LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 116
A large dragon’s head loomed before me, and unlike my surprise, the other three dragon bloods acted as if they were familiar with this place. They poured the food and drinks they had brought and quietly bowed their heads in front of it.
I wondered if I should follow suit, keeping an eye on them when a faint and unstable shape flowed out of the dragon’s mouth.
At that moment, I realized that even this unclear form before me was the last thought left behind by this dragon.
Could I really have a conversation with something that seemed unable to maintain its shape due to the passage of time?
The Red Gate, Blue Heart, and Red Wind lowered their heads, seemingly accustomed to the blurry dragon’s thought.
“O great progenitor of the Dragon Blood… Your descendants have come seeking your aid.”
[Come closer…]
Yet, is it still true that a dragon is a dragon?
Contrary to my expectations, the faint thought seemed to be maintaining a sense of self. It expressed its intentions clearly in response to the Red Gate’s words.
“Ah, yes…”
The Red Gate took a slow step forward, but it seemed that the dragon’s thought did not desire him.
[Not you.]
“Then…?”
[That, that child… bring her here…]
It seemed that what the dragon’s thought desired was me. Frowning, I stepped back. The thought associated with Kashpa had frozen almost countless people with a single breath. The dragon’s thought before me might harbor great power as well.
“Lana. Come here.”
It was the voice of the Red Gate. He beckoned me to approach him.
“Can’t we just talk here?”
“What do you mean… haven’t you heard our ancestor’s voice…?”
“No, I have heard it, but…”
I furrowed my brow and placed my hand on the sword I had brought. An inexplicable sense of foreboding washed over me. This was certainty. The sense of a dragon, surpassing that of a human, was sending me a warning.
[Come here… come here… come here…]
It began to repeat the same words as if broken. The trembling mana created a grotesque voice.
“L-Lana! The ancestor is angry!”
The Red Gate shouted in a frantic voice. The Blue Heart also looked pale, alternating glances between me and the dragon’s thought. Only the Red Wind maintained a dubious expression, keeping his distance from the dragon’s thought.
At that moment, the dragon’s thought, wavering in the air, vanished in an instant. As we all blinked in surprise at the vanished thought, the mummified remains of the past house lord closest to the dragon’s head slowly began to rise.
Creeeak- Crack-!
“C-Could this be…?!”
“Grandfather’s body…!”
The Blue Heart and Red Gate looked at the moving mummy with shocked expressions. The mummy was draped in azure robes symbolizing the Blue Dragon House.
With each movement, gray scales fell from the decrepit mummy. The forcibly animated body screamed in pain, but the mummy did not cease moving.
[Come here…]
“What the hell…”
I gasped and drew my sword. The dragon’s thought hadn’t disappeared. It was the thought controlling the movement of the mummy.
As the mummy’s elongated eyes began to glow blue, a cold chill settled around it.
“Red House Lord! Blue House Lord! Did all the house lords’ remains take this form when they were placed here?!”
The Red Gate and Blue Heart hesitated, exchanging glances. After a brief moment of contemplation, the Red Gate slowly opened his mouth.
“Um… The figures of the past house lords have transformed ever since their remains were laid here…”
“What the hell…”
[Come here!]
I swung my sword at the advancing mummy while cursing. As the sword whirled, enveloped in flames, the shriveled mummy was instantly cleaved in two.
“Ah, Grandfather…!”
The Blue Heart cried out with a pale face, watching the former Blue Dragon House lord’s dismembered remains squirm on the floor. Using its remaining arm, the half that was left crawled along the ground. Realizing its intentions, I understood what it sought.
This dragon’s thought desires my body.
The dragon’s mana surrounding me began to resonate with the mana within my body, and blurry memories began to flow in.
The memories contained within the mana revealed much to me. Tremendous time had passed since the dragon’s death. The small thought that had fallen from the dragon’s soul could not have endured such a span.
The thought had long guarded the corpse. It had watched as time turned it into a mountain. The remnant thought left to protect this land began to question its own existence.
