Chapter 305: Armageddon Blade

  "The support Ainfast can give us is limited. I don't think that if Celeste truly attacks with the full strength of the western continent, they will be able to commit their entire national strength to the battle. And Tatalia's national strength is too weak; at most, it can only play a certain containment role."

  "Then... should we recall General Gru and the elite troops from the Sanderfirth mountains? The base there should have begun construction, but..."

  "The other troops are unnecessary. Just have him come back alone." Sedros nodded.

  "One person?"

  "Yes, one person is enough." A cold light flashed in Sedros's eyes.

  "It seems he is living quite comfortably. Hmm, then let's just forget it." Moriel nodded thoughtfully.

  "I can't believe... Gru is actually your adopted son..." Ethan tried his best in his mind to superimpose the image of the red-haired woman with Gru's image, and he could indeed find some common ground. It wasn't in appearance, but in that unique temperament that no other person, or other creature, would ever possess. In his extreme surprise, Ethan also felt a sense of relief, as if it were only natural. Only a dragon could raise a formidable man like Gru.

  Back in the Tulalion Forest, Jessica, who had knelt before Gru, had said the words "Moriel's envoy." But Jessica hadn't said anything more afterward, and Ethan hadn't pursued it. It was only now, hearing it from Moriel's own mouth, that he learned of this.

  "It's also strange. That was twenty or thirty years ago, wasn't it? I was suddenly awakened from a long slumber by a strange magical fluctuation... It was actually the vibration of the highest-level spatial magic, and then a baby appeared before me. I don't know which fool actually used an incomplete time-space transfer spell on an infant. Even in the elven era of the past, that was a forbidden, great art."

  "He was probably the product of an illicit union between an elf and a human. For a noble elf to actually combine with a lowly human was truly an unforgivable crime in the Elven Empire. In fact, even I never thought that I would inexplicably have a half-elf adopted son. You know, in the infinite river of time and space, for this coordinate to just happen to cave in right beside me, what a strange coincidence. What is this called... fate? No. What's that word...? coincidence? No... I think it's called 'yuan'. I remember a golden dragon once told me this word; it has a very interesting meaning. Hmm... it's also possible that an acquaintance from the past wanted to entrust him to me, but I have no way of knowing who it was."

  Under two or three of Moriel's spells, the scattered gold coins and various treasures had already re-piled into a small golden mountain, burying the dragon blood altar that sealed her soul and life force beneath it. Moriel had already reverted to her original form, the massive Black Dragon, lying atop this golden mountain. Although her humanoid form was more flexible, she seemed more at ease in this state.

  Ethan sat cross-legged on the ground. He looked up at the colossal beast atop the golden mountain. Based on Ethan's experience dealing with old fellows like Sandro, it seemed Moriel was both explaining to him and reminiscing to herself. Although the humanoid form she had conjured didn't look old, and it was hard to have a standard to judge whether she could be considered "old," her lifespan, which was a thousand times that of a human, surely held far more experiences to chew on.

  "He actually left with that old fellow Sedros without even discussing it with me. Did he think I wouldn't permit him to leave? That was the fate he chose for himself. I have no right to interfere, nor do I want to. It's just that these years have occasionally been a bit boring..."

  Ethan listened quietly to Moriel's words, then finally spoke, "Alright, now you know what you wanted to know. Can you tell me what I want to know?"

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  The huge head of the Black Dragon nodded and said, "It's about The Black Star, isn't it? My agreement with Archibald was not to reveal this to those who inherit his Necromancer Guild, so I can tell you some things."

  Ethan sighed, rubbing the few joints on his body that still ached, and said, "Before that, what I want to know is why the passage specially left by Archibald was a road to death."

  "A simple question. That is naturally because he believed such a person deserved to die."

  "Why deserved to die?"

  "Anyone who can complete the meditation technique he left behind is someone who might be able to lift The Black Star. How could such a person not deserve to die? It's not just Archibald who thinks he deserved to die; even I think he deserved to die. This is a rare point of consensus for us. It's just a pity that things turned out somewhat differently from our expectations. The one who came was actually you, this strange little fellow."

  "Archibald... didn't he always want to pull out The Black Star?"

  "How could he think of pulling out that damned sword? Although he's a very annoying fellow, he isn't mad yet. He wouldn't think of committing suicide and destroying the world along with it."

  "What on earth is..." Ethan felt his head spin more the more he asked.

