บท 363: Chapter 363: Immortal Heart of Godhood, Location of the Divine Realm
The statue was crafted by magic, made from a material neither stone nor gold, looking incredibly lifelike. Yet, the most peculiar aspect was at the statue's chest, where a still-beating heart could be seen within the exposed ribcage.
Thump, thump, thump.
The heart pulsed continuously, emitting an aura of undying divinity.
Garon's gaze shifted from the heart to the statue's face.
He knew this face all too well—it was his disciple from another timeline, the great Archmage Karsus.
"A heart imbued with divine immortality."
"It seems that in the main timeline, Karsus did not completely perish due to his ascension."
Garon thought silently.
In the main timeline's past, the moment Karsus succeeded in his ascension, he could not withstand the overwhelming power of divinity. His body burst apart, but in an instant, the transcendent force of mighty divine power transformed part of his body into an immortal divine form.
The Netheril Empire fell, the first-generation Goddess of Magic perished, but Karsus's heart, filled with endless regret, was preserved.
"Who are you, get out of my temple!"
A somewhat crazed roar suddenly echoed in Garon and Yuna's ears.
Simultaneously, a spirit emerged from the immortal heart, with a pained, twisted, and frenzied look, staring fixedly at the little Garon and Yuna. Its translucent body flickered incessantly.
"Karsus."
Garon's voice was deep.
Hearing his name, Karsus had little reaction; he simply raised a hand and summoned a strand of transcendent divine power, launching an attack at the two hatchling dragons.
The hatchling dragons remained unmoved.
The transcendent divine force struck their scales, splattering like a squirt gun against rock, turning into shattered light.
Buzz!
A cubic cage of Energon materialized, trapping Karsus inside.
Yuna extended her dragon claw, looking displeased, about to crush the heart.
Just a demi-god heart, how could it contend against two nearly divine dragons who had caused bloodshed in the War of Glory?
Garon pressed down Yuna's claw, stopping her action.
Within the Energon cage, Karsus's spirit howled, his expression changing wildly as if he were suffering from a split personality.
Anxiety, confidence, arrogance, shock, pain, despair, regret, guilt—these emotions intertwined on his face, making him look exceptionally crazed and tormented.
The once dazzling great Archmage had fallen to this state.
Garon couldn't help feeling moved.
Had it not been for his intervention from another dimension, this would have been the tragic end for Karsus, the Light of Netheril.
Garon moved forward, his dragon claw touching the immortal heart, closing his eyes.
He used a psychic spell to link his thoughts with this main timeline's Karsus, wanting to understand why he had become so deranged.
As Garon closed his eyes, the world around him transformed, showing Karsus's world of will.
In a world of stormy seas and rolling dark clouds.
Lightning pierced the sky like dancing silver snakes, illuminating the heavens again and again.
In the midst of a storm, a proud and confident great Archmage floated within a vast array of magical runes resembling the night sky.
Endless magical runes converged into a swirling seven-star pattern, shooting towards the sky.
Then, a brilliant divine light burst from the Archmage, illuminating the world in all directions, but in an instant, his face twisted, his body covered in countless web-like cracks.
Crash!
The Archmage, radiating endless divine light, exploded.
Along with him, the Arcane Networks set up in many prime material worlds also shattered.
The Arcane Network collapsed, and the violent elemental energies gathered into a devastating tidal wave, capable of overturning the heavens and exterminating all life.
An instant later, with the sudden pallor of the followers of the Goddess of Magic, the rampaging magical elements vanished, turning Faerûn into a world devoid of magic.
As a result.
The faerlin flowers, which relied on magical elements to survive, quickly perished.
Floating cities, powered by magical energy, fell from the sky and exploded into brilliant fireworks.
"No!"
Witnessing apocalyptic scenes and the destruction of the Netheril Empire, a roar of deep regret resounded from the plummeting immortal heart.
Then, the vision froze.
After a flicker, it returned to the time when Karsus had just initiated his ascension.
He relived his most regretful moments over and over.
