novelraw Chapter 869 - 868 - Spirits' Embrace
Chapter 869 - 868 - Spirits' Embrace
Wen was flying through the ship. Every corridor and stairway were nuisances she had to resist destroying as she hopped down 2 decks to find Lind holding the tiny form of Hope in his arms.
She saw nothing else as she raced to him and froze her hand over the bloodied face of her beloved. She was gone!
Knowing it would happen was very different from seeing the still body in front of her. No feeling of life came from her and it was like the world became dimmer to her senses.
Lind did not move as he let her look on before Wen took Hope from his arms. Wen felt how light she was and did not care as blood as golden as Hope's skin covered her body.
They went to the medical bay together and found Oz waiting. She was also bloodshot in the eyes.
They laid Hope down and Oz used a simple artifact to confirm Hope was gone before her old hands gently pulled a cover over her.
"She is gone. I normally do not like these new artifacts you created but I did not want to trust my senses this time." Oz turned her back to them.
"Did–did she–" Wen could not even ask the question she wanted to but he held up his hand to wave her off.
"She wished us well and told me to shoulder a heavy burden." He did not want Wen to have the image of Hope dying in her mind. The corpse was bad enough.
Wen sat down at the bed next to the covered corpse.
Lind saw her and Oz hurting and he felt his own grief subside as a different desire filled him.
Hope faced her death head on and he had seen golden karmic Qi on her before. Yet, he saw nothing at a moment she fully sacrificed herself not just for them but for all the realms that existed.
His eyes went out of focus as his sense of dragons became stronger all of a sudden.
The world outside was wrong but he did not focus on that. He felt like he could touch something else, something he did not fully grasp yet.
His body suddenly lined with emerald light and time came to a stop. Wen was frozen and Oz had her hand raised up partially to place the artifact on a stand near the top of the bed.
It was so simple but so complex at the same time.
Time was always a concept he tried to equate to a river or perhaps a kind of branching root system of cause and effect but it was nothing so simple.
Time was a storm of possibility. Time was inflexible but could shift with ease. Time could fly fast or crawl.
It was also none of those things at the same time.
It was a basic force of existence that was critical for all of reality to exist.
It was music that drove all life.
Lind reached out and a layer of the world peeled away over Hope's corpse. He saw a tiny flickering spark dancing right next to it.
His rising elation dimmed as he understood he could not save her. Her life was over of her own choosing. He was not a God, but he felt something he could do.
[She died for us all. She was a ball of light and joy but she died. I am not asking for a gift but a judgment. Is that too much?]
He was not sure what he was speaking to but the cracks in the world seemed to let him touch something related to his title. A True Lord was more than he realized, it seemed.
Very slowly, tiny flames began to show up through the cracks of the world. They seemed so weak and so transitory that he wondered if he simply hallucinated them until they gathered over the spark in Hope's body.
A figure slowly condensed before a woman appeared in faint lines next to the table. She shifted ages all over but her eyes were bottomless wells of power he could not look at for more than an instant before pain went through his mind.
[You are a child but have been burdened more than most. You have used up a lot of luck as well, but you are wise in your words.]
The voice was both gentle and commanding. He felt like an ant just in hearing it.
Her hands gently picked up the spark and then he felt her eyes look at him. All his secrets were revealed at that moment but it was not a violation. He had asked and nothing in life was free.
[You do not have enough restitution. Further, you are near the Void of Eternity. The price will be life. Do you find that acceptable?] He slowly looked up and for an instant, the spirit flinched.
It was not a simple Immortal in front of her, but something else. The moment touched on all of time so it was his future that stared at her for an instant.
[Her life is over, most of her is already gone, but there is something we can do. We have done it before.] Lind suddenly felt something taken from him. He had millions of years ahead of him but he now felt like a lot of it was gone.
He did not age nor did he feel weak but he was willing to bet he had lost half his life at least.
He then watched as energy slowly gathered around the spark and grew into a new life. It was much like the spirit and something critical passed through his mind but he nearly blacked out when he tried to comprehend it.
A smirk was on her face as the baby wailed at first before it saw Lind and became quiet and reached out for him.
He slowly moved closer and carefully reached out as the tiny had grasped his.
[Big–Brother–Lind]
It was only 3 words barely transmitted but it broke his control over time. It was about to resume when the spirit raised her hands with a tired sigh.
[You are too weak and naive, but it does not seem to be a bad thing. Work on your control of Time Laws in the future. We must go but she is with us now. You have succeeded.]
She turned but he couldn't let them go.
"Wait! Can Wen know?" The spirit froze and tilted her head. Her form became hazy but she looked at the young dragon frozen in deep grief and then at Oz in a similar state.
[They will know. That is all we can grant you. Good luck, little progenitor.] The 2 of them faded but the tiny baby was waving hard at him before time resumed its forward progress.
Lind collapsed on the floor as if he had been sprinting and came to a sudden stop unexpectedly.
He was on his hands and knees before 2 arms slowly picked him up and he felt wonder in their faces.
"H–how is what I feel real?" Wen was looking at him but how did he explain it when he was not entirely sure how he did it himself?
"It is not easy but I touched something as a True Lord and the spirits took her in. They did something I do not fully understand, but it was her. She recognized us." Wen looked at the corpse that was still there and back at him but he shook his head at the unasked question.
A slow nod came from her but the intense grief was lessened considerably.
"Oz, please prepare her body for burial when we get a chance. We still have a job to do." Oz bowed low in deep respect. He left Wen and her behind only to find many of the crew outside in the hall.
They all looked at him but where most had been respectful or simple gratitude in the case of the hybrids, there was now reverence that made him uncomfortable.
"I cannot explain what I did but know it cannot be done again." They all nodded but all the dragons knelt while the hybrids bowed low to him. "Talk to Wen if needed but we need to figure out where we are and if we are safe."
Some dispersed and he made his way to the bridge. He could not feel the shift in time anymore which was odd as Hope had protected them from severe shifts based on the damage she suffered.
He had felt it clearly, so why was there nothing now?
He also felt something else odd. There was no way they did not cross the maximum threshold, yet there was not even a shiver when the ship did that which which should not have been the case at all.
He opened the giant double doors and found Jeryl sitting in the command chair but staring at the screen and he froze as well.
The devastated lands were just gone! It was nothing but blackness yet it was almost bottomless in the darkness that surrounded a column of pure light they were in the middle of!
It was huge and had to be kilometers across but what was the empty space that made all his hairs stand on end just seeing it from an amalgamation of artifact detection?
"Void of Eternity?" The words left his mouth without thought but the 4 people on the bridge all nodded in agreement.
Just where were they and what was going on?