Ed tried to hold the staff closer—the faint blittle of light was so precious to him at this moment, so precious that he just wanted to gather himself and hold it carefully in the palm of his hand.

But he couldn't even feel his hands, let alone make any movements.

After some futile effort, he gave up. However, in the moment when he shifted his attention, the black fog that was somewhat obscured in front of him seemed to gradually dissipate, turning into a faint layer of black veil, shaking like the wind.

Beyond the black veil, he saw another world.

The world is indescribably wonderful. Last moment it was a blood-red wilderness, and it was impossible to tell whether it was red plants or gravel that covered the earth...... Or is it really blood, and the next moment the white stone mountain rises from the ground, piercing the sky like the skeleton of some ancient beast, and a black river between the stone mountains is bottomless, meandering into the distance, as if splitting the whole world in half. He was swept by the wind...... Or maybe the whole world was being pulled and swept before his eyes. He watched it change, as Nia described, and occasionally, it was even as beautiful as a legendary temple, with green forests and flowering fields...... However, there are creatures that can only be described as "monsters" by people.

He saw swarms of reptiles clad in black bone armor, ants coming and going, long necks with human heads, and faces that seemed to sense something at a moment, suddenly turned to him in unison, and only the white pupils of his eyes made him creepy, and he even saw the strange "wild boars" that he had seen in the forest of Kasdan, running and chasing like wolves, preying on their prey...... All the creatures he saw seemed to have the sole purpose of prey, even if they could devour only of their own kind.

Yet in that eternal change he saw something unchanging, like one great gray pearl after another set in the earth, and among the pearls, the higher demons walked on the streets as bustling as the city of Neo, and looked up at him with astonishment and anger, like a recluse who had been peeping for no reason.

He flew by, not knowing if they would ring the warning bell to hunt down his uninvited intruder. He couldn't think about why he could even see the expressions on their faces.

It's like a dream...... And he didn't know when he would wake up.

Finally, at the edge of this world, he saw the endless wall—the Wall of Nothingness blocking his path. He stopped, looking at the tangled souls in the walls, unexpectedly calm and unusually calm, as he should have been filled with fear and disgust.

He caught a glimpse of a faint light in the seemingly chaotic pile, dense as a spider's web...... But he also saw one broken thing after another, and the purest black slowly invaded from it, and then disappeared.

If what this wall of souls is holding back is the erosion of the Sea of Nothingness...... Then it is clear that it is already about to collapse.

He looked back blankly, and after a moment of trance, he suddenly realized that there was one thing that remained unchanged on the earth that he thought would change forever.

If he hadn't been on such a high place, he wouldn't have found it—it was a skeleton, bigger than the legendary giant, so big that it took up the whole land, as if the world were towering over its corpse. Its silhouette resembles a human ...... Unlike people, they don't have wings, and they don't have four arms...... or more.

It's not even completely rotten. What is exposed to the ground is half bones, half flesh, and its bones are mountains, and its still flowing blood is rivers......

Ed was taken aback - it was still ...... Alive?

The thought was more frightening than anything he had ever seen, but it was the truth—he saw its large, half-rotten eyes move slightly, taking him in the eye.

It was a pure black eye, which should have been lifeless, cold and evil...... But it was warm, like a black sea under the starlight, silent and wide, quiet and boundless, reflecting countless stars twinkling...... It is pregnant with countless lives.

Ed looked at it in a daze, and suddenly his heart was in mourning, and he burst into tears inexplicably.

He couldn't help but want to get closer—and he did, so close that it seemed like he could sink into it by leaning over......

Yet it heard the dragon's roar, restless, angry, familiar...... It resounded faintly in the sky like thunder.

For the first time, he looked up and saw the sky of this world. The black mist flew wildly like flames, tangled into clouds, obscuring the sunlight from it—if there was sunshine in this world.

For the flames of hell burned in the heavens, not on the earth.

— and he can't stay here.

This realization pierced into the depths of his consciousness like a needle, and he finally came to his senses.

He looked down at his blurred body, knowing that he couldn't stay any longer. He looked at his right hand, where there was no cane, but there was a real glimmer of light, which always accompanied him...... Protect him.

In his gaze, the glimmer of light gradually revealed a faint form, and the face could not be seen clearly, but there were long gray hairs hanging down, and there seemed to be no body at all under the wide white robe, and it would drift away when the wind blew......

Like the back of the half-elf priest in the Silver Tooth Mine who strode ahead of him without hesitation even if he was disoriented.

.

When the real sunlight pierced his eyes again, Ed felt warm tears slip from the corners of his eyes.

He blinked, and looked up, and there was a mess in front of him that seemed to be after a raging wind.

The garden had been trampled to pieces, and the broken tree crushed against the crushed roses, which were frozen like jewels even when broken, had a thrilling beauty.

The scales of the white dragon were dazzling in the sunlight. It was more like a bolt of lightning when it was moving at high speed, making Ed dizzy, and compared to Ankland, it was like a shadow...... A veil of tulle that drifted in the wind he brought with him when the ice dragon attacked, even though he knew it only made it angrier.

He clearly had more ways to stop a dragon's attack than something like this...... Like teasing a dog.

Ed watched silently for a moment. For a moment he even wanted to join in...... He had to show Ankelan that he couldn't mess with them like that, even if he didn't mean it — such contempt was already malicious in itself.

But not far away, he was protecting his abdomen with his hands, and he stood there helplessly, like looking at his own child...... Or Lydia, whose pets make a mess disobediently, he stops his fantasies.

If they could be a little more mature, maybe ......

But not now.

“...... Is!" he exclaimed.

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