Yet Groselle's massive hand was suddenly stopped by an invisible force, unable to advance even an inch.
Before Edward, a massive illusory door manifested, swallowing the surging tide of icy-blue waves with ease, leaving the cave utterly untouched.
Edward raised his hand toward the dragon again, stealing its current thoughts, then cast a Transfiguration spell to turn it into a colossal ice sculpture. Only then did he turn back to the others and say calmly, "If I kill it right now, this story will come to an end. Do you all need more time to consider?"
Everyone froze. They hadn't expected that this frost dragon, whose presence crushed them with unbearable pressure, could be subdued by Mr. Sparrow as easily as an adult toying with a child.
He really was a demigod—an exceedingly powerful demigod.
The good news was, they no longer had to risk their lives against the frost dragon.
The bad news was, if Sparrow bore even the slightest malice, they might end up no different from the dragon—without the power to resist.
Thus, the only choice left to them was to pray that everything he had just said was the truth.
Their gazes, almost in unison, turned toward Siatas and Snowman.
Mobet nudged Siatas with his hand, pleading softly, "Siatas…"
She was indeed a hot-tempered, prideful elf who disdained the idea of worshipping any false god beyond the Elven King. Yet at this moment, she wavered—not only because of Edward's claim that the Queen of Calamity awaited the elves' aid, but also because of the look in Mobet's eyes.
"I…am willing."
She lowered her head slightly. "Her Majesty is waiting for me. I hope to have the chance to aid Her."
Snowman then traced a symbol across his chest resembling a cross, closed his eyes halfway, and intoned, "I am willing as well."
"Good."
Edward smiled and nodded. "Then silently recite the honorific name I gave you."
The group did not hesitate further. In voices loud, soft, or silent in their hearts, they recited Edward's threefold honorific:
"The Eternal Sovereign Above Dimensions;
The Deconstructor of Endless Stories;
The Transcender of Past and Future."
Almost instantly, Edward's ears were filled with overlapping waves of prayer.
Perfect.
He grinned, turned back toward the dragon now frozen into sculpture, and let violent lightning surge through his body, coiling into writhing serpents of thunder.
BOOM!
A silver-white thunderbolt as thick as a water barrel split the air, striking the dragon directly. With a resounding crack, the massive ice sculpture shattered into fragments, then vaporised into steaming mist under the searing heat.
Mobet murmured, "Siatas…that lightning strike was far more terrifying than the ones you usually wield."
Siatas's eyes flickered with surprise. "It felt as if Her Majesty Herself had cast it."
"He is clearly a Beyonder of the Door pathway. Perhaps this ability was recorded from your Queen of Calamity. If so…then his relationship with your Queen might truly be close."
For Siatas, that was undoubtedly good news, and her expression instantly softened.
Minutes later, the steam dispersed. Where the frost dragon had once stood, only a charred corpse remained. Collapsed upon the ground like a blackened hill, its head drooped lifelessly against the floor.
Yet Edward sensed something amiss.
First, a dragon turned into an ice statue should not have left behind an intact corpse after being struck by such a bolt of lightning.
Second, according to the original story, once the King of the North perished, its corpse should have dissolved into a pair of doors leading outward.
But after so long, the dragon's body still lay there intact. Nothing happened.
This could only mean one thing: just as he had suspected before—because two individuals were missing, the story had bugged out, causing the plot to collapse.
The moment this thought arose, the charred corpse suddenly quivered. The outermost layer of blackened flesh quickly sloughed away, revealing beneath it scales gleaming like frozen crystal.
It wasn't dead!
Could it be that my presence as a demigod caused this final boss to receive a version upgrade?
But that's cheating, isn't it?!
In an instant, all the charred flesh crumbled off the dragon's body, restoring it to the exact state it had been when they first saw it—Edward's devastating attacks seeming to have left no trace whatsoever.
Edward's vigilance sharpened at once.
Boom!
The Frost Dragon suddenly spread its colossal wings and shot upward. As it exhaled another torrent of ice-blue flame, it twisted its head and, without hesitation, sped north.
"Don't think of escaping!"
The elven woman Siatas sprinted forward a few steps, drawing her bow to full tension, silver-white lightning crackling furiously along the bowstring. At the same time, the ascetic Snowman intoned solemnly,
"God says it's effective."
Whoosh—
The arrow streaked forth, wrapped in both silvery-white and golden radiance. It pierced the dragon's crystalline armour, tearing open its scales, and scattered blood across the snow. The beast let out a deep, guttural roar.
But even that blow did not halt its retreat.
