章節 288: Chapter 288: Out of the Tiger's Den, Into the Dragon's Pool
Buzzing.
Garon's head buzzed, his vision filled with the chaotic and raging waters of the river of time, swirling madly around him. Caught in the midst of it, Garon was swept along involuntarily, passively enduring the ferocious power of time.
He felt like a hamster thrown into a centrifuge.
As the vortex of space and time spun wildly, Garon's body moved along with it.
The colossal dragon, like a solitary boat in a raging ocean, struggled against the storm.
In a daze, Garon seemed to see himself stretched into countless lines forming the outline of a dragon, becoming elongated as he spun at high speed, his head nearly catching up with his tail, his body in a strange, indescribable state, seemingly no longer made of flesh and blood.
Meanwhile, in the chaotic vortex, the past, present, and future blurred together for Garon, unable to distinguish the sequence of time.
It was as if one moment he was in the future, but the next, he was back in the past.
The three temporal states intertwined at this moment, creating a chaotic state. Because of his sensitivity to time, this indescribable situation caused Garon a splitting headache, almost ceasing his ability to think, his mind a mess.
He didn't know how long he had been in this temporal vortex.
Maybe it was just a moment, or perhaps countless years had passed.
Or perhaps, time had no meaning here.
After a while, the dragon, now stretched into countless silver threads by the rapid rotation, almost lost its form, as endless river water of time merged with it, seeping into the gaps between the silver threads, attempting to fill them.
This should have been a good thing.
But the Time Dragon, with a somewhat blurred consciousness, felt his body become ethereal upon discovering the massive influx of river water soaking his form.
Like the river of time itself.
As his body became ethereal, he felt his connection with the river of time deepen unimaginably fast.
In a brief few moments, Garon even felt as if he was the river of time itself.
A sense of control over the past, present, and future, of being one with time, arose within him.
This feeling was intoxicating for Garon.
He gradually began to understand everything.
But at the same time.
As the power of time within Garon grew stronger, his thoughts and emotions faded, losing both feeling and rational thought.
While accepting the power of the river of time, he was also merging with it, becoming part of the river of time.
This bizarre temporal vortex was an extremely dangerous place, even for Garon, the Time Dragon.
"No, this cannot be."
Garon forcefully suppressed the discomfort in his spirit and body, firmly resisting the temptation of the great power of time. He longed for the power of time but could not tolerate losing himself and merely becoming part of the river of time.
Under his will, the river water that had merged into his body was forcibly expelled bit by bit.
The sense of understanding everything felt like an illusion.
Garon harbored a strong reluctance.
At this moment, it seemed as if a voice whispered in his ear, urging him to abandon his will and merge with the river of time. In doing so, he could ascend in life, freely traverse different timelines, and gain unimaginable power.
The river water of time continuously entered Garon's body.
And was continually forced out by him.
During this process, Garon's connection with the river of time also methodically deepened.
But his consciousness became increasingly blurry.
If he lost consciousness, he would lose the only power to resist the river of time. His body would merge into the river of time, and there would no longer be a Time Dragon named Garon, only the eternal, quietly flowing river of time.
Fortunately, just as he was about to lose consciousness, the violently spinning temporal vortex came to a halt, no longer rapidly revolving.
Whoosh!
A cluster of disorderly silver threads suddenly reverted to the shape of a dragon's body. Due to the sudden stop of the temporal vortex, the silver dragon felt as if it was grasped by an invisible hand and then thrown out by an irresistible force, leaving the river of time.
Wind, air, elemental energy, smells—Garon's senses returned.
His vision was no longer filled with the vortex within the river of time.
Amidst the spinning of the world, Garon saw an endless, pristine blue sky, resembling a vast sapphire, and a wild land of undulating mountains and rugged rocks.
At this moment, the silver dragon still appeared as if it had just been swept into the temporal vortex.
Scales largely fractured, body bathed in blood, seriously injured.
It was as if nothing had happened in the temporal vortex, and he was instantly thrown into this unknown timeline, into an unknown world.
Unable to control his body, the silver dragon traced an arc in the air, eventually crashing to the ground with a thud.
Boom!
Centered on Garon, the reddish-brown dry land cracked and sank, fissures spreading, stirring up clouds of dust. When the dust settled, a circular crater nearly a kilometer in diameter appeared on the surface. At the heart of the crater lay a blood-soaked dragon.
"Phew, I'm not dead."
Scales shattered, flesh torn, bones fractured—the silver dragon's tense spirit relaxed slightly.
Although the constant severe pain reminded Garon of his dire state, as long as he wasn't dead, everything was acceptable.
He looked down.
Due to the high temperature and impact of the meteor-like collision, some of the soil and rocks around Garon had melted into a crystalline form.
Waves of overwhelming fatigue came over him.
Garon, resisting the drowsiness, took a deep breath and forcefully perked up, starting to construct a spell.
Crackle!
A dimensional space opened with the little magic power he had left.
With a claw, he retrieved a handful of scrolls.
