The earth split open.
The rift exploded directly beneath the clash of the two dragons. It tore through the central axis of the ruins of Moon Phase City, extending all the way to the foundations of the city walls. It was over three meters wide and seemingly bottomless. Black mist surged from the gap, only to be pushed back by the golden light, surging again, and being pushed back once more.
Bell leaned against the rock wall at the exit of the escape passage, holding Cecilia in his arms. His neck was tilted back to its limit.
The scene in the sky caused his brain to stall completely for zero point three seconds.
Salomos’s pitch-black maw opened. That power of denial was no longer pouring toward the ground; instead, it was aimed directly at the Star Dragon King.
The entire firmament darkened for a fleeting moment.
It wasn't that the light vanished. Rather, the very concept of "light" flickered briefly before Salomos’s power of denial. A visible layer of grey appeared on the surface of the golden scales—a distortion of existence. The first level: Salomos was attempting to deny the Star Dragon King’s physical existence.
The grey lasted for zero point five seconds.
Then, it was crushed by the golden light.
Golden radiance surged from the inside out on the Star Dragon King’s scales. It wasn't a counterattack, nor was it a defense. It was something more fundamental.
Law Weaving.
It didn't dispel the power of denial. It redefined the effectiveness of the act of "denial" itself within the current space-time.
Salomos’s crimson vertical pupils constricted violently.
The second wave of denial followed immediately. Causality Stripping. The second level. Pitch-black dragon breath erupted from Salomos’s throat, a terrifying energy wrapped in twisted chains of causality that slammed into the Star Dragon King’s chest.
The golden vertical pupils did not flicker.
The dragon breath hit the golden scales and dispersed.
It wasn't bounced off or absorbed. At the moment of contact, it simply lost its causal significance, transforming from an "attack" into a "non-existent event."
Causality Determination.
Salomos’s third level, fourth level, and fifth level followed.
Time slices attempted to lock the Star Dragon King into an infinite loop of temporal fragments. Spatial paradoxes tried to make the coordinates where the Star Dragon King stood collapse from three dimensions simultaneously. Conceptual corruption sought to erode the conceptual foundation of the "dragon" species within the World Tree from a deeper level.
All of it was ineffective.
The Star Dragon King hovered above the torn Night Rose Palace, its wingspan obscuring half the sky. Its golden cross-shaped vertical pupils hadn't moved a single millimeter from start to finish.
It didn't even fight back.
It simply existed.
And its existence itself was the denial of all denial.
Salomos’s pitch-black body began to contract. Not out of fear. The edges of its scales, which were perpetually oscillating between "melting" and "solidifying," accelerated. The outline of its entire body became blurred, and its volume shrank.
It was trying to escape.
Bell’s back was pressed against the cold rock wall, his heart hammering against his ribs. Cecilia, in his arms, watched the sky with her red irises wide open.
The Star Dragon King moved.
There was no roar, no dragon breath. The golden dragon simply took a single step forward.
One step.
Space folded. Distance was redefined. The Star Dragon King’s foreclaw pinned Salomos’s back.
The pitch-black dragon let out a dragon’s roar. The frequency was so low it fell below the threshold of hearing. It didn't travel through the air; it ground directly over the souls of everyone present.
Bell’s consciousness went white for a moment. His eardrums throbbed with pain, and a warm liquid welled up in his nose. Blood.
The Star Dragon King’s foreclaw tightened.
Golden light spread from the point of contact, covering Salomos’s entire body. The pitch-black scales curled, shattered, and peeled away one by one under the golden light, revealing—nothing underneath. No flesh, no bone. Only a churning black void that constantly tried to deny its own form.
Salomos’s crimson vertical pupils met the Star Dragon King’s golden ones.
The two entities locked eyes for half a second.
The Star Dragon King’s wing membranes unfurled behind it, creating a shockwave that flattened all the remaining foundations of the buildings in Moon Phase City. Golden pillars of light pierced through the gaps in its scales, converging where it touched Salomos.
A hole was torn in the firmament.
It wasn't a spatial rift. It was a channel to a higher dimension. Golden light poured down from the opening, enveloping both dragons simultaneously.
The Star Dragon King pressed Salomos down and ascended into that rift.
The pitch-black body gave one last struggle in the golden light. Its maw opened, seemingly attempting a final denial.
