Lucian looked back in Wade's arms. He saw a large area of dark gray fog coming in all directions. What was rolling and roaring in the fog was not clouds, but dense undead spirits!
Chloe, who fell from the tower, was held in Wade's other hand, and her movements were so simple and rough that people suspected that she would die soon. Lucian quickly cast a spell to stop the bleeding.
They tried to stop somewhere. As soon as they landed, Lucian treated the princess's wound. The dagger pierced deep into the princess's abdomen. Wade glanced at Lucian's movements and said, "I'll do it."
“Don’t underestimate me.” Lucian pulled out the dagger quickly and quickly, and cast a hemostatic spell before the blood gushed out.
The wound seemed to carry the energy of a curse. For a moment, the wound could not heal quickly. Lucian looked up and said to Wade: "Master Wade, maybe we should stay here..."
"No possibility." Wade said, "They are chasing us."
The undead that should have been thrown away long ago reappeared in the sky. Lucian thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps it was because of Chloe's aura. Tracking magic requires clues to track. And the caster happened to be Chloe herself three hundred years later..."
His eyes even lit up. "That sounds really interesting. Is Chloe here in person?"
"No."
"Strange, isn't she coming after us herself?"
"I think she probably wants to stay in the tower, disguise herself as a 300-year-old princess, and wait for the arrival of the red dragon. Changing this regrettable ending may be her obsession."
“I really can’t understand it. Isn’t this the memory of the red dragon?” Lucian sighed, “She is such a powerful lich, why is she still so stubborn? If it were me…”
Lucian lowered his head and cast a spell to strengthen the princess's abdomen. This was not out of kindness, but because he felt that the princess in his memory would be an important clue to break the deadlock. But at this time he heard Wade's voice: "If it were you, what would you do?"
"Me? Of course I won't embarrass myself. I'll just find the next person who can make me happy." Lucian said, "Master Wade, please block the door of the cave. I need ten minutes."
"… "
He did not listen to Vader's reply until he looked up and saw that Vader had moved to block the door.
He lowered his head and continued to move. Lucian was always patient when performing the spell to heal the wound. He didn't know that while he was concentrating, Wade turned back and looked at him.
The wound finally began to heal slowly. Lucian took the warm white halo back into his palm and said to Wade: "Should we take her back to the cave we came from? The dragon lady inside might be looking forward to her coming..."
"Whatever you want." Wade said.
"Master Wade, I am wholeheartedly trying to get the dragon blood for you." Lucian raised his face and smiled without complaining.
Vader didn't respond.
Boring, Lucian thought.
He originally wanted to help the unconscious Chloe up, but unexpectedly Wade raised his hand and used magic to make her float in the air.
That's good, it saves him a lot of effort. Lucian thought happily.
... and then he was picked up by Vader's waist as Vader flew up.
Lucian: …
They soon arrived at the original location of the memory world - the cave. Lucian tried to help the unconscious princess in and told the dragon girl that this was a gift he brought her, but he failed.
No matter how he tried, the unconscious Chloe could not be brought in. Lucian was puzzled, and finally, Wade said: "Maybe it's because she doesn't belong to this time."
"Not this time?"
"There can't be two Chloe's at the same time. The Chloe of the past can't exist at the same time as the Chloe of the present." Wade said, "The person who should enter here is not this Chloe, but another one..."
Lucian heard a faint cough while walking.
He lowered his head and saw the injured princess opened her eyes. She was still weak, but stared at them blankly.
…
fire.
Huge fire.
The raging flames swept across the entire royal city.
The lich closed his eyes, and the fire three hundred years ago was still vivid in his mind. And now, they came to reality from their memories.
She heard the guards' screams of fear at the foot of the tower, and the increasingly faint heartbeats of the soldiers hiding in the more hidden corners, planning to capture the red dragon. Some people were shouting, and she didn't know where the plan had gone wrong. More people were rotting because of the curse, crawling on the ground, howling miserably.
We need to make their voices even weaker, the lich thought, so as not to let their appearance scare the red dragon.
The red dragon came to save her, but she was the weak princess back then.
"Your Highness..." The knight struggled to crawl beside her. He never thought that he would die in the hands of the princess: "You..."
He saw the girl in the blue skirt squat down and hold his face with both hands. The moment he looked into her pupils, the dying knight widened his eyes: "Your eyes..."
"The golden eyes of the dragon clan, huh? I almost forgot to take them back - this is a side effect of restoring strength." He heard the princess whisper something he couldn't understand, and soon, her eyes returned to a deep blue. "Do I look like you now?"
"you… "
"Rest in peace, Croft." A white hand stroked his cheek. "I didn't mean to punish you - it was your duty to shoot that arrow. But you are in the way here..."
At that moment she heard a huge sound of wind behind her.
The lich laughed silently.
"Good night, Croft," she said.
The knight stopped breathing. At the same time, the lich turned around. She saw the red dragon descending upon her, and at that moment tears almost flowed from her eyes—even though as a lich, she could no longer shed tears.
The lich had no tears and could not cry. The crying princess finally gave up her tears.
"Long time no see." She said softly.
The red dragon stretched out its wings and called out to her, asking her to follow him. The lich glanced at the corridor and the castle, which had become completely silent, and ran towards her, lifting her skirt.
Tiny dragon scales clung to her calves. This was the contamination from the drop of divine blood belonging to the dragon race. However, she was wearing a long skirt, which did not affect their encounter for a moment.
I've found you at last, she thought.
Finally... After all these years...
"Edith!" she yelled, "I've been waiting for you... take me away!"
"Chloe!"
The red dragon also began to recover its human form, and the red-haired girl walked out of the flames. The two hugged each other tightly. The lich said quickly: "Take me away, we will go back to the dragon cave, and then..."
