Chương 16: This World Is Doomed

The wings unfolded from her waist until they reached their full, imposing span, each movement showing off a creature that had never once questioned its place at the top of creation, and as the last joints locked into place, violet flames blossomed instead of the membranes, spreading from bone to bone until they formed vast sheets of burning purple light. The Archer's composure shattered almost instantly.

She stumbled backward so abruptly that her heel caught against the floor, sending her onto the ground where she instinctively tried to scramble farther away, dragging streaks of gray dust across what little remained of her tattered clothing. Her mouth opened several times, desperately searching for words that never came, because every expression fought for dominance across her face at once.

There was fear, certainly, but it struggled against overwhelming admiration and complete disbelief, leaving her frozen somewhere between wanting to flee and wanting to continue staring at the being standing before her. Echidna, surprisingly, reacted very differently. By now the ring of blood had restored most of her body, though the process had clearly drained an enormous portion of her mana, leaving her breathing heavily as she stared at Gloria's fully revealed form.

"No..." The word escaped almost unconsciously.

"No... no..." She shook her head once. Then again.

"No... no, no, no... NO!" Her voice rose into a frantic scream as she staggered backward, every step carrying her farther from Gloria.

"Impossible! You... you were killed! You were slain!" Her breathing became increasingly ragged, every sentence interrupted by panicked gasps.

"Echidna heard all of it! You... you no longer belong to the world of the living! You cannot... you cannot be here!" The mighty god now retreated without even attempting to defend herself, crawling backward with all the desperate instinct of a cornered animal trying to escape a predator. Gloria watched the scene unfold in thoughtful silence. The reaction certainly made sense.

If one of history's greatest monsters suddenly appeared alive centuries after her confirmed death, disbelief was probably the most reasonable response imaginable. Under different circumstances, Gloria might have even found the sight amusing. Unfortunately... She did not have the luxury of indulging in the moment. Echidna knew things.

She had mentioned a King powerful enough to slay her, she had spoken of the Supreme Beings, who Gloria only guessed were other players, and above all else, she had existed in this world for far longer than Gloria herself. Whether she had been imprisoned, sealed, or simply hiding beneath this cave no longer mattered. She possessed information, and Gloria needed that information. Without another word, she slowly extended a hand toward the terrified god.

The simple gesture made Echidna flinch violently, her entire body recoiling as though she expected another spell to continue her torture. Instead, Gloria casually raised a claw to her own fingertip and made a tiny cut across one of her scales, making a single crimson droplet well to the surface.

"As you already know," Gloria said with a small smile, catching the drop before it could fall, "dragon blood is among the greatest restorative substances in the ga..." She paused for the briefest moment before correcting herself.

"... In the world." One of the reasons she had always loved playing a dragon was precisely this ridiculous racial trait. Her health pool itself was hardly extraordinary compared to dedicated tanks, yet her heart continuously produced blood infused with overwhelming vitality, allowing wounds that would cripple almost anyone else to disappear almost as quickly as they appeared. Trying to wear down a dragon through a prolonged battle had always been considered one of the worst possible strategies…

Unless you had access to regeneration-blocking poisons. With a gentle flick of her finger, the tiny droplet fell and landed on Echidna's leg. The instant the droplet touched her skin, a brilliant emerald light hugged her, covering her entire body. Wounds the blood ring had still been struggling to mend disappeared almost instantly and charred flesh gave way to healthy skin. Although the dragon's blood could not restore mana, it accomplished something almost as valuable.

The crimson ring orbiting her suddenly accelerated, its sluggish rotation regaining the smooth confidence it had possessed before, while its shrunken frame gradually thickened as though Gloria's blood had nourished the artifact itself. Echidna's trembling hand rose toward the fresh crimson stain still resting upon her leg, and with a speed that caught Gloria somewhat by surprise, she gathered what little remained of the blood upon her fingertips before quietly activating a spell. [Analyze.] Echidna silently read through every entry without so much as blinking. At first, nothing about her expression changed, but as her gaze continued drifting lower, it all changed. Her breathing became uneven, her lips quivered despite every attempt to steady them, and before long a laugh escaped her throat. The sound did not remain quiet for long though.

