As Garon delved deeper into the rift, his vision was engulfed in darkness.
Light seemed to be completely obstructed by the rugged, winding rift, unable to reach down into the pitch-black depths where only the chilling howl of the cold wind could be heard, sending shivers down one's spine.
Garon possessed darkvision.
However, darkvision does not mean being unaffected by darkness.
The darkvision of a true dragon is due to the microstructure of the crystalline in their eyes, which can gather the faintest light from the surrounding environment to maintain their vision in darkness.
In conditions where light is extremely scarce, darkvision is ineffective. This is not some supernatural or spell-like ability but rather a natural capability that many nocturnal creatures possess, differing only in strength.
Thus, as he descended, Garon cast a basic illumination spell he had learned early on.
With the expenditure of magic, wisps of light emanated from him, dispersing the surrounding deep darkness to reveal the rough and treacherous rift environment.
The space was very narrow.
Garon, now reduced to the size of a two to three-meter hatchling, still occasionally bumped into the walls during his flight.
His wings or tail would strike the cold, hard edges of the rock walls, sometimes sparking a few sparks when the impact was slightly louder.
Garon disliked such cramped, narrow, and dark environments.
"Would any intelligent life come down to a place like this?"
Before this, Garon had thought that perhaps some creature had entered the Icefield Rift and accidentally touched the Black Sun Sculpture, triggering his alert.
But after descending himself, he seriously doubted this idea.
What creature would bother exploring such a desolate rift for fun?
Dropping the Black Sun Sculpture down here was based on such considerations.
Garon shook his head, no longer dwelling on it, and hastened his descent.
The little hatchling nimbly dodged sharp protrusions, quickly heading towards the bottom of the rift following the location of the time imprint. Before long, without seeing the bottom, Garon halted his descent.
Because he saw the Black Sun Sculpture.
The eerie, silent, and thrilling yet strangely beautiful Black Sun Sculpture was wedged in a narrow part of the rift, its base askew, touching both sides of the rift, standing silently.
Its tentacles and densely packed eyes spoke of the Black Sun Sculpture's unusualness.
"Still here, hasn't grown legs and run away."
Garon breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the Black Sun Sculpture still in place.
He had been somewhat uneasy since detecting the anomaly in the time imprint.
A creature like him does not easily feel such unease.
When feeling uneasy and restless, it usually indicates that something unexpected is happening.
"Why does it feel strangely beautiful despite looking so disgusting?"
Garon mused as he looked at the Black Sun Sculpture.
Had dragon aesthetics become so bizarrely adventurous?
Could it be that the Black Sun evokes a sense of weird beauty because it is essentially a Mother of Evil?
The little hatchling shook its head, clearing these absurd thoughts from its mind.
Garon calmed himself, his gaze cold and rational, staring at the Black Sun Sculpture and the eyes on it, facing each other in silence.
Except for the occasional mournful howl of the wind, Garon heard no sound.
The little hatchling's brows furrowed slightly, sensing something was amiss.
"Where's the whispering prayer?"
Garon's expression darkened, staring intently at the Black Sun Sculpture.
Normally, looking at the Black Sun Sculpture like this would be influenced by its power, causing his mind to enter a bizarre state where he could hear seductive, addictive whispers.
With his mental strength, he wouldn't be beguiled.
But he should at least be able to hear them.
"Could it be that this thing remembers me and since it can't affect me, it simply doesn't bother trying?"
Garon frowned, continuing to observe the Black Sun Sculpture.
Time trickled by, and after patiently waiting for a while, Garon realized it seemed to have truly lost its beguiling power, showing no reaction at all.
It appeared as though it had become merely a curiously shaped metal sculpture, and the divine power of evil previously attached to it no longer existed.
Garon extended his dragon claw and waved it through the air.
Frost condensed with his motion, forming several small, sharp ice blades that cut through the air, drawing an ice-blue arc, and eventually striking the surface of the Black Sun Sculpture with a crisp sound.
Clang!
The grating sound of metal cutting echoed.
Garon narrowed his eyes at the deep cut left by the ice blade.
"Something has happened."
"What happened here that caused it to change?"
The previously indestructible Black Sun Sculpture was now marked by his casually conjured ice blade, seemingly reduced to an ordinary metal sculpture.
Garon surveyed his surroundings, his vision filled by the rift's walls, seeing no sign of life.
He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment, and concentrated his spirit.
Garon focused intently, channeling the power of time within him.
Threads of temporal power emanated from his body, connecting him to the constantly flowing river of time like threads.
At the same time, the three rings of black scales shone faintly, conspicuously bright even in the darkness.
