Shortly after Linde's "Starry Sky Apostles" hastily fled the airspace that was being swallowed by "Silence".
The Eternal Forest, the core area.
The absolute "active vacuum" created by the "silent saintess" Esmeralda has expanded to its limit.
The once mighty and vast will of the ancient forest, like an ocean of life, is now as weak as a candle flickering in the wind.
The enormous body of "Deep Roots Elder" Valakna, fused with the Ancestor of All Trees, is now visibly decaying.
The ancient resin that formed his body turned gray and brittle, the emerald green vines withered and turned to ashes, and the ferns and mosses that once radiated light lost their color in patches and became like ash.
Even more terrifying was that his deep connection with the earth beneath his feet and with the countless trees around him was forcibly severed and erased by an irresistible force representing "nothingness"!
He seemed to have been forcibly "dug" out of a painting called "Nature," becoming an abrupt and ever-disappearing "void."
"……Why……"
The remaining fragments of Valak's will emitted a final, incomprehensible cry, a fluctuation so faint as to be almost imperceptible, filled with endless pain and confusion.
He was at peace with the world, and for a long time he simply slept and existed, breathing with the forest and bearing the "illness" of time.
He has never provoked any being, especially a terrifying being like the "Silent Saintess".
Why did it lead to such a thorough and merciless extinction?
That blurry figure, composed of absolute silence—"The Silent Saint" Esmeralda—seemed to have "heard" this final question.
She made no movement, but the pervasive, existence-denying power of "silence" rippled slightly.
A single thought, cold, empty, devoid of any emotion, was directly imprinted upon Valak's dissipating core, like a final judgment:
"Someone... is trying to peek... at the path beyond the legends."
"This road...should not exist."
"It must be eradicated."
This idea, though extremely brief, contains a message that inspires despair.
Valak understood instantly.
It wasn't because of his serious illness, nor because of his very existence, nor even because of what he did.
It was all because of... that human who had just left, that Lind Truck who possessed strange powers and came to "seek the way"!
Linde's arrival, and his act of exploring the essence of different legendary paths, was like a searchlight cast into a deep pool, startling some unspeakable and terrifying beings beneath the surface.
As one of the targets of the "spying," Valak became a potential source of leaks that was easily wiped out, a sacrifice made to extinguish the flame of "spying"!
What an absurd and cruel reason this is!
However, Varak was unable to fully express his anger and resentment.
After that cold thought descended, the power of "Silent Saintess" Esmeralda completed its final convergence.
The extreme "active vacuum" suddenly contracted inward, then silently burst open, like an invisible, absolutely transparent bubble, gently but thoroughly sweeping across the large area centered on Valac.
Where the bubbles passed, all things returned to silence.
The massive fusion of Varakna, the gnarled ancient roots, the glowing fungal waterfalls, and everything else on this land that bore the mark of "life"... all of it instantly lost all color, all fluctuation, and all meaning of its existence.
They didn't collapse or shatter; instead, like pencil marks erased by an eraser, they disappeared silently and completely.
All that remained was a strange, smooth, mirror-like surface, devoid of any bumps, impurities, or even a trace of the past, as if nothing had ever existed there in the first place.
The Eternal Silent Forest, one of the oldest and most mysterious forbidden zones on this continent, along with its guardian, the "Deep-Rooted Elder" Valak, was thus completely wiped from the world.
After doing all this, Esmeralda's blurry, silent figure swayed slightly, as if she had exhausted herself, or as if she had simply completed a routine task.
She glanced in the direction Linde had left; faint ripples of spatial jump still lingered in that airspace.
But she did not pursue, but stood quietly on that newly formed "absolute nothingness," her figure gradually fading, and finally disappeared silently as if merging into the water.
It was as if it had never existed.
...
Meanwhile, far away on the other side of the continent, deep within the Longmian Mountains.
Inside the "Hall of Stars," beneath the dome that simulates the movement of stars.
Donoz, the "Star Traveler" who was meditating with his eyes closed on a floating obsidian platform, suddenly opened his blue dragon eyes, which seemed to contain an endless sea of stars!
His long neck suddenly arched back, his sharp gaze piercing a certain direction in the void, and for the first time, an expression of disbelief and shock appeared on his face!