The cross-shaped cracks in the golden vertical pupils opened slightly further.
Salomos’s struggling ceased.
The two massive forms that obscured the sky vanished into that high-dimensional rift. The light retracted, and the rift closed.
The sky returned to its proper color.
Moonlight spilled down, illuminating the devastated ruins of Moon Phase City.
Bell’s ears were ringing, and nosebleed ran down to his chin. He didn't wipe it.
A moment before the Star Dragon King disappeared, those golden cross-shaped vertical pupils had swept a glance downward.
It didn't look at Bell. It didn't look at Leovet.
It looked at Cecilia in Bell’s arms.
Just one look.
In that glance, there was no killing intent, no warning. It was something Bell couldn't define with any word.
Existence Definition.
Cecilia’s body suddenly arched violently under that gaze. Her back curved, her teeth ground together audibly, and her hands gripped Bell’s front, her nails tearing off two buttons.
Then she went limp, sagging in Bell’s arms. Her red irises lost focus for half a second before refocusing.
“It looked at me.”
Four words, spoken with a tremble.
Leovet descended from the sky.
His toes touched the ground first, making almost no sound. No pebbles were kicked up. His instructor’s robe was burned down to a half-length, and his trousers were nothing but shredded rags below the knees. The sleeve of his left arm was completely gone.
But he stood firmly.
He pulled his right hand out from the inner side of his scorched robe, holding a small piece of bread. No one knew how long it had been hidden in which pocket. He put it in his mouth, chewed twice, and swallowed.
“It's over.”
A buzz. The meaning slammed into Bell’s mind. It's over. Salomos had been taken away by the Star Dragon King. The Denier—the thing that could erase the existence of an entire race and twist the underlying logic of the world—had been pinned down and hauled away.
Bell placed Cecilia on the ground and stood up. His knees buckled slightly, but he held himself steady.
“There are two things in her that must be stripped away.”
Bell pointed at Cecilia.
Leon leaned against a broken wall, his left arm in a sling, blood dripping from the shredded cloth.
“What things?”
“The Blood Dance Tattoo. The inheritance certification brand of the Vampire King.”
An extremely confused blankness appeared on Leon’s face.
“Vampire King?”
Bell ground his back teeth. Right. They didn't remember. The entire history of the "vampires" as a race had been erased. The ten ancestors. The inheritance stone pillars. The three-thousand-year dynasty. None of it existed anymore.
Lilian approached, carrying the half-conscious Tia. The Crown of Thorns was crooked on her head, and its last petal had fallen.
“Master.” Her voice was terribly hoarse. “What is the Blood Dance Tattoo?”
She was a vampire.
She was the only vampire currently existing in the world.
But she had no idea what kind of history her race once had.
Bell closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.
“You don't need to understand what it is. You only need to know—it originally belonged to you.”
He turned to Margaret.
Margaret stood a few meters away, her instructor’s cloak in tatters, her right shoulder scorched, and her hands still trembling slightly.
“Headmaster.”
“Yes.”
“There is another thing inside Cecilia. It's called the World Tree Heart. It once belonged to a... race that no longer exists.”
The same bewilderment that Leon had shown appeared on Margaret’s face.
“World Tree?”
“It is a powerful source of natural power.” Bell didn't explain much; he couldn't. The entire concept of the Wood Elves had vanished from the world. Any more words would be like punching the air. “After it's stripped, I will give this heart to you.”
Margaret opened her mouth as if to ask something, then closed it.
Fifty years of teaching had told her that when a young man spoke with such a tone, he had already deduced every possible path. Asking would only be a waste of time.
Bell knelt down and pressed his right hand onto Cecilia’s left wrist.
The dark red patterns were still pulsing faintly beneath the skin. Three interlocking roses snaked along her forearm to her collarbone and the left side of her face.
His fingers began to construct an etheric circuit.
This set of circuits was the blood source magic logic he had learned from Leila—no, from Valentine—during his days in Moon Phase City. Now, Valentine was no longer here.
The memories carved into the depths of his soul pushed the steps to his fingers one by one.
The stripping process began.
The dark red patterns began to recede from Cecilia’s left cheek, moving down her collarbone and shrinking back along her arm. The rose petals fell off one by one, turning into dark red specks of light that hovered above Bell’s palm.
Cecilia’s body twitched. Her mouth spasmed, but she didn't groan.
