The moment the azure blade touched the chain, there was no sound of clashing metal as expected. Instead, only a faint sizzling could be heard.
However, the effect was unmistakable. The spot where it was struck first began to crystallize, and in a mere heartbeat, the entire chain was sliced through cleanly, like a hot knife through butter.
The two ends of the broken chain thrashed violently, the energy within them attempting to reconnect, only to be firmly blocked by the blue light at the cut. Eventually, they slumped down powerlessly.
“It really works! In that case, this will be much simpler!”
Seeing this, Starlight was overjoyed. He immediately pressed his advantage, rushing toward the second chain.
The blade traced a perfect arc through the chaotic space, landing on the second chain.
Just as Starlight expected, the second chain only held out for a few breaths before snapping apart once more.
But as the chain broke, the surrounding scenery shifted again, revealing a new memory.
It was a dark and windy night. Salenzo, in human form, had secretly crossed the border into elven territory.
Clad in a cloak, he looked like a lost traveler. Deep within the Star-Song Forest, he “happened” upon Yuta, who was busy gathering medicinal herbs.
“It seems our elven elder is troubled by something.”
Hearing the sudden voice, Yuta’s body jolted. His palm tightened, crushing the herbs in his hand into fragments. “Who is there?”
“I am someone who can solve your troubles. I wonder if Elder Yuta would be interested in collaborating with me?”
“Arrogant! Who do you think you are?” Yuta’s figure vanished from the spot like a ghost.
Though his body had grown extremely aged, his habits and combat memories cultivated over many years had not diminished in the slightest.
In the brief moment of dialogue, Yuta had already determined that the other party was no upright individual. He decisively launched an attack at Salenzo.
Snap.
Yet, Yuta’s seemingly lethal strike was effortlessly caught by Salenzo.
“Nice reaction. If this were a few decades ago, I might have actually taken some damage.” Salenzo chuckled, his golden eyes flickering in the darkness. “But you are far too weak now...”
“What!?”
Yuta’s heart shook as he watched his Saint weapon being gripped as easily as a child’s wooden stick.
Pitch-black scales suddenly appeared on Salenzo’s large hand.
As his fingers closed, the Saint weapon short sword that had accompanied Yuta for a millennium let out a shrill metallic scream. The ancient runes on the blade flickered out one by one, and it finally snapped into several pieces with a crisp cracking sound.
Yuta stumbled back two steps, his aged face filled with disbelief.
“You are of the Dragon Race... no... a Dragon King?” he asked in shock.
“It seems you haven't gone completely senile yet. That makes things easier. Can we have a proper talk now?”
Salenzo nonchalantly tossed the fragments of the short sword aside. The sharp sound of metal hitting stone was particularly jarring in the silent forest. He looked Yuta directly in the eye, speaking one word at a time.
“Fine... I wonder what you want with an old man like me, who already has one foot in the grave?”
“Naturally, I’m here to offer you an opportunity. If I remember correctly, aside from the High Priestess, you are one of the foremost users of natural power.”
“What if I am?” Yuta frowned slightly, asking warily.
“Heh, don’t be so tense. If I said I had a way for your body to regain its vitality, what would you think?”
“Hmph, that’s not funny! If you came here in the middle of the night just to mock me, then please leave, Your Excellency Dragon King.”
“It is certainly no joke. Actually, I suspect you’ve thought of this yourself, haven’t you? Pure natural energy cannot stop the end of life, but if you add pure death to it... then things are different.”
As Salenzo spoke, he tossed a black sphere toward Yuta.
Yuta caught the black sphere. The moment it touched his hand, he was stunned by the massive power contained within.
Moreover, what surprised him most was that within the purest death power of the black sphere, there was a trace of energy that transcended the mundane.
That was a power he had only ever seen on Angela.
“You...” Yuta narrowed his eyes, studying Salenzo carefully. “What do I need to pay for this?”
Salenzo smiled slightly and began to explain his plan.
“You want me to betray the elves!? That is impossible!”
“Don’t be so quick to refuse. If you want to live, you have no other choice.” Salenzo did not argue, simply continuing, “Besides, everything depends on you fusing with the power inside first.”
“Once you successfully fuse with the ultimate death power, you will be the only Saint Rank in the entire continent to possess authority over both life and death... no, perhaps even more.”