These scrolls emitted a faint, milky-white glow, conveying a sense of tranquility and carrying a trace of the power of the God of Light.
From the Church of Light, these divine magic scrolls had seldom been used by Garon, as he rarely got injured.
But this time, the severity of his injuries was unprecedented for Garon.
His body was severely damaged, and due to the use of the seven secret artifacts of Imaskar, his spirit and magic power had also plummeted to rock bottom, with very little time power remaining.
Rip!
Garon tore all the scrolls at once.
Healing from severe injuries.
Greater healing.
Resurrection.
Pain expulsion.
He used all the divine magic scrolls that could help his current state directly.
Given Garon's constitution, it was hard for him to get injured, but once seriously wounded, ordinary divine magic couldn't have much effect. Fortunately, the Church of Light was very generous. To show gratitude for saving the continent of Noah and goodwill towards the Time Dragon, the scrolls given by Pope Yelian to Garon were all at least seventh-level treasures.
The power of the God of Light was second to none in healing.
At this moment, Garon was enveloped in the milky-white glow of divine magic, slowly recovering.
However, Garon noticed that the three wounds pierced by the divine light sword, surrounded by an eroding power, were continuously draining Garon's life force, even absorbing a lot of the power from the divine magic scrolls.
"Direct injuries from transcendent divine power aren't so easily healed."
Garon assessed his injuries.
His mind turned to his ashes-turned followers, anger rising in his eyes like tangible flames.
If he were not a Time Dragon, a divine power creature, but another legendary creature of the same power level, perhaps he would have died the moment the divine light sword struck. For mortals, even legendary creatures, gods possess the power of life and death; if their attacks hit, they can instantly kill.
"Giants, elves, or barbarian gods. Which deity wanted me dead?"
Avoiding the three wounds pierced by the divine light sword, Garon focused the healing power on other injuries while silently pondering.
Garon first thought of the elf god pantheon.
He knew there was a powerful goddess of life in the elf god pantheon, her weapon a divine sword, and the continuous loss of life force felt like an ability of the goddess of life.
But because he could easily think of the attacker's identity.
This made Garon doubt.
If he could guess the attacker's identity, so could the Dragon Mother, and the Dragon God pantheon would also know of his attack and current unknown status.
It can be foreseen that at this moment in the main timeline, a war between the elf god pantheon and the dragon god pantheon is about to break out.
The elf deities wouldn't be unaware that their attack on Garon, successful or not, could very likely provoke a full-scale war between elves and dragons. As far as Garon knows, from ordinary elves to divine beings, although they always like to meddle based on their standards of good and evil, they are generally a peace-loving race, not fond of cruel wars.
Could it be another powerful entity pretending to be an elf deity?
To provoke a war between elves and dragons.
This thought emerged in Garon's mind.
"But, it's also possible the elf deities think I pose too great a future threat, so they decided to eliminate me."
Garon shook his head, sorting out his chaotic thoughts.
No matter who it was, be it an elf deity or another yet unknown existence, once he has enough power, he will seek personal revenge.
At this time, the images of Roel and Gresha's deaths flashed through Garon's mind.
These two red dragons, who had followed him for a long time and had just given birth to their offspring, died so suddenly in the aftermath of the attack aimed at him, leaving Garon momentarily silent.
"You followed me loyally, yet I couldn't protect your lives."
"Roel, Gresha."
He silently named the two red dragons, harboring even more resentment toward the attacking deity.
The dragons turned to ash, beyond the reach of resurrection spells.
But in the future, if he possesses the power to reverse time, he will resurrect the two red dragons.
If Gold Garon can resurrect dead dragons, so can he in the future.
With his eyes slightly closed, Garon guided the divine magic light to repair his injuries faster.
He still didn't know what timeline he had fallen into. While drawing on the power of time, the efficiency was about the same as in the main timeline, meaning the passage of time in both timelines was roughly synchronized.
Garon raised his dragon claw.
With a thought, his body emitted a patchy golden light.
Seven streams of light flew from his body, turning into the separate seven secret artifacts of Imaskar.
At this moment, all the artifacts showed numerous cracks. The first to the sixth artifact, having merged, were of higher quality, so they were less damaged. However, the Imaskar ring, the carrier of the door of time and space, could no longer form a complete circle. The gems were dim and only emitted very weak fluctuations.
Defending against the attack of powerful divine force pushed the seven secret artifacts of Imaskar to their limits.
"The Imaskar ring is broken. It seems it will be troublesome to return to the main timeline."
Garon sighed.
After storing the damaged artifacts, Garon flapped his wings, and feeling that his body could barely move, decided to leave the area.
His landing had been loud.
If there were powerful creatures nearby, his condition was not suitable for confrontation.
The divine magic scrolls continued to heal his injuries.
But because his physique was so strong, even with the help of divine magic scrolls, the healing of his injuries was slow. Garon was still in a critical state, only regaining some mobility. He needed to immediately find a safe place to nest and sleep, working with the divine magic scrolls to adjust his state first.
