Inside the parallel space, Starlight stumbled to his knees. In his arms, Seranox’s face was deathly pale, and his chest barely showed any sign of movement.
Through the barriers of the parallel space, Starlight could see the energy turbulence raging outside. The destruction and collapse of the real world continued unabated.
The golden magma and the black power of annihilation continued to tear at each other. Every collision caused massive chunks of space to peel away like shards of a shattered mirror.
A nearby mountain was slowly tilting, and countless boulders were ground into dust the moment they plunged into the energy turbulence.
Fortunately, Starlight and Seranox were some distance away from the center of the collision. Had they been any closer, Starlight could not have guaranteed their safety even within the parallel space.
In such a scene, the very concepts of time and space were infinitely diluted.
It was impossible to tell how much time had passed—it could have been fifteen minutes or an entire day. Just as Starlight was about to lose his grip on the parallel space, the violent energy turbulence outside finally showed signs of subsiding.
When the last wisp of the Power of Destruction vanished into nothingness, the landscape for several kilometers around was in utter shambles. The entire Dragon Nest looked as if it had been completely wiped from the earth by an eraser.
But at the very least, the tide of destruction had finally come to a halt.
Crack.
Once he confirmed that the outside world had returned to peace, Starlight tremblingly raised his hand and carved open a spatial rift, tumbling back into the real world with Seranox.
The two fell heavily onto the scorched earth, kicking up a cloud of ash.
Starlight coughed violently, his throat thick with the metallic tang of blood. He forced himself up and turned to look beside him. Though Seranox’s breathing was faint, it had not stopped.
“Is... is it over?” Starlight muttered to himself, his voice raspy.
Just then, the Gold Flame Dragon King seemed to recover slightly and began to cough uncontrollably.
“No... it is not over yet...”
Seranox slowly straightened his body. His once-golden eyes were now dim and lusterless, yet he still looked forward with determination.
Starlight followed his gaze, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
At the bottom of the giant crater formed by the explosion, a thick layer of pitch-black ash lay spread out. Those ashes seemed to possess a life of their own, writhing slowly and occasionally emitting a few eerie sparks of dark red fire.
And in the very center of the ash, an unnatural bulge was clearly visible.
The ash around it had taken on a sickly purple-black hue, its surface covered in vein-like protruding patterns that formed a sharp contrast with the deathly still ash surrounding it.
More unsettling was that the bulge was pulsating at a rhythm visible to the naked eye, much like... a reviving heart.
“What exactly is that patch of ash?” Starlight asked softly.
Seranox’s voice was heavy. “That is not ash... it is the power of the Dragon God’s Heart reshaping the Ancestor’s remains...”
Among the three sacred artifacts of the Dragon Race, the Crown of Gold Horn represented authority, the Dragon Ancestor’s Legacy Scale symbolized the bloodline, and finally, the Dragon God’s Heart contained peerless vitality.
As the body of a god, it was naturally impossible for it to be completely annihilated in the previous attack. By simply drawing upon the power within the Dragon God’s Heart, it could reconstruct itself in a short period of time.
“If it is allowed to fully recover... what will happen?”
“There will be no reason, no restraint... only the most primitive desire for destruction.” Seranox sighed softly and continued, “When that body awakens again, the entire continent will become a sacrifice for its vented rage.”
As if to confirm those words, the ground beneath their feet began to vibrate slightly.
“Since things have reached this point, I will no longer keep the truth from you.”
The Gold Flame Dragon King turned to look at Starlight, recounting the tale with a complex expression.
The Dragon God’s body they saw before them was not its original form.
Tens of thousands of years ago, when the Dragon Race had just established their current territory, the Dragon God Versolion had once disappeared mysteriously for a long period.
Back then, the Dragon Race was far more powerful than it is today. Furthermore, the movements of gods were naturally elusive, so it did not cause much of a stir.
By the time the Dragon God reappeared, his power had weakened to the point of nearly falling from the Godhood Realm.
To stabilize the entire Dragon Race, Versolion did not publicize his condition but instead secretly summoned the Acting Dragon King of that era.
When the Gold Flame Dragon King of that time saw the Dragon God’s appearance again, he was also given a great shock.
Half of Versolion’s noble golden body had been eroded by some kind of power, turning a pitch-black color.
That eerie power not only eroded the divine body but was also constantly devouring his Godhead, making the once-mighty Dragon God frail.
“The Ancestor never explained the source of the pollution,” Seranox said in a deep voice, “he only secretly opened the lava lake on the fourth layer.”
He had wanted to use the ley line energy to help suppress the darkness eroding his body, but it had little effect.
After struggling with this power for hundreds of years, Versolion finally gave up and turned to his backup plan—transforming the entire Dragon Nest into a massive magic formation, with his own body as the core anchor.