The entire process lasted forty seconds.
The dark red specks of light converged into a sphere of light the size of a fist. Bell stood up, turned, and walked toward Lilian.
Lilian was still holding Tia. She looked up.
“Hold out your left hand.”
Lilian raised her left hand, fingers spread.
Bell pressed the dark red sphere of light into her palm.
The moment the light sphere pierced her skin, Lilian’s body jolted violently. Dark red patterns began to climb from her palm, along her wrist, forearm, upper arm, and collarbone, all the way to her left cheek.
Three interlocking roses bloomed beneath her cheekbone.
Lilian’s red irises lit up at that moment. A sense of belonging, surging from the deepest part of her bloodline, filled her entire body.
She didn't know what this was.
But every cell in her body was telling her—this thing had come home.
Bell didn't linger. He turned back to Cecilia and knelt down, pressing his right hand against her chest.
He constructed an etheric circuit for the second time.
This time, the thing to be stripped was deeper. The World Tree Heart was embedded in the position of her heart. Emerald light moved beneath the skin.
Cecilia suddenly raised her hand and grabbed Bell’s wrist. Her strength was weak, her nails scraping against the edge of his bandages.
“Brother—”
Bell didn't stop.
The emerald sphere of light was slowly pulled from Cecilia’s chest. Her body arched upward and then fell back, shrinking onto the rubble-strewn ground. The color in her face faded visibly.
The World Tree Heart was detached from its host.
Cecilia’s hand slid from Bell’s wrist and hit the rubble, her fingers splayed, lacking the strength to close.
Bell held the emerald sphere of light, stood up, and walked toward Margaret.
Margaret instinctively took half a step back before stopping.
Bell handed the light sphere over.
“This will protect you.”
Margaret’s fingers touched the surface of the sphere. Emerald light seeped into her skin from her fingertips, following her meridians and surging into her heart.
A warm power, carrying the fragrance of grass and wood, spread through her body. At the same moment, the crystal of her instructor’s pendant glowed with a faint green light.
Margaret looked down at her hands. The trembling in her fingers stopped.
Bell turned to Leovet.
“All of her mana... needs to be sealed.”
Leovet finished his last bite of bread and clapped his hands, breadcrumbs falling from between his fingers.
He walked to Cecilia, knelt down, and placed two fingers on her brow.
Cyan light seeped in from his fingertips.
Cecilia’s body convulsed violently once and then went completely quiet. Her breathing became steady and even, her chest rising and falling slowly.
The mana circuits in her body were sealed one by one. All five-element affinity channels were closed, and even the most basic mana perception was stripped away.
From this day forward, Cecilia Lucas was just an ordinary girl without any mana.
Leovet stood up and wiped his hands.
“Is that enough?”
Bell looked up. All around were the ruins of Moon Phase City after its total destruction. Scorched earth. Ravines. Absolute voids.
There was no scent of the ancestors. No humming from the inheritance stone pillars. No trace of the three-thousand-year dynasty of the Blood Race remained.
Valentine had died in a pool of blood in a secret chamber. Elizabeth had petrified under the ruins on the front lines. Grant. Victor. Altan. The ten ancestors. The inheritance network. They had never existed.
The civilization of an entire race had evaporated silently from the world’s memory.
Bell bent down and picked Cecilia up from the rubble.
Her head rested in the crook of his shoulder, her blonde hair falling loose. Without the support of the Blood Dance Tattoo and the World Tree Heart, she felt unreally light.
“Let’s go.”
Bell walked toward the exit of the passage.
Leon followed with his broken arm trailing. Lilian followed behind, holding Tia. Margaret leaned against the wall for support. Horn and Antinoia walked at the very back.
The moonlight shone on them.
Bell’s sole stepped over a piece of rubble. Underneath the rubble lay half a strip of dark red cloth. A rose was embroidered on the cloth.
It was Valentine’s sleeve.
No one recognized it.
Bell looked down at it for a second.
Then he stepped over it.
Cecilia, in her slumber, moved slightly in his arms. Her fingers hooked onto Bell’s tattered collar, gripping tightly.
Bell’s pace did not falter.
Behind them, on the ruins of Moon Phase City, a withered rose petal drifted from nowhere and landed on that dark red strip of cloth.
A wind blew, and the petal and the cloth turned to ash together.
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