CHAPTER 515: ECHO OF THE PAST

Inside Darian’s mind, reality was replaced by a blood-soaked nightmare. He was seeing the world through someone else’s eyes.

A female, insane laugh echoed—not around him, but vibrating in his own throat. In front of her, a small army of figures drenched in blood advanced, obeying her commands.

A simple village burned in flames. This wasn’t a battle; it was a slaughter. Men, women, elders... unarmed people who were just trying to live, being cut down without mercy. It was the typical scene of an oppressive power, thinking the world belonged only to the strong and that they could do whatever they wanted to the weak.

Why care? The strongest fist was the one that was always right.

And the woman wasn’t just commanding the army. She relished in it. Then she would charge forward herself, her hands gripping a saber, cutting lives apart, covering herself in the warm blood of innocents...

---

Back in reality, the vision of the past vanished. In front of Darian’s eyes, there was only that tiny half-dragon baby, pale-skinned with violet scales, looking at him with absolute innocence.

Darian felt like he had taken a physical punch to the stomach. The air got stuck in his lungs.

He took a step back, trembling. He wasn’t afraid of the baby. He was terrified by recognition.

His mind tried to fight it, tried to scream that it was a mistake, a coincidence... he wanted to reject it with everything he had.

But the memory was a cold, precise blade. Because he vividly remembered seeing that scene before. Every detail, every scream, the exact tone of that maniac female laugh. It was impossible to forget after all...

His mind was pulled violently back to years ago. To the day when he was only ten.

He remembered the terrifying sensation of awakening his curse for the first time. The chill down his spine, the world of the dead opening. Little Darian had gone catatonic, curled up on the floor...

Then, a gentle hand touched his head. A soft voice whispered that everything would be alright.

His mother.

In that moment of comfort, looking at the woman he loved most in the world... the curse activated.

He saw her Black Karma.

He saw the past she was hiding.

Then, the vision of that burning village appeared. The nightmare he saw hidden in his mother’s soul that day... was the exact same one that now resided inside that newborn baby.

"Dan..." Niara murmured, her voice heavy with worry, feeling the turbulence in his soul as if it were her own.

Seeing that he still wasn’t reacting, she held his face firmly, forcing him to break his stare from the child and meet her amber eyes. The eye contact worked like an anchor, pulling Darian from the abyss of that bloody memory back into reality.

"Does little Alear have any kind of problem?" Harper’s trembling voice asked, saying out loud the fear hanging in the air.

Darian blinked, regaining focus.

He turned to Harper, seeing that tiny life crying in her arms. A storm of emotions clogged his throat, something he would never be able to put into words. He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head.

"No... she’s perfectly healthy."

A collective sigh of relief swept through the hall.

Darian took a deep breath, using Niara’s warmth and silent support to stabilize himself. He gathered what strength he had left and turned to Lucy and Lucius.

The twins were staring at him, clearly also feeling something deeply wrong about that baby.

The three of them, the moment they saw the baby for the first time, felt a tightness in their chest. But only Darian could confirm it; because he had suffered through seeing the darkest past of their mother.

He hesitated. Should he really say it?

But when he looked at the faces of the twins, he knew he had no right to keep it to himself.

"She..."

His voice cracked. He drew in air, trying to find the right words.

"She... came back to us... our mother," Darian said, his voice hoarse and breaking. "... now it’s our turn to take care of her."

Those words echoed like thunder in everyone’s minds. By now, everyone close to them knew their past. Their mother had died years ago, and now...

"W-what... you... are you sure?" Lucy stammered. Her face was already covered in tears before she even finished speaking.

Darian just nodded, slowly and with absolute certainty. There was no room for doubt. No one in the universe could replicate the exact same past. His curse didn’t make mistakes.

"Heaven’s Will... really sent her back to us..." Darian muttered, overwhelmed by a feeling he couldn’t put into words.

For the three siblings, it was like opening Pandora’s box. All the pain, longing, and grief they had sealed away in their hearts for years, ever since her death, now surged up all at once, freezing them.

*Buaaaah!*

A loud, powerful, full-of-life cry shattered the trance, pulling everyone’s attention back to the newborn.

Niara, seeing the three frozen in place, moved.

She stepped forward and looked at Harper, who was stunned. Harper understood the silent request and gently handed the baby over.

Little Alear wasn’t the size of a normal human newborn. Because of the Dragons’ heritage and the atavism, her body was robust, comparable to a seven-month-old human baby or even a bit older.

Niara cradled her in her arms and approached Darian.

He stepped back instinctively, the shock still rattling through his nerves. But Niara, with an encouraging smile, brought the child closer to him.

Darian felt a knot tighten in his throat.

And then, the crying stopped.

Abruptly.

Alear’s eyes, green like raw emeralds, seemed to move and lock onto Darian.

There was a moment of silence where time itself felt frozen. Her tiny eyes suddenly trembled and, without making a sound, thick tears rolled down her cheeks.

Everyone in the hall felt the baby’s emotional surge. It wasn’t rational thought—just a pure, instinctive, overwhelming sense of recognition. Her soul, even without memories, knew who stood before her.

Darian’s face twisted in a grimace of mixed pain and happiness. The dam finally broke.

"Shit..."

Darian muttered, covering his eyes with one hand as tears escaped. He knew babies were sensitive in every way, still carrying the last echoes of their previous life before the forgetfulness of rebirth completely took hold.

Niara smiled softly and moved the baby toward Lucy and Lucius.

Alear’s eyes followed the motion. And when her focus landed on the twins... the reaction was identical. She instinctively recognized all three. A deep sadness mixed with relief and infinite joy radiated from that tiny body.

Of course, it was just a remnant, an echo of the past. She had no memories, and most likely, in a short time, even that would fade completely.

But if anyone there still had doubts, they were crushed instantly. That connection was real.

"Alear, pay attention..." Niara whispered, breaking the tension with a sweet, playful tone as she gently rocked the baby. "These three love you a lot. So you’re gonna live a very happy life, being incredibly spoiled by them. Excited?"

As if answering the promise of a bright future, the baby let out a loud scream and began crying again—this time a very different cry, almost like an excited shout.

Lucy, Lucius, and Darian looked at each other. Through the tears, genuine smiles began to form.

For the first time in a long while, the weight on their shoulders seemed to disappear. That woman—who gave her life to protect them, who loved them unconditionally and shaped who they became—was back.

And this time, they would repay a thousandfold everything they had received from her. They promised themselves they would be strong enough. This time, nothing bad would happen to her. This time, they would be the guardians.