CHAPTER 110: THE DRAGON'S CURSE; THE FIRMAMENT OF ETERNAL NIGHT

Two figures plummeted from the sky at high speed—Charles and Hugin. Hugin's armor of swirling smoke transformed into a pair of glider wings, gradually turning their rapid descent into a gradual glide, slowing their fall enough to avoid catastrophic injury.

Water splashed into the air as the two plunged into the lake. Emerging from the water, Hugin hoisted Charles and tossed him onto the shore, leaving him sprawled there.

Though Charles lay limp on the ground like a lifeless dog, he was largely unharmed, just severely disoriented from the high-speed flight and subsequent fall.

Hugin stood by the lakeshore, his gaze heavy beneath his armor. He looked skyward where Sieg and Colin had been moments before. Earlier, the moment Sieg had spotted that ominous eye, he had unhesitatingly hurled Charles and Hugin from the sky.

Hugin didn't know what that eye was, but anything capable of prompting Sieg to make such a decision was clearly no trivial matter. Evidently, Sieg no longer believed he could protect them in the face of that thing and had chosen to cast them away to safety.

"Wait, where's that little statuette of the Lady of the Night?" Charles, finally regaining his senses, fumbled in his pockets. It was empty—the slightly sharp-edged figurine of the Lady of the Night figurine, which should have been tied securely inside, had gone missing.

"You're worried about something like that now?" Hugin frowned.

"No, something's wrong, Captain. That statue was secured to my pocket with string. Everything else is intact. How could it have disappeared out of nowhere? Come to think of it, I remember glimpsing something leaping out of my pocket earlier, but there were clearly more pressing things on my mind then. Could the statuette have left on its own?"

Charles dug through his pockets again. Finding no trace of the statue, he fell into a contemplative silence.

"It... left on its own?" Hugin blinked, incredulous.

"Yeah, I've got a theory," Charles said, recalling his knowledge of the Church of Nightfall.

A resonant, bell-like sound echoed from the sky, drawing both Charles and Hugin's attention upward once more. They glanced toward the heavens.

The massive hand that Colin had conjured had vanished, leaving only Sieg in his dragon form. He was flapping his tattered wings while hovering in the air.

His condition was worrying. His pupils, once focused with resolve and tension, now glimmered with rage and vague bloodlust. Worse, his time was running out. With Hugin's departure, the smoky aura that had buoyed Sieg up was rapidly dissipating. Once it vanished completely, Sieg would lose his ability to fly.

But Sieg's greatest concern wasn't his current condition—it was the eye. Sieg had had no choice but to throw Charles and Hugin down the moment he caught sight of it. He didn't know how Colin had found this particular artifact, but there was no helping it. A confrontation was imminent.

The sky dimmed—not because of the onset of night, but rather a rapidly thickening layer of clouds gathering above the artificial lake under an unseen force. The dense clouds swirled ominously, occluding the sunlight. Lightning flickered sporadically within the vortex-like clouds, accompanied by heavy, deafening thunder.

Sieg hovered alone in the sky. The oppressive clouds seemed to bear down on him alone. He flapped his wings and stared unyieldingly at the vortex forming above, solitary yet undaunted.

Thunder rumbled ominously as the vortex's center began to form a void. But instead of revealing the sky beyond, it gave way to a profound, impenetrable darkness—a hole in the world itself.

Slowly, the swirling clouds stopped spinning, forming a vortex that framed the black void. Despite the cessation of movement, the pressure only intensified. From within that void, something vast and ancient stirred.

An eye—a massive, golden, slit-pupiled dragon's eye. Pure, powerful, and ancient, it was the eye of a pure-blooded ancestral dragon, radiating with strength and authority.

It wasn't merely an eye. Its size was staggering. Even Sieg's enormous dragon form seemed insignificant compared to this colossal golden eye.

