novelraw Book 2: Chapter 152: The Galloping of the Griffin
Book 2: Chapter 152: The Galloping of the Griffin
Vol 2 Chapter 152 The Galloping of the Griffin
Sylutia kept ascending through the night sky.
Although she had no flight ability, she now moved instinctively through the silver mist, a cold clarity spreading from between her brows and flowing through her entire body.
Gradually, all surrounding sounds dimmed, and the ground below grew ever more distant.
Time passed…
Ahead above her head, the spreading Alien Star aura became increasingly distinct.
At one moment, a strange sensation surfaced in Sylutia’s mind, like the old television from her childhood with static and chaotic electrical noise appearing on the screen.
That feeling intensified as she neared the Otherworldly Crack.
It felt as if the messy radio waves were finally being decoded, and a bizarre howl echoed inside Sylutia’s head.
That howl carried many unknown signals, conveying urgency, agitation, and greed—emotions Sylutia slowly began to understand.But this thing did not sound like something that would play nice.
When Sylutia’s ascent reached a certain threshold, her figure turned into flowing light within the channel carved by the Alien Star’s power, moving faster and faster, surpassing physical limits and closing in on the glow.
After more than ten seconds, a tiny silhouette reformed before the world’s Wall of Sighs.
Silver hair and a silver dress floated quietly in the air as Sylutia lifted her head to observe the colossal rift spanning nearly ten kilometers. An invisible, fierce astral wind blew inward from beyond; along the fissure’s border, patches of golden, translucent dragon-scale light flickered, attempting to seal the tear, but the white Veil emerging at the edge stood like a city wall, blocking the dragon-scale pressure.
So that was why the Hundred-Eyes Sect needed Prince Jabers to participate. Only he, the Regas royal heir, could make the entire kingdom respond and serve as the sacrificial offering.
Within the Otherworldly Crack, eerie blue-purple light flashed. As Sylutia stared into it, a vast flood of information surged into her mind, nearly dizzying her. She had to shield her eyes with her hand to steady herself.
Just a few seconds of gaze and she learned the origins of many Hundred-Eyes Sect secret arts and various strange, uncanny truths. These complex pieces of knowledge parsed in her mind and automatically coalesced into a unique grimoire.
“When you understand the pattern of life’s existence, you naturally learn its abilities.”
[Grimoire: Hundred-Eyes Ritual] (Third Tier · Alien Star); “A grimoire recording the existence pattern of the Master Who Gazes All Truth”
Included progression path: [Demon Contractor]
Included abilities: [Evil Eye Shot] [Dim Vision] [Maddening Gaze] [Bewildering Demon Eye] [Astral Float] [Astral Tough Hide]
Included knowledge: Evil Eye sacrifice ritual, world within the pupil, communicating with the Astral Plane, demon-eye modification techniques
After resting a few minutes, the violent influx of information in Sylutia’s mind gradually calmed, and she opened her fingers to look again at the otherworldly rift.
Another torrent of information poured in. Dizzy, Sylutia closed her fingers again to let herself slowly digest it.
Ten minutes later, she had organized the knowledge that had filled her mind; the prior Hundred-Eyes Ritual grimoire had expanded further.
[Grimoire: Hundred-Eyes Ritual] (Fourth Tier · Alien Star); “A grimoire recording the existence pattern of the Master Who Gazes All Truth”
Included progression paths: [Demon Contractor] [Hundred-Eyes Apostle]
Included abilities: [Evil Eye Shot] [Dim Vision] [Maddening Gaze] [Bewildering Demon Eye] [Astral Float] [Astral Tough Hide] [Hundred Eyes Descend Upon the World] [Astral Aura] [Astral Traversal] [Piercing Ray] [Lock Within the Pupil] [Fog-Breaking Eye] [Intimidating Gaze]
Included knowledge: Evil Eye sacrifice ritual, world within the pupil, communicating with the Astral Plane, demon-eye modification techniques, heterochromatic eye modification techniques, Astral guidance, barrier-breaking ritual
Compared to before, the grimoire’s recorded tier had risen from Third to Fourth, adding the Hundred-Eyes Apostle progression route, seven extra practice abilities, and many esoteric interworld techniques.
She couldn’t study any further; higher-tier knowledge was beyond what she could currently comprehend and would only muddle her mind if consumed blindly. Still, from the decoded information she had gleaned, Sylutia gradually understood what the sect leader’s ritual tonight aimed to accomplish and the ritual’s key details.
