Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 271 Sacrifice and Rebirth

Ruger and Leiden leaned against the experimental table behind them, staring intently at the strange sight before them.

One end of the ribbon-like light came from an endless unknown place, while the other end, after being severed from the old woman's body, was pulled by the wisps of power that permeated the mountain valleys and was cast into the continuous mountain range.

Ruger looked at the phantom of the mountains. Although he couldn't see them clearly, the wisps and strands of objects were mostly from the places they had passed through, which were likely the places where they had dropped the cone-shaped objects.

The ribbon-like light trembled, like a winding stream flowing from an unknown place.

One end is at the starting point in that unknown place, and the other end is connected to those mountains.

When the unknown entities of the mountains, aided by some force, fully accepted this inexplicable gift, forming a peculiar scene, the eerie light did not disappear from the stone chamber as Ruge had imagined.

The scene resembled a narrow stream flowing through the void towards the hazy mountains, no longer connected to the stone chamber, but winding its way through this place.

And at this bend, there stands the old woman in the center of the stone chamber.

The old woman laughed loudly, raising her hands high, her long cane rolling to the side. The small specks of light that had surged into her body, as well as the wisps of strange power from the mountains, were all leaving her, constantly emerging from her aged body, flying like fish into the dim light that passed by her, flowing into the depths of the mountains.

The old woman's condition was visibly deteriorating.

She trembled as she displayed her pain vividly before Ruger's eyes.

She laughed heartily, sending that indescribable feeling of exhilaration around his ears.

Laughter echoed continuously inside the stone chamber.

Ruger watched as the eerie river of light carried away countless tiny specks of light. Gradually, it wasn't just those inexplicable specks of light; more and more things were taken away from the old woman, and her life force weakened further.

Suddenly, she shattered, and a piece of her ear flew off.

Ruger was stunned for a moment. It was so real that he always forgot that the old woman was not a real flesh and blood body.

My ears drifted toward the winding, shimmering river.

Then came the hair, and the nose, and many more things were stretched long and distorted, rushing toward the winding, eerie light.

"You actually... are going to abandon everything! You actually can abandon everything!" A pile of fragments on the winding, shimmering riverbank formed an old face again. "You actually abandoned everything, everything I have, and everything you have too, the path I've worked so hard for over countless years, you..."

The head floated in mid-air, looking back at the trembling headless body, calmly expressing its disbelief, creating a bizarre scene.

Numerous wisps of something were also emerging from the head, pulling it along with the flowing eerie light, causing the entire head to be stretched and deformed.

Perhaps it was precisely because it wasn't a real body that the headless old woman could still laugh.

That laughter was the response to the head.

“You don’t understand, you never will,” the headless old woman suddenly spoke. “I am you, how could I not understand the way of fate? I have been trapped in this place day and night, pondering alone. It is precisely because of my contemplation and understanding of fate that I decided to never touch the power of fate again… Of course, only in this way can I achieve my wish. As you die and I gain more of myself, we are no longer alone… It is fate that has bound us together…”

As the headless old woman spoke, fragments of all sizes kept flying out of her body.

The old wizard's eyes, as his head was being stretched and elongated by the glowing river, seemed to be pondering even in his final moments, as if he had been inspired and had gained more insights into fate.

But there was no time for her to study and comprehend it. She was the one most deeply bound to this shimmering river, and she was destined to be led into the depths of the mountains by it. Or rather, from the moment the winding shimmering light was accepted by the unknown beings in those mountains, her fate was already sealed.

When the head shattered and fell into the river, the entire stone chamber trembled. The headless old woman laughed loudly, and the speed at which her body shattered suddenly accelerated.

For a fleeting moment, Ruger felt herself fall back to the level of a wizard's apprentice. The old woman's legs, her hands, every part of her body, were turning into fragments of varying sizes, drifting towards the flowing, eerie light.

Ruger caught a glimpse of something moving out of the corner of his eye. Perhaps the tremors in the stone chamber had caused the old woman's long cane to roll toward Ruger at some point.

At this moment, the long staff that he had seen several times seemed to come alive and was wriggling towards the old woman.

It climbed very slowly. Luger examined it closely and noticed that the long staff had distinct knots, unlike its smooth surface before, and several tender green leaves had grown from the middle section.

How can you entrust your fate to someone else?

The old woman's words flashed through Luger's mind.

He withdrew his raised hand and silently watched as the long cane, like a large earthworm, crawled across the stone slab towards the old woman's location.

The old woman's body was almost completely gone, but her hearty laughter still rang out from time to time.

The winding, shimmering river is also moving further and further away from this place, no longer meandering through here.

As the last fragment fell into the river, the mountain scenery disappeared. In the moment before it vanished, a winding, eerie light could still be seen continuously piercing into the depths of the mountains.

The long staff finally reached the old woman's position at the last moment.

But the old woman was no longer there.

The long staff lay askew as if dead, devoid of vitality, and the newly sprouted emerald green leaves began to wither.

Ruger suddenly felt a lightness in his body. He looked at Leiden beside him and gave him an inquiring look.

The warm marks on their shoulders had disappeared.

Snap! Snap!

The staff split open, and new shoots sprouted from it.

A sudden realization flashed through Luger's mind.

This long staff is merely a trigger, a location, an anchor point to ensure that even after complete severance and disappearance, this place can still be sensed. Perhaps it is a branch of the dream tree that the old woman planted in her magical dream. Even if it withers and cracks, she can still sense its location in the dream and guide it to help her escape from the dream.

He gave up everything, leaving only her in the magical dream.

Is this really going to work?
She relied on the power of the Nightmare World. The dreamer was shattered and no longer existed, but the magical dream still existed. Perhaps the Dream Tree also played a part, but this could not be done anywhere else, only in this special Nightmare World.

But will this really work?

Luger pondered.

Can this really break free from the constraints of the past and become a new self?

He suddenly realized that to succeed, she might have to give up even more, perhaps a portion of her memories, a part of the knowledge entangled with the past, and even more than just those related to the power of fate. Of course, nothing was certain; perhaps it wouldn't have to be this way. The real her had already given up, had already perished. It was as if she, who had existed in the town for countless years, embraced her soon-to-be-resurrected self and jumped into that river, along with the river of ghostly light that might be a manifestation of fate, offering it all as a sacrifice to the beings in the mountains.

Ruger looked at the sprout that was emerging from the crack in the ground.

Now, she is reversing her dreams, creating a new her. She dreams in reverse within a magical dreamscape, guided by the roots of the Dream Tree, projecting herself into this nightmare world. Abandoning her intertwined fate, she emerges from the dream, using the power of the nightmare world to shape her own body, much like the birth of the black and white giant python.

(End of this chapter)