Chapter 598 - 594 – TRACES OF A SACRED BEAST BEYOND THE DEATHCLOUD

Sylvia made her decision in less than a minute, and the reason was simple: she had been bored for far too long.

"I’m going north," she said, making Zhaoyue, sitting beside her, nearly drop the skewer she had just picked up.

"Now? Sylvia, the Council Guard Legion will arrive in three days!"

"I know." Sylvia stood and brushed the dust from her dress. "The round trip takes two days at most if Sol doesn’t complain. If he complains, three."

’I won’t complain,’ Sol answered quickly from under the cloth umbrella. The golden cat was already standing on all four legs, tail upright, eyes staring north without blinking. The laziness that had clung to him for four days seemed to peel away in an instant. ’This concerns the honor of the sacred dragons. If a kinsman needs help, I can’t stay idle.’

’Yesterday you also said sleeping under that umbrella concerned honor,’ Noir quipped from the shadow.

’That’s different!’

Zhaoyue looked at the two creatures with an expression of amusement mixed with worry, then turned back to Sylvia. "If the Legion arrives before you’re back, what should I do?"

"First, don’t panic," Sylvia answered calmly. "Second, you’re not alone. Celes and fifty of Nocture’s elite troops are in the new city, and I’ve already ordered them to assist you. If the Legion comes with good intentions, welcome them with tea. If they raise weapons, Celes decides."

"Celes won’t..." Zhaoyue hesitated. "I mean, she won’t massacre them all, will she?"

"She’ll do what needs to be done," Sylvia answered without losing her smile. "But I’ve instructed her that no lives be lost without reason. Trust me, Zhaoyue. You stood alone against General Mo Lan without trembling. You’re stronger than you think."

Zhaoyue’s cheeks flushed. She lowered her head and nodded slowly. "All right. I’ll protect this city until you return."

An hour later, Sylvia met Celes at the dock. The silver-haired commander listened to her orders without interruption, then saluted with one hand over her chest.

"Understood, my Queen. I will lead the elite troops to protect Princess Zhaoyue and the entire port. If the Guard Legion attacks, we will hold them off with as few casualties as possible."

"Good." Sylvia glanced at the eastern corner of the dock, where a magic-clay building trailing thin smoke let out a small explosion. "And if Stacia creates something that runs toward the city, catch it before it hurts anyone."

"That already happened twice yesterday, my Queen."

"Just catch it again."

Sylvia walked off, holding back a smile. Behind her, Stacia’s voice came from the window of the new laboratory, shouting gleefully, "Sylvia! Are you leaving? Take the scanning mosquito drones! They can track energy anomalies up to fifty kilometers!"

A small wooden box floated out of the window and fell into Sylvia’s hands. Inside, dozens of silver-gleaming micro-drones shaped as mosquitoes slept in nests of foam.

"Thanks, Stacia."

"Come back safe! And if you find anything weird, bring it home for me to study!"

"If I find something, I can’t promise I’ll let you cut it up."

"I won’t cut it up! Just observe!" Stacia cried, in a tone not the least bit convincing.

At midday, on an empty plain ten kilometers outside the city, Sol shed his cat form.

Golden light burst forth, and in an instant the tiny body swelled into a fifty-meter golden dragon. His golden scales glittered sacredly under the sun, his horns curved gracefully, and his wide wings spread to cover part of the plain. But this time something was different from the dragon who usually grumbled whenever he was given orders. Sol’s gaze was sharp and full of resolve.

’Climb on,’ he said in a deep voice that made the ground tremble.

Sylvia leapt lightly onto his back, choosing a spot between two large scales at the base of the neck. Noir didn’t need to do anything; he was already in Sylvia’s shadow, fast asleep.

"Sol, take the outer route. Don’t pass over the capital. I don’t want to disturb the Emperor."

’Understood. I’ll fly high, above the clouds.’

"And the air shield?"

’Already active.’

Sol flapped his wings once. A fierce wind roared, then his giant body shot straight into the sky within seconds, splitting the clouds, streaking north as a barely visible flash of gold. No sonic boom. No tremor. Only a thin line of light etched in the sky that quickly vanished.

The first two hours of flight passed in silence. Below them, the expanse of Tianhua rolled past quickly: dense emerald forests, giant rivers winding like silver snakes, cracked dry plains, and occasionally small towns that looked like specks in a green sea. Sylvia sat cross-legged, relaxed, enjoying the wind perfectly held back by Sol’s shield.

"How much farther?" she asked.

’I’m not sure yet,’ Sol answered. ’The resonance is getting clearer, but it’s very faint. Like the voice of someone whispering from behind a thick wall.’

"Like Qilin’s voice?"

’Different. Qilin is calm and healing. This one... is rougher, wilder. Like a dense forest before a storm.’