It appeared to be a Barrier-Breaking Ritual: the descent of an Otherworldly Eye. The leader intended to bring a partial true manifestation of the Master Who Gazes All Truth down to attach to himself, thereby gaining tremendous power to leap to the Fifth Tier or even the Sixth Tier.
The idea wasn’t entirely infeasible, but after understanding the ritual’s entirety, Sylutia felt something crude about it—like someone who had finished university-level mathematics looking down on a high school student copying a formula from a page to solve a problem.
Yes, it could solve the problem, but because the user didn’t grasp the underlying principles, they could only apply it mechanically. If conditions changed mid-process and deviations appeared, the practitioner would completely lose the capacity to adjust.
Thus, they must find a specific fissure at a specific time, perform a specific ritual flow—such exacting conditions. No wonder the leader didn’t want to let the opportunity slip.
A fissure like this couldn’t allow the Master Who Gazes All Truth to fully descend. To bring the true form into the world would likely require a fissure spanning nearly a hundred thousand kilometers, so the entity could slowly sink into this plane. Once it stepped through, it would permanently alter the world’s operating laws, embedding its “truth” as part of reality.
The current ten-kilometer fissure could probably only let about 0.01% of the Master’s essence seep in. It’s no surprise the Hours didn’t pay attention tonight; to those great beings, the sect leader’s actions might be no more than a mosquito poking its head at a screen.
Yet even the faint breath leaking from such a small rift was beyond Sylutia’s ability to repel. She had almost no chance of single-handedly driving it back, sealing the rift, and ending the ritual.
What to do…
She hovered at the Astral border as the seeping aura filled her dress and hair, the Alien Star force saturating her fate and pushing her to the verge of advancement. She didn’t want to advance the same way the sect leader intended—by becoming a Hundred-Eyes Apostle and growing bizarre extra eyes.
After a brief hesitation, Sylutia decided to use the overflowing Alien Star power to cultivate the knowledge she had just acquired.
(“Bewildering Demon Eye” progress +100)
[Bewildering Demon Eye Lv.1] (Alien Star): Use the eyes to cast bewilderment, causing hallucinations. Long-term use burdens the eyes (recommended no more than 1 minute/day)
(“Bewildering Demon Eye” progress +124)
(“Bewildering Demon Eye” progress +146)
[Bewildering Demon Eye Lv.1] → [Bewildering Demon Eye Lv.2]
……
[Bewildering Demon Eye Lv.5] achieved!
[Bewildering Demon Eye Lv.5] (Alien Star): Use the eyes to cast bewilderment, inducing hallucinations and disrupting the enemy’s mind. Normal use is harmless; concentrated use can make the target feel inexplicable affection or hatred toward you. Focused use burdens the eyes (recommended no more than 12 minutes/day)
[Astral Traversal Lv.5] [Piercing Ray Lv.5] [Lock Within the Pupil Lv.5] [Fog-Breaking Eye Lv.5] [Intimidating Gaze Lv.5] [Evil Eye Shot Lv.5] [Dim Vision Lv.5] …
Over the following time, she continuously absorbed Alien Star power seeping into the world, slowing the ritual’s progress. All the Alien Star energy she took in was used to master the newly learned abilities. Alien Star aspect cards floated at her side, rotating and simulating upgrades until they reached their limits and could not advance further.
During this process, Sylutia also detected faint other Alien Star auras.
It was like a window: the Master Who Gazes All Truth used its enormous body to block it, but thin gaps at the edges still let fresh air through.
These faint extra breaths were also Alien Star forces, though not the same as the Master. They seemed like extremely tiny drifting lifeforms with very weak, sparse information.
Even if she advanced to Fourth Tier now, she still couldn’t confront the Master Who Gazes All Truth beyond the Alien Star to interrupt the ritual. But what if another high-level Alien Star entity existed?
Suddenly inspiration flashed through Sylutia’s mind.
Countless lives drifted across the Astral Platform. When the Alien Stars descended in the Seventh Epoch, many bizarre creatures ravaged the world. They were not uniformly allied—their hostility toward each other often exceeded their hostility to the world’s inhabitants. If not for their infighting, the Six Ordinary Dragons of law could never have sealed the breach and ended that chaotic era.