In the silent temple, Garon opened his eyes.
Looking at the crazed spirit of Karsus and the pulsating heart, Garon shook his head imperceptibly.
Enduring an endless
hell-like torment, no wonder even a great Archmage's will had gone mad.
"Be freed from endless pain, Karsus."
"I'll help you one more time."
Under Garon's will, the power of time swept over the throbbing immortal heart, turning it into time amber and sealing it away.
The heart's throbbing came to an abrupt halt.
Karsus's spirit paused, its twisted, crazed expression briefly returning to peace and calm. Then, looking at the unknown nearly divine dragons before him, he smiled gratefully and disappeared.
Crack, crack.
The sound of breaking earth and stone echoed.
With the heart's movements stopped, the temple built around it, along with the mountain below, began to crumble, fissures spreading across the mountain, shaking incessantly.
Garon collected the time amber and left the temple with Yuna.
Boom, boom. Soon, the thousands of meters high mountain began to collapse, endless dust and debris splattering, engulfing the surrounding lush greenery.
The two hatchling dragons reverted to their legendary dragon forms.
Watching the mountain collapse, Garon planned to leave the area with Yuna.
But a furious voice, carrying a sweeping evil aura, suddenly emerged from the ground.
Like a tide, a black mist surged into the sky, forming a slender figure in a black robe.
"You two dragons, where do you come from, daring to disrupt my plans!"
"Ah, ah, ah, I will extract your souls and turn you into corpse dragons!"
Garon and Yuna exchanged glances, then looked at this audacious creature.
Under the robe, a skeletal face tightly stretched over its bones, and a pair of eye sockets burned with ghastly blue flames.
This was a high-ranking legendary lich of level thirty-six, Gweris.
This lich had discovered Karsus's heart and was stealing power from the crazed Karsus.
Karsus had some fanatical followers in the continent of Faerûn; just a heart possessed demi-godly power, and a demi-god was still a god. This power made the legendary lich extremely covetous.
He had hoped to ascend to godhood with Karsus's heart and could not possibly let Garon and Yuna leave.
Rage surged directly into the lich's brain.
Amid low chants, the lich's body of black mist boiled and condensed into a huge, fifty-meter-wide menacing skull.
The skull opened its mouth wide, swooping through the air with a terrifying force, as if it would swallow both Garon and Yuna whole.
Yuna blinked, moved in front of Garon, and then stood still, watching the approaching giant skull.
In the lich's eyes, the calm Energon Dragon Maiden seemed stupefied.
After all, if it were just an ordinary legendary dragon, it would indeed be far from being this lich's opponent, especially since he had gained much from Karsus's heart.
In the blink of an eye, the skull was just tens of meters from Yuna.
Within the rolling black mist, the skull was about to swallow Yuna in one bite.
But in that instant.
The legendary dragon suddenly grew exponentially, its terrifying aura ascending in a moment, transforming into a sky-obscuring godly form.
"Ah?"
A voice of shock and confusion sounded.
The swiftly moving skull frantically tried to brake, wanting to escape the oppressive presence of the dragon that left it breathless.
But it was clearly too late.
Awoo!
Yuna's head lunged forward, lightning-fast, catching the skull that had rushed towards her mouth and swallowing it.
After crunching it a bit, Yuna reverted from her godly form back to a misleading thirty-meter-long body, appearing like an ordinary legendary dragon.
The legendary lich that had disturbed the continent of Faerûn for nearly a thousand years thus died in a suicidal act.
"Garon, this is really fun."
Yuna happily squinted her eyes, finding the lich's expression before death amusing, wanting to do it again.
"Let's travel this continent in our ordinary young dragon forms and take care of anyone who means us harm."
Yuna excitedly suggested.
The silver dragon indulgently nodded.
Yuna didn't have many interests, and when she discovered a new one, Garon was quite supportive.
Two young dragons traveling the continent would undoubtedly arouse the greed of powerful beings from other species.
This was natural; a true dragon's body was made up of top-grade magical materials, and Yuna's idea was akin to fishing enforcement.
