School Transmigration: I, Chosen as the Saint by Dragons at the Start-Chapter 112 --The Secrets of the Luminous Ancient Kingdom
Rubbing his eyes, Owen thought he saw a flicker in the statue’s eyes.
"What exactly is happening?" Owen felt an eerie chill run down his spine.
"It’s all my fault; I still couldn’t hide it," he thought with a sense of foreboding.
"What exactly do you mean?" Owen, utterly bewildered, sensed an ominous feeling.
"Just wait, you’ll see soon enough," the black protodragon replied, its tone losing the previous nonchalance and turning grave.
The statue’s eyes flickered with a red light, as if it had been imbued with life.
Its already upturned lips now formed a smile, more eerie than ever.
Owen’s expression darkened as he felt a powerful force enveloping Heartstealer Island.
Without hesitation, he forced a drop of essence blood from his fingertip.
"Barlo, I am in Heartstealer Island of the Gosa Waters, facing grave trouble. Come quickly," he shouted.
Heeding advice could be as nourishing as a full meal.
The black protodragon, worldly and wise, would not call for help without good reason.
The essence blood, as if recording Owen’s words, plunged back into his bloodstream.
Upon entering his body, it transformed into an invisible wave of light radiating outward from him.
Instantly, a vision appeared in Owen’s mind: beneath a sky of dense fog, a goddess statue stood elegantly, her face adorned with a sinister smile.
Her eyes sparkled with red light, and an inexplicable power swept through the space.
This vision also manifested in the minds of dragons across the continent.
Even those engaged in life-or-death struggles paused, their gazes turning towards the direction of the Gosa Waters.
...
In Dragon Echo Valley, Barlo sat cross-legged on a mountain peak, the wind gently playing with his hair.
His jade-like fingers rested on his knees, subtly moving as he contemplated, "Breaking through to the sage-tier is challenging. I have a vague feeling that if I were to break through, I would face great terror, as if something is hindering me."
"I wonder how the sages of our clan managed to step into this realm," he mused.
Suddenly, his body stiffened as a vision appeared in his mind.
A city engulfed in flames, shrouded in white fog.
In the city center stood a statue, gracefully poised, one hand cradling the air and the other holding a golden lotus.
The goddess-like figure, charming and beautiful, captured the dragon’s heart, yet her eyes gleamed with an eerie red light, adding an ominous aspect to her appearance.
Barlo also noticed the statue’s body distorting, as if some indescribable creature writhed within, seemingly about to come to life and break free from its physical constraints.
"Barlo, I am in Heartstealer Island of the Gosa Waters, facing grave trouble. Come quickly," Owen’s voice echoed in his heart, prompting him to stand abruptly, his expression stern.
"Saint... Heartstealer Island."
Without hesitation, he leapt up, transforming into a blue light and landing in front of a cave.
"Elder, you must have received the saint’s message. I am leaving immediately."
A ripple of energy emanated from him as Barlo nodded heavily, "Yes."
With that, he stood midair, calling out loudly, "Bilqis, Nidaam, come with me to Gosa Waters."
Suddenly, two radiant beams of light shot out from Dragon Echo Valley, landing beside Barlo.
These were the other two grandmasters of the dragons.
"Have you received the message?" Barlo asked.
"Yes."
"There’s no time to lose.
Let’s hurry."
...
In Loka City, the black protodragon reflected internally, "Advanced races are truly distinct, seeking help through bloodline. Such arcana can’t be developed without thousands of years of research."
Owen, filled with questions, pressed, "I’ve already summoned the dragons. Can you now explain what’s going on?"
"I am Hope, you should be aware of that," the black protodragon’s revelation sent Owen reeling.
’I’m aware of what?’
"Uh..."
"Surprised that I’m so straightforward?" The black protodragon mused, while Owen internally exclaimed, ’Surprised that you’re Hope, you mean.’
"When I broke through to the sage-tier, I saw the face of a deity.
That deity happened to be Loka." As the black protodragon spoke, Owen realized that many secrets were about to be unveiled.
"Upon seeing Loka, I fell for her. I asked, ’How can I meet her?’ and was told, ’Meet in dreams, or ascend to the divine realm.’"
"I was just two hundred and thirty-seven years into my sage-tier breakthrough, one of the youngest on Novalia to achieve it. Full of ambition, I aimed to break through to the god-tier."
"Alas, the path to godhood is elusive and hard to attain. The more I met Loka in dreams, the more I grew fond of her, even falling in love. I pleaded for ways to be with her in reality."
"After my repeated pleas, Loka, having no other choice, secretly imparted a method to me."
"God Descending Spell?" Owen’s eyelids twitched, feeling the weight of a massive conspiracy, "Wasn’t this spell created by you?"
