[Vol. 8] Chapter 279: East, the Final Point
Violet looked closely and saw that it was a small dragon scale, white as jade and only the size of a palm. It was smooth to the touch and gave off a faint but very pure light-element aura. It felt very pleasant in her hand.
“This is a life-scale I shed in my early years. After refining it, I made it into a small trinket that’s at least somewhat useful. You can think of it as the token of the White Dragon clan’s leader.”
The white dragon girl explained simply. Because her body was becoming more and more transparent, her speaking speed unconsciously quickened.
“To a true god, its small functions might not be of much use. But you, Miss Violet, have an aura that fits very well with us White Dragons. You might be able to use it as a medium to connect with me. That way, we can communicate freely anytime.”
“Of course, this requires a very high level of compatibility. If it fails, it’s fine. Although I’ll need to rest for a while after this, and I may not be able to create another avatar like today’s for some time, the seal in our place will be broken within a month. When that happens, my dragon clan will return to this world, and I can meet you in person.”
“Though by that time, I’m afraid I won’t have much free time to just sit and talk~”
The priestess nodded and casually put the white dragon scale away. Taking advantage of the last moments before the other left, she asked the question that had been troubling her the most, the question that seemed most important now.
“So, Cielru… why did you suddenly appear here? The ruins where the corpse of the ‘Serpent’ is sealed should still be thousands of miles away from this place, right?”
Given the level of control the White Dragon King had shown over her divine-thought avatar, she should not have had the ability to travel long distances in the outside world. That meant she couldn’t have journeyed all the way from the closed-off ruins in the Theo Province.
The more likely case was that she split her presence, moved through space, and appeared here instantly.
No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t make sense, especially since she appeared almost at the same time as the invasion of the “Lord of Decay.” Could that really be just coincidence?
The white dragon girl frowned, as if surprised by the priestess’s question.
“So, you don’t know? Then why did you come here?”
“This could be a problem… Miss Violet, do you know the true nature of that ruin? Or rather, do you know why that place exists, and why the remains of the ‘Serpent’ are buried there?”
Seeing the unusual look on Cielru’s face, Violet just shook her head. Cielru didn’t waste words and gave a straightforward explanation.
“The so-called ruins were not built by some group. They are actually a fragment of the world that was separated in the very distant past, maybe even at the dawn of creation itself. It is a discarded world, sealing away certain ancient things that the ‘Primordial Light’ does not acknowledge and even despises.”
“The [World-Eater Serpent] is indeed one of the most important among them, but it is not all. To make sure these ancient things would never return to the world, the one who separated that world fragment used powerful means to hide it completely. This wasn’t just a simple physical seal. It was even removed from the material plane, stripping away the concepts of time and space, making it impossible to locate forever.”
“But, a thousand years ago, a terrible disaster happened in this world. I don’t know the full details, but they say that during that disaster, a Primordial Artifact representing the law of ‘Time’ was shattered by force, losing its power. With one of the two concepts sealing the ruins destroyed, the boundaries of that place slowly began to be reachable by living beings again.”
"After that, a few more centuries passed. Some powers working in secret kept searching, and finally they overcame the last barrier, linking the world fragment drifting in the void to the real world. That’s why the ruins appeared three hundred years ago."
"But back then, the world’s barrier was still strong like unbreakable stone. Those with bad intentions could not cross it easily. To weaken the power of the original place, they first pushed different mythic races into fighting each other. But in the end..."
In the end, the dragons, together with other races, managed to turn the tide at the last moment, sealing the ruins again, which had been found with so much effort. That gave the world three hundred years of short peace.
"I see..." Violet understood in her heart.
No wonder Minchen and the others had crossed over three hundred years ago, and so many big events in history happened around that time. This disaster might have been ready to explode back then, but the dragons and other strong forces paid a great price to delay it.
After giving this final explanation, Cielru’s figure floating in the night sky became almost completely see-through, leaving only a faint shadow. The priestess knew she was about to leave.
So she quickly asked about some key points.
"That man Ricardo, you’ve met him before, right?"
"Yes. The power behind him is very interesting, and he has a strong will. So I gave him a little help, hoping he could send some messages to the outside world."
The White Dragon King nodded and shared information Ricardo hadn’t had time to deliver to the border.
"Miss Violet, the entrance to the ruins is not fixed. Since it’s a world fragment drifting in the void, it can be seen as an anchor point and passage between two great worlds. Three hundred years ago, it was fixed in the area you know, but that position can change."
"That location is moving farther east. This invasion that happened here is because of it. As for its final destination… I can only sense that it’s still farther east, in a huge and magnificent city. Go and find it, maybe you will..."
"Woooo~"
Her voice suddenly stopped. The White Dragon girl’s figure finally broke apart into tiny lights and disappeared, leaving the night sky quiet again. Only a lone figure floated there, deep in thought.
"...A city in the east, huh."
She murmured to herself and looked down. On the battlefield below, without the endless reinforcements from the wormhole and after the large attack just now, the fight was clearly over. But the things Cielru had just mentioned kept echoing in Violet’s mind, making her feel she had missed something important.
Why did the Lord of Decay suddenly attack the Purple Mist City today? Was it to expand its influence in this world? To test the defenses here? Or to take revenge on her, Violet?
All of these seemed reasonable at first, but thinking deeper, they didn’t feel quite right. And it made the [World Sustainers]’s plans seem far too simple.
Now, everything pointed to the fact that the [World Sustainers] and the Austre Empire had formed some kind of alliance. So if she put herself in the other side’s position, what would be the real task, one that both sides wanted to achieve right now?