Edward no longer dared to underestimate it. He unleashed a storm of spells—Regression, Lightning, Exile, and many more—erupting outward like a torrential downpour. Even a demigod should have perished under such a barrage if it neither dodged nor resisted.
Yet, to his astonishment, the dragon's colossal body suddenly turned half-transparent, becoming a spectral phantom. Every attack passed straight through it without harm, as it vanished unscathed into the boundless darkness.
"Damn it! What kind of ability is that?!"
Siatas furiously slammed her bow against the cavern wall. "What's going on?!"
All eyes turned to Edward. He thought for a moment before replying,
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure…perhaps this world has…an error."
He had wanted to say bug, but changed it at the last moment.
"You all stay here and wait. I'll chase it down and see."
Edward stepped forward, dissolving into a spiritual body, and flickered northward in pursuit of the frost dragon. Using the blood it had just spilt as a guide, he employed dowsing to confirm the direction.
He dared not attempt teleportation—for in this book-world, there seemed to be no such thing as the spirit world.
Thus he pressed on, stopping and starting as he went.
From night into day, he pursued it. As the pitch-black sky began to pale with dawn, the heavy snowfall eased into a lighter drift.
In the grey morning glow, Edward glimpsed a towering peak in the distance, its summit lost beyond sight. Stranger still, its slopes were cloaked in vast stretches of lush greenery—utterly unnatural in these icy lands.
But as he drew nearer, a vast primaeval forest unfurled before him, and the towering mountain suddenly vanished, as though it had never existed at all.
Clearly abnormal.
Edward halted at once, first flipping a coin to divine whether danger lurked nearby. When none appeared, he recited his threefold honorific name in prayer to himself.
Then he retraced four steps. In a haze of pale mist, he ascended into the Sefirah Castle, seating himself upon his bronze throne.
Lifting his gaze, he saw six crimson stars glowing within the grey fog. Five belonged to Groselle and his companions; one was his own.
Edward stretched out his hand, letting his spirituality flow into them one by one, establishing connections with all five.
At that moment, a sudden thought struck him:
Huh?
Since they would eventually abandon their bodies to become wraiths, why should he bother following the plot? Why not directly draw Groselle and the others' spirits into the Sefirah Castle, then release them through the illusory doors of sacrifice and bestowal?
That way, no matter what mystery surrounded this "resurrected" frost dragon, he wouldn't need to risk himself at all.
He acted the moment the idea formed. Spirituality surged into the five stars, attempting to pull them upward.
But this time—it failed.
Their spirits could not leave their bodies to enter the Sefirah Castle, as though they were locked in place. No—more precisely, as though they were locked inside Groselle's Travels itself.
"Tch. I knew it wouldn't be that simple."
He recalled how the original story mentioned that the longer one stayed in this book-world, the more one forgot one's true purpose, eventually becoming no different from the book's characters. Only when new figures appeared did they briefly recover awareness.
The latest of the five, Frunziar, had already been in Groselle's Travels for over 160 years. By now, they had long become part of the book. And this book had been created by the Dragon of Imagination, infused with the power of the Chaos Sea.
As Sefirots, the Sefirah Castle and the Chaos Sea were equals, neither higher nor lower. But because these five had remained here so long, branded with its marks, they could no longer be pulled out.
So, no exploiting glitches after all.
Edward connected to his own star, completed the ritual of praying to himself and receiving his own response, then withdrew from the Sefirah Castle and returned to the forest.
He pressed onward—sometimes straight, sometimes turning—until, after an unknown span, he reached a steep, jutting cliff.
The landscape suddenly opened wide.
A colossal "abyssal crater" stretched across the land. At its centre lay a city the size of an island.
Its foundation was grayish-white, upon which stood stone pillars dozens, even hundreds, of meters tall. Some rose alone, others bore the weight of towering, ancient palaces. The whole scene was bizarre yet awe-inspiring.
Edward froze in place, whispering in awe,
"The City of Miracles…Liveseyd…"
"How… did I end up here?"
In the original story, Klein and the others had relied on Audrey's Spectator pathway ability, Dream Traversal, to enter Groselle, Siatas, and the others' collective subconscious, "piecing together" a road that led them to this legendary city.
But he—he had merely pursued the frost dragon using dowsing. How had he arrived here?
Then he recalled the dragon's final act—its "phantom state" that rendered it immune to every attack. He had assumed it was some kind of bug, a forced "invulnerability."
But now it seemed more like the Spectator pathway's ability: Dream Traversal.
Yet how had it not only entered the sea of collective subconscious, but dragged him into it as well, without his realising?
Wasn't this far too outrageous?
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.