Chapter 234-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
[Ye Zheng, I have already struck a deal with Them.]
Ye Zheng slowly walked toward the red-haired woman. Margaret's calm voice reached her ears, replacing the chaotic drone.
[Don't blame yourself. The moment Aston I accepted the Blood of the God and the Divine Sword two hundred years ago and left behind that legend and obsession for his descendants, everything that happened today was destined.]
Her footsteps halted. Ye Zheng glanced back—Vincent lay on the ground with eyes wide open, motionless. Judging by the blood loss, he should be dead.
The shock and fury on Ye Zheng's face gradually faded. Under the curious stares of countless otherworldly gazes, she was remarkably composed as she continued toward Margaret.
She understood now. The ritual's purpose wasn't to summon these monster worlds—the ritual was merely a means to trigger a certain state of consciousness in Vincent.
Lin Zhixing had told her: once consciousness frequencies reached a sufficient degree of similarity, two worlds would truly begin to connect.
The Blood of the God and the Divine Sword were never the key—Vincent himself was the anchor.
This scheme had been set in motion two hundred years ago. When Aston I accepted aid from another world, when generation after generation of his descendants prayed for the miracle to recur, when Vincent assented to every monster's greed—the consciousness frequency hit a certain threshold, and the gateway for invasion was flung wide open.
Ye Zheng had a strange feeling: Vincent's existence was somewhat like Percy's, and somewhat like her own.
Her gaze swept coldly across one predatory pocket of alien space after another. If the world behind the System ever forged a deep enough connection with this one, perhaps it too would become one of those manifested eyes.
Yet the readers whose consciousness resonated with hers would never show such greed and hunger.
Suddenly, the floating alien spaces violently compressed against one another. Eye after eye was squeezed and warped, and from within came shrieks and roars—like a pack of agitated beasts.
They seemed desperate to break through, yet couldn't breach the barrier.
Ye Zheng trudged forward with heavy steps. The gravity in this space seemed to have gone haywire from the external intrusion—or perhaps this eight-year-old body was simply exhausted beyond its limits, every stride an effort.
She stopped a short distance away and looked at Margaret, who was holding a bone blade pressed against her own heart.
Behind Margaret, the Dragon-Bodied Humans stood on the other side of the spatial rift. They did not reveal their humanoid torsos; their wings were folded before their massive black dragon bodies, posed as if standing guard.
Amid the countless alien spaces crushing and distorting one another, the space They occupied was far larger and utterly unmoved.
"Margaret…"
Ye Zheng murmured her name. No other words came.
Margaret was holding a Dragon Bone. Ye Zheng already knew what she was about to do.
[They alone came for me.]
Margaret's voice sighed softly.
[They share Their power with one another—the more companions, the greater the strength. They need a new companion.]
Margaret could no longer tell where fate's starting point lay. Because she would become the demon dragon in the future, she had known of Their existence from birth; and because she knew of Their existence, They were drawn to her.
Margaret looked into Ye Zheng's dazed dark eyes. She shook her head at her, then drove the Dragon Bone into her own heart.
"Margaret!"
[Ye Zheng, I was never afraid of becoming one of Them. What I feared was becoming the demon dragon of legend—the world-destroying, sin-laden monster that people speak of.]
[Now I know: I am not an evil demon dragon… I am a savior who fell along the way.]
Margaret smiled. The Dragon Bone sank into her chest, and the blood that bloomed was as vivid as her red hair.
[I cannot close the gateway they used to invade, but I can bring you the power to fight back…]
Ye Zheng watched as black scales gradually crept over Margaret's cheeks, as dark horns pushed through her thick red hair. Soon, her elegant court gown was torn apart by an expanding body sheathed in cold black scales. The black dragon form rose like a mountain erupting from the earth, and Margaret's tiny human figure became a distant star atop its peak.
The air currents grew even more chaotic. The monster-filled eyes seemed to finally realize something was wrong and surged howling toward the space behind Margaret, frantically compressing the spatial rift where the Dragon-Bodied Humans resided, as if trying to sever the connection.
The great dragons within that space let out majestic roars. The edges of each pocket of space clawed at one another in utter chaos, yet the massive black dragon did not turn to face the alien spaces jostling behind her.
Ye Zheng craned her neck as far as she could. Margaret's upper body stood tall atop the dragon form, and she was looking at her.