Sylvia took the drone box out of the System Inventory and released ten silver mosquitoes into the air. They buzzed softly, then spread out in a scanning formation around Sol, sending three-dimensional topographic data to her holographic bracelet. The small screen on her wrist displayed a scrolling map with red and gray dots.

"No monsters gathering here," she murmured. "No zombies either. All I see are ordinary animals."

’Wait until we approach the mountains.’

Sylvia raised an eyebrow. "The Deathcloud Mountains? That’s the border of the capital’s core territory, isn’t it?"

’Correct. It’s the natural fence separating the outskirts from the heart of Tianhua. There, I can feel something, and not just sacred energy. There’s magnetism. There’s pressure. As if something is inhaling and exhaling beneath the ground.’

In the third hour, the horizon ahead began to darken. A row of giant volcanic mountains emerged from the mist, their peaks piercing the cloud layer like enormous black fingers gripping the sky. Dense gray clouds swirled around the craters, occasionally struck by flashes of purple lightning. The air grew heavier, and each breath carried a faint vibration, like static electricity crawling over the skin.

"The magnetic anomaly," Sylvia whispered, looking at the holographic screen, now filled with wavy red lines. "The drones’ radar is starting to go haywire."

’I feel it too. Hold on tight. We’re going in.’

Sol dived low, slipping between two giant volcanic peaks. The thunderstorm greeted them with an ear-splitting roar. Thick clouds swallowed them, and for several minutes the world held only darkness and purple flashes slashing the sky. Sol’s air shield trembled, holding against the battering of a fierce wind trying to tear their bodies apart.

Then, suddenly, everything went silent.

They broke through the last layer of cloud and shot out into an entirely different space. Above the storm, the sky was so blue and clear it was as if someone had cut out a piece of the world and pasted it here. A sea of white clouds stretched below them like a carpet, and in the middle of it, a single mountain peak towered far higher than the rest.

That peak was not black like the volcanic mountains around it. Its slopes were marble-white, clean and gleaming, with fine golden veins forming strange patterns resembling the bones of a giant. At its summit, a wide crater yawned, ringed by ancient stone pillars, half of them already collapsed.

’There,’ Sol whispered. His voice trembled, whether from emotion or fear. ’That’s the source.’

Sylvia gazed at the peak for a very long time. Her True Sight eyes moved automatically, piercing through layers of rock and cloud. Beneath that marble, deep within the mountain, she saw threads of life’s fate glowing faintly. One thread was golden-white, very thick, far thicker than anything she had ever seen. But the thread was very thin at its end, fragile like cloth about to snap.

"It’s... dying," Sylvia said quietly.

’What?!’ Sol turned, eyes wide.

"Its life thread is nearly severed. A few days left, maybe less." Sylvia frowned and looked deeper. "Something is holding it. Chains. Ancient magic chains, hundreds of layers, binding its body from inside the mountain. And something is draining its energy bit by bit."

A moment of silence. Then Sol’s low roar shook the air.

’Who would dare...!’

"Calm down." Sylvia patted the giant dragon’s neck. "We don’t know who did it yet. Land at the edge of the crater. Slowly. If we come in wrath, it might misunderstand."

Sol took a deep breath, then glided down gently and landed at the edge of that white crater with grace. His claws touched the marble without a sound. A cold wind blew between the ancient stone pillars, carrying the scent of pine and something else, the smell of wet earth after rain, but with a trace of sorrow.

Sylvia leapt down and walked to the crater’s edge. At its bottom, far below, lay a giant stone chamber with a floor patterned in intricate magic circles. Dim purple light pulsed from the circles’ lines, blending with a golden glow from something large and dark in the center of the chamber.

Something breathing.

Sylvia held her breath. In the middle of that stone chamber, coiled within the grip of purple chains that pierced its flesh, lay a gigantic figure. Its body was the size of a small hill, covered in pure white fur with glossy black stripes, and a pair of round ears that occasionally twitched weakly. The giant’s head rested on the stone floor, its breathing heavy and labored.

A white tiger. But no tiger in this world radiated such majesty. A pair of small horns grew from its forehead, and among its black stripes, faint golden carvings formed ancient letters that glowed weakly.

’Baihu,’ Sol whispered, his voice choked. ’The White Tiger, guardian of the West. One of the Four Ancient Guardians.’

Sylvia looked at the dying majestic creature, then turned to Sol. For the first time, she saw tears pooling in the dragon’s golden eyes.

"The chains on its body," Sylvia said quietly. "Those aren’t natural. They’re man-made. Someone in this kingdom deliberately bound it here."

At the bottom of the crater, the tiger’s round ears moved. Its head lifted very slowly, and a pair of pale golden eyes, dim but sharp, looked straight up, right at them.

’...Who... has come?’ The voice echoed in their minds, weak yet commanding, as thunder held back behind a mountain. ’A follower... or a hunter?’

Sylvia stepped forward to the crater’s edge, met the tiger’s eyes without fear, and smiled faintly.

"Depends," she answered gently. "Which one do you want?"