Chapter 33: The Prelude to War
Four hundred and sixty-five years ago, in the year 372 of the Falling Stars Era, on an island at the edge of the Far Sea in the Far South, five dragon eggs of different colors were placed at the center of an enormous magical array.
This array was composed of five concentric circles, layered upon one another, with millions of intricate runes rotating along flowing mercury. At the center of the array stood an ancient stone statue of a five-headed dragon. Surrounding the statue, five five-colored dragons stood at the centers of the five concentric circles. These dragons had long horns, wings on their backs forged as if from steel, and elements obeyed their commands. Their immense power caused even the surrounding space-time to tremble slightly.
But at the same time, they were all incredibly aged. One could see the scales of the five dragons decaying and turning to dust, their ashen, rocky claws no longer able to tear prey apart, and their mouths, with teeth nearly fallen out, could only spit out magical incantations, no longer capable of biting powerful enemies.
"Our path was wrong... The lost three hundred years have caused us to lose too many texts and knowledge. This is not the path to a perfect life."
The massive magical array, interlocking like gears, slowly rotated. Above the island, mana fluctuations that would astonish even the gods churned the clouds at the zenith of the sky into a five-colored vortex. At the very center of the island, the oldest-looking green dragon let out a sigh. It spoke in an ancient, weathered draconic tongue: "Our time is near. Let us pass the legacy to the next generation."
The other four dragons present slowly shook their heads. They were the other four types of five-colored dragons. Among them, the aged black dragon gently shook its head: "The inheritance ritual is about to begin. This may be the last time we meet."
"What, are you afraid?" another dragon retorted with a laugh.
"How could that be? Seeing the future of the five-colored dragons born from our hands—what a beautiful thing that is."
Shaking its head, the aged black dragon gazed at the black egg before it—not black because the shell was black, but because the overly dense negative energy no longer reflected light, hence it appeared black. Before each of the other aged dragons, there were also eggs of various colors. These were the elite among the elite of all descendants of the five-colored dragons since the lost three hundred years. The dragons within each egg were destined to be exceptionally gifted, with unimaginable achievements, especially with the inheritance passed down through countless ages. The future of these dragon eggs was limitless.
"The five-colored dragons need their own god, but the five-colored dragons need a Dragon King even more..."
"My kin—"
The light of the magical array grew increasingly intense. As the magical gears continued to shift, the mercury outlining the array began to boil. Patches of silver-blue mist enveloped the five ancient dragons, connecting them to the eggs. Five-colored flames began to burn fiercely on the bodies of the ancient dragons. The aged black dragon stared at the black dragon egg before it and blessed it: "You shall possess the dragon's sharp claws, fearless against powerful enemies, invincible and unbreakable."
A beam of light ignited.
"My offspring—"
On another side, the aged blue dragon, whose wing membranes had begun to pale, smiled and said: "You shall inherit the dragon's great wings, unbound and fearless."
Two beams of light ignited.
"Successor—"
The cold white dragon lowered its head, squinting its eyes as it gazed at the dragon egg before it, and whispered: "The dragon's eyes are bestowed upon you. You shall surely see through all things."
Three beams of light ignited.
"My heir."
The largest red dragon, its voice like thunder, rumbled even at a low volume: "You shall gain the dragon's heart, passionate and unceasing."
Four beams of light ignited.
Finally, the oldest and most powerful green dragon slowly straightened its neck. It stood at the very center of the array. The green dragon did not bestow a blessing upon the dragon egg before it, but the fifth beam of inheritance light connecting the dragon and the egg was gradually brightening. The green dragon looked at the egg, unaware of what was happening, and thought of many things—the history of the astral dragons, the other branch of the kin group drifting away, the heavy past, the unforeseeable future. All of this made the green dragon sigh involuntarily. But in the end, looking at the vibrant dragon egg, it still revealed a smile.
"We, the exiled race, abandoned our mother. This world, without holding grudges, accepted our ancestors... But exiles are exiles. What face do we have to ask for more, to demand more from our descendants?"
"You need not inherit anything... My children, you only need to live well."
The fifth beam of light ignited.
The bodies of the five ancient dragons began to burn fiercely. Their forms turned to dust. The purest life energy and the profound inheritance of the dragon race surged into the five dragon eggs as the array operated. At the same time, five dragon souls, vast as mountains and shaking the heavens, circled around the array. They took one last lingering look at the world, then turned together and charged toward the statue of the five-headed dragon at the center of the array. Five-colored light ignited from within the statue, as if welcoming their return.
This was the eternal resting place of the past Dragon Kings, and also their god.
The Abyssal Sea Dragon, Keano, flew through the void. It did not follow closely in the footsteps of the Five-Colored Dragon God. It simply flew through the void, heading toward its homeland, yet toward a world that its elders had always taught it was not its homeland.
