Chapter 234

【Ye Zheng, I've already made a bargain with them.】

Ye Zheng slowly walked toward the red-haired woman. Margaret's calm voice reached her ears, slicing cleanly through the deafening chaos.

【Don't blame yourself. The moment Aston I accepted the divine blood and the divine sword two hundred years ago, leaving behind both a legend and an obsession for his descendants, everything that's happened today became inevitable.】

Ye Zheng's steps faltered. She glanced back. Vincent still lay sprawled on the ground, his eyes fixed wide open, utterly motionless. Judging by the amount of blood he'd lost, he was already dead.

The shock and fury on Ye Zheng's face gradually ebbed away. Beneath the curious gaze of countless otherworldly eyes, she remained astonishingly composed as she continued walking toward Margaret.

She understood now. The ritual had never been intended to summon these monstrous worlds. Its true purpose had been to awaken something buried deep within Vincent's consciousness.

Lin Zhixing had once told her that when the frequencies of consciousness between two worlds reached a sufficient degree of resonance, a genuine connection would be forged.

Neither the divine blood nor the divine sword had been the key. Vincent himself had been the anchor.

This entire scheme had been unfolding for two centuries. From the moment Aston I accepted aid from another world, through generations of descendants who prayed for that miracle to return, and finally to the instant Vincent surrendered to the greed of every monster gathered here, the frequency of consciousness surpassed its critical threshold. The channel for invasion was opened.

A strange feeling stirred within Ye Zheng. Vincent's existence felt somewhat like Pei Xi's, and somewhat like her own.

Her gaze swept coldly across the countless spaces watching with naked hunger. If the world behind the system ever became deeply enough connected to this one, it too might take the form of one of those tangible eyes.

Yet the readers whose consciousness resonated with hers would never wear expressions so greedy, so ravenous with malice.

Without warning, the floating otherworldly spaces began crashing violently into one another. One eye after another was crushed into grotesque, twisted shapes. Hissing roars erupted from within those spaces, like the snarling cries of a restless pack of beasts.

They struggled desperately to break free, yet no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't force their way through the barrier.

Ye Zheng trudged forward with heavy steps. Space itself seemed to have fallen into disorder beneath the invasion from beyond, or perhaps this eight-year-old body had simply reached its absolute limit. Even a single step demanded tremendous effort.

She came to a stop a short distance away and looked at Margaret, who held a bone blade pressed against her own heart.

Beyond the spatial rift behind her stood the Dragonic people. None of them assumed humanoid form. Their wings remained folded across their colossal black dragon bodies in a protective stance.

Amid the countless otherworldly spaces that crushed and distorted one another, the space they occupied alone remained immense and completely unmoved.

“Margaret...”

Ye Zheng spoke her name, and nothing more.

Margaret gripped the dragon bone. Ye Zheng already knew what she was about to do.

【They came for me alone.】

Margaret's voice escaped as a quiet sigh.

【They share their power with one another. The more companions they gather, the stronger they become. They need new companions.】

Margaret could no longer tell where the beginning of fate had truly lain. Because she was destined to become the Demonic Dragon, she'd known of their existence from the moment she was born. And because she'd known of them, they had, in turn, been drawn to her.

Margaret met Ye Zheng's stunned black eyes. She gently shook her head at her, then drove the dragon bone into her own chest.

“Margaret!”

【Ye Zheng, I don't fear becoming one of them. What I fear is becoming the Demonic Dragon whom people will condemn as a world-destroying monster steeped in unforgivable sin.】

【Now I finally understand. I'm not a sinful Demonic Dragon... I'm a savior who fell halfway along the path.】

Margaret smiled. The dragon bone sank deeper into her chest. The blood that blossomed from the wound was as brilliant as her crimson hair.

【I can't close the channel through which they invade. But I can give you the power to resist...】

Ye Zheng watched as black scales slowly spread across Margaret's cheeks. Dense crimson hair gave rise to black horns. Before long, her magnificent court gown was ripped apart by her swelling body and the frigid black scales. The colossal black dragon rose like a mountain wrenching itself free from the earth. Margaret's tiny human figure became nothing more than a distant star crowning the mountain's peak.

The currents of air around them descended into even greater chaos. The eyes that housed those monsters finally seemed to realize something had gone terribly wrong. All of them came hurtling toward the space behind Margaret with shrill howls, as though trying to sever the connection, frantically crushing the spatial rift that belonged to the Dragonic people.

The giant dragons within that space answered with majestic roars. The edges of every space strained and tore against one another in utter chaos. Yet the enormous black dragon never once turned to face the densely packed otherworldly spaces.

Ye Zheng craned her neck upward. Margaret's upper body still stood atop the dragon's colossal form. She was looking down at her.

Those pale eyes had turned completely black. They no longer held the slightest trace of emotion, yet beneath that distant, unreachable gaze, Ye Zheng's heart felt as though an invisible hand were slowly kneading it.

