When Old Tang entered the hall, the audio equipment in the corner began playing a chant in Dragon Script. Unlike during the 3E Exam, it was not hidden within music, but played outright.
Before Lu Mingfei and the others, Old Tang suddenly walked forward in a daze, almost reaching the center of the Alchemical Matrix.
He suddenly doubled over, as though suffering some terrible pain, then tore at his hair and let out a silent howl.
"Brother!" Constantine suddenly shouted.
Chapter 59: Dragon King's Heart
Old Tang straightened, and his entire bearing changed. He still wore cheap, off-brand clothes bought on sale, and his hair was still a disheveled bird's nest, yet he seemed to be looking down from a mountaintop, white steam prostrating itself at his feet like a sea of clouds.
He slowly turned toward Lu Mingfei, his expression solemn and imperious. Searing heat rose from his body. The cringing coward of moments ago now had eyes filled with the majesty of molten lava. "This human is not my brother. You killed Constantine."
Lu Mingfei had already thrown Constantine away from his side at the first opportunity. The same heat blazed from his own body, but his eyes remained dark brown and utterly calm.
The Alchemical Matrix was operating at full power. Executive Department helicopters roared in from the distant horizon.
"Senior!" Lu Mingfei called in a low voice.
"Right here!" Fingel's voice came from behind him.
Fingel aimed at "Old Tang's" heart and pulled the trigger. The dark red bullet traced a bright streak through the air.
The bullet struck the Bronze and Fire King's skin before his scales had formed, and the reaction began immediately. Flesh exposed to the pure spirit within the bullet turned ashen and disintegrated, sloughing off his body in large chunks. Norton's face rapidly paled. Together with his half-grown scales, he looked like some grotesque sculpture.
Yet Lu Mingfei felt no relief whatsoever. Facing him, Norton wore a mocking smile.
"Human, you know nothing of alchemy."
In an instant, time slowed to a standstill, then rapidly reversed. Like a sped-up silent film, the shattered bullet fragments emerged from his body, reassembled, and flew backward into the gun's chamber. Fingel retreated step by step, his expression grave. Mercury flowed backward through the Alchemical Matrix, and the mercury vapor filling the air sank back to the floor. Lu Mingfei and Old Tang moved backward until the moment they had stepped into the matrix together.
In human understanding, the arrow of time distinguished past from future, giving time a direction. In theory, there were at least three arrows of time. First came the thermodynamic arrow: the direction in which disorder, or entropy, increased. Then came the psychological arrow, the direction in which we felt time passing, in which we could remember the past rather than the future. Finally came the cosmological arrow, the direction in which the universe expanded rather than contracted.
Now, within this abandoned building that the Executive Department had converted into an alchemical cage, a First-Generation Dragon had achieved what was called reversing time. Even if it lasted only a dozen-odd seconds, it was a mighty power that human science could define but had never attained.
"Thousands of years, and you still dream of raising your blades against gods?" Norton said coolly. Overwhelming draconic pressure poured from him, bearing down in every direction.
Fingel seemed disoriented by the reversal of time. Caught off guard by the draconic pressure, he actually lost his grip on the gun. The weapon meant to fire the Philosopher's Stone fell to the floor and turned to ash, as though it had suffered ages of decay in a single instant.
Only Lu Mingfei picked up Red Skies the instant the reversal ended, gathering flames in his hand and letting them flow over the blade.
That was the kind of person he was. Even if the world would end in the next second, he would pick up whatever weapon he could use and prepare to fight, no matter who the enemy was.
That was a warrior's heart.
The Alchemical Matrix on the floor and surrounding pillars began to change. Its patterns warped. The materials forming the channels and pillars began dissolving or breaking down, and unknown substances mixed into the mercury, turning it a dark blue-black. The building's entire framework shook. Under some force, its concrete and reinforcing steel gave off horrifying sounds of twisting and cracking.
The lights went out.
The flames on Lu Mingfei's sword illuminated Norton's hazy silhouette nearby.
His shape was no longer human. Enormous wings spread behind him, and his joints reversed. Clearly, he had entered the same state as an enraged Constantine or Lu Mingfei using Third-Stage Blood Rage.
Lu Mingfei glanced back one last time. Constantine knelt on the floor, his eyes vacant, while bulging blue-black muscles swelled all over Fingel's body as he struggled to remain on one knee.
A second later, both figures vanished from sight like dissipating mist or shadows sinking into water.
An endless roar of water surged from afar. Vast amounts of moisture seeped in from every direction, as though a storm had engulfed the little building in an instant.
Light abruptly flared. Fierce flames rose into the air around Norton's body, then burst high above, as though a pair of wings had spread there.
Only then did Lu Mingfei realize that he and Norton had returned to the Bronze City. The patterns of the Alchemical Matrix had become charcoal crudely embedded in the bronze walls and floor, drained of their power and left to crumble.
