Chapter 1242: 229. Wrath (XV)

The sunlight was bright, and spring filled the air.

In the brightest part of the city, a gentle breeze slowly blew, carrying a floral fragrance that made people slightly intoxicated.

And there, the pitch-black giant dragon lay curled up, sleeping quietly. People came and went around her, and it was extremely lively, yet she did not feel the slightest bit disturbed. Instead, she slept even more soundly.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Some kind of enormous tremor caused the entire city to shake, but she merely turned over, hid her head beneath her wings, and refused to listen.

“Dragon Lady, Dragon Lady......”

Only when someone suddenly called her awake did she finally stir.

She raised her head in confusion, then lowered it and looked at the familiar little girl, whose face was filled with a playful smile. The pinwheel in her hand spun with a clattering sound in the wind.

“Why are you still here?”

The little girl tilted her head and asked in confusion: “This is not the time to sleep, is it?”

“I......want to stay here a little longer.”

The giant dragon looked around with attachment. Her wings drooped and gently brushed against the soil filled with the fragrance of flowers.

There were many people here, and she felt very safe......even though she knew that all of this was merely an empty illusion.

“But......someone is waiting for you, right?”

The little girl blinked: “Is it really all right for you to stay here?”

“Waiting for me?”

The giant dragon was confused.

Waiting for her?

How could that be possible? For an evil dragon like her, in the real world, those who were willing to approach her had already ceased to exist long ago. She could only seek a little comfort within this empty world.

......That was how it should have been.

But for some reason, a blurry figure would always flash through her memories.

Who was that?

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The enormous tremors suddenly shook the city. People still came and went, smiling as usual, but in some extremely distant place, darkness seemed to be colliding with darkness, and even this false world was being affected.

So noisy.

The giant dragon felt displeased. She was still thinking, thinking about who that figure actually was......he looked so insignificant and so fragile, yet for some reason, the weight he held within her memories was extremely important.

So important that even this long period of suffering had been unable to make her completely and utterly abandon him.

Why?

Although she could not remember the details, she vaguely remembered that her journey with him had certainly not been long. Especially for a giant dragon like her, that bit of time was simply like a shallow afternoon nap.

But why......did she feel that he was important?

That figure became increasingly solid. Golden hair began to shine beneath the sunlight. She instinctively raised her head, wanting to pursue it......

“No......I cannot leave this place.”

The giant dragon suddenly lowered her head again and forcibly interrupted her own thoughts.

If she left this place, she would once again be alone, and she would once again have to continuously face......that heart-rending pain by herself.

She already......did not want to be like that anymore.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Leave her alone.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was really so noisy.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

No......no, she really could not......

Boom!

Dragon Lady......

Someone was calling her.

The giant dragon stared blankly into emptiness. Her heart seemed to have been torn in half, wavering from side to side.

But that balance had actually already begun to tilt amid those thunderous sounds and those calls that seemed like hallucinations.

It was merely a little slow.

【Sigh.】

Rustle......

In a daze, the sound of pages turning seemed to ring out.

The giant dragon’s movements suddenly stiffened. She seemed to sense something and slowly looked toward the other side.

In that backlit place, the little girl who had originally been there had disappeared. In her place stood a figure. Although the figure was still blurry and unclear, as though some power had completely erased their true appearance......it was already enough to stir the deepest parts of her memory.

“ ** ?”

“Why are you still standing there? I do not remember you being this indecisive. If you want to go, then go......”

The figure spoke softly, but this time, instead of asking her to come toward them, the figure raised a hand and pointed in the completely opposite direction.

The direction from which those roaring tremors......were coming.

“Go there......”

“But I......”

“Do you still not understand? You are no longer alone......”

The figure lightly tapped a finger, and the city’s scenery scattered like bubbles. Only the figure she had just been thinking so hard about became completely real.

It was a golden-haired human, standing where countless corpses and a boundless sea of blood intersected, yet still smiling as he looked at her.

“Dragon Lady.”

He said from there:

“Please come save me. Whether it is pain, whether it is even more despair, whether it is cleansing Pollution, whether it is saving the world......I will accompany you and keep walking together.”

“Please come......save me.”

“......”

He was asking her to save him.

What selfish and foolish words. Under normal circumstances, who would say something like that to someone who had already grown tired of saving others, to someone who had suffered endless pain and torment because of saving others?

He clearly knew that her heart had already been riddled with wounds, yet he still said such despicable words. That human......was as detestable as ever.

But her heart, which had already fallen completely silent, still began to tremble gradually because of those utterly shameless words......

She wanted to save him.

Not only him. She wanted to save many, many people. She even wanted to save this entire world.

Even if everyone hated her, even if this world was already terminally ill and had become unbearably terrible, even if that pain tormented her until she was on the verge of death, if she could catch even the slightest breath, she would still think this way.

This was......her nature.

Her nature that would only cause herself pain.

