The Skeleton Rider, Luca and her three sisters, along with the Kushan scouts who had followed the prophecy, watched as a man radiating divine charm emerged from the light within the ruins of the Tower of Conviction.
Long, curly white hair, a gentle face, and a perfect body emerging from strips of cloth—it instantly captivated everyone present.
This was a saint who could only be born once in a thousand years. The angels walked the world again, guiding and saving the blind and ignorant sentient beings.
"The Hawk of Light," Griffith!
Bam——
A massive monstrous creature descended from the sky and stood before the Hawk of Light, but without a moment's hesitation, it knelt, prostrated itself, and surrendered to the angel.
The two original horns of the "undead" Zodd: one had been cut off by Niđhöggr during the Eclipse engraving, and the other by the Hawk of Light before him on the border between sleep and reality.
However, the meaning was entirely different.
Being severed by Niđhöggr was merely a reward for the brave.
But when Griffith severed it, he was completely awakened. The "absolute power" he had pursued for hundreds of years was right before him.
This was a man he was utterly impossible to defeat. Even standing before Griffith, he instinctively wanted to submit to him and kneel.
Instead of feeling humiliated, Zodd felt joy from the depths of his heart, considering it the highest and most sacred thing, like being accepted by God.
Griffith naturally climbed onto Zodd's body and sat upon his shoulder, not looking at the Skeleton Rider, Luca, or the others from beginning to end.
Zodd also spread his enormous wings, bore Griffith aloft, and soared into the sky, flying off into the distance.
New causality began to circulate.
Before the Kushan scouts and soldiers could gather around, the Skeleton Rider led Luca and her three sisters to a safe place.
While these women were still immersed in the afterglow of Griffith's charm, the Skeleton Rider calmly said to Luca, who was their leader:
"Soon, this land will inevitably be swept into an even greater vortex. Only the eye of the storm will be spared."
"You have two choices. The first is to go to the eye of the storm and pray for the mercy of God and the angels. Perhaps you might indeed have a good time."
"The other is to go west, cross the ocean by boat, and make a final, sober stand on the edge of the storm."
"Just as in this dark tsunami, make a choice. Perhaps you can miraculously, and briefly, leap from the web of causality once more."
Having spoken these enigmatic words, the Skeleton Rider gave Luca a deep look, then turned his horse's head and rode off into the distance.
Another futile Mercedes would never stop him and his dark steed.
Luca silently watched his back until he disappeared into the forest.
---
Niđhöggr frowned and awoke from his dream.
The wind rushed past the back of the Glintstone Dragon Adula, causing his Carian Knight cloak to billow.
However, what woke him was not the sound of the cloak nor the chill of the wind, but an indescribable feeling.
He looked to the east, but now he could only see clouds receding behind him, not even the outline of the land—only the boundless sea below and rare, ant-like islands.
Could it be... was this the moment?
Niđhöggr trusted his intuition, especially at level 145, where the feedback from blessings and guidance surrounded him at all times, and his spiritual senses grew ever more attuned to the world.
Something had definitely changed.
If his guess was correct, this would be the "reincarnation of the Hawk of Light," right?
Griffith had finally come to the earth in the flesh.
Niđhöggr had no intention of fighting Griffith at this time, not on the home ground where the God Hand had woven their schemes for thousands of years. He remained focused on what lay before him, choosing to leap from the predetermined chessboard.
"Roooar—"
Adula roared and descended swiftly.
Niđhöggr looked ahead from the dragon's back and finally saw the outline of a continuous landmass.
At last, the sea border of the Empire of Yoda was upon him.
As Adula approached and flew lower, he could even see ships departing from the shore and the panicked crews aboard.
In the beginning, the Empire of Yoda had sent a great army across this strait, invading the northern and southern parts of the Kingdom of Midland, starting a war with the Kingdom of Midland that lasted a hundred years.
However, after the recapture of Doldrey Castle and the upheavals within the Empire of Yoda itself, the Kingdom of Midland was unable to press its advantage, and the Hundred-Year War concluded with the signing of a peace treaty between the two sides.
Niđhöggr rode the flying dragon and swept across the strait, with no intention of hiding.
After all, from this point on, the people of this world, whether they liked it or not, would have to accept the reality that creatures like dragons, giants, and hydras would frequently appear.
Just as Niđhöggr was pondering how to find the spatial rift to Redmane Castle, which likely existed here, he realized he might not have to search for it at all.
Adula flew over the harbor and passed over a city, revealing a massive, enormous area of crimson—part of it resembled a swamp, part of it mushrooms, all heavily transformed.
From the sky, it looked like a huge wound in the city, torn open to reveal deep red flesh.
The streets were empty; there were no living people, nor animals.
Niđhöggr still hadn't seen the Scarlet Rot erupting from a spatial rift.
The spread and extent of the Scarlet Rot was far greater than he had anticipated, but he didn't know where its epicenter was?
Niđhöggr rode the Glintstone Dragon Adula, flying for an unknown time, observing countless horrifying urban scenes, until he finally found the source of the Scarlet Rot.
It was a vast, lake-like expanse of Scarlet Rot, like a pool of blood.
The center of the lake seemed alive, heaving with waves, until at one moment, the head of a reddish dragon rose from the Rot lake.
A dragon...
"Ha... ha..." Niđhöggr looked closely. "So it's you... Ekzykes, 'Decaying Ekzykes.' So you're the one spreading the blight everywhere."
He hovered in the air on Adula, considering his next move, when suddenly he noticed a figure emerge from a collapsed tower and appear at the edge of the great Rot lake.
It was a tall knight in heavy armor, a battle standard in his hand planted at the edge of the corruption lake, standing proudly, facing "Decaying" Ekzykes.
Unwilling to yield, Ekzykes slowly rose from his bath in the Rot Lake. The Scarlet Rot sloughed from his draconic body, gradually revealing his original grey, desiccated, root-like hide.
"Roooar—"
He spread wings no less impressive than Adula's and roared at the knight bearing the battle standard.