Chapter 368 The Wing of Light
Zara had no idea what had happened.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a strange place.
It looked like a cave, and a crude one at that. There were only a few basic furnishings and not even a bed. A messy pile of straw had been spread across the innermost part of the cave, forming what looked like a small nest.
She had simply appeared there out of nowhere.
She could see everything around her, yet she could not tell what state she herself was in.
Confusion filled her. She had the strange sense that something extraordinary was happening to her, but she could not remember what it was.
"Hey..."
A deep rumbling sound suddenly came from outside.
Puzzled, Zara followed the noise with her gaze and spotted the cave entrance.
But she did not seem able to leave.
She instinctively tried to move toward it, only to realize that something had bound her in place. She could not move at all.
Then something crawled in through the entrance.
Yes, crawled.
It had the long, winding body of a serpent, but it also had claws and horns. Its coloring was breathtaking, and it looked like a crystalline, snow-white dragon. A soft, otherworldly glow surrounded its entire body.
Wherever it passed, white crystals formed along the ground and walls, as though its presence carried a bitter, freezing chill.
"What are you doing back here?" The creature seemed surprised to see Zara. It raised its head and stared at her. "Why would you come back to this place?"
Then it studied her more carefully and seemed to realize something. "Oh... You were dragged back."
Zara opened her mouth, only to discover that she could not speak either.
Noticing her reaction, the snow dragon said, "Why can't you ever let go of this miserable place...?"
The snow dragon studied Zara with its head held high. Then its expression changed dramatically.
"Where's your divine spirit? How could it be gone? So Doggo really wasn't lying to me?"
Zara's mind was a complete haze. She had the persistent feeling that she was in the middle of some urgent crisis, yet she knew nothing at all. She did not know where she was or what had happened.
"I..." She opened her mouth and discovered that she could speak again. Looking confused, she asked, "Where am I?"
The snow dragon shook its head with a sigh. "What a mess. You... Huh?"
Something else caught its attention. Its gaze locked onto Zara's wrist. "How did that end up with you?"
A red cord was tied around it.
The snow dragon crawled closer for a better look, then quickly drew back.
"Forget it. I'll pretend I didn't see anything.
Things look pretty urgent on your end. I have no idea who was stupid enough to send you back here, but once you awaken, you'll probably skin them alive...
Tsk, tsk. Looks like Doggo really was telling the truth. "
As it spoke, everything around Zara grew increasingly blurred. It felt as though some unseen force had seized her again and was dragging her back.
Then, in an instant, everything went silent.
******
"How much longer can it hold her?"
Valerius stared at the surface of the water before him, which reflected the scene surrounding Lucian.
More precisely, it showed Zara lying in his arms with her eyes closed, completely unconscious.
The High Priest held a candle. It looked perfectly ordinary and was no different in size from any normal candle, yet it was burning at an unnaturally rapid pace. In the blink of an eye, half of it had already melted away.
Cold sweat beaded across the High Priest's forehead. "It's hard to say. It's burning far too quickly. I didn't expect even this to fail at containing her. At this rate, we have three minutes at most."
The entire plan would have kept her trapped for less than ten minutes.
And yet the price they had paid was almost unimaginable.
Valerius stared intently at the candle as well, his eyes shifting slightly. "It doesn't matter. We won't be the ones dealing with the consequences."
The High Priest looked at him uneasily. "Are you certain she won't come after us?"
Valerius let out a sinister chuckle. "The one from the forbidden zone ordered it. What does any of this have to do with us?"
"Can she really handle Zara?" the High Priest asked.
Valerius's expression remained unreadable. "We'll wait and see."
However, both men understood the implications perfectly well.
Even if this woman was not the true ruler of the forbidden zone, she had still come from it. If even she could not defeat Zara, then there was no point in dreaming about conquering Earth.
Meanwhile, the scene reflected on the water had grown increasingly tense.
They could see the woman controlling Lucian, but although his brow was tightly furrowed, he showed no other obvious reaction.
Even the woman herself began to frown.
"How could it not work?" she hissed.
Lucian was, in fact, deeply uncomfortable. He had no idea what the woman had done to him, but he clearly heard her say that it was not working.
She had spoken in the language of the other world, but Lucian understood her.
He opened his eyes again and met her gaze with unnerving calm.
The woman immediately flew into a rage. "I'll tear your eyes out!"
For some reason, she could not take Zara from his arms.
The failure infuriated her.
She had always stood above nearly everyone, second only to one. She was accustomed to having absolute authority and getting whatever she wanted. Had she not been granted permission to find something to occupy herself, she would never have bothered helping the other world resolve this problem.
In her eyes, this was nothing more than a tiny pocket dimension.
How could she possibly fail to conquer it?
The fact remained that she could not even control Lucian.
And judging by his aura, he was nothing more than an ordinary human from Earth.
The realization sent her into a fury.
Impossible. This was absolutely impossible!
Everyone else had been effortless to subdue, so why did none of her powers work on him?
The moment she finished speaking, her long, razor-sharp fingers shot toward Lucian's eyes.
Given the force behind the attack, the result would have been horrifying.
But just then, an immense power burst from Lucian's body.
It made no sound and flowed as gently as water, yet the instant it touched the woman, she let out a piercing scream. Her entire body seemed to catch fire, as though she had been horribly burned.
An inexplicable pressure spread outward from the quiet scene, slowly reaching every corner of the space.
Nothing appeared to have changed, but only the woman could feel the terrifying force bearing down on her. It was as though an invisible hand had closed around her throat and cut off her breath.
She should not have been capable of suffocating.
There should not have been any power in this world strong enough to restrain her.
Yet the pain she felt was undeniably real.
Lucian, meanwhile, looked faintly surprised.
Did he know what was happening?
Of course not.
He only felt that something about his body was different, as though some hidden force had emerged from deep within him.
At the same time, high above the city in this fabricated world, an enormous wing suddenly appeared.
Only half of it was visible, yet it shone with the dazzling brilliance of countless gemstones. Suspended in the sky, it stretched across the entire city and bathed everything below in radiant light.
And it was only half a wing.
The pressure emanating from it felt powerful enough to crush an entire world. Even across the barrier between worlds, Valerius and the High Priest could sense its terrifying might.
Both men stared in stunned silence.
"What is that?!" Valerius exclaimed.
The High Priest looked equally shaken. "I've... never seen anything like it."
They had believed Zara was the most powerful one.
So why did the man beside her possess something equally terrifying?
Lucian himself was just as baffled.
He was not blind. Of course he could see the enormous wing above them.
The only thing he knew for certain was that it had emerged from his own body.
Lucian fell silent.
His understanding of reality was falling apart all over again.
Under the wing's radiance, the woman screamed in agony as the light continued to burn her. She hurriedly pulled something from her body and formed a transparent barrier around herself, barely managing to block the searing glow.
Then she tried to tear open space and flee.
To her horror, the space would not open.
"No... That's impossible!"
Panic finally entered her voice.
She could not believe it. The power she sensed from that wing was no weaker than her master's.
It might even have been stronger.
What in the world was this thing?
"You've overstepped your bounds!"
A thunderous roar shook the entire space.
A deafening crash followed, as though something had been shattered, and the barrier surrounding them collapsed all at once.
The noise of the real world flooded back in instantly. Car horns blared, pedestrians shouted, and the bustle of the city tore through the curtain of silence.