Another passage of time went by. The thought that had separated from the dragon’s spirit could no longer be called a dragon. The stream of time had worn away at the mental faculties of the thought.
The thought vowed to live for itself, longing to return to its once glorious form. Thus, it created this shrine and began using the beastmen who had settled atop the dragon’s corpse to fashion a body for itself, willingly imparting knowledge.
And now, here we are.
“Um…”
The Red Gate and Blue Heart still looked confused and reluctant to move, while the Red Wind raised his fists and glared at the resurrecting mummy.
He was a man quick to assess the situation.
[Hand over your body!!!]
The resurrected mummy of the dragon clan began to flap its wings, filling the shrine with scorching hot winds. Instead of dealing with the newly arisen mummy, I swung my sword towards the seemingly resurrecting mummies ahead.
“Hayaat!”
As my sword was swung wide, expelling rolling flames, as the severed head fell to the ground, the remaining bodies began to emit black smoke and catch fire, causing the Red Gate and Blue Heart to scream.
“Ughhh!”
“No!!!”
At that moment, the grayish-hued mummy of the dragon clan began to absorb the surrounding mana. It was the thought that resided within, moving the mummy.
Creeeak-!
The absorbed mana started to rejuvenate the dragon clan’s mummy. The emaciated body swelled, its scales regaining color.
The elongated tail whipped through the air, igniting red flames. The moment the scarlet scales glimmered, the gray wings also flared with red flames, restoring their original colors.
[Kraaah!]
This form couldn’t have been what the unidentified dragon clan lord looked like when he was alive. The thought of the dragon manipulating the body had surely mutated it after death.
Fwaaat-!
In an instant, the thought form vanished. It was high-speed movement using mana. The maximum physical enhancement made without regard for the burden on the body.
Creeeak-!
Of course, the already dead body couldn’t bear such force. The moment the previously vanished thought form reappeared behind me, pieces of scales cracked and fell from its body.
Baam-!
I barely lifted my sword just in time to block the thought’s attack. The red scales fluttered off from the colliding body of the thought.
At that moment, the connection between me and the thought began to form through the part of the body that had touched the sword. An instinctive revulsion surged within me. I recoiled from the thought.
Engaging in close combat was off the table…
Fwooosh-!
In that instant, as if filling the empty space, the Red Wind descended. His entire body enveloped in a massive flame, the heat melted everything around us.
This was perfect. As the Red Wind engaged the thought, I began to draw mana while maintaining my distance.
There was no need to control the power of Kalbain’s Mana infused with extreme heat. Unlike when I faced the Death Knight in the dungeon, I had obtained mana that could withstand Kalbain’s heat.
As the heart’s circle began to rotate, Kashpa’s coldness gathered toward my right hand, while Kalbain’s heat flowed to my left.
Gugugugu-!
The entire mountain shook at the operation of such colossal mana. The key to casting magic was a distinct image. Concrete memories through images or visuals often remained clearer than vague notions conjured from short phrases.
The starlit world constructed within me began to spin rapidly, raising a small star while a blurry figure of a boy emerged, emanating bright light.
At that moment, the Red Wind, facing the thought, was pushed back significantly. I did not miss that opportunity.
The magic formed from the extreme cold and extreme heat. A spell, defined as the ultimate annihilation spell that did not exist in this world, was now complete.
“Hyat!”
When the two opposing manas combined into one, a massive storm arose, shooting forth a colossal flash of light in a straight line.
Kwaaaaaa-!
I had no doubt in the power of the magic. The spell that annihilated everything it touched would wipe out even the traces of the thought that had lost its body. This unshakeable belief directly translated into the spell’s power.
As the light of destruction surged forth, consuming everything that stood in its path, nothing remained in front.
The ceiling of the shrine was torn apart, and the large wall vanished. A section of the deeply hollowed mountain indicated that something had once existed there.
“Huh, huh…”
The exhalation of disbelief from the Red Wind scattered behind me. The Red Gate and Blue Heart looked dazed, seemingly unaware of what had just occurred.
Of course. From their perspective, it would appear as though the young girl of the Dragon Blood ruthlessly shattered the remains of the past house lords. Yet they did not interfere with my actions, indicating that they felt something.