"No, you have not seen the God Descending Spell. You don’t understand its subtlety; such a thing couldn’t possibly be created by mortals. Loka bestowed the spell upon me, and in return, I crafted a statue for Loka, commencing a yearly descent of the deity." 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶
"But the more I used it, the more I felt something was amiss. Every time I invoked the God Descending Spell, ’Demons’ would emerge alongside, every single time. They were weak, so I didn’t pay much attention."
These ’Demons’ are what we know as abyssal creatures, but the black protodragon used an ancient term.
"It was only after... after over sixty years of using the God Descending Spell that disaster struck. A ’Demon’ massacred over three thousand of my Luminous Ancient Kingdom’s people."
"Only then did I realize that hundreds, even thousands of ’Demons’ appeared in the kingdom every year. My subordinates, not wishing to trouble me, had been dealing with them quietly."
"After all, ’Demons’ prey on living beings, and we could gain much from them, including fragments of memories left in their bodies, which were greatly beneficial to us."
"But I knew such things should not be done. Even a single ’Demon’ escaping the Luminous Ancient Kingdom would be like dropping poison into Gosa Waters."
"So, I confronted Loka, who said, ’This is an inherent side effect of the God Descending Spell. If you are unwilling, then let it be. We can still meet in dreams.’"
"At that time, I was heartbroken, thinking it was my fault. After all, I was the one who pleaded for the God Descending Spell."
"But in the next sixty years, the ’Demons’ grew exponentially stronger. Previously, we only faced master-tier ’Demons’, but now grandmaster-tier ones began to appear, sometimes even two at a time."
"At that time, the Luminous Ancient Kingdom only had three grandmasters, and we struggled immensely against these ’Demon’ invasions. I realized this situation couldn’t continue."
"My affection for Loka deepened over the years. In our dreams, she mentioned, ’Just ten more years and I will be fully awakened. If you give up now...’ She didn’t finish her sentence, but I understood her implication."
"And with the appearance of only grandmaster-tier ’Demons’, I believed I could still manage. So, I continued..."
"The statue of Goddess Loka was nourished by my essence blood and enriched with the arcana of the God Descending Spell, becoming increasingly vivid and lifelike, awakening her was unquestionably feasible."
"The tenth year approached quickly, and during the use of the God Descending Spell, a sage-tier ’Demon’ emerged from the void."
"That’s when I realized I had been deceived."
At this point, the black protodragon’s face was filled with bitterness.
His eyes, fixed on the statue of Goddess Loka, conveyed a complex mix of emotions.
Fondness swiftly turned to anger, which then dissolved into love.
That love, in turn, morphed into pain, the pain solidified into confusion, and from that confusion, determination emerged.
"I battled the sage-tier ’Demon’ for three days and nights, finally suppressing it. I decided then to destroy the statue of Goddess Loka, marking the beginning of a great disaster in the Luminous Ancient Kingdom."
"Though I possessed the power of a sage, I couldn’t even scratch the statue of Goddess Loka. Each of my attacks only caused the statue to expel a multitude of ’Demons’."
"Therefore, I declared a lockdown of the nation, beginning a tug-of-war with the statue of Goddess Loka."
"But I didn’t expect your quick thinking to find the key to the statue of Goddess Loka so swiftly."
"You completed the blood ritual, and Quincy completed the God Descending Spell. The combination of these two... Goddess Loka’s statue is about to expel ’Demons’ again."
Owen’s mouth twitched incredulously.
Could such coincidences really exist in this world?
"How strong will these ’Demons’ be?"
"How strong?" The black protodragon’s gaze seemed distant, as if recalling events from thousands of years ago.
"Back then, the highest level of ’Demons’ expelled by the statue of Goddess Loka was sage-tier, and the lowest were master-tier..."
Owen felt half his body go numb as if struck by lightning: "Sage-tier... you can’t be serious."
The black protodragon glanced at Owen and smirked, "We don’t need sage-tier; grandmaster-tier ’Demons’ alone could annihilate both of us. Oh no, they could kill every being in this world."
Owen stiffened.
"You mean, it’s likely to expel grandmaster-tier ’Demons’?"
"Pretty much," replied the black protodragon, his tone incredibly calm, befitting of someone who had lived for thousands of years.
Owen’s smile was bitter: "How about you throw me out of this world first?"
The black protodragon replied coldly, "Impossible. I won’t allow any ’Demon’ to escape from this world. Opening a path for you would be giving them a chance."
"..."
As the two discussed, the statue of Goddess Loka underwent a sudden transformation.
Her cherry-like mouth, which had been small, now opened wide.
