“Master.” Saphira gave me a level gaze and then glanced at Aria. When she did, her brows furrowed a bit and then she looked back at me. “How are you here?”
I frowned. “I should be asking you that.”
She was the same as I remembered… The same as the last time I glanced at her as well in the forest, almost as if continuing off from that meeting. But…
“You… Aren’t you dead?”
That was the confusing part. Xinxin said that she killed both Saphira and Aria when she was at the Northern Empire. Not only that, but regarding Saphira, Xinxin said that she took in the divine dragon’s powers and existence.
In short, it should have been impossible for her to be standing here since her ‘essence’ should be with Xinxin at the moment.
“I am.” The snowy haired beauty brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and said, “At the least, I should be.” Saying that, she glanced around.
I followed her gaze, frowning.
This was the Lost Woods. At least, it appeared to be. Time was slightly distorted, but then again it always had been in the Lost Woods.
Saphira turned back to look at me, staring with those azure eyes, and she said, “This is a place outside of time and space. Not quite the land of death, but one close to it. And yet… you are here.”
“A place outside of time and space?”
If that was true, that would explain the strange sensation of time being skewed and my karmic bond with Xinxin being indistinct.
Whatever the case, it didn’t matter that much.
Looking at Saphira again, I said, “Do you know what’s going on? No, what do you remember?”
That was the more important question.
Which Saphira was this? Or rather, when did this Saphira come from? If this place was truly outside of time and space, then she could have come from any point.
A blank and unreadable blue gaze stared back at me.
I frowned. “Saph-“
“Tell me, Master.” Saphira interrupted me and then idly adjusted the shoulder strap on her black dress. “What am I to you?”
My immediate response was going to be ‘my dragon’… but I paused, sensing something off in her voice. Instead, I carefully stared at her and said, “What do you mean?”
She moved her right hand to her hair, idly twirling it in her fingers. “It’s a simple question. What am I to you?” Her gaze flickered crimson. “An enemy?”
I tensed.
The crimson light vanished, replaced with a longing gaze. “A companion?”
My frown from before deepened.
Saphira’s eyes turned dim. “A tool?” The light in them vanished and then she muttered. “Just… what am I?” A doubt-filled voice. Confusion and traces of insanity.
Hearing that, I realized it. Gently setting Aria down behind me, I faced Saphira and said, “I see. So you’ve been here that long, huh?”
She said it herself. This was a place beyond time and space. A limbo between life and death that was closer to the latter than the former, where the two states intertwined.
How long had she been here?
Was it since the beginning when I killed her for the first time? Was it after she perished in the Northern Kingdom? Or… was this where she existed all the time after I forced that bond, the one traveling beside me nothing more than a fragment of the whole?
Whatever the case, if she had been here in this timeless space for that long, alone with no one else…
Saphira stepped forward. As she did, the air around her- No, space itself began to ripple. Like a twisted glass window, her figure distorted. With one step, a fiercesome black dragon with maddened crimson eyes. With another, the same beautiful woman but with her haired dyed black and her blue eyes a bloody scarlet.
Raising her right hand and covering her eye, she staggered forwrad and muttered, “I remember. My death. Your death. Going to the capital. Being together at Alvheim and then…” She trailed off and shook her head. “But it’s impossible.”
“Is it?” I stepped forward as well, making sure to create a barrier around Aria, and then said, “You should know by now that impossible doesn’t exist for me.”
Saphira was silent and then lowered her hand. As she did, white lightning flickered around her fingertips, slowly being stained black by corrosive mana. At the same time, the air around her decayed, chaos spreading from her. A crooked smile on her face, paired with despairing sapphire eyes. “I… thought it was reality. That I had escaped from that time and place. But…” She looked around and said, “It was all just a beautiful lie, wasn’t it?”
Before I could respond, reality shattered- No, it only appeared to do so.
Like glass, Saphira’s figure broke apart. From the cracks, black smoke welled up. A silent wind blew past, clearing the smoke. When it faded, a horrific creature remained.
It was a dragon. Saphira’s true form. But it was also different. Pitiful.
The Wrathful Sin Dragon was a towering demonic dragon covered in dark miasma and obsidian scales. A creature that struck fear in one’s heart due to the malevolence and sheer power behind that ill-intent.
Yet the dragon in front of me…
A dragon with a single blue eye and one crimson. Scales constantly flickering between white and black, dark and light. And then pieces of her body rotting away, crumbling even as I stared at her.
I sighed and stepped forward.
This was my fault. Taking her for granted, treating her as a tool, ignoring her completely. The result of that stood before me.
A dragon trapped in the midst of light and dark, sanity and insanity. A being without a sense of self, but desiring one nevertheless. One who saw hope and a glimmer of happiness just by standing beside me, but who despaired and was broken when she was abandoned.
Mana bubbled out from cracks in her body, causing pieces of her to fizzle out of existence. Holes in her body appeared as I approached.
Even so, the dragon… Saphira didn’t move. Instead, she stared at me with those eyes, as if awaiting an answer to her previous question.
I held out my right hand, muttering. “Karma. Bonds. And memories…”
The tangled mess that I had formed from my reckless and selfish actions. The ones hurt along the way and the ones that were pushed to the background.
