Chapter 119
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Gold-Silver Dragon Lunarin
A voice echoed from within Solaris's body.
Solaris clearly hadn't anticipated it either—its vertically slit yellow eyes widened further, and its pupils contracted sharply.
"This voice...?!"
"No way..."
Solaris and Linian blurted out the same sentiment in unison.
At that moment, a beam of light blending gold and silver shot out from Solaris's body, tearing through a section of scales on its chest as something burst forth from within.
With the ferocity of a soul being wrenched free, the light beam extracted itself from Solaris's body, growing larger until it took the form of a woman right before our eyes.
A body faintly translucent like my wings, hair mixed with gold and silver strands, and stature far taller than Linian's.
Solaris and Linian cried out simultaneously upon seeing the woman.
"Lunarin!!!"
"Lunarin?! You were dead!"
Linian had definitely said she'd witnessed Lunarin die right before her eyes.
Lunarin, with her translucent form, spotted Linian and gave a gentle smile, waving her hand.
"Hey, Linian. It's been forever. Last time, I was in such bad shape I couldn't even talk properly. You've grown so much."
Unlike Lunarin's casual, everyday greeting, Linian burst into tears, flailing her hands desperately to touch the intangible body.
"Lu-Lunarin! You're alive?! You stopped breathing right in front of me! What the hell is going on?!"
"Yeah, I died. Right now, I'm basically a thoughtform with just my will and soul extracted. Alive but dead, dead but alive, you could say. It's a shame. Would've been nice to hug you once."
"How could this..."
As Lunarin herself confirmed her own death, Linian slumped in deep disappointment, hanging her head.
But she quickly lifted it again, demanding answers.
"Lunarin, then why did you emerge from Solaris's body? What the hell happened...?"
"Hold on, Linian. That guy's state looks off."
I stepped forward between them, bracing for any contingency while assessing Solaris's condition.
Something had ripped through its skin and scales from inside, so it had to hurt like hell, and blood was flowing—but it was suffering far more than the visible wounds suggested.
"Grraaagh... Lunarin...! You damn...!"
At the same time, I could feel its divine power—more precisely, its divinity—sharply diminishing.
Linian apparently couldn't sense that much, wearing a baffled expression.
The corrupted divinity still clinging to Solaris's body was more than half intact, but even this reduction turned our zero percent odds into maybe one or two percent.
Solaris writhed in agony, bleeding from its chest, its eyes flashing as it glared at Lunarin's thoughtform.
"Hah... hah... Lunarin, you bastard... You planned this from the start...?"
"Yep, exactly. From the moment you came sniffing around with your bullshit, I had a bad feeling, so I made preparations. If we'd fought right there, I couldn't beat you, and you sure as hell weren't gonna let me live. I even hoped a surprise preemptive strike might work somehow, but nope, no dice."
"Damn it... So you ditched your flesh and decided to parasitize my body!"
"Finally catching on? Before the end, I projected my power outward and made three tools to resummon my thoughtform. Knowing you were paranoid, I figured you'd never suspect, so I hid them in plain sight—scattered them across random dungeons.
You'd think I'd be cautious to the last, searching only safe spots where I'd stash valuables, right? Never imagining I'd just toss them anywhere."
I recalled how I'd obtained Lenis's ring and Elfin's bow.
Lenis's ring after slaying the Black Dog that torched Arborness, Elfin's bow after wiping out the Ebony Shadow Mercenaries' base.
Trophies from places deeply tied to the Underground Vermin.
Lunarin sneered at Solaris and continued.
"Of the three devices to bring me back here, I scattered two anywhere outside, but left the necklace holding my will and soul right there. You'd suspect trickery and keep the most reliable tool—the necklace—in your own clutches.
Thanks to that, the moment it hung around your neck, I burrowed inside you. You shamelessly exploited our mother for ages, didn't you, Solaris?"
"......"
"Honestly, it was a bit of a gamble. If those two tossed tools ended up in dungeons too impossible to reach, I'd have been screwed—but looks like they weren't that bad?"
"What?"
That scratched me the wrong way.
The Ebony Shadow Mercenaries' base was doable thanks to my massively amplified power, but Arborness? How much did I suffer for that to be 'easy'?!