Almost at the same time, the "Weaver" Magosra on the adjacent platform also suddenly raised her head. Her deep, calm eyes trembled violently, as if she had sensed the collapse of some kind of foundation!
Even the most lively and curious "Colorful Returner" Mataraya instantly suppressed all her playful expression, and the dreamlike luster of her scales solidified and became solemn.
“This… feeling…” Donoz’s voice trembled slightly, echoing in the silent hall, “a vast, ancient lifeline… suddenly… severed?! Completely vanished!”
"It's the Eternal Silent Forest!"
Magosra's voice was deep and firm, filled with solemnity, "Valak's presence... is gone! Not asleep, not hidden, but completely, utterly... nonexistent!"
"How is this possible?!" Matara exclaimed in shock. "That was the 'Deep Roots Elder'! A being almost assimilated with that ancient forest! Who could kill him so thoroughly and so quickly? Even destroying the very foundations of the entire forest..."
She stopped abruptly halfway through her sentence.
The three dragon elders' eyes met instantly, and they all saw the same shock and a name that had just been mentioned in each other's eyes!
"...Is it that Lind?"
Donoz's tone was full of doubt and uncertainty, "He just left not long ago... but he shouldn't have that kind of power..."
"No...it wasn't him."
Magosra slowly shook her head, her perception deeper and more ancient. "The way of destruction... is not any known form of energy or magic... it is... a 'negation,' a 'silence'..."
Donoz's dragon eyes suddenly contracted:
“'Silence'...the Silent Saintess, Esmeralda?!”
The moment that name was uttered, the atmosphere inside the Starry Sky Palace plummeted to freezing point.
Even for dragons, a race with long lifespans, "Silent Saintess" is an extremely ancient, mysterious, and dangerous taboo title.
She almost never appears on her own initiative, but every time she does, it signifies the complete end of an ancient existence and inexplicable changes in the rules.
Why did she make a move? Was her target Valak?
Matlaya felt a chill. "Valak almost never leaves the forest, how could he have offended her?"
Donoz's gaze became incredibly profound as he looked into the void once more, as if tracing back the subtle fluctuations he had captured in that brief moment from afar.
“I’m afraid… Valak isn’t the real target…” His voice was slow and heavy. “Remember Kel’Thuzad’s report? That Lind, he went to find Valak to ‘seek knowledge and ancient wisdom,’ to… ‘seek a different path.’”
Magogsra nodded slightly, its massive head flashing with a mixture of wisdom and worry in its eyes:
“Peering into the path beyond legend… this act itself may have touched upon certain… taboos that we cannot comprehend. Esmeralda, she may be the… cleaner who maintains this ‘boundary’.”
"And Valak was merely a 'knowledge carrier' that was incidentally erased?"
Matara felt a surge of absurdity and anger. "Just because of this? An ancient legend, an ancient forest, just like that..."
She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was self-evident.
The three dragon elders fell into a long silence.
Inside the Starry Sky Palace, only the faint light simulating the movement of stars still flickered coldly.
The complete demise of Valak, the reappearance of Esmeralda, and the potentially chilling implications behind it—the annihilation of those who "seek higher paths"...
All of this points to a disturbing future.
“A variable…” Donoz finally spoke slowly, his voice more somber than ever before, “Keldrak’s judgment needs to be revised again. Lind Truk, he is no longer merely an ‘actively interfering variable’…”
"...He has become the 'eye of the storm'."
Magozra continued, his voice heavy, "The path he is pursuing is causing enormous waves that are beyond our expectations and may even be beyond our comprehension."
"Notify all sleeping elders to convene the 'Starry Sky Council'."
Donoz made his decision, his dragon eyes flashing with a sharp light. "Valak's death, Esmeralda's appearance, Lind Truk's movements... We must reassess this era and the stance that dragons should take."
"A storm is coming."
The dragons' gazes grew deeper and more wary. They sensed that the balance of power deep within the continent was sliding in an unknown and dangerous direction due to the unexpected emergence of Linde and the terrifying taboos that might be involved behind him.
Meanwhile, Lind, who was completely unaware of this, was piloting the "Starry Sky Apostle" back to his Iron Sky at full speed.
He was unaware that a simple "academic visit" had triggered a catastrophe that swept through the legendary field, pushing him to an invisible yet incredibly dangerous boundary.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com