Norton had borrowed and distorted the Alchemical Matrix designed by the Vice Principal to achieve some form of spatial transportation, crossing half the globe.
"Are you Old Tang or Norton?" Lu Mingfei asked.
The Dragon King looked down at him from above. "Usurper, do you think I devoured Ronald Tang?"
Lu Mingfei remained silent.
The Dragon King continued contemptuously, "You have yet to possess a dragon king's heart. You still do not understand. Ronald Tang was indeed a real human, but humans are like sea spray. A passing brush from the winds of fate can change their shape. We, however, stand in the middle of the sea. Everywhere we look, boundless waters stretch in every direction. There is nothing but the truth of the world and solitude."
"So you're Norton," Lu Mingfei translated for him.
The Dragon King Norton chuckled. "Does that matter so much to you? Is that the only way you can find the resolve to raise your sword? Let me tell you: alchemy has a method that can change the direction in which the world moves. Those humans you value-friends? Teachers? Family? They will forget you in the blink of an eye. You may consider them companions and tell them, 'It's me.' All they will do is shoot that Philosopher's Stone into your body."
"I had already considered that path," Lu Mingfei replied calmly. "It would certainly be troublesome. Hybrids are scattered throughout human settlements, and they have that very useful computer with a name. Meanwhile, you might be hiding in a Nibelungen. Perhaps they would catch up with me before I found you."
It was a dire situation in which the entire world would be his enemy. Yet Norton saw no hesitation in his eyes. Instead, he sensed something familiar, cold and hard.
He suddenly realized something. The being before him was not like the human he had imagined, composed of soft flesh and bone and a wavering soul. He was not an ant lost in the ever-shifting fog of fate. Though he was no supreme sovereign, he was another kind of reef within the raging sea. Words could not shake him. Only the loneliness of long ages could weather him into ruin.
Norton dispersed some of the flames so he could speak to Lu Mingfei truly face-to-face.
"Young false king, what do you seek?"
Chapter 60: A king's wish
If, long ago, Lu Mingfei upon his throne had merely felt that something was wrong with the world but lacked the power to change it, then now, after returning to Earth and deeply experiencing the world's generosity and beauty, he had developed a clear vision-a wish that coincided with the long-held dream of a former Empyrean:
A world where the weak and the abandoned could also be embraced.
It would be a forgiving world. Losers would ride Greyhound buses to watch sunrises and sunsets. Girls like flowers would dance in the sunlight. Everyone would do what they wished. Tailors would no longer need to tremble and lament, jar tenders would no longer need to wield swords, blacksmiths and spirit tuners would no longer need to perish in flames, fathers and daughters would no longer be separated forever, and sisters would no longer have to wait until death to reunite... Pain, despair, curses-all those evils and sufferings would no longer repeat themselves over and over.
"Dragon, you're right. Humans really are too weak." Lu Mingfei lowered his eyes, a soft, radiant haze shimmering within them. "But I don't think being small and fragile is a mistake. Do you know what a breakwater is? Something humans build by piling concrete together, to hold back the tides and protect the shore. The lights along the shore are beautiful."
"If fate must be a raging sea, someone will always stand up to hold back its waves and endure the world's malice... Now, I am the pillar of this age." He slowly raised his head and looked at Norton.
At that moment, Lu Mingfei had thought he would remember the wails and laments, the people who had fallen to cruel fate-familiar or unfamiliar, those he had met and those he had never known. But he did not. Instead, he remembered an "enemy" he had once fought-Radahn.
According to the records, Radahn and Malenia had fought a great battle during the Shattering. During that battle, Malenia unleashed Scarlet Rot, causing it to ravage all of Caelid. Radahn himself was gravely wounded, his body and mind both consumed.
With the last of his reason, Radahn ordered the construction of the Smoldering Wall to prevent Scarlet Rot from spreading further. He severed his own feet and remained at the Wailing Shore so he would not hurt others after losing control. Afflicted by Scarlet Rot, Radahn suffered a fate worse than death. To grant him an honorable death, his old friend Jerren organized a grand "Radahn Festival," calling upon champions from across the world to challenge him.
Yet even as those heroes fought him, until the final moment before he fell, Radahn continued to seal the stars with his power, holding back the threats from beyond.
He was the son of a hero, the lion of the warlord. Until death, he remained the Starscourge General.
Once, Lu Mingfei had gazed in reverence upon his story, finding it ethereal and impossibly distant. Now, standing here, Lu Mingfei had unwittingly become someone within such a story himself.
He also remembered the story of the Redmanes Army under Radahn's command:
"When the knights who fought alongside General Radahn fell to Malenia's Scarlet Rot and became a defeated army, they burned the crests on their left breasts with grim resolve-distant homeland, farewell. We will remain here to contain the rot."
"They threw themselves into an endless war, and so their armor was always rusted and filthy."