On Garon's right wing, there was a through-and-through wound, still emitting a faint light, precisely where the divine light sword had pierced. This caused intense pain whenever he moved his wings.
Hiss.
Bearing the pain,
The silver dragon clumsily flew up.
At the same time,
A sound like the friction of biological scales against the earth reached Garon's ears.
Just when he was worried, that's what came. Garon frowned.
Along with the sound came a pungent sulfur smell, and as the unknown creature approached, the surrounding temperature began to visibly rise.
However, Garon was not overly fearful.
Even in his injured state, he was not to be trifled with.
As he gained altitude, Garon's view gradually widened, soon allowing him to see beyond the crater he had created.
He was in a rather barren land area.
The ground was all black and brown, devoid of any green grass or vegetation, utterly barren, with web-like cracks covering the ground. Bright magma flowed slowly through the cracks in the earth. In addition, there were several towering volcanoes in his view, distorting the air with the high-temperature magma flowing slowly down from the mountaintop.
At the same time,
Garon saw the creature approaching him.
It was a hundred-meter-long fiery red python, its body covered in thick, rough scales, its red scales as cracked as the surrounding land, with black-red magma flowing through the cracks. The fiery red python slithered across the ground, leaving a clear magma trail behind, igniting clusters of flames.
Hiss hiss hiss.
It flicked its tongue, its blood-red cold eyes fixed on the silver dragon flying in mid-air.
"Such a big python. Doesn't look like it's intelligent."
It seemed strong, at least possessing legendary strength.
The fiery red python raised its head, looking at Garon with a cold, predatory gaze.
"What are you looking at?"
"You think you can eat me?"
Garon glanced at the fiery red python and looked away, not intending to entangle with it due to his severe injuries.
At this moment, Garon had already ascended, and the fiery red python on the ground clearly couldn't reach him.
The silver dragon flapped its wings, ready to turn and leave.
But then, something happened that changed Garon's expression dramatically.
The hundred-meter-long fiery red python took a deep breath, and endless fire elemental energy surged violently towards its body.
The air vibrated intensely.
It seemed as if everything in sight was engulfed in flames.
Then, under Garon's astonished gaze, the creature's size inflated with the wind, merging with the endless fire elemental energy, turning into a thousand-meter-long flame python in the blink of an eye. Its breaths were like thunder, its body beneath causing the ground to fracture inch by inch.
This terrifying size and presence shocked Garon deeply.
Normally, a creature's size in the material world couldn't reach this scale.
The fiery red python's ability to enlarge by merging with elemental fire was horrifying.
Creature level: 40
Half-god creature!
A glance with the probing spell revealed that this beast, apparently devoid of intelligence, possessed the power of a demigod.
Garon's eyes widened.
Encountering a demigod-level creature as the first being in this timeline gave Garon a very bad feeling.
"What timeline have I come to?"
"Are all creatures here this fierce?"
Even at his peak, facing such a terrifying demigod python, Garon, despite the python's apparent lack of intelligence, wasn't confident of victory, let alone now in his severely weakened state.
Without hesitation, Garon began to use the power of time, activating Time Dragon's Backflow.
Due to being in a different timeline, the response of Time Dragon's Backflow was slower, and what was worse, it was difficult to use Time Dragon's Backflow consecutively in a short period. In the main timeline, Garon had already used it once, but then encountered an ambush that interrupted it. Moreover, he was currently in very bad shape, and the power of time struggled to reach the river of time.
Activating the accelerated state, Garon turned and fled, buying time for Time Dragon's Backflow.
"Damn it!"
Garon's face was full of frustration.
He had just escaped a divine attack in the main timeline, only to immediately encounter a demigod-level giant monster.
He had grown smoothly for a long time, but now his luck seemed too fatal.
The giant fiery red python, looking like a mountain, watched Garon flee, then opened its massive maw.
Boom!
The air visibly vibrated, an invisible sonic attack crossing the distance, instantly enveloping Garon.
Buzz, buzz, buzz. Garon's body stiffened, his head buzzing.
Under the sonic assault, Garon, already severely injured, nearly fell unconscious.
Even the power of time couldn't be focused and activated.
Time Dragon's Backflow was interrupted before it could respond.
Thud!
He crashed to the ground.
The massive fiery red python, commanding fire, shifted its focus from Garon, raising its head to stare at the uninvited guest.
At the same time, a roar like thunder entered Garon's ears.
"Storms converge! Carry me to the clouds!"
Though it was just a roar without words, Garon understood the implied meaning.
This meant that the voice's owner was likely not just a divine power creature but an actual demigod.
Another one, seemingly much more powerful than the python. What dangerous place have I come to?
Drowsily, Garon thought this.
In the last moment before losing consciousness, he saw a giant bear hundreds of meters tall, commanding storms and lightning, descending from the sky to attack the thousand-meter-long fiery red python.
Then, Garon's eyes went dark, and he completely lost consciousness, falling into a deep sleep.
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