Then she would use the drop of divine blood that she brought into this memory to support the continuation of this illusion with her own strength, and their souls could live happily together.
They exchanged a few pleasantries on the tower, and the lich grabbed Edith's arm and was about to leave. But when she was about to step out, she realized that Edith did not move.
She turned around and said, "Edith, what's wrong?"
"No... I." She heard Edith's voice, "I feel something strange."
"strangeness?"
"I feel..." She heard the girl's increasingly ethereal voice, "I feel like this shouldn't be the case, I..."
"Where shouldn't it be?"
The lich did not look back. She continued to hold the red dragon's arm and tried to keep her voice unchanged. Then, she heard a reply.
"I always feel like something is wrong... like I'm missing something. I feel like... you were supposed to cry..."
The light grey mist spread around the two again, and at the same time, scales began to cling to the lich's body. The lich did not look back, but said calmly: "Isn't this good?"
"… "
More and more laughter came from the gray mist, coming from all men, women, young and old, and spreading around them at a very fast speed, gradually forming a strange vortex. If Lucian were here, he would see the cause of this gray vortex - it was the terrifying realm formed by Chloe's obsession when she lost control after fusing with dragon blood in the book.
A gray fog filled with laughter will cover this place. Everyone who walks here will be unable to help but smile. They will not go crazy, but will soberly look at their own distortions until they tear their mouth corners and even their heads apart for laughter, and join the joyful procession of the undead, and continue to march in the gray fog on a joyful parade, which cannot be stopped until death.
"Welcome you with a smile, isn't that good? I will never cry again." The lich said calmly, "Isn't that a good thing?"
Dark scales covered her cheeks, and she knew she could no longer turn back.
It was as if she knew that she had been exposed.
She could hear the sound of her teeth clacking. She thought that even if she swallowed the dragon's blood and entered this memory, she would still get this result. She knew that she was destined to become a monster from the moment she swallowed the dragon's blood, but even so, she took a gamble and chose the opportunity to enter the memory.
It's all her fault, she thought.
She couldn't undo her mistakes, just like she could never save the red dragon from death. Whether in a dream or...
"When did you find out?" she whispered.
"From the beginning."
She raised her head and began to laugh silently. The gray mist began to intensify, just as the corners of her mouth began to crack. At this moment, she was suddenly hugged from behind.
All the gray whirlpools seemed to stop at that moment.
"You look familiar." She heard the voice behind her, "So, I didn't expose you... You look like you've suffered a lot, right?"
"… "
The lich suddenly wanted to cry, but she couldn't cry anymore. The dark scales had already climbed up to the corners of her eyes, and she couldn't even blink.
"But... there is another person waiting for me, waiting for me to save her. If she can't see me, she will be very sad, so..."
"Do you know where she is?"
At that moment, a whistling sound from the leaves of the World Tree suddenly came from the gray fog!
The sound was like piercing the clouds and splitting the rocks. The moment the golden beast appeared, the lich closed his eyes.
"Go ahead." She whispered, "She's here to see you. She...really looks like me."
She should have known that she could enter her memory and kill her past self for the sake of meeting the Red Dragon. Then her past self would not be willing to be killed by herself like this.
The red dragon hugged her tightly and left her body.
She heard the cry of another self, the sound of the red dragon running towards her, the sound of her body being corroded by the dragon's blood... Her eyes began to blur, and the two people hugging in the distance became a blur in her eyes. And she was like the clown who had tried her best but was abandoned by time.
That's great.
She suddenly thought.
At least in the end, she still saw her encounter with her. Perhaps there was such a moment when she was satisfied with everything she had given.
In her blurred vision, the last thing she saw was a white-haired young man appearing before her eyes.
The young man was so beautiful, like a blooming lily. He lifted her hand, which was covered with black scales due to the backlash of dragon blood, and put a leaf of the world tree into her hand.
She remembered the leaf, and a few days later, she threw it into the pond in the square.
"Can your lips still move? Blow them." The young man tilted his head and looked at her. "Stop watching young people show off their affection. You still have your chance."
"Who are you?" She moved her mouth.
The young man did not answer her question, but just smiled at her tenderly.
"Blow this leaf and you will find her. When you blow it, you will also find the red dragon in your time and space - go find her." He said, "She has always remembered the size of your tears and has been waiting for you to come."
"Of course, after you find her, I need you to do me a small favor." He tilted his head and smiled.
He placed the leaf to her lips. When the whistle sounded, the almost out-of-control lich finally saw the scene she had dreamed of countless times.
The flaming red dragon wings rose in the sky before her eyes, just like when they first met. But that was no longer a memory or a dream. It was the spirit of the person she loved, coming for her after waiting for years.
She never hated her.
She finally understood.
…
Lucian woke up from his dream. He moved his body and looked at Eden's worried face beside him. While they were sleeping, James was on guard outside the hut, and Eden sat beside them, taking care of them.
Lucian stretched out his hand, and only after seeing human fingers did he realize that he had been released from his cat-like state in his dream. Now he was covered with a blanket.
This is a good thing.
"Louis, Lord Witt, he..." He woke up, Eden said hurriedly, "He looks very bad."
"It's okay, don't worry." Lucian said, "He is combining dragon blood - that's all."
As he said this, he looked at Wade who was sleeping beside him.
Wade closed his eyes tightly. When he saw his current appearance, Lucian understood Eden's worries. Wade looked extremely abnormal now. Silver dragon scales grew on his face, and dark blood vessels protruded from his body like vines. He looked extremely scary. But Lucian knew that this was a side effect of combining with dragon blood.
—In the world of memories just now, Vader forcibly extracted the drop of blood belonging to the dragon clan from the body of the lich Huihe who was almost out of control.