Chapter 743: 742. The Dragon’s Bargain (3)
Issyrha and the others watched in horror as Yggdrasil burned. Their minds had gone completely blank, unable to comprehend what they had just witnessed. A Dragon... a Dragon had truly sacrificed the World Tree for the sake of a single wish.
It was over. Without Yggdrasil, every living being on the planet would slowly perish, and the consequences had already begun to unfold.
Far beyond Edrisyl, schools of fish that had been peacefully swimming through the sea suddenly darted about in panic, their bodies twisting erratically as though something unseen was choking the life out of them. High above the ocean, birds dropped from the darkened sky one after another, disappearing beneath the waves without so much as a cry.
The change spread rapidly across the world. Only those trapped within Issyrha’s ice remained untouched, time itself having been halted for them, while every other corner of the world began paying the price for Yggdrasil’s fall. Looking at the burning World Tree, Issyrha found herself wishing the ice would never thaw. If this was the future awaiting them, perhaps it was kinder to remain frozen forever.
"The curse that had befallen the former Dragon God Solcarion..." the Dominus declared, his voice carrying clearly across the burning battlefield, "...shall now befall his successor."
His crimson eyes settled upon Ocean.
"Ocean Ryujin."
Ocean remained standing for only a brief moment before his hand shot to his chest. A sharp breath escaped him and his body folded forward as though something deep within him had been violently crushed. He staggered before dropping to one knee, coughing repeatedly while struggling to draw breath, every labored inhale sounding more painful than the last.
A satisfied smile slowly spread across the Dominus’s face. Watching one Dragon God succumb to his curse had been a privilege. Watching a second was a blessing even he hadn’t dared hope for.
A quiet chuckle escaped him as he leisurely walked toward the kneeling Dragon.
"Quite naive, aren’t you?" he said. "I suppose that’s the fault of your human emotions." He came to a stop beside Ocean before continuing, "Live well, little Dragon God... remembering that your own hands marked the beginning of this world’s destruction."
Leaving those words behind, the Dominus walked past him and slowly spread his arms toward the burning sky, the inferno reflected within his crimson eyes.
"However, I’m feeling generous right now since you have done such a great deed for us. So, I’ll offer you another deal." The Dominus said.
"If you’re willing to serve our Demon King," he announced, "I’ll spare you the suffering that awaits you from this day onward. A Dragon God would make quite the valuable asset." A faint smile tugged at his lips. "You’re a clever one, aren’t you? Surely you know which side is destined to win."
Behind him, the coughing abruptly stopped.
The Dominus’s body stiffened as a cold shiver raced down his spine as an overwhelming Dragon’s Presence brushed silently across his back, so calm that it was infinitely more unsettling than any burst of killing intent.
He turned sharply, finding Ocean was already standing.
His back still faced the Dominus, yet there wasn’t the slightest trace of pain left in his posture.
The Dominus frowned, but before he could make sense of it, Ocean slowly turned his head just enough for one glowing blue eye to fall upon him.
"You..." the Dominus gasped, instinctively clutching at his own chest as he felt the curse unraveling before his very eyes. "How...?"
A faint smirk curved across Ocean’s lips.
"I truly deserve an Oscar." He spoke in a casual, laid-back manner.
The frozen ground beneath his feet cracked apart as the last remnants of the curse shattered, and the resulting shockwave swept across the battlefield, scattering every trace of dead miasma from the roots of Yggdrasil.
The Dominus stood frozen, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.
Ocean turned a little farther, the easy confidence returning to his face as though everything had unfolded exactly as he had expected.
"You really do have a talent for being a fool..."
His blue eyes met the Dominus’s widened crimson ones.
"...Myrrdin."
The name alone made the Dominus stagger back.
It was impossible.
That name had been bestowed upon him centuries ago by a Demon Lord. No one else should have known it. The realization struck him almost immediately, draining the color from his face. The conversation... the bargaining... even the oath. From the moment the Dragon had arrived, every word had been carefully chosen to lull him into lowering his guard.
But it was impossible to break the curse with his name being used in the incantation. There was no way that this young Dragon had managed to break free. He must have gotten some-
Ocean’s smirk only widened as if he had been listening to the Dominus’s thoughts.
"The curse failed for two reasons," he said casually. "First, I’m blessed by the Dragon God’s authority. The blessings I carry reject curses by their very nature." He raised a finger. "Second..."