Garon extended his right claw, its black scales the brightest, with the power of time clinging to his claw, swirling around it.
Then, Garon opened his eyes.
His platinum dragon eyes remained calm, observing the area's temporal river, and then gently nudged his claw backward into it.
Instantly, the surface of the river rippled, spreading waves.
Garon peered through these layers of ripples, witnessing the past events that had occurred here.
Rewinding the past.
Like casting a void spell, this was a new ability Garon mastered after waking up last time.
He couldn't actually travel back in time but could cast his gaze into past scenes by expending the power of time, retracing events that had occurred in an area.
Now, the river's surface flowed backward.
The power of time was consumed as the backward-flowing scene increased, but compared to time stop, the retrospective span wasn't very long. If it wasn't hundreds or thousands of years, the consumption of temporal power was minimal, and Garon could easily bear it.
He watched attentively.
The scene quickly rewound.
Initially, the view before Garon was of the quiet, unchanged rift, but as the scene rewound to about two months prior, Garon's gaze sharpened upon seeing something different.
Several humans riding majestic white horses, their bodies radiating circles of white light, appeared here.
They wore heavy armor, and one held a staff, draped in a simple white robe.
Garon recognized the style of these armors and robes.
These people were paladins and priests from the Church of Light.
".even hiding under the Great Rift, you managed to find me."
Garon was at a loss for words.
The Church of Light's sensitivity to evil exceeded his expectations.
"So, has the divine power of evil attached to the Black Sun Sculpture been destroyed or expelled by them?"
With this question in mind, Garon continued watching.
In the retrospective scene, the moment those paladins and priests saw the Black Sun Sculpture, their faces revealed excitement, clearly not expecting to find the sought-after evil deity sculpture here.
After casting numerous protective spells on themselves, the paladins cautiously approached the Black Sun Sculpture.
Their intention seemed to be to carry it away.
Garon knew it was going to be trouble when he saw this.
The Black Sun Sculpture affects people through eye contact.
The protective spells cast by those paladins couldn't stop it from exerting its power.
Sure enough, as soon as the paladins touched the Black Sun Sculpture, their bodies froze, and the watching priests struggled with their gaze before slowly approaching with vacant eyes.
Black mist rose, turning into tentacles that continuously entered their bodies.
During this process, light radiated from the paladins.
The white light that illuminated the surrounding darkness flickered a few times before being completely replaced by the black mist. Simultaneously, false white light was born from the black mist, and all the mist entered their bodies, hiding deep within, disappearing from sight.
"This is just adding chaos."
Garon shook his head.
Under his watch, the bodies of the paladins and priests, now corrupted by the divine power of evil, shuddered, quickly regaining clarity in their eyes. They explored their surroundings as if everything that had just happened was an illusion.
But they seemed to overlook the Black Sun Sculpture right in front of them, ignoring it completely.
After exploring the area for a while, several disappointed figures turned and left towards the top of the rift.
Garon: .
If his guess was correct.
The divine power of evil attached to the Black Sun Sculpture had followed those people from the Church of Light and escaped.
"Did you come to destroy the evil god, or to help Him?"
Garon cursed silently.
Upon reflection, without understanding the specifics of the Black Sun Sculpture, the Church of Light's broad search method, even if successful, would only endanger themselves.
Like this situation.
They discovered the Black Sun Sculpture, but it also discovered them.
However, they lacked the power to destroy it, only able to call for reinforcements or personally bring it back to the Church of Light. Either way, they could easily be controlled by it without notice.
"What now?"
"What did these people do after leaving here?"
The retrospective scene vanished, and Garon pondered with a furrowed brow.
He knew little about the Black Sun Sculpture.
It had controlled several paladins, almost as if causing trouble under the eyes of the God of Light, quite audaciously.
Garon even had reason to suspect that because these people were paladins, the Black Sun Sculpture transferred its power, hiding in their bodies with a clear target, seeking to use the paladins' hands to achieve some purpose.
With little information, Garon couldn't figure it out.
Based on the time of the retrospective, two months had passed, and Garon was unclear if the Black Sun Sculpture had caused any trouble during this time.
This unknown evil deity seemed to have a grudge against the God of Light, as indicated by the low whispers, the divine warning from the God of Light, and the sculpture's targeting of the paladins.
Garon actually had a positive impression of the Church of Light and the God of Light.
It was a god of goodness and justice with a group of followers who adhered to goodness.
"Let's give the Church of Light a heads-up."
After pondering, Garon made a decision.
He did not want to live in a world rampant with minions of evil gods.
If the Noah Continent were invaded by evil gods one day, unless Garon could abandon everything in the Far North Icefield and live in other prime material worlds, he wouldn't be able to stay out of it.
