He had even developed his abilities to the point of tearing apart Extra-Dimensional Space, so claiming unfamiliarity would be a lie. But this situation was special. If space were like a snow globe, this one had only half left, full of Rift, and if he accidentally shattered it into Shard, the consequences would be hard to fix.
"And with something this big, I don't dare try to repair or squeeze in," he concluded. "So let's forget it for now. I'll look for another solution someday, and it's a good chance for me to handle other matters." With that, Belial plucked off a scale and handed it to Sylvia, marking a coordinate since they had worked together for a while.
He had also started to master remote control through avatars, so even if their base was attacked, he could respond from afar and beat the enemy back. That reassurance let him relax a little. As for his next tasks, the goals were already clear.
"The direction is west," he said. "Good, they haven't moved much." He turned his head and stared fiercely into the distance, locking onto the presence of the unknown nobody who had previously delivered himself as bait and controlled Gigan.
This one was different from the last two. Those had relied on endless Clone tricks, killing one only for another to appear, but this one had openly revealed his main body without hiding his presence at all. It was like a lighthouse in the dark, and with such a huge red mark on the map, how could he resist?
"I don't care what kind of mutt you are to dare do this," Belial growled. "You'd better be ready to die facing west." He added coldly, "Even if you aren't the main body, I'll make sure to wipe you out along with every Clone. And it's right on the way, so I can visit some old acquaintances too."
He checked the range of coordinates tied to his own body parts in his mind, which corresponded to Lilith and Bella. As long as he slaughtered his way west and looped around, he would reach them. Compared to guarding a base, he clearly preferred eliminating every possible threat so he could finally rest easy.
Watching Belial fly off into the distance, Sylvia lowered her head and looked at the black scale that had shrunk to the size of her palm. In the end, she took the other two and headed back. Before sending Vera back to Paraten Empire, she needed to check on Ham again, since the child still had not woken up.
From the slight movements and the tightly furrowed brow, it seemed that even if she was truly asleep, she was probably having nightmares. "Ham…" she called softly.
And Ham really was asleep, dreaming of strange things she had never seen before. Vague memories emerged with a surge of light, and in the dream she seemed much larger than she was now. Or rather, she wondered why her real self felt so small.
"Why would I think that?" She tried to hold her head and think, then realized she was not only called Ham. She should have had a more ancient, original name, but she could not quite remember it.
"Ba… Ham… Diush? Mo… what was it?" She struggled to recall the past, but the harder she tried, the less she could grasp, like a mirror broken into two Shard. The more she thought, the more painful it became, as light carrying memories poured out along with fragments of images and incomprehensible knowledge.
For example, the true sky had already turned blood red long ago. For example, what hung in the sky was not a real sun, but a mirror. "That's strange," she wondered. "Why do I know these things?"
Curiosity rose within her, and she followed her memories deeper, moving from the past toward the present. Figures and scenes appeared. A being wearing a pitch-black Crown with five points, spreading blood-red wings, tore open a Rift that did not belong to this world and drew out endless malice.
That terrifying power gathered and destroyed a holy city of pure white that reflected the radiance of Dawn, burying it completely in ice and snow. Then the scene shifted, and a figure wielding the golden light of the Holy Sword nailed the crown-wearer to the Throne. After that, among a four-person team, a priest draped in white cloth struck, revealing blackness and opening a blood-red Rift.
The scene shifted again, and she seemed to have made a decision, striking again and again to smash something into Shard. Beyond that point, the memories became even more blurred. Something felt wrong, as if many other memories were missing.
A golden Gold Rank dragon shadow suddenly bared its claws at her, followed by pain beyond description, and she felt as though something vital had been torn away. After that, there was only heavy breathing. She grew drowsy and fell asleep once more within the dream.
"Old friend… are you also nearing your end…" "…Sigh…"
In High Heavens, passing between light and darkness, a figure draped in white cloth slowly walked into ruins where disordered time and space spilled out, faintly reflecting all forms of the world. The figure moved deeper inside as broken walls and shattered stone around began to stain with a trace of blood red, slowly rebuilding as if time were flowing backward. It did not stop or look around, only walking toward the very center.
At the center, three enormous stone tablets floated upward little by little, each bearing a face that looked to the past, gazed at the future, and watched the present. The three tablets were slowly recombining, piece by piece. In the end, they took the shape of Fate.
"…Sigh…"
Seeing this scene, it clearly recalled its old friend coughing blood while smashing the Wheel of Fate into Shard with their own hands, shattering all predetermined Fate along with it. Yet now, Fate was reforming, forcibly stitched back together by twisted blood red traces. Countless large hands reached out from the darkness, each holding threads to control the ignorant puppets below, writing the play they loved most.
The once dim and lightless future was about to return, and perhaps in a few decades, the ending of a reset would arrive again. It was sorry, because it was powerless to stop any of this, and even its own continued existence could not last much longer. Still, after a brief pause, it made a decision.
Rather than dragging on for a few more decades, since there was finally a chance to break the deadlock this time, it might as well let the ending come faster.
…
This was the third day Ham had been asleep.
Sylvia had checked again and again and tried every treatment method she could think of, but there was still no sign of waking up, and no problem could be found. If she had to describe it, it was like trying to wake someone who was pretending to sleep. More than once, Sylvia even considered punching the girl a few times to see if that would work, but she decided against it.
What troubled her more was that during Ham's sleep, Sylvia felt a strange sensation toward her, and it kept growing stronger. Was it regret, or heartache, and why did such feelings appear at all? What Sylvia could be sure of was that this child carried something she herself did not know, perhaps like the Empathic Communion that Vera once mentioned.
That ability felt somewhat similar to her own Silver Dragon Authority, yet also different, and she wondered if it was one of the causes of this situation.
"What on earth happened…"
"Well, I happen to know. Want to hear about it?"
"?"
She turned her head sharply and saw a human old man standing behind her, smiling broadly. Sylvia immediately raised her hand and fired off a Spatial Lock.
"Hey, don't attack so casually. It's me. The human who used to come to Dragon Valley all the time thousands of years ago." "When you were still a young dragon, I even teased you back then. Ouch!"
She dispersed the Spatial Lock with a lift of her hand, but Safas was promptly chased around with his head covered after being punched several times by Sylvia. After venting for a moment, she finally recognized who it was. That only made it more deserved to hit him.
If this old man had not let Edward into Dragon Valley, so many disasters afterward would never have happened. After landing a few more solid punches and calming down, she remembered what he had said earlier and asked anxiously, "You know what's going on?"
"Yes. You also know where I was before. In fact, I noticed it as soon as this child came in."
Safas stroked his beard and lowered his head in silence for a moment before looking at Sylvia again, his eyes carrying a weathered look. "You've grown this big already. Before explaining the reason behind Ham's condition, do you know the details of the disasters caused by Edward back then?"