His smile turned almost playful.
"...you don’t know my real name."
The Dominus felt his blood run cold.
He had been deceived.
He had willingly lifted Solcarion’s curse believing he would simply transfer it onto the new Dragon God, only to discover that the very foundation of the curse had failed.
Even so, he refused to surrender to despair. His gaze shifted toward the blazing remains of Yggdrasil, and a shaky smile slowly returned to his face.
"You may have fooled me..." he said, "...but Yggdrasil is still gone. That alone is enough to earn the wrath of your heavens." His smile grew steadier. "And in only a few minutes-"
"I know."
Ocean lazily waved a hand, sounding almost bored.
"Go ahead and begin your ritual."
He glanced toward the burning World Tree.
"I’ll go fix my problem."
The Dominus’s jaw slowly fell open.
Fix... his problem?
Was the Dragon actually thinking of reviving Yggdrasil?
The very notion was absurd. The World Tree had been planted by the so-called Almighty himself before the beginning of recorded history. Not even the Dragon God should possess the power to restore what had just been destroyed.
Yet after everything he had witnessed tonight, the Dominus no longer dared dismiss the impossible.
His only choice now was to hurry.
The ritual had to finish before this Dragon overturned reality once again.
Back in Sestia, the Vanguards had accomplished the objective entrusted to them.
Davian and Rune stood amidst the aftermath of battle, the last of the Dark Mages and mutant shifters already lying dead around them. Not far away, Gargi had exhausted every last ounce of her strength. Blood stained her clothes, her breathing had become ragged and there was nowhere left for her to retreat. Even cornered, however, she refused to lower her head. Her blazing eyes remained fixed upon the two Princes, burning with nothing but fury and hatred.
At the harbor, the battle had reached its conclusion as well. Drac had chased Azar all the way onto his ship before burning away the man’s limbs one by one, leaving him with no means of escape. Across the port, the remaining undead had been completely wiped out through the combined efforts of the Eldarf team, Carlos and the Ocean’s assassins, leaving nothing behind but scattered corpses and the lingering smell of smoke.
The colosseum had finally fallen silent. The terrified spectators were safe, the wounded were being tended to and the surviving knights and mages had begun securing the area. Amidst the relief that spread through the arena, however, no one noticed a tiny creature slipping unnoticed through the shattered remains of the battlefield. The Chimera had abandoned its original form the moment the barriers came down, reducing itself to something no larger than a common vermin before quietly disappearing into the maze of dark corridors beneath the colosseum.
It darted through the passageways with frantic speed, weaving between cracks in the stone as it searched desperately for a way out. Freedom was only a few steps away when its tiny body suddenly froze in midair. An invisible force had lifted it effortlessly from the ground. Slowly, the empty space before it shimmered, revealing the figure of a man clad in immaculate white robes. The Chimera shrieked and thrashed wildly, yet the moment his fingers closed around its body, smoke began rising from its flesh. Merely touching the skin of the Supreme Dragon of Wind was enough to make the creature sizzle in agony.
Caelthir regarded the writhing creature with open disdain.
"Begone from this world... Velk."
The Chimera let out one final, piercing screech before its tiny body crumbled into fine ash. Caelthir released what little remained of it, watching the ashes drift quietly onto the stone floor before dusting off his hands. Without another glance, he clasped them behind his back and calmly walked away as though nothing of significance had happened.
Far away on Edrisyl, the Dominus continued chanting the ancient verses, his voice carrying an ominous urgency as the ritual advanced. He could clearly sense two of the three conduits he had prepared, yet no matter how carefully he searched, the third refused to answer his call.
The Chimera was gone.
His brows furrowed as realization slowly dawned upon him. There was only one explanation. The creature had been exorcised.
But how?
Both Dragons were standing before him on Edrisyl. There should have been no one capable of destroying the Chimera in Sestia. The thought unsettled him far more than he cared to admit, yet the ritual had already begun and abandoning it now was no longer an option.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, the Dominus drew the dagger tucked into his waistband and dragged its edge across his own palm. Thick black blood welled from the wound before dripping onto the frozen ground. He stepped toward the Domina’s lifeless body, lowered his bleeding hand above her forehead and allowed several drops to fall onto her shriveled skin, the black blood slowly spreading across her brow like ink seeping through parchment.