Another laugh followed, then another, each one louder than the last until they blended together into uncontrollable hysteria, her shoulders shaking violently as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. Somehow, in the middle of that broken laughter, she still managed to force out a few coherent words.

"... It truly is her." The laughter died almost as suddenly as it had begun, leaving behind an empty, distant stare as she slowly lifted her eyes toward Gloria once more.

"This world... is doomed." The last trace of strength abandoned her body the instant those words were spoken. Her muscles relaxed completely, her knees buckled without resistance, and she collapsed onto the ground. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"... Seriously?" Gloria crouched beside the unconscious monster before giving her a firm slap across the cheek, accidentally reopening one of the wounds.

"Open your eyes." Gloria said, frowning.

"Do not dare fall asleep in my presence. Wake yourself up." The only response she received did not come from the one she wanted.

"L... Lady Gloria..." The timid voice behind her pulled Gloria's attention away from Echidna, making her freeze for a brief moment before mentally scolding herself.

'Right.' She had completely forgotten the Archer was still standing there. Turning around, Gloria found the young woman perfectly unharmed, though the same could not be said for her clothing. All those good enchantments… Gone! But none of that seemed to bother her. Instead, she looked at Gloria with eyes shining so brightly they almost sparkled.

"My lady..." she breathed, placing a hand over her chest before offering a respectful bow despite the obvious excitement in her voice.

"That was, without question, the most magnificent battle I have ever been blessed to witness." She took a small step forward, completely forgetting her own exhaustion as her hands began unconsciously illustrating the events she was describing.

"The earth itself answered that monster's command when she opened the ground beneath us, and for a moment I believed all was lost... but then you simply sealed the breach as though closing the cover of a book." She paused only long enough to catch her breath.

"And then... that final spell..." The Archer searched for words… and she failed to find them.

"I do not even possess the vocabulary to describe what I witnessed!"

'... Seriously?' She had just watched an ancient god completely lose her composure after discovering Gloria's identity, and this was her reaction?

'Shouldn't you be at least a little terrified?' The thought almost escaped her mouth before she managed to stop herself. Instead, she sighed.

"... How do you remain so calm?"

"Calm...?" The Archer repeated the word as though it genuinely confused her, lowering her gaze toward her own hands before holding them out in front of herself. Only then did Gloria notice how violently they were trembling, the girl's fingers refusing to remain still no matter how hard she tried to steady them, while even her breathing remained uneven from everything she had witnessed. Looking at her now, "calm" was probably the most generous description Gloria could have chosen.

For a fleeting moment, she even wondered whether the poor girl had simply broken under the weight of everything that had happened.

"I am by no means calm, Lady Gloria…" the Archer admitted with an embarrassed giggle, clasping her trembling hands together in a futile attempt to hide them.

"Truthfully, my heart has not stopped racing since the moment you cast your first spell. I fear if I remain any more excited, it may simply leap from my chest." She drew a slow breath before looking directly at Gloria, and despite the unmistakable fear lingering in her eyes, it was overshadowed by something even brighter.

"I am... honored to stand before you." Her voice softened.

"Your story has inspired me for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was created, your name has existed somewhere between history and legend, and although every scholar insisted you had perished long ago, a part of me always wished the tales were wrong. The way your legend ended was never satisfying, and was extremely cheap!" She laughed yet again, still unable to believe the words leaving her own mouth.

"I never imagined I would live to meet someone from the Golden Age... much less you."

'Golden Age?' This was already the second time Gloria had heard that expression, making it increasingly obvious what it referred to. The Golden Age was almost certainly the period when Dragon Dive Online had still existed.

'... Honestly, I probably would've called it that too.' She folded her arms across her chest before tilting her head slightly.

