Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 868 - 867 - Shot Through Time

It took a week to prepare the Wings of Freedom and test all they could. Theoretically, everything should work but the conditions those assumptions had been made under did not include the breakdown of the Laws.

It took 2 days just to recalculate to the best of their ability for that alone!

Hope would possibly protect them for the duration but Lind did not assume that would be enough. She was only a Sun Tier and if any scrap of the ship's own power could save her life, he would exhaust all options.

It was not totally fruitless.

Lind had been able to modify the structural support systems to resonate with Hope's Qi. It had the unexpected result of making them stronger to his senses.

The issue was he did not understand why that was true, he could only see the result.

There was just no time. It always came back to that damnable issue of time.

"Are you down there, Big Brother?" A voice came to Lind as he was hanging upside down on one of the support struts connected directly to the thruster. It was a work area that allowed easy access to the Qi power lines running to the thruster.

Such areas riddled the power section hence no living quarters were built there.

"I am almost done, I will be up in a moment." Lind's hands glowed with bright light as sparks flew when he added a few crystals to add capacity to the Qi transfer tube.

The crystal addition was to beef up the flow when the thruster was engaged. It would burn out but the power would make the thruster even more powerful briefly.

He hopped up easily to the main deck and found Hope leaning on the railing humming. She smiled at him but it did not reach her eyes anymore.

Only a few days and the reality was setting in.

"Changed your mind?" She frowned at him and pouted. He held up his hands in surrender.

"Stop asking that question. I know the price and I chose!" He smiled at her pout but felt a pang in his chest.

"What brought you to seek me out? I thought you were spending more time with Wen." The 2 had become inseparable and no one said a word about how much work that added to Lind's plate or theirs.

"She could not just do nothing and I wanted to talk to you before tomorrow." He felt a chill in his spine. How did she know when he had told no one they were ready? He had kept a severe lockdown on that knowledge.

She smiled at him and looked at him as if he was a child. For a brief moment, her eyes became strange and he felt like he was back in front of the spirits but it passed.

"You are like aether children, aren't you? They have an innate gift when they are born. Annabelle could not explain why her illusions were so much better than others until nearly 3 centuries passed. You have always been able to touch time?" Lind felt it was a wild theory but Hope slowly nodded.

"I dreamed of you. I dreamed a lot of things that did not come true but when you saved me, I knew I was safe. I knew we were all safe. I did not know I was going to die, but I knew the death I had seen so many times got fainter because of you." Tears fell down her face as she smiled at him. "When you destroyed the Starbreaker Empire, I had the best dream of endless plains and forests. I saw waterfalls on floating continents. I saw the world to come but it needs you."

Lind felt the bones creak in his fists as blood began to drip from them. He was angry.

Visions of the future were something he knew about but where his made him question if he had any free will, hers changed! The present changed the future she saw!

"Is there another way?" His voice was quiet but she looked at him seriously before shaking her head.

"It doesn't work that way. I am not seeing I succeed, I just know if we turn back we all die. I am fighting for another path because that future was so bright I can't let it die." Pain lanced through his arm as his fingers broke from his own strength.

He quickly healed them but he despised future predetermined. Yet, he could not see a way out!

He felt her tiny arms encircle him.

"You need to stop thinking you can solve it all alone. You always taught me to question and test my assumptions so do it yourself." He cooled off and put his arms around her.

"I refuse to stop trying to save you." She nodded and he felt wetness on his chest. She was afraid and had come to be comforted.

"It is time, Big Brother Lind. We have to go." He wanted to scream she was wrong but her eyes would not let him lie.

He sighed and hugged her tight.

"I love you, Hope. I will never forget one moment." He had basically raised her but their relationship was a mix of master and disciple as well as father and daughter. She had not been like Fey or Tal and fully crossed the line entirely, but neither would say they strictly stuck to their student and teacher roles.

"I will love you forever, Big Brother Lind!" She squeezed him tight but then moved away. The tears stained her cheeks but he smiled for her.

They went up 1 deck to the main controls for the thruster. It could be activated from the bridge as well but the current setup had been modified for the main panel at the aft of the ship.

Lind was going to do it himself. He refused to let Wen or anyone else shoulder that moment.

Hope stood next to him as he ran the final checks but nothing went wrong. There was no delay he could come up with as he leaned on the stone panels.

He focused his mind to reach the entire ship.

[The thruster is ready. Hope is with me. It is time.] He could not hide his pain but his simple words made the entire crew pause in place. They all bowed their heads for a moment before getting in position.

Many strapped themselves into reinforced chairs that were unfolded from the walls. They were not like the other loose chairs that were currently being secured just in case. The gravity weavings were powerful but there would be a few moments that inertia would act on them.

[T-true Lord, is there truly no other way?] Wen was normally so confident and unwilling to bend, but now she sounded more desperate than at any point in their battle.

He did not answer her as she already knew it.

He turned to Hope and saw her blinking as tears trailed down her cheeks before she took a breath and calmed herself.

"I am ready." She began to glow and he hit a panel that caused an alarm to sound throughout the ship.

The lights flickered in a pattern to give warning as well.

Once she was secured in her own chair, he smiled at her before pushing a different panel that sunk into the stone.

The entire ship shook as a storm of Qi was forcibly pulled into the Hacore and flooded the jade tubes around them.

Unlike anyone else, Lind saw it as a gorgeous and unprecedented level of power ever recorded. He saw tiny fractures form but the tubes held as the thruster charged up.

He quickly secured himself as there was nothing else he could do.

He sat directly next to Hope and held her hand. She squeezed his hand as a timer appeared on every panel.

{Emergency Thrust in 10…9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1}

A massive thrum caused the wooden panels to creak all around them but Lind no longer noticed the ship. He saw only Hope.

The Celestial Qi flowed in strange and profound ways he had never considered but even that pattern did not interest him.

He simply watched Hope.

Blood was already flowing from all her orifices he could see and her skin began to crack but Time stabilized around them. The new weavings resonated with her and the ship stopped straining right before they felt the straps tighten on them.

It was nowhere near the force it should have been when going from a stationary position to full speed, but it just meant everything held as he hoped.

All of it was secondary as Hope began to die in front of him. He tried to use his harmony to help her but unlike Fiend Qi, hers had no reaction to his emerald flames.

Celestial Qi was simply a way to refine natural Qi into demonic Qi for him but he now saw a true use of that Qi he had never grasped. Hope was much farther down the cultivation path of Celestials than he could ever lead her.

His sliver shined with Qi and Laws as he felt how Time was held not in place but stable inside as they shot across the sky.

The thruster began to give off alerts but he did not stop it. Either the thruster would break, or Hope would die. Whichever came first would end the torture for him.

"Big Brother, there is death ahead. Death of all. Death to all that was, is, and will be. It must be undone. Remember, it must be undone." She suddenly spoke as her eyes snapped open but the blood vessels had all burst.

She had no eyes!

She smiled a bloody smile as the resonance stopped and the thruster burnt out at the same time! Not only did time unravel but Lind's senses were assaulted by a vile feeling all around him.

Had they fallen into the dome?

No, if they had, they would all be dead already.

He then quickly unstrapped himself as Hope collapsed. He pulled her body close but he could already tell.

She had died right in front of him.

"ROOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!" A dragon roar shook the ship unlike anything anyone could resist, yet it was joined by another in the same pain. The shot across the skies had worked but the price had been too damned high.

He hugged her close as he just did not care about their status at that moment.

Hope had died.