Chapter 482: The Finale of a Nightmare.

Chapter 482: The Finale of a Nightmare.

Skill requirement forcibly fulfilled. [Mental World], [Mana Eyes Lv. 8], [Parallel Thought Lv. 0] merged into unique skill [Split Soul Autonomy] using [Shard of the Trickster God]. [Shard of the Trickster God] has been consumed

Acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Multi-Cast Lv. 1] acquired

Consumed [Shard of the Trickster God] has been purified from individual’s body by [The Light], [Bearer of Kargryxmor’s Blood], and [Divine Inferno]. Traces will remain

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Multi-Cast Lv. 1] evolved into [Multi-Cast Lv. 7]. 0 SP remaining

[Battle Frenzy (Minor)] [Music Resonation (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

“Shriiiiiieeeeeeeeh!” A viscous, horrifying bone-crackling roar erupted from the mouth of the giant centipede that burst through the ground and the papal mansion. He crashed onto the ground like a folded piece of paper before his body jerked up, ratting his countless “legs” as bits of his burning “skin” fell off, flying down like hail.

This is the Prince of Envy.

Or, at least, whatever was left of him after his flesh went haywire. Honestly, when I woke up after the [Mental World] clash, my mind was still partially asleep so I wasn’t even sure what I seeing0. I had a terrible headache caused by [Arcane Fever (Minor)], making my vision blurry, and I could feel that my soul was still recovering from the damage the prince dealt to it.

I felt “icky,” as if I hadn’t washed myself for months and allowed the grease and dirt to fester on my dead skin cells. Meanwhile, I felt my innards constantly complain about feeling “heavy” or bloated, almost like indigestion. Unhealthy, unfit, ill; there were so many words I could describe it, but the worst was this constant cold sweat making my back feel like it was being pricked by a million needles.

All of this after I lost my parallel minds. My first companions, my other selves, and my stage crew. They’ve been with me this whole time, wherever I went and would do all they could to support me and keep me alive. I thought they were invincible, they would be with me as long as I was alive, but here I was. An empty, lonely mind with nobody to speak with as I saw the prince transform.

Yes, right, he drank a “Demon’s Grace.” He frantically clawed at his face on the reddened, cooled magma when I woke up, screaming hysterically as he kept repeating “monster, monster, monster” like a mantra. Once he imbibed the black elixir, his skin changed to black before his mana mist began to cover his body, looking for all the world like a giant ball of smog.

He kept screaming in agony before the mist started to form into flesh, resembling his armor at the start of our initial battle. Moments later, his growth accelerated to the point he tripled, quadrupled, no even larger in size as more and more layers of artificial tissues and muscles appeared. Limbs and octopus tentacles began to materialize afterwards, escalating to the point where his original body was hidden inside this “flesh” suit imitating his soul’s final appearance inside the [Mental World].

It was an amalgamation of millions of separately moving parts, squirming and wriggling around as if all of them were living beings. Like the ultimate slime, or maybe it was more accurate to call it like a fusion of a nest of ants, swarming onto themselves to build structures like bridges or ladders. From afar, the prince’s newest form might look like one being, but if you took a closer look, you could see the small cancerous-looking flesh and tiny arms linking together.

This was how this demonkin centipede was created. The first thing he did wasn’t to kill me while I was still recovering but to flee. He charged through the earth as his skin started to burn from the residue magma, bursting through the earth like a volcano explosion.

Flabbergasted, I didn’t know what to do. After all, I was still grieving for myself. Nobody was giving me information or keeping me focused. The clockwork-like teamwork my parallel minds and I developed, to the point it felt seamless as if I had thought of everything, had disappeared with them. I felt so scatterbrained and directionless.

‘H-hey!’

Yet, when I was scrambling on what to do, I heard my voice. I thought, maybe, just maybe, the System trolled me with the messages and none of my parallel minds were actually gone. After all, the System did announce the damage [Mental World] did to our souls would be repaired! That was how the Prince of Envy survived Mom’s awakening.

I thought, no, I hoped none of it was true ... Yet what I learned was even more surprising.

Hikari? I gasped as I began to see another silhouette inside my mind. She didn’t look like my dragonewt form like the parallel minds, but was entirely human and had black hair and eyes.

‘I ... I don’t know how I’m talking with you, but that is you, right? Hestia?’ she replied.

That was when I remembered the first few System messages I received when I woke up. [Split Soul Autonomy]—it came to be from the remains of [Parallel Thought].

So, I had to ask, What do you feel?

‘... Angry, tired, wanting to go home. Yet, the frustration was keeping me from indulging myself, making me so restless that I can’t even stand still. I want to—’

Destroy the demonkin for killing us ten times over.

‘We share emotions, we share our thoughts, yet, I can still think independently from you. I feel a sense of loyalty, but it’s skin-deep, like a suggestive thought telling me ‘this is what I should do.’ I don’t feel compelled by it in any manner ... but I want to.’

