Timeline Life (8,000, Please Vote! Taking Tomorrow Off!)

The light of the Path went out.

The prophet and the dragon returned to reality, back atop Dragon Island.

The Dragon King of Thunder stood frozen in place, plunged into a long silence. The white-haired prophet's body swayed slightly before he dropped to one knee on Dragon Island. Even the body of the Immovable Fortress could barely endure such backlash. Blood instantly flooded his eye sockets, turning even the whites around his cyan pupils crimson.

Yet even more terrifying was the sound of a soul shattering—the specks of fragmented light beginning to appear behind Ian were Heartlight fragments produced as a Third Energy Level ascendant's soul and Soul Light Body slowly collapsed after suffering a nearly fatal blow.

Ian? The Gale Dragon King woke as though from a dream. With a thought, layers upon layers of flowing runes lit up across Dragon Island's solid earth. Within seconds, a life-support pod resembling a stone coffin enclosed the white-haired youth.

"...Thank you, Gale Dragon King." With the healing field's assistance, Ian, who had nearly suffered the severe backlash of a collapsed Spirit-Matter Nerve network and simultaneous shattering of soul and Heartlight, finally caught his breath. In a weak voice, he said, "If I were alone, I might have needed one or two years of rest and recuperation. That would have been disastrous."

"After all, it seems we don't have much time left, do we?"

This was not a matter of having little time—you cannot damage your body like this! Ian's joke earned him a fierce glare from the Dragon King, but the thunder dragon soon sighed. Terminus... So there was already Terminus beyond our Cradle?

At this point, the Gale Dragon King lowered His head. He gazed blankly at Dragon Island and gave a bitter smile. In that case, did our efforts