Salenzo’s voice carried a sense of temptation that left Yuta momentarily dazed.
He looked down at the sphere in his hand. The churning energy within reflected the changing expressions on his face.
Shock, greed, fear... and finally, it settled into a pathological longing.
Yuta’s throat moved as his parched lips trembled slightly. “What... must I do?”
It was as if these words had exhausted all his strength; his voice was raspy beyond recognition.
Salenzo’s figure had already begun to fade, the moonlight passing through his increasingly translucent body. “Go and fuse with this power first...”
His voice carried a strange reverb, echoing through the trees in layers. “When I have need of you... you will know...”
The last syllable dissipated into the night wind. Yuta snapped his head up, only to find that Salenzo’s figure had long since disappeared.
Only the pitch-black sphere in his palm continued to throb slightly, like an ominous heart.
He tightened his fingers with a tremble, feeling the power contained within—it was both the end and the final hope for his lingering life.
The night wind blew through the treetops, making a wailing sound. The elderly elven elder hunched his back and slowly knelt on the ground.
...
As the memory images receded like a tide, Starlight’s consciousness returned to that chaotic void.
He slowly opened his eyes, the azure longsword in his hand still vibrating slightly.
In this brief memory flashback, he had witnessed the entire process of a soul’s fall—from Yuta’s initial wary resistance to his eventual trembling acceptance of that clump of dark energy.
Every detail was so clear, as if it had happened right before his eyes.
“It seems everything happening now has been planned for a long time,” Starlight murmured softly, his blade unconsciously pointing toward the next chain.
He also realized that these memories were not just Salenzo’s weakness, but potentially the key to unraveling all the mysteries.
With these two chains broken, the aura of the massive heart had clearly weakened significantly.
“Next is the third one. I must end this quickly!”
With a flash of blue light, Starlight’s blade struck another chain once more.
Just like before, the moment the chain was severed, memories belonging to Salenzo surged forth again.
It was in that same gloomy cavern. Salenzo, in human form, was standing in the center of a crimson magic formation drawn in blood.
Dozens of iron cages floated around him, each imprisoning a creature of a different race.
They were currently twisting in agony as their life energy was being forcibly drained by the formation beneath them, turning into strands of green light that converged at the center.
“Progress on Yuta’s side seems to be going smoothly.” Salenzo gently stroked the crystal at the core of the magic formation, his voice revealing a hint of impatience. “Can I begin the fusion as well?”
Cantia was leaning against a nearby stone pillar, playing with a strand of ice crystals with her fingertip. “My dear brother, have you heard the human proverb?” She chuckled. “Haste won't let you eat hot tofu, you know~”
With a flick of her finger, the entire cavern instantly fell into an eerie silence.
The painful wails and sounds of struggling all vanished, as if isolated by an invisible barrier.
Only the life energy continued to flow silently, reflecting the pathological longing in Salenzo’s eyes.
“To fuse with the Ancestor’s legacy husk...” She walked slowly to one of the cages, carefully studying a prisoner who had already become a dried corpse. “The life energy you need is far more than what that old geezer requires.”
Salenzo reached out, drawing the life energy extracted by the formation into his palm. “Then... the operation against the elves should be put on the agenda.”
The corners of Cantia’s mouth curled into a dangerous arc as she whispered, “With Yuta as an insider... it shouldn't be difficult. After all, the life energy possessed by an elven priest is worth hundreds of ordinary powerhouses.”
As she spoke, she flicked an ice crystal rose from her fingertip and blew gently toward the magic formation.
The blue and white petals fell, and all the corpses in the cages were frozen into blocks of ice. They then turned into dust that covered the ground, completely vanishing from the world.
Amidst the swirling ice crystals, the memory images suddenly switched to the Star-Song Forest.
Under the moonlight, the World Tree was emitting a soft glow, while an aged figure lurked within the shadows of the tree.
It was Yuta, who had already fused with the death power. He pressed his withered fingers against the roots of the World Tree, and dark red patterns spread along the bark like poisonous snakes.
“Soon... it’s almost time...” Salenzo’s voice drifted out from his shadow. “We will have enough life energy...”
“Yes... when all this is complete, Master will become the only new god on the continent...”
As Yuta’s whispers gradually faded, this memory also came to an abrupt halt.
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