Chapter 598

Chapter 220 The Divine War Part 7

Change?

What change…

After hearing the dancer’s words, I was slightly stunned. My first reaction was to lift my hand, lower my head, and look at my palms and arms.

Dirty, blood-stained hands and forearms were covered with bright red patterns resembling veins, flickering like breaths, spreading from the forearms to the upper arms, and even to the shoulders exposed by tattered clothes. The red glow could be faintly seen on the belly, calves, and ankles.

Unlike the previous fleeting appearance, after staring at my arms for a moment, these mysterious patterns did not disappear. Instead, the bright red, bloody light grew even stronger, accompanied by flickers like breathing. The vast, dormant heat energy inside began to stir again. The power of the mortal fire spread from the lower abdomen throughout the body, like water seeping out from a stream.

Power…

It was indeed recovering…

Not only the power of the mortal fire… This feeling was like…

I clenched my fists tightly in front of my eyes.

The warm wind blew ashes around, gently blowing against my hair that stuck to my temples, slowly drifting into my line of sight and brushing against my nose. It was as bright and white as moonlight.

Whoosh—

Click click click click click…

Crimson flames and azure frost suddenly rose from both fists when I tried to exert my power. They wrapped around the small fists and quickly spread to the arms.

The emergence of power surged within me when I focused all my attention on the remains and failed to notice. At this moment, it was like a deep-sea beast breaking free from its chains, stirring up a massive wave, quietly erupting inside me, no longer restrained.

“The restrictions are gone…”

I raised my head, letting the flames and frost spread and dance on my arms. My crimson pupils looked at the dancer, revealing a look of wild joy.

The restrictions were gone.

Underfoot, the rolling black fog slowly rose, smoother than ever. That uncomfortable feeling, as if I couldn’t control my own body properly, the “mismatch” and “lack of coordination,” had completely disappeared at some point—perhaps during the time I was unconscious. There was nothing left of it.

In its place was an extraordinary lightness and ease.

I had never felt better than this before.

Never.

It wasn’t a false sense of relief from suddenly shedding a heavy burden. I could truly feel the mastery over my power. Whether it was chaos, sin, or order, compared to before entering the Dragon Homeland, I had made a qualitative leap now—I didn’t feel like my power had suddenly increased drastically; it was a real, direct rise to a higher level.

I couldn’t describe this feeling.

I wasn’t even sure if this feeling was an illusion.

It was just that, in a daze, it seemed as if something inside me had been liberated.

“Whoosh—”

I took a long breath.

In front of us, the fog gathered like clouds, ashes fell from the sky, distant rocks rolled, scorching winds howled in my ears, and the remains floated above the mountaintop. Hot dark blood dripped down from the wings onto the black rock, emitting a sharp hissing sound. Nearby, the dancer, her eyes bloodshot, turned back, and her pupils reflected my dirty and disheveled figure. All of this…

Was clearer to me than ever before.

Whoosh—

I consciously dispelled the two forces that were growing more intense on my arms. I suddenly waved at the dancer. In the next moment, a dark smoke drifted out from her chest and vanished into my body in a blink.

“You saved me just now, and I don’t want to owe you anything. This is a gift.”

I said in a calm voice. The woman turned around, looked down, and lowered her hand from her chest. Through the hole in her clothes, I could see the golden light surrounding her originally ulcerated skin dissipating, and the red aura lighting up, rapidly healing the blackened wound.

With the dead smoke no longer clinging and eroding her, and the mortal fire power restored, the woman’s wound instantly healed.

“Thank you,” she said to me, her voice equally calm.

I waved at her.

“You don’t need to thank me. Between us… there will be no friendship, we will always be enemies. If not—”

I pointed at the remains on the distant rock pinnacle: “If not for that thing, you would now be dead in my hands.”

“Have your powers recovered?”

The dancer asked. I softly hummed in affirmation: “You know more than I do. I can’t do anything about that thing. Even now, I’m not confident enough to win—less than fifty percent… not even thirty percent. But since you spoke to me just now, it means you must have some idea. Tell me, is it feasible?”

“Do you believe what I said?”

“Now isn’t the time to consider this.”

“…Alright!”

The dancer suddenly laughed.

She turned around, and surging flames erupted from her body. The blazing flames spread from her feet to the surrounding rocks in an instant. The heat wave hit me, and the woman leaped into the flames, transforming into a fireball and rushing toward the towering stone ahead. I followed closely behind, black mist condensing into flame wings on my back, suddenly rising into the air, flying up to the stone, and landing beside the dancer.

Tall and short, big and small, two dirty but beautiful figures stood on the tilted black rock, gazing into the distance at the flowing lava, the volcano-like rumbling, and the trembling peaks under divine might.