"But aren't you afraid of me?" she asked.

"From everything you've said, I should be remembered as the greatest evil this world has ever known." The question was casual, yet Gloria paid close attention to the Archer's expression. She needed to understand how this world remembered her, because every answer revealed another small piece of the history she had missed.

"I would be a complete fool not to fear you," The Archer did not answer immediately.

"Anyone who witnessed what I did today and claimed otherwise would either be lying... or hopelessly insane." A small bead of sweat ran down her face.

"But fearing you and fearing for my own life are not the same thing." She looked back up.

"If you had wished to kill me, there has never been a single moment since our meeting when I could have prevented it. That became painfully obvious long before Lady Echidna's defeat. Yet you shielded me from that spell, welcomed me into your battle instead of casting me aside, and through your generosity granted me experience beyond anything I could have earned in decades of ordinary adventuring." She placed a hand over her heart and bowed her head once more.

"So while I do fear your power... I have no reason to fear your intentions." Gloria slowly nodded, finding herself unable to disagree with the girl's reasoning. Whether it came from courage or simple acceptance hardly mattered anymore.

"I suppose that is fair," she said before folding her arms beneath her chest.

"Now tell me... what level did you reach?" The question made the Archer brighten immediately, and she almost straightened to attention before proudly declaring, "Level two hundred and sixty-four, Lady Gloria!" Gloria was simply curious about how experience functioned in this world, and the result left her pleasantly satisfied. It seemed her assumption had been correct after all; growing stronger here followed the same fundamental principles as it had in DDO.

'But that's still an unbelievable amount,' she thought, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

'And we did not even finish Echidna herself. Raid bosses are supposed to hold the overwhelming majority of a dungeon's experience reward, so just how much experience were my spells actually worth?' The Archer, meanwhile, had already wandered a few steps toward the center of the platform, lowering herself onto one knee as she brushed through the layer of gray dust covering the stone. She pinched a small amount between her fingers, rubbing it thoughtfully before glancing around the chamber with a faint frown.

"This may sound like a rather strange question, but if this place truly was consumed by such overwhelming fire, then why isn't it hot? The stone should still be radiating heat. In fact, it should have melted entirely. Yet this dust is cold."

'... What an odd kid.' Gloria found herself briefly taken aback by the sheer speed with which the Archer discarded one subject in favor of the next. Only moments earlier the girl had been trembling, yet the weight of that experience already seemed to have slid off her as though it had never truly settled. What kind of peculiar filter did that mind of hers possess, that allowed something as overwhelming as her own near-destruction to leave so little lasting impact?

"Because Grand Catastrophe is a killing spell," Gloria replied matter-of-factly, earning nothing more than an adorably confused tilt of the girl's head.

"... But it was fire," the Archer answered after a moment, gesturing toward the blackened cavern surrounding them as though the conclusion should have been obvious.

"When I describe it as a killing spell, I mean precisely that. Grand Catastrophe was never designed to produce mere flame or heat; its purpose has always been the absolute erasure of whatever it is directed against, and the black fire you witnessed is simply the form that erasure takes when given shape.

Ordinary fire produces heat as a natural consequence of its nature, yet this spell reaches further still, for its very essence is the destruction of all things that exist, even something as fundamental as the concept of heat." The explanation left the Archer completely speechless. Her crimson eyes slowly wandered across the ruined cavern before returning to Gloria, and she quietly repeated the spell's name beneath her breath as though committing it to memory.

"... Grand Catastrophe..." A small chuckle escaped Gloria before she raised one hand to stop that train of thought before it could go any further.

"Do not even think of it. Learn the spells you have already seen me cast before setting your sights on something like that. Even for me, that one is quite a difficult one." Then, a long, pained groan cut their conversation in two, followed by the unmistakable sound of someone dragging themselves across fractured stone, causing both women to turn toward the source at the exact same moment as Echidna slowly began to regain consciousness.