Under the heavy moonlight, amid the floating ruins of the ancient Sacrificial Ground, Shade had truly felt himself completely smash that enormous Dragon Egg and had first rejoiced. But when he transformed back into human form on the gray gravel ground of the Sacrificial Ground, he immediately realized he had celebrated too soon:
"How could it be this easy?"
Panting, he turned to look behind him. That strange Dragon Egg still stood in the center of the Sacrificial Ground. The dense cracks covering its surface had not been caused by Shade's strikes; something inside was trying to emerge.
A gale swept black sand through the Sacrificial Ground. Power from those Ancient Dragon statues and offerings continuously gathered upon the Dragon Egg. When the Thunder Spear bearing the Black Moon Rune struck the egg, the giant egg vanished, only to eerily reverse and regenerate as though Time Reversal had occurred:
"Sharpe Farm Incubator... They really used that relic on this egg!"
"It's useless."
Although Sister Devlin was still suppressing the Twelve-Ring Arcanist in the air, her voice appeared with perfect clarity beside Shade's ear. It was telepathy:
"This egg has now fallen into a Chaos Spiral of life and death. Unless the Dragon inside hatches and escapes the form of an 'egg,' no one can destroy it."
Since Sister Devlin, who wielded the power of Final Death, said so, Shade knew the divine descent truly could not be stopped.
He therefore swung Night Watchman at the gray Dragon statues of varying sizes standing throughout the Sacrificial Ground. He did completely destroy them, but the shattered statues and the objects offered before them swiftly transformed into the purest spirits and flowed along the channels into the giant egg.
"It's a sacrificial ritual. Destroying them will only speed up the egg's hatching."
Bloody