  Looking at Ethan's expression, Moriel let out a laugh that shook the cavern. "Let me tell you from the beginning, kid. It seems what you've always believed is far from the actual truth. What I tell you will be enough to surprise you." She paused, looking at Ethan with a strange smile. "First, let me tell you an interesting detail. That sword hilt, do you really think it was broken by the acting Guild Master you mentioned? Stop dreaming. What is condensed in The Black Star is all the death and dark aura of this continent for thousands of years; it is the power of countless souls. Even Archibald didn't have the courage to break it. That sword hilt was actually already broken. Archibald had just barely attached it. In the hundreds of years since, no one had dared to try and pull it. I was the one who broke it. It was five hundred years ago when I went to The Shadowspire Peaks to find this sword, wanting to destroy it, but I was stopped by Archibald and his friends."

  "What? Why?"

  Moriel looked with interest at Ethan's uncontrollably surprised face and slowly began to speak, "Let me tell you from the beginning, kid. You are the only person on this continent right now who can know these things."

  "At least in the history that I know of, there are no records of when The Black Star appeared. I don't know how long ago, nor whether it was naturally formed or specially made by some race. A large mountain range in the very south of the continent formed the shape of a magic array. The mountain range was connected to the aura of the entire continent. Whether it was elves, humans, or other intelligent races, the spirit and slight magical power left after death were drawn by the earth's veins to gather in that mountain range. And these auras were highly concentrated at a single point in the mountain range, becoming a sword."

  "In my era, the elves of the Elven Empire had actually long noticed the power contained within this thing. They also understood the danger it posed and even formulated a series of protective measures to prevent people from touching this sword. But later, the elves began to conflict with our dragon race and the Titan giants due to their limitless expansion. After several great wars, an Elven King finally thought of using the astonishing power of this thing to deal with us. That fool, that thing born from the convergence of countless wills of death, how could it be usable by a living being? The special magic protection of hundreds of Elven Grand Mages had no effect at all. The Elven King who grasped that sword became an undead monster."

  "Elves, humans, even dragons and Titans could not resist the power of this sword. It was the power condensed by the entire continent. Countless living beings were killed, becoming controlled undead puppets. Finally, all our remaining races united, preparing to eliminate that undead Elven King in one fell swoop. But when the great army had gathered near the Central Mountains, above the Elven city on the Central Mountains, the undead Elven King unleashed a magic attached to The Black Star."

  "Before this, we dragons, the Elven Grand Mages, all thought our magic had reached its peak. But when this magic was released from this sword, only then did we know how insignificant and laughable we were."

  "Countless flames and meteors fell from the sky, the earth trembled, and lava erupted. The Central Mountains were originally the center of the earth's veins of the continent. The death and dark aura of that sword spread along the veins to every corner. The castles floating in the sky, the cities on the ground, everything was destroyed. The scene was like the end of the world."

  "Armageddon Blade, that was the name of the sword at that time."

  "Only we dragons suffered the least trauma in this cataclysm. It was just that I was severely injured at the time, and the others in my clan had to help me seal myself underground with magic to wait for my slow recovery. About five hundred years ago, when I reawakened, I discovered that not a single one of my clan members was left. The Elven Empire and the Titan giants were nowhere to be found. Instead, the once lowly humans had become the masters of the surface. I took on a human form to understand and discovered that your history is only a mere few thousand years, and not a single person knows about Armageddon Blade and that cataclysm."

  "Later, I thought of going to the mountain range that nurtured Armageddon Blade to take a look, but I unexpectedly discovered that Armageddon Blade was actually standing there again, and there were even several mages living there. I wanted to destroy Armageddon Blade, but they wanted to stop me. The one leading them was Archibald. Although they were already strong among humans, how could their declining magical arts compare to that of the Elven Empire of that day... I defeated them and intended to destroy Armageddon Blade."

  "But what I never expected was that my all-out attack only broke the sword hilt, and the instantly erupted dark aura blasted me half to death. That elven woman among them actually took the opportunity to use a soul extraction and separation spell of an ancient Elven Grand Mage, and, together with Archibald, sealed me up."

  "The reason they stopped me is actually very simple. If Armageddon Blade, or The Black Star as they call it, were truly completely destroyed, the power of the released dark aura, although much smaller than that apocalyptic catastrophe, would be enough to kill off the people of nearly half the continent."