Chapter 498 - The Centipede in the Sea of Void (1/2)
Chapter 498: The Centipede in the Sea of Void
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The Dragon Square
The Red Dragon Queen transformed into her dragon form. Before letting Link ride on her back, she turned to him and said, “Now close your eyes.”
“Why?” asked Link curiously. Still, he closed his eyes shut.
“I’ll need to swallow you down my dragon body. The whole body may seem a bit disturbing, and I don’t really want to show you my horrible fangs You’ll probably hate me for that. You know what, it’s probably not enough that you close your eyes, I’ll need to cast a Numbing spell on you.”
As she spoke, Link felt Gretel’s Dragon Power over him. She must have already cast her spell on him.
The spell instantly dulled all of Link’s senses. Not only had his surroundings gone dark, but he also could not hear or feel anything around him as well. Link then felt himself being lifted up and sliding down a warm tube.
Five seconds later, the Red Dragon Queen’s voice could be heard once more. “Alright, you can open your eyes now.”
When Link opened his eyes, he found himself swimming in a mass of unknown liquid. Around him was a hazy blur of red light, and extraordinarily enough, he noticed that he could breathe regularly in the liquid without any risk of suffocation.
The sensation was almost like being back in his mother’s womb.
With a sudden snap, the hazy blur of red light around Link had vanished, and in its place was a magic mirror providing a full view of what the Red Dragon Queen was seeing at the moment.
“Can you see it?” Gretel’s voice rumbled from outside.
“Yes, I can see everything clearly, it’s an amazing sight,” exclaimed Link. He had never felt such comfort in the womb-like chamber. It seemed like such a great place to just lie back and take a nap for as long as he wanted.
Gretel’s voice rumbled again, this time with a hint of satisfaction, “It’s called a vesicle. It was originally used to accommodate passengers. After generations of evolution, though it still retains its function as a compartment for passengers, we’ve stopped letting outsiders use it.”
“If that’s the case, why bother keeping it? I think the vesicle’s maintenance requires a large amount of energy input.” It was one of Link’s many quirks; whenever something seemed illogical to him, he would try to make sense out of it through logical reasoning.
Gretel laughed without actually giving Link an answer. “Alright, enough questions for now. I’m taking off!”
Through the magical view in the vesicle, Link could see luminescent ripples in the air before Gretel. She then took a large step forward, and her large dragon body melted through the ripples.
In the outside world, Link could see cracks radiating out in huge numbers across the green tiles in the square. This was the result of spatial vibrations continuously being sent out from the dragon’s body. It was almost trivial compared to the effects of Realm Transference.
Two seconds later, Gretel’s body had completely submerged into the spatial depths. Crimson Dragon Power cloaked her whole body, giving her the appearance of a gleaming crystal dragon.
They were immediately beset by a fantastic sight around them, brilliant silhouettes dancing around the spatial canvas of Firuman’s inner regions. As they waded deeper through space, the light around them gradually faded. Before long, they were completely immersed in darkness.
The whole process was not unlike diving into an ocean’s depths. The only difference was that a diver would eventually hit the bottom of the ocean, whereas in the farthest regions of space stood the wall between realms. Behind that wall lay the Sea of Void.
The Space Barrier in the Dragon Valley was nigh impenetrable, especially around the Dragon Temple. It acted as a deterrent against any attempts to invade from the Sea of Void.
Carrying Link inside her, Gretel swam on downwards for more than one minute. Darkness had utterly consumed them at that moment. Then, Link saw a glimmer of light before him. The Red Dragon Queen spoke, “Alright, we’re in the Sea of Void.”
From the magical view, Link could see that a white fog had surrounded the Red Dragon Queen’s body, obscuring her vision terribly. Through the fog, sudden streaks of light flashed by at times. Link could also make out a couple of vortexes spinning in the distance.
Behind the Red Dragon Queen was a huge body of light. Due to the white fog around her, none of them could make out the exact appearance of the object, but Link knew that it was the realm of Firuman itself.
“Alright, I’m going to move forward. Visibility is low, and there may be danger lurking about, so I’ll need to concentrate on my flying. If there’s a meteorite heading our way, you need to tell me,” Gretel said.
“Understood,” said Link. He then noticed that Gretel had begun flying away from the realm of Firuman. The road ahead of them was a blur fraught with all kinds of danger. Not daring to let anything distract him for even a moment, Link kept his eyes wide open as he surveyed his surroundings throughout their journey.
The Red Dragon Queen floated slowly forward through the Sea. Around five minutes later (all measurements of time were carried out by Link at this point with the realm of Firuman as his reference point, since the concept of time itself was essentially meaningless in the Sea of Void), Link noticed that the realm of Firuman had completely vanished from sight behind them. They were now surrounded in every direction by hazy balls of light and energy.
In such a place, one could lose their bearings easily without a reference point in space, and would probably drift on through the Sea of Void with no end in sight. Link suddenly remembered the sages of old who had fled from Firuman must have floated through the Sea of Void for months before finally managing to find their way back to the realm of Firuman. Such a feat was nothing short of a miracle.
The Red Dragon Queen had slowed down considerably. She was now feeling even more nervous at this point. Link could feel her heart beating even more uncontrollably, raising the temperature in the womb as a result.
“Link, do you see something?” Gretel’s voice sounded.
“No, nothing but those balls of energy around us. I don’t see anything concrete.” Link had been scanning the magical view attentively, but still could not find a single piece of meteorite anywhere around them.
Gretel continued flying forward.
Soon after, Link suddenly saw a black shadow flit through the white fog. He strained his eyes in its direction, but could not make anything out.
“I think I see something moving,” whispered Link.
Gretel’s pulse accelerated even more. She slowed down, and her body took on a more defensive posture. “I sense it, too. It’s probably alive. I could feel it staring at me.”
Gretel was now feeling even more nervous. She did not have much experience making trips through the Sea of Void.
“Why don’t we turn back now? Once my dragon body is fully recovered, we can go back into the Sea of Void together. Besides, we only need to wait for another three months till my dragon body heals up completely, which isn’t that long,” proposed Link. It was too dangerous to go on at this point, especially with an unidentified object leering at them from a distance. If Link was able to transform into his dragon form, he could still be of some use to the Red Dragon Queen in the Sea of Void.
As for the Astral Meteorite, they did not need to find it straight away. They were probably bound to find some after making a few more trips into the Sea of Void.
Gretel fell silent for a moment. She then spoke, “Alright then, it’s a shame we didn’t find any meteorites.”