Azar lay motionless upon the splintered deck of the ruined ship beneath Drac’s watchful gaze. At first, it was only a twitch but then his entire leftover body convulsed violently. Drac instinctively took a step forward, flames already gathering around his hand, but Ocean’s warning resurfaced in his mind at the last moment. Instead of interfering, he slowly backed away, his eyes never leaving the fallen Dark Mage.
Azar’s mutilated body arched unnaturally as his mouth fell open in a silent gasp. His pupils rolled upward until only the whites remained, and even those gradually darkened into an endless black. Thin cuts suddenly carved themselves across his forehead, shaped as crosses, forming in a perfectly straight horizontal line. A heartbeat later, his limp body rose from the deck as though seized by invisible hands. The surrounding air trembled before a pillar of black light erupted from within him, piercing the skies with terrifying force.
Drac watched the black light before he leapt off from the ship to reach a safe spot to observe.
Far across him, Davian and Rune witnessed the same nightmare unfold.
Gargi’s body suddenly began shaking uncontrollably. She staggered once, her expression twisting in confusion before the identical stigmata carved themselves across her forehead. Neither Prince had time to react before she too was lifted into the air. The second pillar of black light burst upward, racing toward the sky until it vanished beyond the clouds.
The two Princes remained rooted to the spot, silently watching the second pillar join the first high above them. Something about the world itself had begun to change. The mana surrounding them was steadily thinning, becoming strangely hollow.
Rune frowned, his eyes fixed upon the darkening skies.
Davian couldn’t understand but he could feel it as well.
Back at the colosseum, Silas and Marquis Fairisles sensed the same disturbance almost immediately. The once abundant mana flowing through the atmosphere was fading with every passing second, leaving behind an uneasy emptiness that neither of them had ever experienced before. Both men instinctively lifted their eyes toward the sky where the clouds had begun taking on a deep crimson hue, as though dusk itself had been stained with blood.
Neither of them knew what Ocean intended to do upon reaching Edrisyl. They had only been entrusted with their own roles and had faithfully carried them out. Yet the world’s mana growing thinner by the moment could only mean one thing.
Something tremendous had already begun.
Silas silently watched the ominous sky, his jaw tightening ever so slightly. Beside him, Marquis Fairisles rested a reassuring hand upon his son’s shoulder without speaking. The gesture drew Silas’s attention for only a moment before his gaze drifted toward Alys, who stood nearby wearing the same troubled expression.
None of them could do anything now except wait.
Meanwhile, on Edrisyl, the Dominus was approaching his final invocation.
The black blood soaking the Domina’s forehead suddenly shimmered before her lifeless body slowly rose from the frozen ground. A third pillar of black light erupted through her, surging upward to join the other two already stretching across the heavens.
The Dominus continued chanting without pause.
The frozen earth beneath his feet shattered apart as an overwhelming surge of dead mana gathered around him. His own body became the ritual’s final conduit. A fourth pillar of black light exploded skyward from within him, colliding with the other three at a single point high above the burning remains of Yggdrasil.
The strain was immediate.
Blood streamed from the corners of his pitch-black eyes, tracing dark lines down his face as the ritual devoured his own life force to sustain itself. Even so, he refused to falter. His breathing grew heavier, his body trembled beneath the burden, yet the chant never once broke.
The ritual had begun, and he would see it through even if it demanded his very life.
Ocean paid no attention to the ritual unfolding behind him. Without so much as a glance toward the Dominus, he calmly walked to the place where Yggdrasil had once stood, only a mound of smoldering ash remained.
He came to a stop before it and raised one hand slightly. The ashes stirred at once before a gentle wave of telekinetic force swept across the ground, carrying them away like gray snow caught in the wind. Layer after layer was peeled back until the scorched earth hidden beneath finally came into view.
Had anyone witnessed what happened before Ocean arrived on Edrisyl, they would never have believed it.
For several brief minutes, time itself had ceased to flow.
The winds had stopped, the oceans had become perfectly still and every living being across the world had been frozen within a single passing moment. Even the Supreme Dragons had remained suspended within that motionless world, utterly unaware that time had abandoned them.
Only two existences had continued moving through that silence.
One was Ocean and the other was the Patron who had summoned him into the frozen space.
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