Chapter 41: Ch 41: The Undefeatable Courage

The world fell silent for a moment.

Every floating island near Aquabyss held its breath when it revealed itself.

First, a red claw bigger than a mountain appeared, then the whole paw.

One became two.

Just two paws, yet they occupied half of the spatial crack.

The eyes watching the phenomenon were horrified beyond limit.

But the nightmare did not end even when they closed their eyes.

CRACK!

The nightmare forcefully tore its way through the Void.

And when its full body entered the world, the very realm screamed in agony.

The sun disappeared completely, leaving behind nothing but a bloody red light, as if the heavens themselves were shedding tears of blood.

Everyone, including Aegis, forgot to breathe for a few seconds.

The being spanned hundreds of thousands of miles in radius, its true size and shape impossible to measure with normal eyes.

But Aegis… he saw it.

Those crimson eyes.

Those six bloody wings.

Those scales bigger than islands.

They undeniably belonged to a dragon.

A colossal red dragon.

Colossal was not even the right word to describe it. It was an entity beyond all conventional measures.

Vast. Ancient. Overwhelmingly powerful.

The very air thickened with dense red miasma that poisoned the realm itself.

Several islands melted within just a few breaths, along with all their inhabitants.

“The Red Emperor…” Naida murmured, almost like a possessed person. “How can he arrive here? how?”

Aegis barely registered the title Red Emperor.

Before he could ask who it was, the red dragon spoke first.

Its voice was like the echo of vast, ancient time.

< WHAT A SURPRISE. HOW CAN THIS WORLD STILL BE BREATHING? >

It carried no compassion, only astonishment.

Its eyes, glowing with ancient power, searched every nook and cranny, from desolate islands to lush, vegetative forests.

< OHH… IT IS TRYING TO RECOVER WITH THESE IMPERMANENTS? HOW PITIFUL. >

Aegis’ eyes narrowed.

The red dragon’s words held no remorse, only mockery.

Just then, those mocking eyes slowly landed on the Aquabyss Domain. It was the gaze of an apex predator that spoke clearly: it had found its prey.

< HAHA, ARE YOU HERE, OH SEA GOD? >

< OH RIGHT… YOU BECAME A CORPSE ALREADY. THAT’S THE PRICE YOU PAID FOR RESISTING US. >

< BUT WHAT’S THIS? WHOM DID YOU LEAVE BEHIND TO HANDLE YOUR LEGACY? >

Its gaze bore into Aegis’ body from every angle, as if scrutinizing him after stripping him bare, from head to toe, body to soul.

Aegis felt crushing pressure from all sides.

At that exact moment, the Sea God’s Tower quietly vanished from his body, as if it too feared losing its existence.

< YOU PLACED YOUR TRUST IN A HUMAN, OH SEA BORN GOD? I SEE YOU WERE FOOLISH EVEN AT YOUR LAST MOMENT. >

“You’re wrong, Red Emperor. The Sea God was not foolish!”

Suddenly, a small shout was heard from below.

It was Naida’s voice, but it sounded far stronger and more mature.

Aegis turned in surprise, only to see a gorgeously transformed mermaid standing there.

She had taken on her Mermaid Princess form, towering at nearly sixty meters tall.

Holding a golden scepter in her jade hand, her entire figure emitted a radiant golden aura. Each of her emerald scales glittered like precious jewels.

The red dragon’s eyes narrowed at Naida’s golden figure, then an amused expression formed on its face.

< AREN’T YOU THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF NIVELLA? SHE WAS ALSO QUITE A NUISANCE BACK THEN. >

< WERE YOU IN CHARGE OF THIS BROKEN LEGACY UNTIL NOW? >

Naida looked like a fierce warrior, though the sorrow from remembering her family’s demise was unbearable.

“Yes. I was,” she said firmly. “And I fulfilled my purpose. But you… you shouldn’t have come back today.”

Aegis stepped forward, looking desperate.

“Naida, what are you doing? Don’t go!” he said helplessly. “We can do something. We can escape.”

Inwardly, he tried to summon the Sea God’s Tower to escape with them, but failed bitterly.

It rejected his authority again and again.

“Come out, damn it. Why won’t you come out when I need you the most…”

Bam! Bam!

In great frustration, he pounded his chest with his own fist, hard enough to cave in his ribcage, yet the tower still refused to appear.

Her eyes turned on the ground.

Seeing the mad state her master was in, Naida’s eyes softened completely.

Tears formed around the edges, yet she smiled.

“Master… do you know something?”

A pause, “I died a very long time ago. When the Sea God fell, I lost everything. My family. My purpose. My future. I was nothing more than a remnant, drifting in an empty domain, waiting for time to erase me.”

She looked back at him with her unbearably warm gaze:

“Then you arrived.

You didn’t treat me like a spirit. You didn’t see me as a tool, or a relic of a dead god. You spoke to me. You trusted me. You let me stand beside you.

“For the first time… I felt alive again.”

Tears finally spilled down her glowing cheeks, falling like glittering golden perals.

“Every moment I spent with you, every command you gave, every time you relied on me… it filled the cracks in my broken soul. I laughed. I worried. I hoped. I even dreamed again.

She clenched her fist over her chest.

“I don’t know if this is love. But I know this pain— this pain is something only someone precious can cause.”

“So please don’t blame yourself. Don’t hate yourself. You were never weak to me.”

“You gave meaning to a life that should have already ended. That alone makes you worthy of everything.”

She turned toward the sky, golden light gathering around the scepter.

“If this is where my existence ends… then I am grateful it ends protecting you.”

She looked back one last time.

“Thank you for choosing me, Master.”

With that, she levitated into the sky. Then streaked upward like a golden angel.

She didn’t have wings, but her courage and bravery felt immeasurable.

She seemed unafraid and unbothered by the undefeatable entity above her.

But Aegis understood she was bleeding on the inside. She didn’t wish to disappear.

No matter how strong her courage was, against a foe of that magnitude, it wasn’t enough.

Her words rang in his ears, and he felt a pain he had never felt before. He wasn’t sure if it was love, but he felt as though something precious was slipping away from him.

His already broken heart cracked further.

But he was weak. Utterly.

Even after all these days of powering up, he was still insignificant.

Just why?

Have I not worked hard enough?

Had I still thought this was a game?

At that time, I couldn’t answer myself.

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