Chapter 828: 828

High above the western continent, Erik and his son, Eldrin, hovered in the vast, silent expanse of the sky, looking down upon the capital city. A full month of brutal effort had finally culminated in this moment, every cursed being that once terrorized the streets now lay unconscious below, their bodies sprawled across the cobblestones. It was a victory, though a hollow one, they had been unable to save everyone. Some had been corrupted too deeply, transformed beyond the reach of any redemption.

Eldrin had changed significantly over the course of the month-long excursion. While his arrogance remained, the constant mask of annoyance that once defined his expression had vanished. In its place was a sharp, unrelenting vigilance, a look of someone constantly on guard.

Erik noticed the shift, observing the hardening in his son’s eyes, but he remained silent. He knew this transformation was an inevitable byproduct of the campaign. They had been fighting creatures capable of piercing the mind and stirring the darkest depths of one’s emotions, and no matter how well-guarded one tried to be, those encounters inevitably left their mark.

The shared trauma of their campaign had forged a strange, grim bond between them. They had spent weeks acting as each other’s anchors, pulling one another back from the brink whenever the cursed beings whispered temptations into their minds. Yet, that vigilance had come at a heavy cost, a cynical frost had settled over them both. Now, neither father nor son could look at anything, no matter how virtuous or beautiful without searching for the hidden rot.

Eldrin hovered in the stagnant air, watching his father’s gaze fixed intently upon the seed. It had grown exponentially since they began feeding it, and its presence now dominated the capital. A heavy, cloying fragrance radiated from it, a sweet and intoxicating perfume that seeped into the lungs of everyone in the city, blurring the lines between comfort and captivity.

“Have you made your decision about Viridrigon, Father?” Eldrin asked, his voice low and devoid of its usual brashness. They both understood the grim reality of the situation, the time for hesitation had passed. The seed had to be planted if it was to take root and exert the function they needed.

Erik finally tore his eyes away from the pulse of the seed. His jaw was clenched, his expression one of weary defeat.

“I hate to admit it,” Erik replied, his voice barely audible over the hum of the city below, “but this might be the only choice we have left.”

Erik drew in a long, steady breath, allowing the cloying, sweet perfume of the seed to fill his lungs. It was an addictive scent, one that promised change but tasted faintly of surrender.

“When the seed grows and reaches its mature state,” Erik said, his voice grave, “it will draw unwanted attention, perhaps threats beyond anything we can currently manage. We need a guardian of unparalleled strength to ensure its safety.”

Eldrin nodded, a rare, genuine smile touching his lips. It was a small victory to see his father finally weighing his counsel with the gravity it deserved.

Erik caught the expression, though his own eyes remained clouded with apprehension. “However, we must be entirely truthful about our intentions before the Great Dragon. It must understand the potential danger that comes with the tree, there is no merit in obscuring our true goals, only the peril of offending such a creature by underestimating its wisdom.”

Eldrin’s face smoothed into a mask of deep, measured thought. He considered the weight of his father’s words and, after a long silence, gave a firm, singular nod of agreement.

With their course set, both men turned in unison. Their destination loomed in the distance, a colossal mountain that pierced the heavy cloud cover like a spear.

The air shrieked in protest as the sound barrier shattered behind them, the two figures blurring into streaks of motion. An hour later, they touched down at the base of the colossal mountain. They halted at a respectful distance, their feet grounding firmly onto the earth, not out of mere protocol, but out of necessity. Their mana senses, usually tuned to the finest frequencies, were being assaulted by the sheer magnitude of the mountain’s aura. It was a suffocating, blinding pressure of pure life force. To keep their sanity, they forced their internal senses to go dormant, reverting to the limited but stable reliability of their mortal eyes and ears.

Viridrigon, the Great Dragon, had made this place its sanctuary, and the environment had bowed to its presence. As a green dragon, its very essence had rewritten the laws of the local ecosystem. The forest here did not merely grow, it thrived with an aggressive, primeval vitality. Towering trees stretched upward like pillars supporting the heavens, their canopies so dense they blotted out the sun.

As they ventured further into the dragon’s domain, the forest displayed a chilling, alien sentience. Creeping vines, thick and knotted, slithered across the forest floor with the deliberate grace of serpents. They did not block the path, instead, they parted, coiling back into the undergrowth as if acknowledging the heavy, portentous nature of the men who walked among them. Every step closer to the mountain felt like an intrusion into a realm that had forgotten the existence of humanity.

As they pushed deeper, the true extent of the transformation became impossible to ignore. Everything they passed, the flora, the fauna, even the very insects bore the unmistakable mark of the dragon’s aura. Creatures that should have been wild and skittish moved with an unsettling, tranquil fluidity, their forms slightly altered, their eyes glowing with a faint, verdant light. Yet, there was no hostility, the forest seemed to hold its breath. It appeared that Viridrigon was well aware of their intrusion but found no reason to deem them a threat, allowing them to pass into its heart.

Erik moved in a daze of disbelief. It had been decades since he last stood in the presence of his old friend, and the passage of time had been cruel to his memory of this place. The world he once knew had been subsumed by a wild, breathing kingdom. If not for the crushing, unmistakable gravity of the Great Dragon’s soul, a beacon of raw untamed nature. Erik would have been hopelessly lost in the verdant labyrinth.

Finally, they reached the mouth of a massive cavern, an obsidian-throated opening that seemed to swallow the dim light of the forest floor. They paused, momentarily humbled by the sheer scale of the entrance, before stepping into the cool, damp dark.

Eldrin kept his voice to a low, reverent whisper, glancing at the soaring stone walls. “I always imagined a being of his magnitude would make his home among the clouds, perched atop the world.”

Erik chuckled, the sound echoing softly against the moss-slicked walls. “No, the old green guy has no use for the sky. There’s no soil up there to take root in, no cycle of decay to feed new growth. Watching his garden evolve, seeing the life he nurtures climb toward the light, that is his greatest joy. He is the heartbeat of this mountain, not its master.”

Eldrin fell silent, his eyes scanning the cavern as they pressed deeper. He had braced himself for the suffocating gloom of an underground tomb, but the reality was far more disorienting. The deeper they ventured, the more the darkness retreated, replaced by an ethereal, pulsing luminescence that defied natural logic. It was as if the sky itself had been harvested and pinned against the stone, the cavern walls glowed with a soft, azure radiance that made it feel as though the open sky had been folded down and brought within arm’s reach.

They walked in a state of quiet wonder, the strange, celestial light bathing them in a tranquil blue hue. However, the path soon betrayed them. The ground abruptly vanished, opening into a colossal, vertical abyss that plunged deep into the earth’s throat.

They stood at the precipice, staring into the infinite dark. Along the jagged, sheer walls of this massive shaft, bioluminescent flora clung to the rock like constellations in the night sky. These glowing vines and mosses cast long, dancing shadows, but even with this eerie illumination, the depth remained impenetrable. It was a bottomless void, a silent chasm that felt less like a geological formation and more like a gateway to a world entirely removed from their own.

Erik smiled, a calm that seemed entirely out of place for someone plummeting into a bottomless void. With a casual grace, he took a step into the empty air and vanished, his form swallowed instantly by the shifting blue shadows. Eldrin remained at the brink, his muscles coiled, every instinct screaming at him to summon his power and take flight. Yet, he hesitated, there was a peculiar gravity here, an ancient weight that whispered his wings would be useless, mere ornaments against the mountain’s crushing will.

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