Mystical Journey

In an unknown snowy mountain range, the sharp and straight peaks of the mountains were reflected in the lake water.

The surface of the lake was as clear as a mirror, free of even the slightest ripple. It was just a sea of deep blue. Other than the reflection of the snowy mountains, all that remained was the blue sky.

The lake was oval in shape and not very large, bordered completely by the broken edges of the white ice. The water was so clear that it was almost transparent.

On one side of the lake, there was a large and quiet white snowy mountain, grey-brown in the parts that were not covered in snow.

On the other side, there was a layer of snowstorm clouds.

Looking at it from afar, the cloud layer was forced into the distance, enveloping the ground there completely within a flurry of snow. It looked like a completely different world from the quiet cleanliness over here.

The sunlight faintly fell onto the surface of the lake and the left side of the snowy mountain. It projected a faint golden light, but also some miniscule dark shadows on the other side of the mountain.

Boom…!

Just then, two figures abruptly shot out from the white snowstorm cloud layer.

The one in front was a smaller white Dragon Whelp that looked to be in bad shape, and seemed to pretty badly injured.

The one chasing behind it, on the other hand, was a pitch-black humanoid in black knight armor.

On after the other, the two of them shot out toward the snowy mountain like bullets, leaving a long white trail in the sky.

“Here?” Garen vaguely sensed that something was amiss with this place, but he did not have the luxury to dwell on it.

He felt weak all over. His attributes had been reduced twice consecutively, and his Agility had already dropped by four points. The Knight behind him was faster than him now, and the distance between them had been reduced from more than a thousand meters before to just several dozen meters now. Thank goodness he had added four points to his Agility in time, and he still had eleven points to be used, but he still managed to put a distance between them in time.

This was the place his Soul Rings predicted would be able to help him.

He had no other choice now.

The quiet snowy mountains, the mirror-like lake. This was a place nearing perfection, but there was no sign of life whatsoever. Even an idiot would have noticed that something was wrong with this place.

But this something wrong was precisely what Garen wanted right now!

He dashed straight for the snowy mountain fearlessly.

That place was the center of everything without a doubt. If there was something unnatural here, it would surely be concentrated there.

***************

“This place!?”

Soon after the Suffering Knight entered this area, it sensed that its connection to its master had been instantly severed.

Shocked, it slowed down slightly and began to observe the snowy mountain ahead of it hesitantly.

Its surroundings were completely clean, without even a single living creature. The atmosphere here was heavy and dead, completely devoid of life.

A feeling that sent shivers down its spine rose from this place faintly.

“Should I continue to give chase?” The idea had barely occurred to it before it was immediately squashed down.

“The master’s orders are absolute, no degree of danger should stand in the way of my mission.”

It instantly tossed everything to the winds and quickly gave chase, showing no intention of leaving whatsoever.

“But I have to finish off that guy ahead as soon as possible… I can’t drag it on any longer.”

He looked down at the red glyphs on the sharp Greatsword as they lit up slowly. They glowed with a blood-like red light.

****************

Garen could feel the strength draining out of his body and hurriedly added another point to his Vitality. He only had ten attribute points left, so if he could not dispel the curse this time, he would incur heavy losses even if he used up all of the attribute points.

His body felt slightly better now, and he flew toward a crevice in the snowy mountain, swaying as he went.

It was ice-cold in the crevice. Even though he was a White Dragon, he could still that piercing cold permeate through his entire body.

Resisting the discomfort, Garen sped up and flew into the crevice. The crevice had many twists and turns, curving around and around as it stretched on downward.

He could not see the bottom of the crevice below him. All he could see was a sea of pitch-black darkness, as though it was a bottomless abyss.

Psst!

Suddenly, he felt as though something brushed past his face.

Garen was stunned. That thing was extraordinarily fast. On the other hand, he was completely exhausted right now, his spirit stretched to its tolerance limit. Two days of non-stop flying without daring to take even a moment’s rest had pushed him, a mere Dragon Whelp, to his limit. That was why he had no idea what the thing that flew past him was.

“It does not have the aura of a living creature… Whatever! No matter what, it beats falling into the hands of a Soul Master!” He continued to dive head-first into the crevice.

The crevice grew wider and wider as he went, becoming larger and also colder, bone-chillingly cold.

Garen felt as though he was flying toward the center of the world. It was a very eerie feeling.

Ahead of him, there was only darkness without the slightest hint of light. Even if he had a natural talent for night vision as a White Dragon, he still could not find even a fleck of light. He had to rely on the flow of the current to sense the area around him.

The Suffering Knight behind him was growing closer and closer, as though it had gotten somewhat hurried.

Psst!

Psst-psst-psst!

All of a sudden, several black things shot past Garen abruptly.

His body stiffened abruptly, his body had somehow become completely frozen. He could barely even move his wings. His body began to fell straight down, toward the bottom of the crevice.

This time, they were too close together, so Garen could finally clearly see what the thing beside him was.

