Dragon Tribulation of All Realms

Chapter 342 - Available Combat Strength +1
— [Defeat Projected Britannia, gain 6000 resource points and 1 Level 2 Purchase Voucher.]

The voice rang out.

A voice that was both long-lost and familiar.

It delivered the information to Wu Chen's ears, and Wu Chen watched as the red-haired swordsman vaporized and evaporated before his eyes.

"...There really is such a thing." He frowned slightly, watching the surrounding environment gradually collapse and dissipate. The dense fog and vast space vanished in an instant. And a small, ancient cave filled with corpses appeared before Wu Chen's eyes.

A stone wall stands quietly at the end of the cave.

A middle-aged man with long red hair, a face similar to the previous projection but noticeably older and more haggard, was embedded in the center of the stone wall, just like in the CG he had seen when playing through the first part of Lance. Unlike the CG, the stone surface around this sealed man did not have the various scratches or marks left by busybodies. Instead, there were many ancient skeletons scattered around the ground, their armor, robes, or clothing all rusted and ruined.

It is obvious that this projection has been around for a very long time.

The red-haired man, who should be the middle-aged warrior Britannia himself, was staring blankly at Wu Chen, his blankness rapidly turning into excitement and agitation.

"They actually defeated them!"

"Great! Waaah... I thought you'd end up like everyone else who came near here, killed by my other self... Is it finally over? It's over!"

His face was flushed, and tears welled in his eyes. As one of the legendary five heroes, he looked no different from an ordinary, disillusioned middle-aged man.

"A thousand years...more than a thousand years... Waaaaaah..."

Well, after more than a thousand years of misfortune, he really is a remarkable unlucky old man.

Wu Chen's mouth twitched.

Let the red-haired man complain, vent, wallow in self-pity, and sob softly—he turned his gaze, his eyes sweeping over the skeletons on the ground. Most of them bore fatal wounds from sword strikes. But one corpse, clad in a robe, its bones already turned to stone, possessed a degree of completeness surpassing the other remains.

This must be the spellcaster from back then—one of Britannia's companions. The sage Horaga humiliated this male magician, so when the humiliated magician found Britannia alone, he resolved to use magic to take revenge, even if it meant burning his life away.

"It's...it's this person! Waaaaaah...I've been trapped here for so long!"

Britain, which had just calmed down, became agitated again when Wu Chen looked at the skeleton.

Only then did Wu Chen raise his head to look at the man on the wall.

"Was that you just now?" I rehearsed my words many times, but in the end, I still said the same thing to avoid getting banned.

The man calmed down.

He opened his mouth, and a thousand emotions seemed to surge across his weathered face. But in the end, only a long sigh escaped his lips.

“It’s me.” His voice was low. “This person is my friend’s… my enemy. Many years ago, he sealed me into this wall at the cost of his own life. After he died, another version of me appeared here… I can’t control it; I can only barely keep it from leaving this cave. But it still actively kills anyone who comes near this cave. Until later, another mage cast a sealing mist outside this cave…”

So that's how it is. The otherworldly projection descended the moment the curse succeeded, causing Britannia to perceive her own projection as part of the curse. And just as Hera's projection could affect the soulless Hera, Britannia, though merely a warrior, possessed a complete soul and thus had the ability to slightly influence the operation of her own projection.

"...It's all over, isn't it?" He looked at Wu Chen, his eyes filled with anticipation. "The other me has already been killed, so my life should be coming to an end soon too. I've been sealed here for... long enough."

However, Wu Chen simply shook his head slightly.

“I haven’t felt the seal weakening. The other you you mentioned probably doesn’t originate from the same source as this seal.”

He reached out and touched the mage's skeleton. A thin stream of pure silver silently seeped in, reading the residual magical parameters on the remains. "How...how could this be!" The man inside the wall stared in disbelief. "Am I supposed to stay here...? No, no, I can't!"

Didn't you try to get out of the wall?

"I tried, I tried!" the red-haired man screamed. "I tried guiding another version of myself to attack the wall, I even tried having those adventurers who strayed in attack me directly. But it didn't work! The wall is completely impenetrable. Even if I get hit by swords or bombarded by magic, I won't get hurt. I can't get out, and I can't die!"

He let out a painful howl.

The wailing was filled with despair.

While Wu Chen calculated the frequency of the residual magic power in the bones, he listened to the various complaints and venting. Soon, he verified some results from the curse that formed the wall.

It's time.

It is indeed time.

This is consistent with the original storyline. The caster who performed the sealing spell actually lengthened the flow of time in the area containing Britain, along with the wall itself. With time as a barrier, no external damage could have any effect. However, it's worth noting that this seal only affects the physical body, not the soul. This is why Britain, whose time was extended, felt pain within the seal.

That's a pretty good result.

The magical system of this world may seem rudimentary, but various profound and exquisite techniques are easily hidden within its simplicity. Understanding and learning them is undoubtedly a valuable path of arcane exploration.

“…Friend, can I ask you for a favor?” The man regained his composure. “Is it still…the era of Jill’s rule over the continent? Do those ranches…still exist?”

“I don’t know,” Wu Chen replied calmly. “I come from afar. I’ve never heard of any Ji’er, nor have I ever seen any strange ranches.”

"...Is that so? Then, have you ever heard of the name Britain?"

"never heard of that."

"That's true... After all, I, we, haven't accomplished anything... Thank you. Now I can rest easy. Even if I have to stay inside this wall, at least there's a place in this world that's no longer under Jill's control."

He breathed a soft sigh of relief.

However, Wu Chen's hand was already placed on the wall.

"Personally, I think that if you want to know something or explore something, it's better to verify it yourself with your own eyes and hands."

"What are you saying? This seal is impossible to..."

His voice trailed off.

The wall crumbled and melted under Wu Chen's touch. The power of temporal interference was extracted and transferred by Wu Chen in a manner that mimicked the magical reactions of the sealers. And when all the temporal power gathered into a delicate little sphere in Wu Chen's palm, the sealing wall that had stood for thousands of years turned into a pile of mud and scattered fragments of earth.

The seal has been broken.

The soldier, relieved of his burdens, fell to the ground and regained his freedom.

"Look, haven't we already taken the first step?" Wu Chen shrugged.

(End of this chapter)