Chapter 440: Dream And Reality
“I care more about you,” said Lin Jie gently. “You’ve known who I was for sometime, right?”
Silver sighed. “Not really. I only learned of it just now.”
Hearing this made Lin Jie’s heart feel much more at ease. Silver was indeed a friend he cared about. At least, in Silver’s eyes, the friend she made was that ordinary and una.s.suming bookstore owner.
To Lin Jie, what was most important was maintaining his image as an ordinary bookstore owner to Silver.
At present, Lin Jie had adapted rather well to his dragon body and abilities. However, becoming a dragon and whatnot was indeed one of man’s dreams. And just thinking about it delighted him.
Lin Jie glanced down at Michael, who was close to losing his mind due to his dream shattering, and waved a hand, dissipating the latter’s soul.
Michael, the Path of the Flaming Sword’s creator, whose origins were from the ancient First Era, was completely dispersed.
Lin Jie carefully scrutinized his own body. Just a tiny bit of movement from him would cause quite a huge disturbance to 23rd Avenue.
Having dealt with Michael, Lin Jie then knocked his hand against the void and heard a frightful and shaky sound in no time—Metatron.
This elf that sat outside the world was an existence Michael had contacted after obtaining his Eye of Insight. And it was because he got to know Metatron, who hid outside the world, Michael was able to obtain a magic eye from the ancient elf king’s ruins, from his guidance.
“Have you seen me before?” asked Lin Jie.
Metatron didn’t answer. Early on, in the Second Era of elves, Metatron had lost his home because of Lin Jie’s arrival and the destruction of the elf kingdom. Thus, he had a lifetime trapped beyond the fringes of the world, only observing from the outside.
“Y-you are too high and mighty. I simply couldn’t see…” Metatron said shakily, “But…”
“But what?” asked Lin Jie.
“The traces in the Lower District… I couldn’t see clearly, a place covered by gray fog. It had the same source as your power,” Metatron said softly.
Lin Jie was silent for a couple of seconds, then waved his hand. “Got it.”
“A-aren’t… you going to kill me?” Metatron’s ethereal voice from beyond the world asked.
“Why would I kill you? Isn’t being trapped beyond the world a sufficiently torturous punishment?” Lin Jie seemed to even flash the usual professional smile he had when he sat behind the bookstore’s counter.
Just that he didn’t know whether dragons could smile.
Metatron gave a painful sob. It hurt to be the ancient elf kingdom’s only survivor that had unwittingly outlasted everything.
Lin Jie no longer bothered with Metatron and returned his attention back to Silver.
“Silver, you said you won.” From a great distance away, Lin Jie transmitted his voice to Silver. “But perhaps it isn’t over.”
Deep beneath the Central District, Silver shuddered. “Boss Lin… You…”
"I am just a consciousness that still has to return to that body situated underground. There are still many tests ahead to reclaim that body and power of mine."
Silver’s smile dimmed as she gazed at the white ashes dancing in the sky with a complicated look in her eyes. “No, you will win, and so will I."
Having said that, and before Lin Jie replied, Silver, as if wanting to proof something, raised her hand—
A long time ago, due to the fear of Lin Jie’s might, she erected a wall to protect the dream realm. And now, it was about to be torn down…
Lin Jie saw Silver’s action and didn’t know what to make of it… He was only a traveling consciousness from the stars and needed to return to his original body. He didn’t know the answer to this conclusion, but Silver was desperate.
The dream realm had been devastated by Lin Jie’s subconscious corruption. Now, Lin Jie could stop that corruption, but what about the future? Would Lin Jie, after returning to his body, be able to maintain this will?
"Are you deciding for them? Just because you trust me doesn’t mean they do.” What Lin Jie referred to as them were the creatures that lived in the dream realm to hide from Lin Jie.
Silver revealed her loveliest smile ever in all the time she had lived.
"I am the guardian of all monsters and creatures born in the dream realm." Silver’s beautiful voice floated into Lin Jie’s ears. “My choice toward you is also the choice of all dream realms.”
Silver raised her hand high, and a white light appeared in her palm, forming a column of light. The apex of the column then extended into a semicircular barrier.
This luminous barrier covered the whole of Norzin and could be seen from every corner of the city.
Silver closed her eyes and clenched the fist of her raised hand. And in the next second, the ma.s.sive protective barrier shattered.
The wall between dream and reality crumbled in that instant.
——
At the very edge of Azir, where dream and reality intersected.
Thick layers of snow covered the mountain range like dragon scales. Strong gales whistled through the surrounding sky and clouds, yet the gray mist between the mountains could never be dispersed. The gray mist produced great forks of lightning and giant vortexes, but all of these were dwarfed by the ma.s.sive throne-like mountain.
On the mountain, ice dust blasted into fog as frozen soil and ice fractured in unison, causing boulders to roll down.
A loud roar made the mountain shudder as a huge palm rose from the mountain, followed by a monstrously large body.
The giant king had awoken once again.
What had woken him up this time was the shattering of the wall that he had always guarded.
"Silver?" There was a hint of surprise in Slater Augustus" almost stony eyes. "She’s actually tearing down the wall?”
Slater Augustus watched spider web-like cracks start to appear on the wall as ma.s.sive amounts of aether, several hundred times more condensed than in the real world, started to leak out.
Once the door to the dream realm was opened, the entire real world of Azir would enter a new age.
An age teeming with opportunity and danger…
Slater Augustus had been here for many thousand years, watching Azir through the ages.
Humankind had thrived because of the wall between dream and reality that Silver constructed, and Life had built a bonfire to protect humankind.
Now that the Witch of Life had fallen and the Witch of Trees that supported Norzin was absorbed by Silver, had the age of man pa.s.sed?
Slater Augustus didn"t dare guess the answer. The long era of humankind had allowed him to meet many interesting people. Had Silver seen more of them, perhaps she would have liked them too.
Slater stared into the starry sky and saw one brilliant light amongst the many stars as he was especially reminiscent of that particular little guy.
The star of Wilde"s destiny was illuminating especially splendidly.
Slater Augustus breathed a sigh of relief. Haa... You haven"t let me down yet, little man.
He rose from the mountain and seated himself on his throne, gazing at what was the former capital of his own people. Then, he drew out his rusty sword and leaned on it.
He looked at Wilde"s star of destiny and finally closed his eyes in gratification.
At the same time, his body, long aged with time, gradually solidified with his immortal throne into a stone statue.
The mighty and eternal giant king had finally fulfilled his life"s mission.
The great wall that had stood for thousands of years collapsed in an instant, and the vast aether rushed into the real world like a tide, sweeping up the giant king and his eternal throne, causing them to vanish.