The giant heart inside.”

A clear and resolute voice came from the dancer’s mouth, spoken at an extremely fast pace: “Apart from the imperfection of its physical body, the current divine body has an even more crucial point. It hasn’t fused with the spirit, that is, the divine spirit, the spark of life. Even now, it hasn’t established a connection with them. This means that it almost doesn’t possess any thinking ability and will only follow the instincts left by the physical body.”

“Without thought, lacking cognition, unable to make effective judgments based on the current situation, unable to predict our next move based on our actions, not understanding what we want to do or what we will do, it’s just a hollow shell with divine power. I didn’t expect it to be like this before, but this will become its most fatal weakness.”

“…So you want to draw its attention through your actions, to disrupt it, so that I can take advantage of the opportunity and strike it down in one blow?”

I asked, and the dancer quickly nodded.

“That’s right.”

Crimson flames spread and burned on her body, evaporating the dark blood that had infected her. Silver threads fluttered behind her head, and her stunning face regained its radiance. Her bright eyes showed composure and calmness, vitality shining within.

“My karma fire power is granted by the goddess’s spark of life, and its essence is the same as the power of the divine body, but far inferior. I can’t cause effective damage to it. I tried using miracles before, but it didn’t work either; getting close was already difficult. Even if its divine power has recovered by less than one-tenth, it’s not something we can confront head-on; absolutely not, humans cannot do such things.”

“But, your chaotic fire comes from the destructive power of the Mother God. You are different from me. Such power, if sufficient, could cause some damage to the divine body, and even severe injury is not impossible. And even for gods, ultimately, I believe it is still a form of life, following the basic laws of survival. Such a body must have a central part driving its behavior… My deduction is that it’s that heart.”

“It’s the first part of the body to recover. Before it hatched from the divine egg, I had already heard the sound of the heart beating, and that’s why I made the judgment that as long as we destroy that heart, we can paralyze the divine body or maybe even destroy it directly.”

“How interesting…”

I bit my nails, my mind racing. Thinking back to the light barrier I had previously crashed into, I immediately threw a question at the dancer: “But even if you can attract its attention, the divine body is protected by sin barriers. I can’t enter the chest cavity of the skeleton, how can I destroy its heart?”

“So this is where we need to bet. We need to bet that the strength of the divine body hasn’t recovered enough to continuously open sin barriers, at least not for too long. Now that the Goddess’s Tear has been destroyed by you, and the divine egg has already ruptured, it has lost the condition to continue drawing power. At least in this world, the energy consumed by the divine body cannot be replenished through its own power.”

The dancer paused.

“Only that much of its power can recover because without a spirit, it’s just an empty shell acting on instinct. But even if it’s an empty shell, it’s still the flesh of a god. So what we’re betting on is which side will fall first, it or us two.”

“This isn’t a good plan. Silviga, we’re facing a divine body. There’s no good plan, only desperate plans, taking one step at a time. But this is our only chance… To fight a god with mortal power, we must put everything on the line, every last bit, to possibly seize that glimmer of hope.”

“su—”

I took a deep breath: “I understand.”

Dead smoke surrounded me, a slight burning sensation came from the patterns on my skin, power surged wildly within me, pain shot from the area around my shoulder blades, a strange itching mixed with the pain, and a similar feeling was felt in my buttocks — probably the coccyx. My head also throbbed intermittently, making me feel dizzy.

I realized that after the restriction on my power was lifted, my body seemed to be undergoing some unknown changes. These changes would likely intensify over time, and I might not have much time left… perhaps.

“So next, I’ll launch the first attack against the divine body. Silviga, hide in the shadows first, waiting for the chance to strike with the tentacles… don’t miss any opportunity. Remember, it has no consciousness, won’t think, you can try endlessly, as long as we haven’t died yet.”

The dancer stepped forward, flames dancing around her. She walked to the edge of the broken stone, without looking back, she took several deep breaths, then said her final warning to me.

“I will do everything in my power to draw its attention. But once the divine battle begins, I don’t know what will happen next, what unexpected situations may arise. If… I mean, if.”

“If the power of the divine body is much stronger than we imagined, and if I die soon, with no chance to resist… then Silviga, you should stay here. Even if you risk your life, it might be futile. Use that white branch to leave.”

“Leave here, go to the Eastern Continent, find a town called Messer in Elpistas, say you are from Eluna. Mention my name, and the people there will believe you. They will take you to my cellar… there, you’ll find part of the truth about the world.”

Boom—

A fierce explosion of fire erupted ahead. The dancer in the red dress did not hesitate. After saying these words, she leaped up, turning into a blazing fireball, flying swiftly into the gray sky, disappearing from sight like a rising meteor, rushing toward the distant, coiled god.