The giant eye gazed down at Sieg. Its expression was devoid of anger or malice. It was the indifferent gaze of a superior being regarding an ant—a being so far beyond Sieg that its contempt was almost casual. Yet Sieg was no ordinary creature: he was a true dragon, akin to a legendary grand knight in human terms.

Faced with the colossal eye, Sieg neither cowered nor retreated. His dragon's pupils burned with fury, courage, and defiance. Lifting his head, he unleashed a deafening roar as the heat in his dragon heart surged to terrifying levels.

His entire body briefly glowed as his blood vessels pulsed with the power of his heart, channeling all the accumulated energy to his maw. A brilliant light flared as Sieg unleashed his ultimate attack, his dragon breath.

An explosion of light and heat tore through the heavens, ripping apart the clouds and revealing a glimpse of sunlight. The rays illuminated Sieg's crimson scales, casting him as the sole beacon of light in the oppressive darkness, a radiant yet tragic figure.

When the brilliance faded, all that remained was despair.

The massive golden eye remained unscathed. Sieg's most powerful attack had done nothing. Under the invisible force of the vortex, the sundered clouds quickly reformed, sealing off the sunlight once more. The encroaching darkness seemed as if it would quickly devour Sieg.

The shockwave from his attack swept across the lake, sending waves crashing and debris flying. Trees, grass, and soil were uprooted wholesale, and Charles was thrown to the ground by the impact. Hugin, though better off, slid back several paces and barely maintained his footing.

"What... is that?" Charles muttered, his pupils dilating as he stared at the terrifying sight of Sieg, the lone dragon, confronting the immense golden eye. "Can anyone—can anything—truly face such a thing? What even is that? How could it be here in Aleisterre?"

Hugin remained silent, his thoughts unidentifiable. Just what was Sieg facing? Was this a curse that targeted him and him alone?

Sieg did not roar again. His body was nearing its limits, his overworked muscles and heat-damaged organs struggling to function. Even his resilient dragon scales showed signs of melting.

The colossal effort required for his ultimate breath attack had brought him to the brink of collapse—and despite it all, the golden eye seemed unharmed.

Even with his strength spent, Sieg lifted his battered form, straining to rise higher, as though seeking to defy the golden eye with every fiber of his being.

Suddenly, ethereal chains materialized from the void, piercing into Sieg's draconic form.

Though intangible and leaving no physical wounds, the chains bound him firmly and rendered him immobile. These were no ordinary magical chains but manifestations of raw power—perhaps of divine law itself.

Then, a claw emerged from the vortex—a dragon's claw of unimaginable scale. Its sheer size dwarfed Sieg.

The claw's sharp talons and shimmering scales bore ancient runes inscribed on every inch, a testament to boundless power and destruction.

The power contained in that claw was beyond classification. When it descended, the entire artificial lake might be obliterated in an instant.

The colossal claw had clearly identified a target: Sieg. Slowly, it extended from the clouds above, grasping at the immobile Sieg.

Sieg struggled with all his might. Even as his overloaded and battered muscles squeezed out what little fighting spirit he had left, the binding was far beyond his limits to break. No matter how hard he fought, he couldn't move an inch.

He watched helplessly as the colossal claw descended. Even so, he felt no fear. He raised his head up high, refusing to submit to its overwhelming might.

The tips of the claw approached, closer and closer. Sieg could sense the immense power it contained. He couldn't bear it. The moment it touched him, he would be annihilated.

"I'm sorry, Sister..." Sieg sighed softly. He hadn't expected someone to uncover his past, much less locate the sacrificial artifact linked to that figure with whom his fate had been entangled. Even so, he continued to resist its overwhelming might.

Sieg opened his maw resolutely, gathering the last vestiges of his strength for a final counterattack—only for his eyes to open wide.

Something darted past his cheek. Wasn't that... Wang Yu's statuette of the Lady of the Night?

The question had barely formed in his mind when he saw the tiny statuette of the Lady of the Night rush to the forefront of his head. It flew upward to confront the descending claw.