In the following period.
The two young dragons began wandering the world of Faerûn, viewing the scenery of various places while luring creatures with ill intentions by appearing vulnerable. When these creatures were about to succeed, they would reveal their true forms and slay them on the spot.
Thus.
Months later.
A rumor emerged on the continent of Faerûn.
A
pair of dragons, whose strength was unclear but at least at the legendary level, were playing possum and had killed many creatures plotting against young true dragons.
No one could imagine these two were the Time Dragon Lord and Energon Dragoness from the Dragon Court.
After all, why would dragons with such great renown bother fishing for lawbreakers in a prime material world?
After their journey in Faerûn, Garon and Yuna returned to the Dragon Court Dimension.
Inside the Eternal Hall, after some playtime, Yuna began her deep slumber again.
Garon opened a dimensional space and took out a piece of time amber.
Inside the amber was a beautiful elf with a look of unwillingness—the Solar Princess.
The final battle of the War of Glory in the celestial realm was a last-ditch effort by the Goddess of Life, but she failed to rescue the Solar Princess, leading to the fall of the gods of fate and history in her pantheon—a costly defeat.
Now, the faith of the Goddess of Life was declining.
In time, if things didn't improve, it was quite possible she might fall to a middle-level divine power.
"What should I do with this elf princess and a bunch of elf demi-gods?"
Garon pondered.
He had tried to deal with the elf pantheon sincerely before.
But the once-burned elf pantheon was fearful of another trap and refused to agree, giving up on these demi-gods and the princess.
At the same time.
Hearing Garon's internal thoughts, deity Garon's voice echoed in Garon's mind.
"Original, why not hand these elves over to me?"
"I've just chosen the location for my divine realm and am about to start building it. These demi-god elves can be helped by the Energon Dragoness to erase their memories, then confined in my divine realm to serve as its guardians."
Having demi-god elves as guardians for a dragon god's divine realm.
Garon found it hard not to agree with deity Garon's idea.
Simultaneously, without needing to ask, Garon knew the location deity Garon had chosen for his divine realm.
Deity Garon chose to establish his divine realm on Mount Celestia.
Eventually, deity Garon had been persuaded by the Metallic Dragon God, and indeed, he preferred the environment of Mount Celestia.
However, the Metallic Dragon God's divine realm was located on the second layer of Mount Celestia, Machalite Celestia, the Golden Heaven.
While deity Garon planned to build his divine realm on the first layer, Lunia Celestia.
Lunia Celestia, known for its vast, boundless silver sea, was also referred to as the Silver Heaven.
"Take Karsus's heart as well."
"Try and see if you can awaken his consciousness. A demi-god skilled in magic might later assist you in maintaining the Dragon Arcane Network."
Transcendent divine power transported a collection of time ambers.
After deity Garon's will departed, the dragon's nest returned to silence.
"More than five years, almost six now."
"When will I be swept by the reverse flow of time?"
Garon shook his head, dismissing the thought, deciding to let things take their natural course.
Soon after, the silver dragon closed his eyes, and like his partner, began his restful sleep.
Time quietly passed.
In the coming period, the multiverse continued to operate peacefully.
Among the significant, though not earth-shattering events, was the Cold Goddess issuing a divine decree, officially severing ties with the Pantheon of Fury, declaring a break from her association with the Storm and Destruction God, Talos.
Many deities were curious how the Cold Goddess dared to do so.
The Storm Lord Talos's brutality was notorious among the evil gods.
But soon, these curious deities received their answer.
The Cold Goddess had reconciled with the Frost Giant God, Solem, and they remarried.
The newly reconciled Cold Goddess and the Frost Giant God were affectionate and sweet, with the Goddess's true form even taking up residence within the Frost Giant God's divine realm.
But behind this sweetness.
Only Garon, deity Garon, and the Cold Goddess herself knew.
The Cold Goddess had formed a saintly avatar that stayed within the Eternal Divine Realm that deity Garon was beginning to construct, unbeknownst to the Frost Giant God.
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