Chapter 1301: 59. Root Cause

"Oh my, so you really did come here just to pick a fight on purpose?"

Silence hung over the sea of flowers.

Mela stared blankly for quite a while before finally speaking with a cold laugh.

Sick?

What kind of joke was that?

Although she had always looked down on this fellow, the one before her was still, at the very least, a top-tier existence known throughout the world as a Calamity.

With a body as powerful as hers, what disease could possibly affect her?

"I'm not joking."

Hamreign replied, "I'm serious."

"If you're not joking, then there must be some kind of scheme behind this, right? Heh, trying to play this sort of trick on me? You're still far too inexperienced. You should know that I'm the one who..."

As Mela spoke, her voice gradually trailed off."

She narrowed her eyes and carefully examined Hamreign not °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° far away.

Indeed, with the constitution of a dragon—and a dragon who had survived for a thousand years at that—it should, under normal circumstances, be absolutely impossible for any disease to affect her.

After all, every poison in this world was completely ineffective against her, much less mere disease.

But... Mela keenly noticed that this irritating fellow really was somewhat off right now..

Her presence lacked the coldness and sharpness Mela was familiar with.

Her aura also lacked the overwhelming strength and steadiness Mela knew.

If the Hamreign of the past had been the strongest creature beneath the heavens, looking down upon all things,

Then the Hamreign now seemed as though she had just suffered a crushing defeat in some particular regard, leaving her whole person looking slightly... bedraggled?.

Heh.

Bedraggled.

It had been nearly a thousand full years since Mela had last been able to associate that word with this fellow.

"Interesting. Come over here."

Mela lightly beckoned with one hand, and a smooth, cold platform rose from the sea of flowers. If Muen were here, he would undoubtedly have endless feelings about this device that resembled an operating table...

Because quite a few of his "wonderful" memories had been left on top of it.

"Considering you've helped that useless disciple of mine quite a few times too, I'll specially allow you to lie on the bed he once used," Mela declared generously.

"......"

Hamreign, who had been about to lie down on the platform, suddenly paused.

"What's wrong?"

Mela raised a brow. "Feeling shy?"

"It's nothing."

Hamreign took a deep breath and once again suppressed the complicated thoughts that had suddenly surged up inside her. Without hesitating any further, she still lay flat on the platform.

Without the slightest precaution.

Although this white-haired poser was still the person Hamreign disliked most in the world, she had no choice but to admit that if there was still anyone in this world capable of helping her at a time like this, it could only be this person.

After all, in the entire world, only the two of them belonged to the same era.

"Your body looks perfectly fine, so is the problem with your soul?"

Mela's amber eyes swept rapidly over Hamreign's body. Her perception probed deeper, yet she discovered nothing abnormal.

For beings at their level, even the physical body was actually extremely difficult to damage, so the soul was naturally the first thing she suspected.

"I don't know."

Hamreign said, "I only feel that my heart is beating very fast, and there's also an inexplicable irritation inside me. No matter what method I use, I can't get rid of it."

"Rapid heartbeat? Inexplicable irritation?"

Mela frowned. "Those symptoms are far too vague."

"That's why I came to you."

"...Hmph. So you finally remember me at a time like this? Next time we meet, remember to admit that I'm bigger than you."

Mela crossed her arms over her chest and squeezed hard... Unfortunately, there was still nothing there.

Time, it seemed, was equally cruel to her.

But this time, Hamreign did not even retort. She merely watched her in silence, waiting for her next analysis.

"Looks like the problem really is quite serious."

Mela's expression gradually became solemn.

This dragon's abnormal condition was even worse than she had imagined. In fact, from Mela's perspective now, it could no longer be described as merely "a bit of a problem."

This was a huge problem.

"Rapid heartbeat and emotional agitation can be caused by far too many things, but since the one experiencing them is you, I can only begin by assuming the most troublesome possibility... that when you faced the Demon God's blood before, you were still accidentally affected by the Demon God's Pollution!"

Mela raised a hand and swept it through the air. An enormous rumble erupted above the entire sea of flowers.

In an instant, every flower withered away, revealing countless cold, austere gears beneath the soil.

Rumble!

The enormous mechanical structure began operating once again. The sea of mercury suppressing filth beneath the earth surged into waves, and unimaginable magical power rose from below, completely sealing the entire space!

"There's an emergency!"

Inside the academy, Professor Prang—whose blood pressure had just been driven through the roof by his students' assignments—immediately froze. He sensed the changes occurring beneath the academy, and there was only one possible reason for something like this...

Something major had happened—something even that person felt the need to guard against!

"Quick! Put the academy under Level-One Alert! All students are to stop classes immediately and enter the specially constructed safe rooms! Teachers will maintain order! Anyone at professor rank or above, report to the core of the Grand Ritual immediately and prepare to respond to special circumstances at any moment!"

Professor Prang immediately issued the order. In the face of this sudden change, the entire academy transformed into a precise mechanism resembling a military fortress. Every student rapidly evacuated into the safe spaces according to their drills, teachers took responsibility for guarding them, and professor-level figures gathered with equal speed. Aside from those old immortals lying inside coffins, several figures entered the core of the Grand Ritual in less than ten seconds.

Even the ever-elusive Headmaster showed her face this time.

"What happened?" The Headmaster pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses. Her beautiful hair was in complete disarray, clearly because she had only just pulled herself away from an important experiment.

"We don't know. Something happened underground."

"Underground..."

