Chapter 1040: Vision of Misery! (2)
Indeed, it was a dragon.
No. It was THE dragon.
The masked man's target seemed to have come to meet them all in the middle. This target and something else unforeseen.
As countless raging gusts went berserk over the Factions rising from the waters, most unharmed by its poisonous properties, the figures of the new arrivals appeared in express detail.
The dragon was vast. Immensely vast.
It was comparable to the largest cities on Pelian and more, and that was without accounting for its tail, which was responsible for 40% of the aggressive, troubled winds, and its terrifying wing span.
The behemoth was covered in countless, stone-like, foggy grey scales that looked like they had seen better days. Some were cracked, some caved in, but this didn't immediately register to the onlookers, after all, the great beast was moving rather nimbly for its size, nearly turning into a blur at points.
Its mighty limbs, separate from the pair of wings on its back, seemed to whip out dexterously like regular arms and legs, and the few with good enough sight saw the blasted creature cast unknown abilities with its thick fingers and claws that...
BOOOOOOM!
Replicus could have sworn that that noise, that blast just now, could have been Aigas' foundation shattering to bits. After all, he and many others were flung to the opposite way of where the dragon sent whatever monstrous spell, charm, or blast it conjured.
'What the hell?!' Replicus thought as he struggled to not be dragged about by the winds alone. 'Why is this thing here? Why is the Herald here? Is it fighting the masked man already? Was he already so far ahead of us?'
This didn't make any sense.
In his absence from the fleet during the last three days, surely the rest of the higher Factions hadn't just allowed the masked man to leave them in the dust and reach Edagon, right?
RIGHT?!
BOOOM!
Another violent boom echoed, and Replicus thought he heard the sound of an enormous piece of glass shatter.
He looked up, the dragon had flown far into the skies, past the clouds - through them, actually - in an instant, to reach the muddled, checkered and bumpy skies. This was where the legendary Jiggorhaux, the Abiding Madness was said to have mended the world with his breath, leaving scars on the skies that were prevalent only on this side of Aigas.
Yet now, pieces of his workmanship - the melded fabric of the world - far, far up fell as something bashed against them.
It seemed the horrendous attack the dragon had used, had hit whatever it was that it was battling against, and it flown to smack hard against the skies.
Dear Deities...
Replicus' mind couldn't help but crash under the pressure of everything happening all at
once.
He couldn't even decide how to feel about his subordinates at the moment, as the nature of what was happening around him – the reason behind why his abilities and those of Araeyn were unceremoniously dispelled - was starting to become clear.
It kicked off the air and sent a hollow cylinder of violated winds bursting in the opposite
direction of where it lunged.
Replicus recoiled.
'It looks just like...him.'
Indeed, it looked just like Araeyn.
The being had a pale, dry face like that of corpse, and narrow eyes that held within them black chaos. Long creamy hair, like strands of light, wildly flew in all directions atop its head, complemented by the silver crown entangled with it, growing from the being's temples. The creature was adorned in a dazzling black armor that issued from its folds a golden mist. It was impossible to see at the moment, but the armor almost seemed alive. It expanded and contracted subtly, its chest plate, branded with an assortment of triangular gems that burned with foreign light, proudly expressing its lack of damage after the latest attack its bearer
took.
Replicus molded his open hand into a fist.
'Ferex! That's Ferex,' he thought.
His lost Apostle!
The Apostle, as he had been told, had succumbed to his Flaw. He had failed to beat an
opponent without a bitter struggle, and thus, he had become a vessel for the Full Deck BoneTender, what the guidance field called a terrible Null Lifeform in the Null Verse.
But then, the story went deeper.
Apparently, the BoneTender had inhabited another vessel in turn; what Replicus saw currently before him.
Whatever that body was, whoever it had belonged to. It could only be...
Replicus saw a smaller, winged figure flash by with this royal Null Lifeform, hurtling towards
the dragon!
It was a feminine figure.
Curly red hair, fine skin, vibrant red eyes. He recognized these details as part of someone he was fond of despite how extraordinary they looked now compared to before.
Replicus recoiled again, and his socket flames burned bright.
Was that...?
'...Stylla.'
[Author's Note] If you feel a little too confused, you can revisit Chapter 783, Inevitable Fiend, Inevitable
Voyage