It was born in Mycroft, grew up in Mycroft, but the five-colored dragons were not. This land and this world were never its homeland. The astral dragons were eternal exiles. They had abandoned their own world, wandered through the multiverse, been rejected by thousands of worlds, and regarded as great enemies by countless races. As long as the five-colored dragons could not wash away their sins, they would never find peace.
But Mycroft had accepted them.
Mycroft treated them as its own, allowing the astral dragons to barely survive.
Keano did not know exactly what it was thinking. It had never liked to ponder such things... After all, the black dragon's blessing was the dragon's sharp claws. It only needed to destroy enemies, and only needed to destroy enemies. As for its current actions—whether it was following the Dragon God to seize a faint, almost imperceptible opportunity, or simply wanting to return home—Keano could no longer figure out.
After all, that was Mycroft, the Mycroft that had once sheltered the five-colored dragons, the Mycroft with over a dozen gods and legends, the unfathomable Mycroft—the Mycroft world that, even with the full strength of the five-colored dragon race, could hardly conquer a single nation.
Was it trying to win a new future for the five-colored dragons, or was it simply tired and wanted to die?
Keano did not care. It had already left its inheritance—so, at this moment, the Dragon King had no fear. It flew through the void, its heart calmer than ever before, and also stronger than ever before.
The dragon let out a long, resonant roar, like an ancient song.
At the other end of space-time, Joshua turned his head to look at the Boundless Heaven, which was constantly merging with the Mycroft world. The fusion of two vast domains released an unprecedented intense light. He knew how shocking the scene on the ground was—the sky shattered like glass, the dark void appeared before the eyes of all living beings for the first time, and unparalleled holy light acted like glue, confining all turbulence to the high altitude. At the same time, the imprints of the gods fell like a meteor shower into the world.
This was the era of divine descent, the era when the inheritance of the gods reappeared. It was the best of times, and the worst of times.
"Can the Sword Saint hold up? He alone maintains the guiding beacon between the Boundless Heaven and the world. I can see that Ternan is the key point for guiding the seal on the Steel Serpent."
Joshua did not ponder the future. He looked at the Mycroft world and asked calmly: "I know the Sword Saint is powerful, but he shouldn't be proficient in this area."
"He is probably the only one who can do this."
To this, Eagle shook his head and said in a low voice: "The World Will has no physical form. Any seal with a physical form can only temporarily lock it away, but it will always 'leak' out. The information flow that caused all of this is the result of that leakage."
"But the Mistletoe Sword, Mistilteinn, is its bane—everything in the Mycroft world finds it difficult to harm its mother. Only artificial objects, not natural ones, have the potential to harm it. The holy swords forged by the Holy Sword Bearer families over generations are such things. They are not made of steel, but a solidified, man-made space with only length and width, no thickness. They can transform matter struck by their blade into something of the same nature, making them invincible. Even if the World Will is struck, it will be forced to collapse into a plane for a period of time."
"Inert two-dimensional conversion, I see... If that's the case, then you can construct a perfect Klein bottle seal, imprisoning the Steel Serpent forever."
Joshua listened silently to the old Pope's explanation and nodded: "A perfect seal. Without external interference, it will wait in endless solitude until it awakens or perishes... Without external interference."
As he spoke, the warrior looked toward the void. He heard the dragon's roar. Joshua smelled the stench of the abyss—two familiar auras. And not far away at the other end of the void, three incredibly powerful life forces shone like suns, illuminating the surroundings. Void behemoths, super lifeforms, or other transcendent beings were also rapidly approaching the Boundless Heaven.
At least six or seven legendary-level beings, and even a god whose whereabouts were unknown. It was almost impossible to stop these beings from disrupting the fusion and sealing ritual. Even if they concentrated their strength to stop one, the others would immediately bypass the blockade. But neither Joshua nor Eagle showed any sign of worry. There were no other legendary experts beside them. The void was empty, with no one hiding.
Could it be that they intended to stop all the powerful enemies with just the two of them?
Perhaps one day they would do so, but not today.
Joshua scanned the void.
He was prepared.
The black dragon Keano had already approached Mycroft. It could clearly see the light of that dazzling world—the black dragon's heart was incredibly complex. It felt like returning to a homeland that did not welcome, even despised it—but precisely because of this feeling, it reaffirmed its determination to obtain the authority of 'that one.'
Only by obtaining that authority could the exiled astral dragons have their own future, their own world, instead of dwelling in 'someone else's' world, acting like a timid ostrich.
At the same time, it also sensed the vast auras from other directions—powerful beings no less than itself. But Keano was not afraid—just as the blessing it had received back then, the black dragon feared no powerful enemy, invincible and unbreakable.
Incredibly powerful negative energy eroded space-time. Keano broke through the chaotic temporal turbulence and arrived at the periphery of the world, in a slightly orderly space-time domain. The black dragon raised its head and saw the enormous world in the distance, along with the black plane slowly merging into the world's outer wall. An overwhelmingly powerful aura surged like a tide, continuously radiating into the surrounding multiverse, proclaiming its existence. This was the omen of the Mycroft civilization awakening again—gods descending to the mortal world, the age of gods returning.