The hero's path was destined to be lonely and difficult, hardly easier than the road to kingship. Yet those knights had endured through the long years. Everyone knew there were no cowards among the Redmanes.
Lu Mingfei felt he had no reason to fail, nor should he allow himself to.
Hearing Lu Mingfei's wish, Norton was deeply disappointed. He had expected the usurper before him to speak of something profound enough to be a king's wish. Instead, it was still the same fairy tale dreamed of by humans who had overestimated themselves throughout the ages.
"Naive," Norton said coldly. "Only when you stand at my height will you understand that such ideas are nothing but a child's fantasies. Between kings, there is only devouring or being devoured. As for those feeble servants, if they obey, they may be granted divine blood. If they rebel, they must be crushed and exterminated!"
"Your height?" Lu Mingfei laughed. "Right. You were born supreme. How could you understand what it feels like for a small person to look up at a mountain?"
Norton remained unmoved, finding it merely ridiculous. In his eyes, regardless of how the usurper had stolen a god's power, retaining a human heart made him nothing more than a lowly weakling.
The conversation between human and dragon ended there.
"Then come before your king, usurper!" A long saber flowing with molten lava formed in Norton's hand. A domain of fire abruptly expanded around him, compressing the air into a transparent boundary visible to the naked eye.
Lu Mingfei swung his sword, unleashing countless flashes of sword light in an instant. Each slash carved a channel rich in fire elements. Those trails, like fiery serpents, extended his strikes, their blazing red edges enclosing brilliant white cores. Like electric currents piercing the air under high voltage, they raced through the space in every direction.
Word Spirit imitation · Ash of War · Bloodflame Slash.
It had originally been a power carried by Morgott's Cursed Sword. Morgott had sealed the cursed blood he despised within it, warping the blade and giving it strange discolorations. Channeling that power into a slash would leave a bloody arc of sword light hanging in the air before triggering an explosion of flame.
Using the authority of the Dragon King Rune, Lu Mingfei had recreated its use of fire, adding his own new understanding.
His killing intent and sword light grew through the space like a tree, crushing and cutting everything within sight.
Norton and Lu Mingfei stared at each other through the gaps between the fiery serpents, their gazes colliding like golden ice.
A second later, the flames erupted.
Blazing red fire burst from every inch of the "fiery serpents," filling almost the entire bronze chamber.
When those flames touched Norton's domain, it was as though they had struck an invisible wall. They flowed along its edges, unable to break through.
Yet a crack suddenly appeared in Norton's impassive expression.
He raised his hand and watched expressionlessly as fine cuts along his arm rapidly healed.
He had blocked the flames, but not the sword light. That was the spiritual power Lu Mingfei had condensed within the flames to replace the cursed blood. In a sense, it already counted as a new Word Spirit.
"Interesting," Norton praised.
Meanwhile, Lu Mingfei gathered a phantom flame in his hand and pressed it against his chest. The fire burned evenly, forming a ring around his body. The ring briefly flared, then dispersed, leaving a phantom of red flame lingering over him.
Scales rippled across his body, his joints reversed, and bony wings spread behind him.
Word Spirit imitation · Incantation · Flame, grant me strength!
One of the Fire Monks' high-level incantations, it kindled fire within the body and turned it into power, enhancing physical strength and the use of flame. The incantation did not burn its caster, which was why the Watchers had classified it as forbidden.
In Lu Mingfei's hands, it became a specialized form of Blood Rage based on the Bronze and Fire King's power.
Using it not only granted the strength of Third-Stage Blood Rage, but also enhanced his spiritual domain and his control over metal and fire.
Norton had never seen this Word Spirit. It clearly embodied the usurper's understanding and mastery of flame, and could even be called terrifying, for it had broken a taboo.
"Where did you come from?" the Dragon King asked, alarmed and uncertain. "Ragnarök has not yet begun!"
Chapter 61: Battle begins
Lu Mingfei did not answer. His free hand seemed to cradle something as he gently pushed it upward.
In Norton's eyes, a terrifying singularity of fire elements appeared there. The instant it emerged, the flow of fire elements throughout the space stalled briefly, then converged upon it in a frenzy.
Only when the singularity rose into the air did flames abruptly appear. First came a small, brilliant white mass of plasma, then a gaseous outer flame grew around it. The terrifying heat was bound by the original singularity, until violent currents of fire began appearing across its smooth, spherical surface. A few sparks were flung beyond the singularity's critical boundary by colliding flows of flame, instantly turning into radiating streams of blazing heat.
Norton could sense energy on the level of Word Spirit Rhein condensed within that fireball, which resembled a miniature sun.
As it gathered power, even the fire elements inside Norton's domain had shown signs of escaping his control!
Lu Mingfei released it with a movement as gentle as letting go of a balloon's string. In truth, he was struggling to control that terrifying power.