Welcome to being a dragon, Hikari. I guess memories alone aren’t enough to help you overcome being a civilian, but now feeling exactly what I feel? That’s the decider.

This dialogue, or monologue, was all I needed to understand what was going on. Hikari inherited my parallel minds’ position through the [Split Soul Autonomy] skill, turning her into my partner-in-crime and allowing her an actual place in my life, instead of being restricted to whenever I entered my soul or dreams.

In addition, I also noticed I couldn’t exactly appraise anything right now, due to my loss of my [Man Eyes]. That couldn’t be it, right? There probably was some condition on this new skill right now, but my brain was still fried. Too hard to think.

Regardless, the two of us knew what we had to do. We glared at the prince escaping from us, and my mind went over to the second System message when I woke up. I had gained [Multi-Cast]. Finally, after almost a year of desperately trying to get it, yet, it was bittersweet.

[Parallel Thoughts] blocked my ability to gain [Multi-Cast] as it was the evolved version ... Now that it was gone, the skill became mine ...

Envyyyyyyyyy!

Which led us to this moment.

“Shriiiiiieeeeeeeeh!” he kept roaring, but unlike before, his voice was slightly drowned out by my own voice.

“Shining bright, all for your smiles ♫

This is me, my music will rage like fire ♫

Open up! ♫

Listen here! Hoo hoo woah! ♫”

[Aerokinesis]—even without my parallel minds, I could still emulate my songs, and I needed [Slave of my Love] right now to compensate for my [Arcane Fever]. Frankly, I was deathly afraid of the backlash once the song was over, but wanting to get vengeance overpowered my drive to survive.

I needed to kill the Prince of Envy, right the (naughty word) now!

Solar Beam! Symphonie des Feuergottes!

Keeping [Aerokinesis] on, channeling [Solar Beam], while also constructing the magic circle for my fire spells shocked me with how hard it was to multi-task. It made me realize how much I had been relying on my parallel minds ...

Yet, when I unleashed my second concentrated beam of solar energy today and the inferno cascaded from the sky, this worry instantly changed into ecstasy. Even without them, their experiences were mine. They were gone, yes, but I knew they were still somewhere in my soul and I wouldn’t embarrass myself in this important moment.

I was still an arcanist! Strip me of my “crutches” but my training with Mom, Master, and my parallel minds would not disappear due to this set back. Let the world see how far I could go without my “chains!”

[Symphonie des Feuergottes (Allegro)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

My scale-dust hadn’t fully recovered yet, so I had to rely on [Tailwind] and [Obsidian Blaze] manipulating my [Symphonie des Feuergottes] flames to continue flying. With [Aerokinesis] playing [Slave to my Love], five of my [Multi-Cast]s were already taken up, leaving me with two available “minds” to cast spells or manipulate an element.

As my waterfall of flames dissipated, the centipede cried out in pain as even more of its body broke off. Like flaming rocks, they crushed the houses of Aureolis city and destroyed the remains of its walls, devastating the city more than anything our raid had done before this.

As I was about to cast my next spells, my attention was drawn to the left as a giant ice serpent crashed against the centipede, pulling its entire body out of the remnants of the papal mansion and pushing it further into the lower city. Seeing this, I turned around, noticing the rest of Aurora and Neill were there.

“You have our aide, Lady Hestia!” Tasianna shouted as the rest of my allies jumped into action, dashing over to the prince.

“Nooooo!” One of them, though, was a pink-haired demonkin woman—the Prince of Lust, if I remembered correctly. She attempted to pursue the others, but a giant pillar of ice instantly appeared around her, freezing her in it like a prison.

“—stia!” Somebody shouted but my eyes were locked to the sky as I saw it rumbling. Yes, the very night sky and its star began to wobble like pudding and rattle like a broken TV screen. Black static appeared before I saw something slice right through it.

“Gods!” The prince screamed before Neill shot a [Freikugel] through his head and used the beam to slice the rest of his body.

[“I got the experience! He’s dead!”] she cried, yet those words couldn’t calm me down.

Looking at me stare at the sky, everybody else followed my gaze, also spottinging what I was seeing right now. The sky was split open like a layer of onion, as another sky revealed itself behind it. It was blue like the morning light but, instead of white clouds, they were all red with scaly avian beasts flying high.

In the next moment, something resembling a black skeleton’s hand appeared. With its index finger, it pointed at me before it swung its hand to the side.

Shit! [My Darkest Thoughts!]

“Staring out the window while it rains ♫

No one here to talk, silence is all I have ♫

So I delved into my thoughts and wondered, “What if?”♫”

[Arcane Fever (Major)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Arrghhhhhh!

I screamed internally as I felt something ruptured in my back before a massive explosion pushed me onto the ground. I looked back, noticing both of my wings severed from my back. At the same time, I noticed mana began to clot around my left hind leg, causing it to bloat up like a balloon.