Sky-blotting black wings slowly unfurled. Margaret seemed to be growing accustomed to her new body. She began with a gentle beat of her wings. Then, with a long, piercing cry, a violent tempest erupted from where she stood!

The gale swept past Ye Zheng. Her hair barely fluttered.

The floating otherworldly spaces, however, rocked like leaves caught in a raging storm. The monsters imprisoned within them surged forward again and again. Their grotesque forms looked ready to crawl through the warped, eye-shaped rifts at any moment.

...No. They had already begun to crawl through.

An enormous black claw thrust through one of the spatial rifts. A moment later, a face resembling that of a human woman emerged. She possessed a far stronger sense of the inhuman than any of the Dragonic people Ye Zheng had encountered in this world. Her features were cold, regal, and awe-inspiring. Compared to the other monsters, she seemed far more like a legendary being born from ancient myth.

She spoke in unfamiliar syllables. Yet perhaps because Ye Zheng also carried dragon bone within her, she somehow understood.

They were inviting their new companion to leave with them.

Margaret faced her, faced the companion extending that invitation, yet she spread her wings to seal off the space!

Furious roars thundered from behind those wings. Under Margaret's resistance and the crushing pressure of the surrounding otherworldly spaces, the spatial rift belonging to the Dragonic people was the first to disappear.

Ye Zheng thought she caught a faint, almost imperceptible whisper.

“I'm sorry.”

Margaret was apologizing to them.

Becoming their companion would've meant sharing in their immense power, but the price was becoming an inseparable part of their collective. Margaret had chosen to turn away from them.

The woman's voice spoke to her no longer. Ye Zheng couldn't know what Margaret was thinking in that moment.

The Dragonic people were undeniably far stronger and more advanced than the beings inhabiting the other spaces, true near-divine existences. By every measure, becoming one of them would've been a better fate than remaining alone in this world. Margaret understood perfectly well what staying behind would cost her.

No. There was still a chance to change everything. As long as she remained, Ye Zheng could join forces with Margaret and stop Aston XIV's lies from plunging the empire into chaos.

【Ye Zheng, return to your own era... You are the only one who can completely end the invasion of the Aberrant Realms...】

【We... will meet again...】

Strange, rhythmic syllables echoed through Ye Zheng's mind.

The black dragon burst through the cellar. The palace above collapsed along with it. A relentless rain of falling stone crashed down around Ye Zheng. The earth split apart at astonishing speed. Sunlight poured across the ground strewn with shattered ruins.

Beneath that brilliant light, those greedy, hideous eyes shrank and burst one after another like bubbles exposed to the sun.

Yet Ye Zheng knew it was only a temporary reprieve. Margaret could do no more than hold back the invasion for a time before sharing her power with her kin in this world, allowing them to withstand the endless tide of invaders.

Heat spread across her palm. Ye Zheng lowered her gaze. A slender current of water flowed from the center of her palm all the way to her fingertips.

Her 【Stream】 had returned.

“Goodbye, Margaret.”

Ye Zheng tilted her head back. Dust drifted through the sunlight. That resolute black silhouette soared higher and higher until it disappeared into a destiny whose end could no longer be seen.

At that moment, Ye Zheng felt neither grief nor regret. She knew they would meet again.

The Demonic Dragon had never truly died. The dragon bones buried deep beneath the earth still poured an unceasing stream of power into the world. Even five hundred years later, Aston XIV still feared her and doing everything in his power to prevent her return.

Ye Zheng turned around. Through the ruins that filled her vision, she saw Vincent Aston slowly rising to his feet. His face was expressionless, his limbs unnaturally rigid, like a corpse that had begun to walk.

Perhaps he truly was a corpse. Nearly all the blood had drained from his body. By all rights, surviving in that state should've been impossible.

He muttered a string of meaningless syllables.

A moment later, he adjusted his voice and asked hoarsely, “Who are you?”

Ye Zheng's black eyes widened. She looked at him with complete understanding. She couldn't tell whether it was merely an illusion, but although his body remained deathly pale, his golden eyes had become even more radiant.

The consciousness of a single individual could never have summoned so many worlds. Ye Zheng guessed that Aston I must've provoked a particular world, which then drew all the disasters that followed into its wake.

That other world, along with the being that ruled it, was probably not especially powerful. Yet it possessed a frightening intelligence. It needed fiercer beasts to rip open the breach so that it could finally claim the prey for itself.

Ye Zheng had no intention of answering its question.

In the silence of her heart, she bid her farewell as well.

See you again in five hundred years. She would awaken Margaret, reveal the truth, find a way to destroy it once and for all, and bring the era of the Aberrant Realms to its end.

『Zzzt—Ye Zheng?』

The system's mechanical voice echoed through her mind once more.

Without warning, Ye Zheng raised her right hand to cover her face, concealing her expression as she drew a slow, steady breath.

She could feel it.

【Mother of All Things】 had returned as well.