trembling: “Those disguises grafted onto the formation... every node I repaired with my own hands was actually helping it...”
Noah was silent for several seconds before suddenly sucking in a breath. “If it were an illusion, it would be impossible to perfectly replicate the underlying structure of the magic formation... Dammit! Could this be a prophecy!? Little Star, maybe what you saw just now was some kind of future!”
“A prophecy? How could I have such an ability?” Starlight instinctively wanted to argue, but the words caught in his throat.
He suddenly remembered those inexplicable premonitions of danger that had saved his life several times.
This mysterious, metaphysical premonition had appeared more than once and helped him every time, but what he had seen this time was far too real. It was real enough to make his skin crawl.
Their conversation through the soul link took only a brief moment in the outside world. As Starlight carefully recalled the details, he instinctively looked up at Seranox.
When he saw the other's condition clearly, his heart skipped a beat.
He could clearly see a crack as thin as a strand of hair running across the Crown of Gold Horn on the Gold Flame Dragon King’s forehead.
Furthermore, the direction, position, and even the dark gold traces around the edges of that crack were identical to the scene he had seen in his “vision”!
“No way...”
At that thought, Starlight felt a chill run through his body, and he couldn't help but shiver.
“A chill... wait!? In this place, how could I feel a chill?” Starlight finally realized something was wrong and looked down at the now pitch-black lava lake.
How did he know the lava lake was frozen? Hadn't he entered the conscious space through the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale at the very beginning to start repairing the formation?
Could it be that what Noah said was true? Those images weren't illusions at all, but the future that was about to happen!?
Seeing Starlight’s strange expression and lack of response, Seranox frowned. He grabbed Starlight and carried him from the central pillar back to the rest of the group.
“Little girl, check on him. This kid’s state is a bit strange. Let him rest a bit before we continue.”
At Seranox’s request, Moen quickly stepped in front of Starlight and reached out a slender finger, intending to press it against his forehead.
But before Moen’s finger could touch his brow, Starlight reacted violently, grabbing her wrist.
The movement startled everyone, but Starlight shouted out, “We can’t continue! The Dragon God’s body has already been contaminated!”
He stopped hiding the truth and poured out everything he had seen in the conscious space along with Noah’s deduction.
...
After hearing Starlight’s description, complex expressions appeared on everyone’s faces.
Po Kong and the two sisters, Moen and Little Crescent, were relatively fine. They believed Starlight was not the type to make up wild stories. If such a risk truly existed, stopping now was definitely the best choice.
However, in the eyes of the several dragons present, Starlight’s claims sounded like a fantasy.
Forget the Gold Flame Dragon King; even Little Gold found it hard to believe that the sacred remains of the Dragon Ancestor would become an evil thing destined to destroy the world.
Even though he had been dead for tens of thousands of years, a god’s remains were still not something mortals could defile.
“Human... do you realize what you are saying?” The Obsidian Dragon King Salenzo, who had remained silent since entering the core area, suddenly widened his eyes and stared fixedly at Starlight, growling in a low voice. “Do you know the penalty for blaspheming the Ancestor under dragon law?!”
A wave of baleful aura erupted from his body, pushing Starlight and the others back several steps before they could stop.
“Enough! He is merely stating a possibility.”
Seranox clenched his large hand in the air, and a burst of golden flames appeared out of nowhere, incinerating the black baleful aura.
His voice carried an unquestionable authority: “Before the truth is clear, any possibility is worth discussing. But you must also understand what kind of evidence is required to accuse the Dragon Ancestor of being contaminated.”
“Evidence...” Starlight shook his head, but he had no intention of backing down. “I cannot produce any evidence, but I refuse to believe that everything I saw was just a baseless fantasy. The repair of the magic formation cannot continue under any circumstances!”
Just as Seranox was about to say something more, a sudden, violent tremor interrupted the silence.
Crack—
Countless web-like cracks began to spread across the surface of the pitch-black lava lake, emitting an ear-piercing sound of grinding stone.
The group stumbled to the edge of the platform. They saw the solidified “rock” below peeling off in massive chunks, revealing a horrifying sight deep within—
The lakebed, which should have been flowing with white-hot lava, was now covered in dark red fleshy veins.
These pulsating “vessels” were interwoven into a massive network, and at the very center sat the remains of the Dragon God Versolion.
“How... how did Cantia manage this!?” Seranox cried out in shock, his golden hair standing on end from extreme disbelief.
At that moment, amidst the roar of collapsing rock, a massive claw covered in blackish-grey scales rose from the rift below, smashing toward the group with overwhelming force.
Rate on N.U.
