Chapter 401: A Saving Grace
Across the kingdoms, mages and warriors alike began to move, both those already present and those who had just been forcibly returned from the Holy Grail dimension.
In Dragonhold, people were running in every direction, screaming, pursued by translucent figures that flickered in and out of sight.
Talen on one side raised his hand and cast his distortion magic, warping the space around one of the dead figures. The spirit’s form twisted and collapsed inward, but within seconds, it reformed.
His eyes narrowed. "What—"
The spirit lunged at him again.
He distorted the space once more, this time with more force. The spirit dissolved completely, but then it reformed again, as though nothing had happened.
Talen gritted his teeth. "They’re not staying down."
Across the city, the same nightmare unfolded. The spirits couldn’t be stopped, killed, or even be slowed.
Both magic and weapons passed through them. And every time they were dispersed, they reformed.
The mental strain was unbearable and people began to break.
-
This situation was all part of the agreement between Charon, the God of the Underworld, and the strange man from the Ninth Ruler.
When the time was right, Charon would release the spirits of the dead back into the living world.
For One Soul Reason, which was to break the Dragon God’s focus.
You see, Aiden as the Lord of the Mind Sea was intrinsically connected to every conscious mind and every soul within the Seventh Universe. It wasn’t just a title, but a fundamental aspect of his divine nature.
He existed as the anchor point for all thought, all consciousness, all mental and spiritual activity in his domain.
And when the souls of the dead were forcibly returned to the living world, they existed in a state of wrongness.
This gave rise to a metaphysical dissonance.
The living were forced to face the impossible, their dead loved ones standing before them, attacking them. They knew these people were gone, yet they could see them, hear them, perhaps even feel them.
That contradiction shattered reason and gave way to mass hysteria, terror, grief, range, confusion.
And Aiden felt every part of it.
Every panicked thought, every scream and every soul crying out in confusion. It all poured into his consciousness as an overwhelming torrent of psychic noise he could not shut out.
At the edge of the universe, Aiden’s massive dragon form trembled slightly at wave of anguish slamming into his consciousness. Billions of voices.
It had no real effect on the Dragon God. But for a fraction of a second, his focus did falter.
And against beings of his level, even that slight shift was enough to create an opening. So in that same instant, his concentration on the barrier slipped, just as expected.
Right then Kethseia’s forces surged forward as their ruler noticed Aiden’s lapses and pressured further.
And slowly, cracks began to form along the surface.
The Dragon God roared and poured more power into the barrier, reinforcing it with all of his authorities.
But the psychic noise didn’t stop, neither could he block them out, for that would have amounted to blocking out the Mind Sea.
Which in turn meant severing his connection to one of his core authorities. That would only weaken him even more.
He had to stay connected to maintain his power level, even though that connection was exactly what was being weaponized against him.
—
Within the Dragon King’s castle realm...
One by one, dragons emerged from the portal, carrying their riders on their backs.
The dragons landed heavily on the courtyard, and their riders dismounted quickly.
Varac, the dragonoid butler, who was always waiting at the entrance to the castle had an urgent expression as he gestured toward the doors.
"Quickly! please come in my Queens and Guests of the King."
Every dragon that had been flying within the realm was now converging on the castle, circling overhead in tight formations, and creating a protective barrier around the structure.
Back in the world of humans, the chaos continued.
Then, suddenly, a figure appeared in the skies where she could overlook most of the planet.
Her eyes glowed red, and her hair was dark, with fiery edges. Her body emitted a reddish aura and crimson miasma coiled around her.
And she looked down at the chaos below, with a calm expression.
This was Lilith.
The First Goddess.
And Adam’s ex-wife.
She raised one hand, and whispered, "Total Tranquility."
The enchantment spread outward from her in a wave of crimson light, washing over the planet itself.
The effect was immediate and the spirits stopped at once. One by one, the aggression from these dead spirits dissolved.
They stopped attacking, simply turned and began walking out of the cities and kingdoms.
The only reason Lilith had been here at this exact moment was because she had known this attack would happen.
After all, it had been part of what the strange man had told her when he had offered she and Asahel a place in the efforts against Aiden, the Dragon King.
-
In a random part of Dragonhold, Lysandra stood in the middle of a ruined street, breathing hard.
She had been fighting off the spirits for what felt like hours, and though she had managed to disperse them again and again, they had kept reforming.
But now, they were gone.
She lowered her hands, her magic circles fading, and looked around in confusion.
A figure walked toward her. Middle-aged, with graying white hair and a weathered face. He wore simple robes, and his expression was calm.
When he spoke, his voice was familiar.
"My child..."
Lysandra froze.
Her eyes went wide, and her breath caught in her throat.
"Father?" she whispered.
The man stopped a few paces away from her and smiled gently.
Lysandra’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to her knees. Tears streamed down her face as she stared at him.
"But you’re... you’re dead," she said, her voice breaking.
He said nothing and didn’t move closer either. Instead, he watched her with a gentle smile on his face.
Lysandra’s hands trembled as she reached toward him.
However, He simply turned and began walking away, joining the other spirits as they marched out of the city.
And Lysandra watched him go in tears. "Farewell"