Shock overtook all other thoughts and emotions in his mind.

The statuette of the Lady of the Night cracked in half, then collapsed inward. It quickly condensed into a pitch-black sphere, from which darkness blossomed.

"Will this work?"

"It will!" Avia looked at the massive eye in the heavens above. She nodded firmly, with unwavering determination.

"Alright!" Wang Yu closed his eyes and re-entered his mindscape.

The Lady of the Night was already waiting for him, standing atop the lake that represented Wang Yu's reservoir of void energy, watching as he approached.

"Is that a deity?" Wang Yu asked, walking toward his doorframe.

"Yes, an ancient deity of extraordinary power. I don't know what it truly is, but it seems to be bound. It is stronger than any being I've ever encountered," the Lady of the Night replied, inclining her head in a slight nod.

"How can something like that appear in Aleisterre? What rotten luck. Lady Darkness, will Avia's plan work?" Wang Yu asked for confirmation. He carried the doorframe toward the edge of the lake.

"There's no issue. As I've told you, a deity within its domain of authority can accomplish far more than you can imagine. My domain is night and concealment."

"Good. Obviously, that thing is after the Professor. As long as we can conceal the Professor, even for a short while, we might just be able to scrape by. We have to work under the assumption that it can only target Sieg with a clear line of sight," Wang Yu said, stepping out of his mindscape and heading toward the massive castle in the distance.

"Why do you think so?" the Lady of the Night asked, puzzled by his reasoning.

"Because if that isn't the case, then we're all doomed." Wang Yu shrugged. "Let's hope for the best."

"Alright. But can Miss Avia handle it? The scale of void power and the sheer number of runes involved in this divine spell surpass the limits of human capability. Can a being not of the void really pull this off through understanding and control alone?"

The Lady of the Night tilted her head and posed one final question.

"You're the deity—surely you would know better than I would. I believe in her. After all, Avia is the most talented genius I've ever encountered."

Wang Yu smiled, placing his doorframe inside Avia's castle—her mental domain.

"Very well." The Lady of the Night said no more. A vast amount of void energy surged as she crushed a faith crystal. This energy, unique to the Lady of the Night, flowed into Wang Yu's mindscape.

Wang Yu's mindscape boasted a hilariously small capacity and could hardly contain the energy. As a result, the excess energy poured into his doorframe and was released into Avia's mental domain.

In the physical world, Avia raised her void-infused arm toward the massive eye in the heavens, channeling the energy Wang Yu had directed from the Lady of the Night into her. She began reciting a prayer to the Lady of the Night.

"Queen of the Night, Protector in the Darkness, we praise thee, the Lady of the Night..."

At this point, Avia paused briefly, recalling the name Wang Yu had conveyed to her.

"I invoke thee, Darkness."

With this simple prayer, the void energy seemed to come to life. It eagerly obeyed her commands. Avia began constructing a divine spell, one so intricate it transcended the scope of wizardry.

A vast array of runes assembled in her mind, her thoughts fully consumed by the task. The Lady of the Night couldn't directly manifest a miracle through the statuette due to a lack of faith crystals. However, if Avia were to reconstruct the divine spell while channeling the Lady's power, that would produce the same effect at a mere fraction of the cost.

The immense number of runes, their exceedingly complex arrangement, and the ever-shifting structure of the divine spell pushed Avia's abilities to their limits.

But she had faced more dire and challenging moments before. Voidsong was the first time she broke through her limits. Now, she intended to do so again, surpassing her limits and making the impossible possible.

Rune after rune combined in her mindscape as the divine spell gradually took form. When Avia manifested the final element of the runic structure, the Lady of the Night's power surged into it, illuminating—no, entirely obscuring—the structure.

Avia opened her eyes and murmured the name of the divine spell. "Firmament of Eternal Night!"

In an instant, an all-encompassing darkness erupted above Sieg's head. Absolute darkness replaced the bright daylight above the central district of the capital in a heartbeat.