“I’ll take responsibility for it now.”
Was it because of my powers? The distorted time-space? Or coincidence?
In my right hand, a familiar stick emerged.
Seeing that, any hints of rationale vanished from Saphira’s eyes and she roared. Light and darkness entwined in her maw, gathering a chaotic mix of black and white lightning.
I couldn’t allow that to complete, or else Aria would be hurt. So, I held out my left hand and clenched, binding her mouth shut. At the same time, I stepped forward and slashed with my Faithful Companion.
But it wasn’t like in the past.
Instead of taking the blow, Saphira flapped her rotted wings and flew into the air, sending her backwards.
Trees collapsed as they collided with her scales, and chunks of her flesh fell to the ground from the impact. But she didn’t notice, Saphira’s eyes locked on my form.
I stared back, contemplating the situation.
It lacked bloodlust. While her eyes were sharp, that gaze lacked the malice that I remembered from facing her in the past. Even so, there was an obsession in them that I couldn’t ignore, an intent that seemed to say she wouldn’t rest until either she or I vanished from this world.
Facing that gaze, I stepped forward and said, “Are you that upset about it, Saphira? That I left you behind?”
She roared. But rather than the gutteral mindless sound from the past, it felt more like a sorrow-filled scream.
The ground trembled as Saphira charged forward, pouncing towards me. Her maw opened, revealing serrated white teeth, and she swung her neck, as if to bite me in half.
I held up my left hand, forcing her body to come to a stop. Not Dragon’s Grasp. After everything that happened, I no longer possessed those skills. But at this point, I no longer needed them.
Her eyes, lifeless and yet filled with obsession, stared into my own. An undying and eternal resolve.
And the source of that… Despite everything, we were still tied together. The bond that I forced back then had yet to be severed. Instead, the karma between us had deepened, wrapped up in a way that was unable to be untied.
I sighed and then clenched my hand.
As if just an illusion, the dragon shattered. In its place, a beautiful woman with snowy white hair and azure eyes stumbled, her lacy black dress swaying as she moved. Blood stained her cheeks, crimson tears. Straing at me, she muttered, “Can’t… forget. I can’t forget it… But…!”
I stepped forward, the memory of my Faithful Companion fading away as I did. But that was natural. After all, I wasn’t trying to kill her this time.
Saphira flinched and stepped back. But then a hint of madness flickered in her eyes and she stepped forward, miasma and lightning crackling around her body. “I won’t… I can’t… forgive you…!”
“Yeah.” I nodded and took another step forward. “It was pretty careless of me. And I don’t have any excuses for what I did to you.” As I said that, I stared at her body.
Even now, in human form, pieces were fading away. As if she was a mirage meant to vanish.
I stared back into her crazed eyes and said, “I should have known better… But that’s what it means to be human, I suppose.”
Saphira screamed and ran towards me, holding her right hand. She raised it, fingers outstretched like claws, and then swung it at my neck.
The air screeched, formless talons cutting towards my body.
And then I grabbed her arm with my left hand.
At once, the air became still.
Saphira’s eyes widened and then she tried to pull away.
I tightened my grip, preventing her from escaping and gave her a steady gaze. “This time, I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Saphira froze. Her eyes, just filled with insanity and obsession moments ago, turned clear. Staring at me, she muttered, “You… won’t leave me alone…?”
A voice that didn’t suit her. The mighty dragon that I remembered was nowhere in sight, only a scared, lonely young woman, frail and fragile as glass.
I felt a tinge of regret. If I knew that it would have turned out like this… No. There wasn’t any use now trying to change the past. Not anymore.
I reached out with my right hand and tucked a strand of her hair that had fallen loose behind her ear. “I won’t. Now… This might hurt a bit, but bear with it, alright?”
Saphira blinked, confusion clear in her eyes.
I pulled my right hand back and then recalled it. The crystal sword formed by that guy who severed karma itself.
Was it because I had done it before? Or because this was a place outside of the usual rules? Either way, Wang Tian’s sword formed in an instant.
Saphira noticed the blade and then closed her eyes, nodding in acceptance.
I stabbed Saphira. Blood splattered… but then there was the sound of shattering strings, like piano wire snapping.
Pulling the sword back, the wound vanished as if it never existed. At the same time, faint golden threads drifted in the air.
Saphira’s body went limp and she fell forward, collapsing in my arms.
I grabbed her and then sighed. “That damned Goddess…” I lifted Saphira up in my arms and walked back to Aria, planning to set up camp. But when I turned around, it wasn’t an unconscious princess awaiting me, but one that was wide awake and pouting.
I blinked. “Um… You’re awake?”
Aria stared at me and then let out a deep sigh. “Why is it that Mister Nowun is always promising to women that he’ll never leave them?”
Hearing that, even I couldn’t help but be a bit ashamed, so I coughed and averted my gaze. As I did, I caught sight of someone else walking over.
Honey-colored hair, jaded green eyes, and a black sword sheathed at her left side. Titania caught my gaze and then glanced over, seeing Aria. But then her eyes flitted back to me… Or rather, the Saphira, who I was holding. When they did, Titania’s eyes narrowed and she looked back at me, glaring.
I sighed.
Thanks for the chapter!
Poor Saphira.