Seeming to catch the implication in my curt remark, Lunarin averted her gaze.
"Uh... maybe not. Anyway, until all three tools gathered, I siphoned as much divinity from you as I could while inside. You weren't just draining our mother—you sucked blood and souls from tons of people, huh? No way you'd notice me in there."
"You bastard... What now?"
To Solaris's question, Lunarin smirked and spread her arms wide.
Her already translucent body began fading even more.
"Heh. My body was barely hanging on after you screwed me over ages ago anyway. I've said hi to our cute Linian, so now it's time for my part. The divinity I stole vanishes with me. Permanent loss for you. Your body's not gonna stay so majestic much longer, is it? Feel it already?"
"You... you damn... LUNAARRRIN!!!"
"Farewell, you piece of shit. No matter what you do, you can't recover the power of divinity dying with me. The day of reckoning for tormenting our mother all these years will come. Well then..."
Lunarin turned to Linian with a smile.
"Another quick goodbye. Take care, Linian."
"Lu-Lunarin! No! How can you—"
Lunarin slowly dissolved away.
In that instant, I remembered touching Luna in the grand cathedral.
She'd transferred all her divinity to me and got absorbed the moment we made contact.
What if I touched Lunarin...?
I placed my hand on Lunarin's fading fingertip.
"Wha—? What's—"
Before she could finish, Lunarin was sucked into me.
As Lunarin slipped fully inside me, Linian freaked out and grabbed my shoulder.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing! Where's Lunarin?!"
"C-Calm down! She's just absorbed into me for now... Ngh..."
The amount of divinity Lunarin carried wasn't small, so my body started feeling the strain.
Solaris reeled from the loss, while I heaved from the sudden surplus—we both panted heavily.
As the divinity fully integrated, I felt changes ripple through my body.
At the same time, I heard Lunarin's voice from within me.
『What is this...? Why do you hold Mother's divinity? No way...』
"The Goddess is safe—we rescued her and have her under protection, so don't worry. I've absorbed the divinity for now, so come on out."
『Eh? Huh...? This wasn't in my calculations—』
With that, Lunarin emerged from my body, resuming her previous ethereal form.
Unlike when she'd burst from Solaris, there was no damage to me.
As Linian rushed toward Lunarin's spirit, I swung my Light Saber at the heavily panting Solaris.
Kaboom!
The blade's energy surge had evolved beyond mere sword qi into a massive shockwave that could cleave the earth itself.
"Trying that brute force now—"
Solaris extended a dragon arm to block, just like before.
But as it raised its right arm for defense, the limb suddenly shrank, reverting to human size.
"!!!"
Slash!
Before Solaris could react to the abrupt change, the light blade severed its right arm, which tumbled across the ground, spraying blood.
"Gah... Graaaah!!!"
The chest wound from Lunarin's emergence, the lost divinity, and now a severed arm—Solaris couldn't take it, screaming and thrashing wildly.
In the end, it changed plans.
"Ngh... Bastol! Dantalion! Retreat! Head straight to the imperial capital and fulfill our promise to the humans' emperor!"
"Yes, Great One!"
The two Underground Vermin locked in fierce combat with Ravi, Elfin, Lenis, and Celine gasped for breath as they tore open a spatial rift and vanished into the darkness.
Spotting Solaris's retreat, Linian charged to grab it.
"Where do you think you're—ngh!"
Whoosh!
But a black tail smashed into the pursuing Linian, hurling her far back. Bleeding from its severed arm and chest, Solaris ground its teeth.
"I underestimated you all... I admit defeat here and withdraw. But we'll meet again soon. Herald of the Goddess... Our reckoning will be within the empire."
A massive portal yawned behind Solaris, sucking its colossal form inside until it vanished.
With the battle over, the night sky and blood-red moon that had blanketed the midday lifted, revealing the blue heavens and sun above us once more.
Linian and I collapsed in exhaustion, dripping sweat, as the four who'd fought the Underground Vermin joined us.
"Hah... Glad everyone's safe. We won here, at least, but..."
I glanced at the Augustine shelter interior, strewn with fallen bodies, and said,
"Let's handle the situation here first before we talk."