The world fell silent for a mont.
Every floating island near Aquabyss held its breath when it revealed itself.
First, a red claw bigger than a mountain appeared, then the whole paw.
One beca two.
Just two paws, yet they occupied half of the spatial crack.
The eyes watching the phenonon were horrified beyond limit.
But the nightmare did not end even when they closed their eyes.
CRACK!
The nightmare forcefully tore its way through the Void.
And when its full body entered the world, the very realm scread in agony.
The sun disappeared completely, leaving behind nothing but a bloody red light, as if the heavens themselves were shedding tears of blood.
Everyone, including Aegis, forgot to breathe for a few seconds.
The being spanned hundreds of thousands of miles in radius, its true size and shape impossible to asure with normal eyes.
But Aegis... he saw it.
Those crimson eyes.
Those six bloody wings.
Those scales bigger than islands.
They undeniably belonged to a dragon.
A colossal red dragon.
Colossal was not even the right word to describe it. It was an entity beyond all conventional asures.
Vast. Ancient. Overwhelmingly powerful.
The very air thickened with dense red miasma that poisoned the realm itself.
Several islands lted within just a few breaths, along with all their inhabitants.
"The Red Emperor..." Naida murmured, almost like a possessed person. "How can he arrive here? how?"
Aegis barely registered the title Red Emperor.
Before he could ask who it was, the red dragon spoke first.
Its voice was like the echo of vast, ancient ti.
< WHAT A SURPRISE. HOW CAN THIS WORLD STILL BE BREATHING? >
It carried no compassion, only astonishnt.
Its eyes, glowing with ancient power, searched every nook and cranny, from desolate islands to lush, vegetative forests.
< OHH... IT IS TRYING TO RECOVER WITH THESE IMPERMANENTS? HOW PITIFUL. >
Aegis’ eyes narrowed.
The red dragon’s words held no remorse, only mockery.
Just then, those mocking eyes slowly landed on the Aquabyss Domain. It was the gaze of an apex predator that spoke clearly: it had found its prey.
< HAHA, ARE YOU HERE, OH SEA GOD? >
< OH RIGHT... YOU BECA A CORPSE ALREADY. THAT’S THE PRICE YOU PAID FOR RESISTING US. >
< BUT WHAT’S THIS? WHOM DID YOU LEAVE BEHIND TO HANDLE YOUR LEGACY? >
Its gaze bore into Aegis’ body from every angle, as if scrutinizing him after stripping him bare, from head to toe, body to soul.
Aegis felt crushing pressure from all sides.
At that exact mont, the Sea God’s Tower quietly vanished from his body, as if it too feared losing its existence.
< YOU PLACED YOUR TRUST IN A HUMAN, OH SEA BORN GOD? I SEE YOU WERE FOOLISH EVEN AT YOUR LAST MONT. >
"You’re wrong, Red Emperor. The Sea God was not foolish!"
Suddenly, a small shout was heard from below.
It was Naida’s voice, but it sounded far stronger and more mature.
Aegis turned in surprise, only to see a gorgeously transford rmaid standing there.
She had taken on her rmaid Princess form, towering at nearly sixty ters tall.
Holding a golden scepter in her jade hand, her entire figure emitted a radiant golden aura. Each of her erald scales glittered like precious jewels.
The red dragon’s eyes narrowed at Naida’s golden figure, then an amused expression ford on its face.
< AREN’T YOU THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF NIVELLA? SHE WAS ALSO QUITE A NUISANCE BACK THEN. >
< WERE YOU IN CHARGE OF THIS BROKEN LEGACY UNTIL NOW? >
Naida looked like a fierce warrior, though the sorrow from rembering her family’s demise was unbearable.
"Yes. I was," she said firmly. "And I fulfilled my purpose. But you... you shouldn’t have co back today."
Aegis stepped forward, looking desperate.
"Naida, what are you doing? Don’t go!" he said helplessly. "We can do sothing. We can escape."
Inwardly, he tried to summon the Sea God’s Tower to escape with them, but failed bitterly.
It rejected his authority again and again.
"Co out, damn it. Why won’t you co out when I need you the most..."
Bam! Bam!
In great frustration, he pounded his chest with his own fist, hard enough to cave in his ribcage, yet the tower still refused to appear.
Her eyes turned on the ground.
Seeing the mad state her master was in, Naida’s eyes softened completely.
Tears ford around the edges, yet she smiled.
"Master... do you know sothing?"
A pause, "I died a very long ti ago. When the Sea God fell, I lost everything. My family. My purpose. My future. I was nothing more than a remnant, drifting in an empty domain, waiting for ti to erase ."
She looked back at him with her unbearably warm gaze:
"Then you arrived.
You didn’t treat like a spirit. You didn’t see as a tool, or a relic of a dead god. You spoke to . You trusted . You let stand beside you.
"For the first ti... I felt alive again."
Tears finally spilled down her glowing cheeks, falling like glittering golden perals.
"Every mont I spent with you, every command you gave, every ti you relied on ... it filled the cracks in my broken soul. I laughed. I worried. I hoped. I even dread again.
She clenched her fist over her chest.
"I don’t know if this is love. But I know this pain— this pain is sothing only soone precious can cause."
"So please don’t bla yourself. Don’t hate yourself. You were never weak to ."
"You gave aning to a life that should have already ended. That alone makes you worthy of everything."
She turned toward the sky, golden light gathering around the scepter.
"If this is where my existence ends... then I am grateful it ends protecting you."
She looked back one last ti.
"Thank you for choosing , Master."
With that, she levitated into the sky. Then streaked upward like a golden angel.
She didn’t have wings, but her courage and bravery felt imasurable.
She seed unafraid and unbothered by the undefeatable entity above her.
But Aegis understood she was bleeding on the inside. She didn’t wish to disappear.
No matter how strong her courage was, against a foe of that magnitude, it wasn’t enough.
Her words rang in his ears, and he felt a pain he had never felt before. He wasn’t sure if it was love, but he felt as though sothing precious was slipping away from him.
His already broken heart cracked further.
But he was weak. Utterly.
Even after all these days of powering up, he was still insignificant.
Just why?
Have I not worked hard enough?
Had I still thought this was a ga?
At that ti, I couldn’t answer myself.
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