Shit, shit!

Yet, I didn’t stop myself ‘cause something was telling me to do this. An instinct that was beyond my usual gut feeling. It felt like something in my soul was compelling me to do at the risk of my life.

As energy began to gather around the skeleton’s finger, I unleashed my solar energy into the sky, targeting the skeleton as it threw the energy at me like a lightning. But before either of them clashed, the energy suddenly dissipated around the entire city, forming a barrier almost similar to [Sanctuary]. When [Solar Beam]’s overdrive mode stopped and I forced all my active spells and songs to stop, a new voice appeared.

This voice! Aurena!

What? What sorta plot twist is this!

[“I see ... the gods!”]

I snapped my eyes around as I heard Mom’s voice, only to see a massive shadow appearing above me. Mom’s full dragon form was out on display, with her bulky frame easily dwarfing the entire city. She landed on the barrier protecting me from the weird lightning from the skeleton hand before all her scales began to glow.

[“Begone, deity of demons. This world is not yours to conquer.”]

Arck! I winced as I felt ice surround my bloated leg, causing the pain around it to numb, despite the ice not being cold? Was this Mom’s?

“Lady Hestia!” Tasianna cried, but Neill stopped her.

[“That’s Melloxtressa’s magic. Don’t,”] she announced. [“Sis, I think I know exactly what that is, so listen closely, all right? And stay calm.”]

Say that first! I scolded her in my head but my attention was occupied by the fact the ice kept covering more of my body, to the point over half of it was imprisoned.

[“As the strongest silver dragon, she is also the strongest ice mage in the world, meaning the ice she’s encasing you in will not kill you. However, if I’m guessing correctly, this is probably a hibernation magic amongst the ice dragon,”] Neill explained. [“Ice dragon hatchlings usually have a hard time surviving when the temperature is too cold, as their bodies and scales require time to adapt to it. As such, their mothers and fathers learn to encase their young in their ice to keep them safe, and most importantly, to help them sleep. It doesn’t feel cold, right?”]

I nodded.

[“Then I’m correct. It’s just the right temperature for the hatchling, and in your case, your mother’s attempt to save you from your rampaging arcane fever. She’s numbing your body to the constant pain as the ice is used as a conduit to diffuse the arcane corruption out of your body and into the crystal. It’ll preserve you, but you most likely will fall asleep. So ... don’t grow up too fast, all right! I’ll meet you back in Kargryx with all our siblings, all right? Stay safe and ... I love you, little sis! This was a massive success!”]

Neill!

At the same time as she said that, Mom suddenly unleashed a concentrated ice beam into the sky, knocking the black skeleton hand out of the way and stopping its lightning magic. It swerved around, trying to fix its trajectory, but Mom was more stubborn, buying just enough time as water began to fly into the air like a hundred waterjet cutters.

They then formed something similar to a woman’s hand about the same size as the skeleton. A sword then formed, letting the hand wield it.

With a single swing, the water sword cleaved right through the skeleton hand before the water arm shoved the blade into the gap, causing something like a nuke to explode in the background of the bluish sky. Just as the mushroom cloud was about to seep into our world, a black smoke began to gather around the gap, covering it all up before it disappeared.

The sky was restored, as if nothing had happened ... unless you looked at the evidence left behind. The black lightning the skeleton hand had shot out had sundered the earth, leaving large scars behind that I could see some of it from here. How deep were they? It was a question I wanted answered, but in my current situation, it probably would be impossible.

I looked at the sky once more to see the water arm grant the remains of the skeleton before absorbing all of it. Was that really a god? Were Plesia and Marsven actually revealing their existence just now? For everybody to see?

Aurena’s voice appeared once again.

Ahhh ... true, I thought as I realized the ice had already covered everything but my head.

[“W-wait, hold on, what do you mean? Hestia!”] Saori called but it was too late. The moment the ice covered my head, everything stood still to me.

Sound, sight, smell, touch, and taste ... Everything froze in time for me. Only my thoughts and the worried mumblings of Hikari proved to me that I wasn’t dead. This wasn’t how I wanted to say farewell to my friends, but Mom and Sis could handle that for me.

Good work with surviving, everybody.

We won.

I will see you soon.

Yet, it wasn’t a complete victory. Akasht, Manager Mind, #2, #3, #4, and all my other parallel minds. I dedicate this night to my memories with you, and may you all rest in peace.

How I wish I could celebrate with all of you. Farewell ... my friends.

Advertisement

Remove

A note from AbyssRaven

Guys, I would like to say, the Church Usurper Arc has finally ended. Two more side story await you guys to close up some plot points, and then we will finally enter the much anticipated Dragon Arc. Homecoming can't come sooner.

If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 20 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr!

For two dollars, for the cost of a coffee, you can read up to four chapters! You will have my eternal gratitude for any support you can give me! Please.

Thank you for reading this chapter.