Barrier-breaking rituals require a specific region, a specific flow, a specific Otherworldly Crack, and a specific time… a specific time. Sylutia repeated that phrase, and a faint, almost intangible idea rose.
She seemed to have grasped something.
Why a specific time?
Because the Lion Palace was about to obscure the Astral fissure.
What is the Lion Palace?
Lion Palace…
The Lion Palace was a lost school of stargazing records left behind a thousand years ago. After the Alien Star descent in the Seventh Epoch, most Alien Star entities were destroyed, but some permanently imprinted on the world’s wall and, though still subtly rejected by the world, their existence gradually stabilized into points of light in the night sky.
The stargazing school excelled at guiding and using these star-forces. For a time, the Stargon School thrived, but inexplicably vanished within a century, as if its history were erased; later records are scarce, with only a few words glimpsed through other schools’ texts.
Over time, the methods and guidance secrets for these star palaces were lost; only a few palace names and rough locations remained.
Sylutia learned of these from the Demon Contractor of the Hundred-Eyes Sect—he had told her that if the ritual wasn’t completed before the Lion Palace obscured the fissure, they would have to wait over fifty years for the next chance.
The Lion Palace obscuring the fissure…
Could she make the Lion Palace obscure the crack earlier? Could she use the power of another Alien Star to solve the present trouble?
A special silver metal nameplate floated slowly from her bosom. It was the thing she had found deep in the mines of Scorchstone City.
[Star Track Inscription (Griffon-Lion)] (Third Tier · Rare): A metal plaque inscribed with the track of the Griffon-Lion star palace; can be used to draw the palace’s power.
Seems she had no other choice. Sylutia inhaled deeply and brought the silver-patterned plaque into her hands, closing her eyes to sense it.
Brilliant star sand gathered toward the metal plate; the engraved lines brightened bit by bit. Sylutia’s consciousness immersed in it sensed a majestic power she had never seen.
It was as if something had always existed before her eyes but was hidden by fogged glass. As her awareness traced the Star Track Inscription, that immense presence appeared in her mind like wiping the glass to reveal the long-ignored reality.
The Lion Palace was directly above her head!
Sylutia looked up. In the vast night sky, several dim stars twinkled together, forming the outline of a lion—no ordinary lion, but a winged griffon-lion.
So this was the Lion Palace.
Sylutia knew what to do.
Bearing multitudes of star sand, she plunged once more from the sky.
Countless starlights followed her, leaving long trails behind.
The girl turned into dazzling light, traversing the vast heavens like a meteor and returning to the land.
Radiant light streaked past the bewildered sect leader at the ritual site. He sensed something pass by and turned; only after a few seconds did he see the girl slowly descending toward the base of the formation.
Silver hair scattered star sand as it floated down, her black skirt drifting in the currents. Her delicate toes lightly touched the ground and Sylutia stood once more before Princess Mursa.
The princess stared at the girl in a daze, feeling familiarity mixed with strangeness.
Is she the knight boy who rescued me earlier? She’s actually such a beautiful girl, about my age.
Holding Princess Mursa, Sylutia rose on her toes and transformed into brilliant light again, shooting for the heavens.
“Now, I have a request to make of you.”
Sylutia looked at Princess Mursa in her arms; the princess was already bewitched by the flickering starlight in Sylutia’s pupils and answered unconsciously.
“Mm.”
“I hope you will pray again, to the Regas royal line, change the ritual’s orientation and procedure.”
“All right.”
“Then, let us begin.”
A clear, melodious voice rose into the night sky, two singing tones scattering with the starlight.
“I vow by the glory and virtue of my ancestors to protect this land, not to let the dusk defile it, nor let baseness dominate…”
“May this prayer be heard across the four directions, for those who hold the same wish to listen…”
“I will entrust the people’s trust and swear by my own bloodline, praying the stars above to descend.”
“Show forth, the roar that races the heavens, the sovereign of the raging gale—”
“The Griffon-Lion with wings dyed in starlight!”
As the voices fell, a howling gale tore through the night sky above Regas. Leaves and branches rustled wildly in the sudden wind. Invisible cloud layers churned, and stars and moonlight blinked through the cloud sea.
In an instant, a staggering roar approached from the supreme firmament. It broke through layers of clouds and ripped through the raging winds, sweeping a chilling cold across nearly a thousand miles.
What a beautiful and mighty figure—mountains and rivers were nothing to its knees.
The Griffon-Lion, with wings made of starlight, descended into the world.