They were basically wisps of black smoke with human faces.

The black smoke swam quickly through the crevice like fish in water. It was thick and concentrated, and more currents of black smoke kept whooshing past Garen’s body.

One hundred, two hundred? One thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand? A million?” Garen counted these wisps of black smoke until he lost count, and only then did he see that there was light here now!

His whole body stiffened, and he allowed gravity to drag him toward, into the depth of the crevice abyss.

In his night-vision dragon eyes, he could vaguely see a ball of transparent light, lighting up slowly at the bottom of the abyss. It looked like white light, but its source was that foggy transparent sphere.

That light source was still at least several kilometers away, and from a distance, he could see that there were countless black smoke faces surrounding that light source.

This all-encompassing black smoke seemed to have a life of its own, and it flew around the light source, staring with distorted hatred in its eyes.

The countless black smoke surrounded the light source, forming a giant tidal-like whirlpool. That colorless light source sat at the bottom of the whirlpool.

And Garen felt as though he was falling toward the bottom of the whirlpool. He was completely helpless, and it was like he was falling into hell.

“This place… what is it!!?” He heard the roar of a Suffering Knight behind him.

“Dosima, angelier… Silent flames of hell, eye of suffering, open up your arms, face the solidification of eternity…” He heard a deep voice singing a chant behind him.

Garen instantly felt a spine-chilling sense of threat surge forth from behind him.

His Soul Rings began to shake uncontrollably, as though it was encountering an unprecedented danger of the highest level. Many cracks appeared, one after the other, on the Soul Rings.

That illogical chant that also seemed to contain an unnatural magic power transcended the long distance and went straight into Garen’s ears.

“…Final Battle to the Death!” When the last note ended, Garen saw light.

It was not the faint white light from beneath him. Instead, it was a blinding red light that blossomed from behind him, blood-like viscous red light!

That blood-like red color washed over him like countless waves, faster than he could imagine. Garen just felt as though the red light had appeared behind him in an instant, and was just about to touch his skin. A sense of weakness and helplessness, accompanied by suffering and despair, spread throughout his entire body.

“No!!”

He roared madly! The danger had come so quickly, and even if he had already mentally prepared himself a long time ago, when he felt that weakness all over his body, a deep-set terror still surged up from the bottom of his heart.

All his Soul Rings were trembling madly, many countless and tiny cracks appearing all over them. Even if he had to detonate all of his Soul Rings, he still refused to allow himself to fail without putting up a fight!

Garen’s eyes began to shine with terrifying Soul Energy. If he lost his Soul Rings, he could still condense them again, but if he lost his soul, it was all over!

His eyes revealed an unprecedented brutal determination.

Ka-chak!

One of his Soul Rings exploded abruptly, turning into an immense wave of powerful Soul Energy that rushed about madly in his brain.

Each Demon-Lord-Level existence had, without exception, experienced countless challenges and growth before they reached the level they were at. Garen was no different.

In the history of Ancient Endor, there had never been an instance where a Demon Lord was abducted! Never!!

The first Soul Ring exploded, and Garen’s strength, as well as his physical fitness, was forcefully doubled.

The second and third Soul Rings also abruptly exploded at the same time!

Countless soul shards scattered everywhere, and Garen’s body expanded rapidly like a balloon being inflated. And he was still growing larger and vaster! He had grown into a mature White Dragon’s body in almost an instant.

Finally, a small wound underneath his scales split apart.

Barroom!!!

At the bottom of the abyss, an unimaginable wave of heat sprayed out suddenly.

It was as though heaven and earth had frozen in an instant. Everything, all of it, seemed to freeze in time, held in place by the faint white light from the abyss below.

Inside the light source, a huge and terrifying golden eye opened slowly. A woman dressed in a black dress that was tight around her waist stood in the middle of the eye.

The woman opened her eyes slowly. Her skin was whiter than snow, her hair darker than the night, and her figure seemed to have been forged according to the most perfect golden proportions. She was completely flawless.

Although she had opened her eyes, there was no light or consciousness in them at all. As though she was still deeply asleep, she raised her left hand slowly, like a sleepwalker.

Her palm was aimed directly at Garen and the Suffering Knight.

Barroom!!!

There was another immense tremor.

A giant, unimaginable pressure traveled across several kilometers and instantly landed on Garen and the Suffering Knight.

Garen felt as though an entire giant mountain had fallen on top of him in an instant. That feeling was just like how he had felt when he flew toward the sun of the Mother Planet for the first time in the Mech World.

Heavy, immense, irresistible.

“…Draconic Aura!!” An agonized voice came from behind him. It was the Suffering Knight’s voice.

That was the last thing Garen heard.

Time seemed to be flowing backward… His body shrunk rapidly, and he soon returned to his original Dragon Whelp body. The Soul Rings inside his body had also somehow naturally returned to their original Soul Ring state, even though they had already been blown to pieces. They looked almost completely undamaged.