And before the two merging worlds, two figures stood tall in the void. One was an old man with gray hair and a white robe, holding a scepter. His body flowed with nearly solid, thick holy light. He stood motionless, but contrary to his calm posture, a pressure of light that made the black dragon feel 'fear of death' continuously radiated outward.
The other was a tall man with black hair and red eyes. Beside him, light twisted, and ripples of space-time wailed. Everything about him seemed very simple—whether it was his body composition, energy elements, or the authority he controlled. The black dragon felt it could see through him at a glance... But even seeing through him was meaningless, because Keano, who had briefly fought him, knew that as long as this simple and pure man stood here, everything would have only two clear outcomes—victory or defeat, win or lose, and the simplest, most primal two words: life or death.
Both were incredibly powerful, far surpassing ordinary legends, legendary experts specialized in the path of 'combat.' Their life forms were not for the continuation of their race, not for the progress of their species, not for exploring truth, nor for the development of civilization. They were selfish and lonely, but also selfless and great. They had abandoned other paths and possibilities, choosing pure power, just to stand here and fight beings like them.
But even so, did they intend to stop all of them with just two people? Keano couldn't help but let out a sneer. It had long understood human arrogance, but it hadn't expected it to reach such an extent, even if one of them was named Eagle, the strongest in Mycroft, a god walking among mortals.
Besides the black dragon, other powerful beings had also arrived—the void behemoth Leviathan, riding a gravity field deep enough to penetrate a star's core, tore through the void. The ether dragon shook its massive tail; chaotic temporal turbulence was like flowing water to it, only providing assistance. A super lifeform from some unknown world arrived silently, following closely behind two abyssal beings flickering with spatial fluctuations.
Without any hesitation, the beings that had directly responded to the call of the Mycroft Steel Serpent had now all arrived. They naturally also discovered the two figures standing before the Boundless Heaven and were puzzled by this.
At that moment, in the distance, the black-haired, red-eyed man turned his head and said a sentence to the white-robed old man.
"I'm making my move."
Joshua turned his head and looked at the powerful beings rapidly approaching the Boundless Heaven. The warrior saw that among them were familiar existences and unfamiliar ones. Some were enormous, some were vaguely humanoid, but without exception, the power of these beings was undeniable. They were all at the pinnacle of their worlds.
Joshua watched this scene, then raised his right hand. In his hand, he held a silver sphere, within which flickered a radiance like stars—in this silver sphere, seemingly made of light, a miniature of the multiverse was emerging. Vast star rivers, star clusters, and even light-filament structures appeared within it. Facing the many powerful beings who intended to ignore him and Eagle and directly interfere with the fusion process of the Boundless Heaven, Joshua crushed the silver sphere. Instantly, silver light filled the entire void around the Mycroft world.
The man, who rarely planned traps, revealed a smile.
"The Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground is activated—Multiquadrant Dimensional Teleportation initiated... Predicted coordinates confirmed, Space-Time Teleportation Domain expanding!"
At that moment, the demiplane that had been inconspicuous, merely floating around the Mycroft world, suddenly displayed an incredible pressure. An energy flow so powerful that it shocked even legendary experts manipulated space-time, warping space. The phantom of a silver sun appeared in the void. A calm, indifferent voice sounded in the airless temporal turbulence: "Teleportation targets detected—7. Forced teleportation commencing."
Instantly, a power that had once dominated the myriad realms and shaken the entire abyss began to vibrate. Beside the black dragon, the void behemoth, the ether dragon, and the demon lords, in their shocked expressions, a vast dark space rapidly expanded, within which countless profound star radiances flickered rapidly.
Intercepting multiple legendary experts was impossible unless there were five times their number of equivalent-level beings. Although the Mycroft world was powerful, it did not have such deep reserves. Therefore, instead of engaging in a chaotic battle on a battlefield chosen by the enemy, where interception was doomed to fail, it was better to have other legends prepare corresponding traps and preparations in other worlds, and then use an unstoppable force to throw all the enemies over.
Joshua was also one of them, but he did not resist and was directly teleported away. Before leaving, he shrugged and said: "I'm off."
"Go, and come back alive." The only old man who was not teleported nodded, a smile on his face.
"You too."
Intense spatial fluctuations flickered. In an instant, the chaotic void, shaken by the power of multiple legends, gradually calmed down. The old Pope scanned the surrounding void. He did not relax his vigilance just because the enemies had been successfully ambushed. After a moment, Eagle raised his head and looked at a patch of void where five colors of light were slowly emerging.
Before the world, the god walking among mortals raised his head, calmly looking up at the void.
And at the other end of the void, the five-headed Dragon God slowly emerged. It lowered its five massive heads, gazing at the aged Pope.