He didn't want to see such a scenario.
The Far North Icefield was his birthplace, and the snow-covered icefield held too many memories for him to abandon lightly.
The Church of Light knew more about this unknown evil deity than he did.
Informing the Church of Light, they might have better ways to deal with it.
Wind swept through a vast, deep forest, the branches and leaves rustling in dance, creating ripples of green waves.
Warm golden sunlight descended from the sky, filtering through the gaps between leaves to the ground, scattering like crushed gold.
Crack! A smooth, delicate foot stepped on a patch of light, breaking the dry twigs beneath.
Eirina, who had left the White Bone Wasteland at some point, appeared here.
Draped in a black gauze dress, she danced through the forest.
She gently brushed past the grass and flowers, her elfin beauty radiating pure joy.
Quickly, as she blended into the scent of soil and the fragrance of vegetation, Eirina's figure delved deeper into the forest, moving further away. The grass and flowers she touched withered at a visible rate, soon turning withered and desolate.
Eirina, seemingly an elf, was as deadly as a venomous snake.
Minutes later, Eirina stopped.
A large owlbear appeared before her.
This bipedal owlbear stood five meters tall, with tough fur and sharp claws, looking fierce and formidable.
Upon seeing Eirina, the owlbear paused, then immediately extended its paw, wider than Eirina's waist, swiping at her with a cruel, bloodthirsty expression.
The gust that followed fluttered Eirina's dress and hair.
Eirina, curious, met its gaze, muttering, "Why so fierce for such a small size?"
Compared to her skeletal celestial lion, this owlbear was insignificant.
The owlbear's paw froze before Eirina's face, its ferocious gaze somehow becoming vacant, as if under someone else's control, losing its previously fierce and bloodthirsty demeanor.
Stepping on the bear's paw, Eirina climbed onto its shoulder to survey her surroundings.
The forest was deep enough that the false sun's followers were nowhere to be seen.
Eirina looked up at the sky.
The golden sun hung high, spreading endless light and warmth, nurturing all life.
"Hmph, false sun, I'll bring you down eventually."
Eirina scoffed, retracting her gaze.
Then, she lightly leaped down from the owlbear's shoulder, stepping rhythmically, leaving swirls of black mist from her dress on the ground.
"The light of the original sun, born at the dawn of the world, before the gods."
"Your followers heed your call, walking the earth, spreading your radiance."
Eirina closed her eyes, walking and whispering softly.
"Original" is not always a positive term.
It refers to beings born at the world's dawn, ancient and powerful entities.
Those named "original" are not deities; deities appeared after Them.
Precisely, They are quasi-divine beings, known as original deities or ancient primal gods.
The earliest elemental lords were one kind of ancient primal gods, living even longer than the deities.
In the unfathomable past, ancient primal gods waged war across crystal spheres and planes against the deities, ending in the gods' victory, but few ancient primal gods died.
Like deities, these ancient beings are hard to kill.
The strength of ancient primal gods varies, the weakest akin to demigods, with some as powerful as war-focused deities.
"The light of the black original sun will eventually envelop the world."
Eirina's final step landed, ceasing her prayer.
She opened her eyes, looking somewhat tired, her form slightly transparent.
But her amber eyes sparkled with joy.
Eirina looked down at the ground.
Outlined in black lines, a pattern emerged before her.
It resembled a black sun, also a giant, tightly closed eye.
After the black sun pattern was drawn, it quickly became ethereal and disappeared into the earth, vanishing from sight.
"Almost there, a few more seal nodes to place, just need enough legendary creatures as sacrifices to close this world and summon the great light of the original sun."
"Where are the legendary creatures? Legendary creatures?"
"Hmm... when I return, that serpent dragon should have broken through to legendary status, barely qualifying as one."
Eirina extended her hand, touching the owlbear's sturdy arm.
Black mist formed threads from her fingertips, entering the owlbear, wriggling under its fur, thickening, then retracting.
Her ethereal form slightly recovered.
Humming a crisp tune, Eirina, like a mischievous child, stepped on the sunlit patches on the ground, gradually disappearing from this place, destination unknown.
The once formidable owlbear now appeared emaciated, like a skeleton wrapped in bear skin.
But it was not dead.
Under its skin, countless thread-like worms wriggled, soon calming down.
After a moment of confusion, violent thoughts rose within it. It opened its mouth wide, growling low as it began hunting for prey.
___________________
(Support with power stones, comments or reviews)
If you guys enjoy this story, In support me on Patreon and get access to +200 advance Chapters
Read Ahead
Patreon.com/INNIT