Versolion injected his final divine power into the earth, manifesting as the golden giant pillars Starlight had used previously to repair the formation.
Those pillars were both artifacts to maintain the Dragon Race’s foundation and the anchors that sealed him.
Shortly after the formation was completed, the news of the Dragon God’s death spread throughout the continent.
In that era when gods were falling, Versolion, like other deities, suddenly vanished into the rolling tides of history.
Without the protection of a god, the overall strength of the Dragon Race plummeted. Though their individual power remained peerless, they could never recover their former glory.
Since then, only the reigning Dragon Kings knew that the Dragon God’s body lay sleeping in the deepest part of the Dragon Nest, and only the line of the Gold Flame Dragon King truly understood the reason behind it.
“Your Excellency Dragon King, why are you telling me this?” Starlight couldn’t help but ask.
“As the key person in this battle, you have the right to know the whole truth. More importantly, you must convey these secrets... in their entirety to my son, Aidanach.”
Seranox gave a faint smile and stepped into the giant pit ahead. “As for me, I still have my responsibilities as the Dragon King.”
Seeing the Gold Flame Dragon King’s look of relief, Starlight realized what the other intended to do.
Two of the Dragon Race’s three sacred artifacts were now destroyed, and the only one left, the Dragon God’s Heart, was still within the enemy’s body.
There was only one way to resolve the current crisis: Seranox had to follow the Dragon God’s example, using himself as the core to awaken the power of the Dragon God’s Heart and use the sealing formation in the Dragon Nest to seal Versolion’s legacy husk once again.
In the distance, the purple-black bulge seemed to sense its impending fate and began to tremble again.
But Seranox gave it no chance to recover. He transformed back into his dragon form and used his front claws to rip the entire bulge out of the ash.
As the ash fell away, the true form of the bulge was revealed—it was a translucent black egg-shaped object, within which a skeleton could be vaguely seen writhing incessantly.
Seranox’s right claw squeezed hard, plunging directly into it to grab the still-pulsating Dragon God’s Heart.
In an instant, golden flames rose from his body once more. Carrying the black egg, he walked firmly toward the abyss ahead.
With every step the Gold Flame Dragon King took, he branded a golden mark upon the pitch-black earth. Ancient sealing runes used his footprints as nodes, utilizing the structure of the entire Dragon Nest to gradually outline a magnificent magic formation on the ground.
The light emitted by the Dragon God’s Heart had already enveloped his entire body, making him look like a walking sun.
“Father! What are you doing?!”
Just then, Little Gold’s anxious voice came from afar.
Because his strength was insufficient, he hadn't been assigned to maintain the barrier earlier, making him the only one free to move at this moment.
The young Dragon Prince’s face was a mix of terror and confusion. His golden pupils trembled violently as he stared fixedly at his father’s receding figure.
Seranox’s footsteps paused briefly, and the light of the Dragon God’s Heart flickered along with him.
But he did not look back in the end. He merely raised a dragon claw and traced a golden shield in the void, isolating Little Gold on the outside.
“Aidanach, do not be sad.” His voice was as resonant as a bell, echoing between heaven and earth. “From this moment on, the future of the Dragon Race is entrusted to you.”
“Your friends are all very good; they can become your strongest wings in the future. Do not fail this bond.”
Seranox’s form gradually blurred within the golden light. The piercing radiance from the Dragon God’s Heart made the tear tracks on Little Gold’s face appear crystal clear.
The Gold Flame Dragon King suddenly spread his tattered dragon wings and let out a world-shaking roar.
“Come, Ancestor—this final journey, I shall accompany you to the end!”
As his voice fell, Seranox’s arms tightly embraced the writhing black egg. The light of the Dragon God’s Heart suddenly exploded, completely enveloping him and that horrific thing.
Under Starlight’s watch, that upright figure transformed into a brilliant streak of light, plunging into the abyss without a second thought.
The moment the golden light vanished, the entire Dragon Nest shook violently. The ancient magic formation on the ground was like a giant beast being awakened, as countless golden lines began to twist and contract.
The runes flowing with the blood of the Dragon Race intertwined with each other, weaving a dense golden net over the hollow space.
When the last beam of light sank into the abyss, a deafening roar resounded through the world.
When the dust finally settled, only a circular mark completely sealed by golden runes remained before Starlight—as if someone had cast the entire earth in molten gold, forever entombing that terrifying figure deep underground.
In the distance, a ray of sunlight pierced through the darkness of the high heavens, shining upon Little Gold’s kneeling figure.
In the young Dragon Prince’s hand, a dim dragon scale had appeared at some point. It was the final thing Seranox had left him, a scale still stained with the warmth of the sun...
...
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