The professors exchanged glances, each seeing the gravity in the others' eyes.

"For the first time in thirty-three years, Grand Sorcerer Mela Domir has once again sealed the sea of flowers. The last time she sealed it, merely a trace of magical aura that accidentally leaked out nearly flattened half the academy."

Professor Prang dug out the long-sealed records and showed them to the Headmaster, the only person present who did not know the details very well. "Ever since then, the academy established this special response mechanism. Its alert level is second only to an invasion by an Evil God-level existence!"

"Hiss... In that case, something truly major is about to happen."

The Headmaster immediately sucked in a sharp breath, and her mature, beautiful face turned incomparably stern.

"Exactly. For the mighty Grand Sorcerer Domir herself to treat something this seriously, it must naturally be an event beyond our understanding."

Professor Prang looked toward the underground, his aged face filled with concern. "I only hope... that whatever this is, it isn't truly too serious..."

......

"As long as something involves that existence, I handle it with the strictest possible measures. You know that. One moment of carelessness, and the consequences could be extremely severe."

With the underground space completely sealed and the sea of flowers transformed into a dead zone, Mela casually explained, "I'm not trying to make a move against you. This is simply a necessary procedure."

"Oh."

Hamreign merely nodded lightly as before.

"......"

There really was a problem.

A huge problem!

This fellow's current state was far too bizarre!

Mela narrowed her eyes, increasingly convinced that this fellow had somehow been polluted by the Demon God without realizing it!

...After all, for Hamreign to be acting this abnormal, that was the only possibility Mela could think of.

"Bear with it for a bit. I need to examine you properly..."

Mela immediately stopped wasting words.

Click.

More than a dozen mechanical arms suddenly extended from behind Mela like a peacock spreading its tail... If Muen were here, he would undoubtedly recognize them again, because this was yet another part of those "wonderful" memories of his.

Clink, clank.

Mela operated the mechanical arms and the precise magical instruments mounted on them, performing an extremely complicated series of examinations on Hamreign.

The procedures that had once made Muen let out screams like a pig being slaughtered did not even make Hamreign furrow her brows while lying on the platform.

No one knew how long the various examinations continued. Gradually, fine beads of sweat appeared on Mela's forehead, while unmistakable confusion slowly emerged within her amber eyes.

It seemed there truly was some problem that even she could not solve.

"Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing."

"...You don't have to pretend."

"I'm not pretending. What I mean is that there's absolutely nothing wrong with you!"

Mela raised her head and stared fixedly at Hamreign.

"Perhaps because you've spent the past thousand years constantly fighting Pollution, your resistance to it has already reached a level unprecedented in history. According to the tests and calculations I just performed, even fully activated Demon God's blood would be incapable of polluting you without you noticing... And not only that, even some of the resentment that had constantly clung to you has disappeared. Right now, you could be said to be unbelievably clean."

"Is that so?"

Hamreign tilted her head. "Then my problem..."

"That's exactly the problem! The problem is that there's no problem!"

Mela raised a hand and withdrew the magical instruments, then began pacing back and forth through what remained of the sea of flowers, now nothing but cold gears. One small hand propped up her chin as she sank into thought.

"There's no doubt about it. You haven't been polluted by the Demon God... Then why are you behaving abnormally? Are you actually sick? No. If even someone like you could get sick, this world would've ended long ago."

"......"

"Not an illness? Then some kind of special poison? Dragon-slaying poison? No, that kind of poison wouldn't pose much of a threat to you. It would only make you suffer for a while, and certainly wouldn't affect your state of mind."

"......"

"Or maybe something left behind from a thousand years ago? I remember that old bastard Gudalans seemed to have used dragon blood to create some kind of **, but he only ended up provoking the frenzied retaliation of the surviving dragons, so he abandoned it... Could you have been affected by that kind of **?"

"......" ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"No, that's not right either. That drug never advanced beyond the defective-product stage and was never truly released into the world. Besides, now that I think about it, that old bastard Gudalans didn't even possess the skill for something like that. He was nothing but a fame-seeking fraud."

"......"

"Then what the hell is it... Damn it, could there actually be something this terrifying in the world that even I don't know about?"

Mela grew increasingly troubled. It had been a very long time since she had experienced this kind of helplessness and ignorance...

"Can I ask you something?"

Hamreign was still lying on the platform, her dull golden pupils following Mela as she paced back and forth. She stared at her for a long time.

Then, as though she finally could not hold herself back any longer, she spoke:

"A very, very small question. One that definitely has absolutely nothing to do with me being sick right now."

"Ask."

"Human love... what exactly is it?"

"Love? Why are you asking about that goddamn mess? What does it have to do with you at all? Hearing those two words come out of your mouth is practically... Hm?"

Irritated from racking her brains without reaching any conclusion, Mela had answered almost perfunctorily.

But halfway through her response, she suddenly froze.

Only after a full ten seconds did she slowly raise her head and glance at the sky she herself had tightly sealed off, then at the academy outside that was now completely under alert.

Then she abruptly turned her head and stared fixedly at Hamreign with a look that was three percent strange, three percent confused, and ninety-four percent are-you-fucking-serious.

"Oh my... Don't tell me this so-called illness of yours... is actually that, right?"

"Nonsense!"

Hamreign, who had looked listless only moments ago, immediately sat upright and rebuked her in a freezing voice:

"I already told you this question has absolutely nothing to do with my illness! And the relationship between Muen and me is completely pure!"