Although Noah described the consequences as dire, his tone didn't carry even a hint of tension.
Since that was the case, Starlight suppressed his anxiety and forced himself to relax as much as possible, letting the ripples of time and space wash over his body.
Noah was right; since he couldn't resist it, he might as well go with the flow. He simply cleared his mind and began to observe the details of this wondrous dimension.
Before long, something miraculous happened.
Starlight found his perception gradually synchronizing with this space-time, and the once-blurry spatial patterns began to grow clear.
During this process, he could also feel the control over his body slowly returning.
Within this crevice of temporal disruption, the passage of time became meaningless.
He had no idea how much time had passed—it could have been a minute or an hour—when a crisp sound that only he could hear suddenly echoed in his ears.
Crack!
“Hm?”
Before he could even react, the scene before his eyes spun like a kaleidoscope.
A crack as thin as a strand of hair suddenly appeared in the spatial crevice. In the next instant, the crack transformed into a massive, transparent maw that swallowed Starlight whole.
What followed was a dizzying whirlwind of bizarre, shifting colors flying past his eyes.
“Ugh—”
By the time Starlight regained his senses, he was astonished to find himself standing exactly where he had been, limbs intact and not a single wrinkle on his clothes.
Everyone around him was still in the same positions as before, and the curious expression on Yserazor’s chubby face hadn't even had time to change.
It was as if... that entire ordeal just now had been nothing more than a fleeting hallucination.
“Eh!? You’re back, kid? When did that happen?”
Naturally, the first to notice the change in Starlight’s body was Yserazor, who was standing closest to him. He quickly took a step forward, reaching out to pat the boy’s shoulder.
Starlight had only just recovered from his dizziness when he saw a palm the size of a washbasin reaching for him. He instinctively took half a step back.
But then, something happened that stunned everyone: Yserazor’s palm passed right through Starlight’s shoulder.
“What happened to your body?!”
Starlight looked down at the large hand that had passed through him, feeling a sense of daze. He quickly shook his head vigorously.
A second later, the feeling of daze vanished. Starlight reached out to Yserazor, and this time, their palms met with a solid, crisp clap.
“Just now...” Starlight looked at his palm in confusion, “I felt like I became part of the parallel space...”
“What?!” Yserazor’s voice jumped an octave, and the fat on his face trembled with shock. “You can actually perform a partial displacement of your body into parallel space on your own?”
He suddenly thrust his head forward, his nose nearly touching Starlight’s face. “That’s a level of precision even I can't manage!”
“It was probably just a coincidence... right?” Starlight blinked, trying to recapture that strange state from before. But after several attempts, his body showed no change.
Seeing this, Yserazor clearly breathed a sigh of relief, and his playful, cynical smile returned to his chubby face.
After all, even as the Rift Dragon King, he couldn't perform the miraculous feat of shifting only a part of his body into parallel space.
If this little guy had achieved it so easily, wouldn't he, an old geezer who had lived for over a thousand years, lose all his dignity?
“Ha! I knew it...” He patted his round belly and spoke in a relaxed tone. “Being able to escape a spatial rift is already impressive enough. Anyone else would have been torn to—
But before he could finish his sentence, his palm passed through Starlight’s arm once again!
The expression on the Rift Dragon King’s face froze instantly, his mouth hanging open in an ‘O’ shape of pure shock.
Even Starlight was stunned. He looked at his now semi-transparent arm as a bold guess surfaced in his mind.
Could it be that this ability only triggered when he was in an unconscious state?
But what use was such an ability? How could one be unconscious during a battle? And this phasing seemed useless for everyday life!
However, after this incident, Starlight could feel that his mastery over space had become significantly stronger.
While he was lost in thought, his semi-transparent arm had unknowingly returned to a solid state.
“Starlight, it is good that you are alright. I hope you all can go and assist You. Without his full strength, I fear no one can stop Salenzo as he is now.” Seranox’s voice interrupted Starlight’s train of thought.
Starlight looked up to see that the Gold Flame Dragon King had reverted to human form, but his condition was clearly much worse than before.
His once-brilliant gold hair was now dull, his tall and upright stature seemed somewhat hunched, and even those vertical pupils that always burned with battle intent were now clouded with a layer of gloom.
In the battle just now, while it had appeared to be an overwhelming victory for Seranox, the price he had paid to eliminate a Dragon King-level opponent like Cantia was by no means small.
“Alright, I’m fine. I can go support Senior You at any time.” Starlight didn't hesitate and agreed immediately.
“Well... Little Star, I really can't make it this time. I won't drag you all down.”
Po Kong’s weak voice drifted over. Starlight looked back to see him sitting on the ground, looking relieved but drained.
Using a Divine Artifact twice in a row within a single hour was far beyond Po Kong’s current capacity. His face was now as pale as paper, and even his arms were trembling uncontrollably.
“You idiot...” Xia Duo crouched down and, in a rare display of tenderness, wiped the cold sweat from his brow. “Who told you to push yourself so hard?”
“It’s no big deal. Holding back in a fight isn't my style. Besides, didn't I do a pretty good job?” Po Kong smiled and winked at Starlight.
“Besides, with Little Shadow and you there, I’m not worried about his safety.”
Xia Duo sighed softly and exchanged a look with her sister. Both of them stood beside Starlight at the same time, silently expressing their stance.
“Kid, I’ll go with you too.” After a moment of silence, a rare serious expression appeared on Yserazor’s chubby face. “This is a matter for the Dragon Race, after all. Someone has to clean up the mess.”
“Then I’ll also—”
Seeing that everyone had given their opinion, Lian hurriedly rushed forward.
But before she could finish, she was irritably interrupted by Yserazor.
“Please, little girl, don't join in. Even I would have a hard time against that monster Yuta. Won't you just be getting in the way?”
“But...”
Lian wanted to explain further, but she was met with Starlight’s stern gaze.
“I can't let you come this time. It’s too dangerous!”
Putting aside the fact that Lian’s strength was completely insufficient for a battle of this level, if she appeared near the battlefield, she might instead become You’s weakness.
“Fine...” Lian bit her lip gently and lowered her head in disappointment. She also realized her own limitations and obediently stopped pushing the matter.
Soon, the group going to support You was decided: Yserazor, Starlight, Xia Duo, Moen, and the Blue Dragon Idra.
Lian was responsible for staying behind to look after the heavily injured Lions, while Wu Hua and Imira were tasked with searching the surrounding area.
In truth, Wu Hua had some slight objections to this arrangement at first. She was a Saint Rank assassin, yet she couldn't participate in this battle.
But there was no helping it. With her current strength, she truly couldn't gain any advantage against Yuta, who was equally skilled in assassination and stealth. The role she could play would be even less than that of Starlight and the others.
“Sigh, I’ll patrol this area properly. You guys better give that old geezer Yuta a good thrashing for me!”
Xia Duo nodded slightly to her, a flash of determination in her eyes. “This is also my responsibility. As his former student, I must end this with my own hands...”
With that, she and Starlight’s group leaped onto Idra’s broad dragon back.
With a sudden surge of fierce wind, the massive Blue Dragon spread its wings, which blotted out the sun, and carried the group into the sky.
The shattered Dragon Hatchery gradually receded beneath them, turning into a blurry black speck in their vision.
Rate on N.U.