Those pale irises had transformed into pure black. They were eyes from which no emotion could be read—yet Ye Zheng felt her heart being kneaded by that distant, unreachable gaze.
The sky-blotting black wings slowly rose. Margaret seemed to be adjusting to her new body, flapping gently at first, until a long cry rang out and a violent gale erupted from where she stood!
The wind skirted around Ye Zheng; her hair barely stirred.
But the floating alien spaces tossed like leaves in a storm. The monsters inside kept charging forward, their grotesque bodies looking as though they might crawl out of those warped, eye-shaped rifts at any moment.
…No—one already had.
An enormous black claw thrust out from a spatial rift. Then a face nearly resembling that of a human woman appeared. This being radiated a far stronger inhuman presence than any Dragon-Bodied Human Ye Zheng had encountered in this world—stern and majestic features, less like a monster and more like a legendary creature from myth.
It uttered unfamiliar syllables. Perhaps because she too carried Dragon Bone within her, Ye Zheng somehow understood.
They were inviting their new companion to leave together.
Margaret faced the being—faced the companion extending an invitation—yet used her wings to block the space!
Furious roars erupted from behind the wings. Under Margaret's resistance and the crushing pressure of the other alien spaces, the Dragon-Bodied Humans' spatial rift was the first to vanish.
Ye Zheng thought she heard a whisper, barely audible: "I'm sorry." Margaret was apologizing to Them.
Becoming one of Them meant sharing immense power, at the cost of joining Their tightly bonded collective. Yet Margaret had turned her back on Them.
The woman's voice spoke to her no more. Ye Zheng could not be certain of Margaret's thoughts in that moment.
The Dragon-Bodied Humans were clearly far more powerful and exalted than the other alien beings—truly godlike existences. Becoming one of Them would have been better by any measure than remaining alone in this world—and Margaret knew full well what staying behind would mean.
No—there was still a chance to turn things around. If only she could stay, combining her power with Margaret's to stop Aston XIV's lies from corrupting the Empire—
[Ye Zheng, return to your era… You are the only one who can end the Demonic Domain invasion for good…]
[We… will meet again…]
Strange, rhythmic syllables echoed in Ye Zheng's mind.
The black dragon burst through the Cellar. The palace above collapsed in its wake. Rubble rained down around Ye Zheng as the ground split open, and sunlight poured onto the devastated surface.
In the bright light, those covetous, hideous eyes shrank and popped like bubbles in the sun, one after another.
But Ye Zheng knew this was only temporary. Margaret could only hold off the invasion for a time, then share her power with kindred beings of this world to resist the endless tide of invaders.
Her palm grew hot. Ye Zheng looked down to see a small stream of water travel from her palm to her fingertips.
Her [Stream] had returned.
"Goodbye, Margaret."
Ye Zheng tilted her head up. Drifting dust danced in the light as that resolute black silhouette soared higher and higher, flying toward the endless arc of fate.
In that moment, Ye Zheng felt neither sorrow nor regret. She knew she would see Margaret again.
The demon dragon had never truly died. The Dragon Bone buried deep underground still fed the world an unending supply of power. Even five hundred years later, Aston XIV remained wary of her, preventing her return to the world.
Ye Zheng turned around. Through the wreckage, she saw Vincent Aston standing upright, his face utterly blank, his body rigid—like an animated corpse.
Perhaps that was exactly what he was. He had bled nearly dry; surviving such blood loss was physically impossible.
He uttered a string of unintelligible syllables.
Then, adjusting his voice, he rasped, "Who are you?"
Ye Zheng's dark eyes widened knowingly as she fixed her gaze on him. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination, but while his body was deathly pale, his golden eyes seemed to glow even brighter.
A single person's consciousness couldn't possibly have summoned so many worlds. Ye Zheng surmised that Aston I must have attracted one particular world, which then dragged all the rest in its wake.
That world and its dominant creature were likely weak in raw power but possessed cunning intelligence. It needed stronger beasts to tear open the way so it could feast on the spoils.
Ye Zheng had no intention of answering its question.
In her mind, she silently said goodbye to it as well.
See you in five hundred years. She would awaken Margaret, expose the truth, find a way to kill it once and for all, and bring the era of the Demonic Domains to an end!
[Bzzt—Ye Zheng?]
The System's mechanical voice returned.
Then her right hand rose to cover her face, hiding her expression, and she drew a deep breath.
Ye Zheng could feel it—[Mother of All Things] had returned as well.
*
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