Just as he had said......she had always been attached to this world.

“**, will he truly continue accompanying me forever? Even if that road is filled with pain and torment, filled with disappointment and despair?”

She asked with hope.

“He will.”

The figure looked at her and answered seriously:

“This, I can guarantee to you......because he is exactly that kind of hopelessly foolish person. Very much like you......is he not?”

“Like me......?”

The giant dragon was slightly stunned. At first, she was still somewhat confused. How could a human and a dragon be alike?

But suddenly, she laughed.

It was unclear whether she was laughing at that person or at herself.

Because they truly were very alike.

That was right......how had she failed to notice it sooner? He was actually very, very much like her.

They were both so easy for others to dislike, and both so easy for others to misunderstand.

They had both once caused even more serious consequences because of their own kindness, and then had no choice but to pay an even more terrible price.

She was an evil dragon who killed people.

He was a villain who set fires.

No matter what kind of story it was, they were an incomparably well-matched combination.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“So that is how it is......” The tremors continued, but the giant dragon smiled and murmured softly.

So she truly was no longer alone, and she no longer needed to suffer so much.

No matter how rough and difficult the road ahead was, there would already be an equally foolish person walking beside her, until they reached the place he had spoken of, the true place of light after everything had been saved.

This was......a promise.

It was the promise he had made to her among mountains of corpses and seas of blood, amid countless sins and resentments, using the miracle he had personally displayed.

Therefore......

She also had to fulfill the promise.

......

Within the darkness, golden eyes suddenly opened. That blazing radiance, like ancient brass lamps......abruptly pierced through all falsehood!

......

......

“【Muen Campbell, stop resisting!】”

The slaughter between a “god” and a “god” was still continuing.

And as the use of Time Authority became increasingly difficult, it was obvious that the Black Sun had already fallen into an absolute disadvantage.

The enormous twisted and writhing monster had once again pierced its tentacles into the Black Sun. Its filthy limbs drew increasingly close to the divine throne where that phantom was located.

Countless eyes opened across the monster’s body. Every single eye contained the same greedy ecstasy.

After failing so many times against this yellow-haired human, He was finally about to succeed once.

Although it was only once, it was already enough for Him to recover all the losses from His previous failures!

And far more than that!

Muen Campbell! I truly forgive thee!

The monster sang loudly. Countless masses of filth trembled simultaneously and wriggled forward at an even faster speed. Then, under the enhancement of the Mother of Abundance’s Authority, even more twisted tentacles grew in a manner that defied all reason, about to......

Boom!

The light the world had lost was suddenly reclaimed by a streak of scarlet lightning.

The lightning gathered in the sky and, in the blink of an eye, condensed into a rainbow radiance that destroyed everything. Only after that rainbow radiance flashed did the monster belatedly......lower its head and look.

It saw the rolling mist——through the enormous hole in its own body.

That destructive rainbow radiance was enough to cleanse any filth. Even though its body was so enormous, that rainbow radiance still pierced straight through it and nearly reduced the corpse upon its body to ashes as well.

......If it had not instinctively twisted its body at the final instant.

“【......Is it thou?】”

Countless eyes across the monster’s body suddenly contracted and turned simultaneously, glaring furiously at the fiery-red figure that had appeared at some unknown moment.

“I missed. What a pity.”

The fiery-red figure simply floated quietly in the air. Her long crimson hair danced in the wind, and her thorn-covered long dress hung naturally. Neither the inverted heaven and earth nor the Pollution and filth splashing everywhere could affect her in the slightest.

It was as though she were not within this world.

Yet as her smooth jade feet stepped upon empty air, her figure was also so clear.

“【Dragon......thou actually awakened so quickly?】”

The Love God was extremely confused. One had to know that when He had left earlier, He had naturally left behind a small contingency within her mental space, precisely to prevent her from waking too early.

But the speed at which she awakened still exceeded His expectations.

Could it be that brat had once again done something in advance, or perhaps......

“I originally did not want to wake this early.”

Hamreign tilted her head slightly and glanced toward the battered Black Sun on the other side: “But some fellow was crying and wailing so noisily that it annoyed me.”

“【Oh? It appears thou art very confident.】”

For once, the Love God did not immediately consider fleeing. After defeating that pitch-black sun, His confidence had greatly increased.

“【Dost thou believe that the current Me would still fear a mere dragon like thee?】”

The monster roared. The hole in its body recovered in the blink of an eye. Its thick tentacles changed targets and swept toward Hamreign first. And at the very center of that filthy flesh, in the place surrounded by countless corpses......

The old man’s corpse slowly opened its eyes once again.

“Heaven......earth......”

“Domir.”

Hamreign did not even look at the old man. She merely said in a low voice:

“Help me anchor it.”

“......”

After a brief silence, a helpless sigh came from far away:

“You still have not learned such a basic skill as anchoring, so you will never become a true Origin-Rank existence for your entire life......”