Having chased after the dragon scales enshrined in the shrine, what a mess this has turned into. As I let out a sigh mixed with relief and disappointment, the tremors began.
Gugugugu-!
An ominous certainty, akin to foresight, enveloped my entire being. Just as I hastily began to draw mana, the ground I stood upon flipped over, and the massive dragon’s head shot up into the sky.
The skeletal dragon’s upper body emerged. In the hollowed-out eye sockets, a strange light glimmered as the enormous claw of the dragon descended toward me.
In that brief moment, countless spells flashed through my mind, and I had to find a spell that could protect my body while being able to be activated quickly.
In the split second of time, the flow of things fragmented. As hundreds of images switched one by one, I stamped my foot hard onto the ground.
Bang-!
Immediately, my mana circle spun rapidly, igniting Starlight Mana. But it was too late. The instant the spell was activated, I realized something.
Manifestation of Inner World
Star-
At the moment of the colossal impact shaking my body, the spell I had prepared shattered, and the dragon’s paw met mine, allowing the dragon’s thought to begin flowing into me.
As consciousness submerged into the depths, it began to swirl with the thought. As silence descended, all sensations in my body faded away.
*
The tiny fragment that had fallen from the dragon’s soul, unable to even remember its own name, let out a deafening roar. This was because the purpose it had long planned for had finally been realized. It was the operation to reclaim the dragon’s body and return to its glorious past. This had succeeded.
The dragon’s thought, now inside the girl’s body, first recognized the space it was in.
A pitch-black space where nothing could be seen. It found itself floating alone in that void. The moment the dragon’s thought became aware of itself, its body began to take on a distinct shape. The once blurry form grew massive while unfurling gigantic wings. The elongated tail swept through the darkness, announcing its presence.
However, despite having regained its immense body reminiscent of its glorious past, it found nothing around it. Not even the original persona that occupied its new form.
It was just the moment of throwing endless questions at itself. The dragon’s thought discovered a sparkling light in the darkness. As soon as it recognized it, the light proliferated in abundance. A dazzling light began to flow like a river, filling the previously empty black space.
It did not take long for the dragon’s thought to grasp that each sparkling light contained another world.
It was a tremendous shock. The sight was beyond understanding, causing the dragon’s thought to lose its train of thought. It soon realized how infinitesimally small it was. In this space filled with twinkling stars, it was merely a speck of dust.
“I’m so glad.”
The girl’s voice suddenly rang out. It could not even respond. It didn’t even notice the approach. Right now, at this very moment, it recognized the girl’s existence with its eyes.
The dragon’s thought flapped its wings, displaying a menacing aura. Yet, the aura it projected did not reach the girl.
“Do you know? In order to manifest the inner world outside, one must dominate that space with their own mana as preparation.”
The dragon’s thought could not understand the girl’s words. Her long years had dulled its mind to the point of being able to think only in fragments.
However, one thing was clear to the dragon’s thought. The act of entering this girl’s mental world was an irreversible colossal blunder.
“But here, that’s not necessary.”
The moment the girl’s voice ended, her tiny fingers joined together, forming a gesture.
Complete Manifestation of Inner World
Festival of the Stars
Following the girl’s will, countless stars assembled. The innumerable worlds were imbued with the energies of the absolute beings, too many for the eyes to comprehend.
As the girl stepped onto the flowing starlight, flames of destruction capable of incinerating worlds and a frigid cold that could freeze even time appeared beside her.
The girl beckoned toward the dragon’s thought. In this place, everything she desired was possible. Two stars, responding to the girl’s intent, collided with the dragon’s thought, causing a tremendous explosion.
*
Snapping back to reality, I first checked my body’s condition. My arms and legs were fine, and the horns sprouting from my head and the sharp fangs were also intact. Just to be sure, I confirmed the state of my mana circle, finding no abnormalities.
Just as I carefully began to peel away the luxurious silk blanket covering me…
Thud-!
A plump tail, covered in red scales, protruded out from the edge of the bed.