Chapter 440: Resonance

The memory of that past emerged in Priam’s mind, and he absorbed it in a matter of seconds. His eyes slowly opened... and a pulsating celestial blue light shone through his pupils.

A sudden realization took hold of his consciousness.

If there had been any doubts before, they had now completely vanished. His cousin from Earth had become an entity he couldn’t understand, and because he knew him, Bruno had tried to help him back when he was still Byon.

But... it had happened exactly as Bruno had said: he had become corrupted, turning into a blind, unscrupulous idiot.

Even after his death, Bruno had still believed in him and granted him the opportunity to redeem himself. Before coming to the Ur-World, Priam had known perfectly well how difficult and merciless his journey would be, fully aware of the overwhelming likelihood of being captured by the Sovereigns sooner rather than later.

Bruno had undoubtedly devised methods to prevent his soul from being violated. But the Sovereigns would try every possible means to extract something from him.

Even knowing all this, Priam had accepted the challenge and chosen to face everything head-on.

He took a deep breath—this time, without the burden of any chaotic thoughts.

In fact, he felt as though something deep within him was burning with pure energy.

As he focused his gaze ahead, the familiar green windows appeared.

[Innate Ability has been enhanced!]

[Manifestation of Heaven’s Will EX:]

[Upon activation, in addition to temporarily removing restrictions, your World Pillar will completely dominate the laws of the current world.]

Priam read the notification and silently nodded. All three races he had encountered had served to refine and elevate what he already possessed. He didn’t feel disappointed; in fact, he already had more than enough abilities and options...

That train of thought was interrupted by the next window.

[Special Mission Completed!]

[New Innate Technique Unlocked: World Pillar Resonance]

[When you are near the second World Pillar, a resonance will occur, allowing you to awaken the power of this second pillar once again. Upon reaching 100% synchronization, all your basic techniques will be further enhanced, and both World Pillars will be able to use them.]

Priam’s eyes widened as he absorbed those lines.

’Second World Pillar?’ As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he turned to his right. He found Dandara staring at him in absolute silence.

[World Pillar Resonance: Activated]

"!"

Suddenly, the light in Dandara’s eyes faded, her body trembled violently, and she completely passed out.

[Synchronization: 30%]

Priam reacted quickly and caught her before she could fall.

When he looked at the green window, he was stunned. Only 30%?

Even so, something inside her had already awakened.

’In the past, she also had a System, and my own System exists because I carry the World Pillar within me. When she died in that era, she must have simply lost the energy of that World Pillar.

Now... I can help her recover everything by reaching 100% synchronization... and I’ll also gain a colossal boost in power... More than that: the text explicitly states that we’ll both be able to use the techniques...’

Priam felt genuine excitement surge through his chest.

That journey had taken several years, but it had proven extraordinarily beneficial. Without a doubt, it had been far more worthwhile than remaining stagnant in the sect, simply waiting for his Secret World to accumulate enough life to break through to the next Rank.

He turned toward the members of the Maru race, who remained completely catatonic where they stood.

In a hurry, he informed them that he would return soon. Then he shot into the sky with Dandara in his arms, left the planet, and reached the flying ship parked on the moon.

...

Half a day passed before Dandara finally woke up.

When she opened her eyes, she abruptly sat up in bed, her expression deeply tense.

Priam, who had been waiting in the room, calmly approached her.

"How do you feel?"

Dandara turned toward him with her eyes wide open. After staring at him intently for several seconds, she clenched her fists tightly as a subtle tremor ran through her body.

"I... I..." she began to stammer.

"I had a dream... It was incredibly long... and so vivid..."

She slowly began to explain her dream.

She had found herself in the body of a young humanoid woman born into an ancient and legendary bloodline—the very same bloodline as the Sovereign Goddess.

Her life had never been easy, but she had grown up under the protection and loving care of her parents and three older brothers.

The day she condensed her Jade Core, everything changed.

She had created a Celestial Core. At the same time... a peculiar green window had appeared before her eyes, invisible to everyone else.

She could view other people’s statuses.

In exchange for completing simple missions—which initially involved nothing more than physical training routines and studying—she accumulated points. Those points could be exchanged for refined techniques and abilities.

Thanks to this, that young woman had risen to the heavens like a true dragon.

Her story had followed its glorious course for nearly ten thousand years. Until... tragedy struck. Her entire family had been slaughtered by the enemies she herself had accumulated throughout her journey.

She had realized her mistake too late. She couldn’t protect everyone on her own. Even so, she had gathered all her loved ones and allowed them to live in perpetual peace, never pressuring them to train and become strong on their own.

She hadn’t even tried to teach them anything.

Devastated and consumed by a visceral hatred, she had embarked on a brutal and meticulous path of revenge.

Over the course of twenty thousand years, she had hunted down, slaughtered, and destroyed everyone involved in the cruelest ways imaginable.

However, by the time she had completed her undertaking...

She no longer recognized herself, and her uncontrollable thirst for blood and violence refused to leave her body.

Realizing that she couldn’t go on living like that, she decided to isolate herself from the rest of the world, remaining in solitary meditation for countless ages...

Until, after an indeterminate amount of time, something deep within her finally awakened.

At that point, the dream came to an end.

But... Dandara was absolutely certain that something monumental had happened at that moment—something capable of changing everything forever.

After finishing her story, Dandara still wore a distant, bewildered look. She slowly lowered her head, overwhelmed by absolute mental chaos.

Priam knew exactly what she was going through. It was a bizarre, suffocating feeling to remember practically an entire lifetime: to have another mind, another set of experiences, and another way of seeing existence, while being absolutely certain that the person you were remembering was both you and not you at the same time.

Priam sat right beside her on the bed.

He gently moved closer and placed his hand beneath Dandara’s chin, calmly lifting her face until their eyes met just a few inches apart.

"Don’t try to fool yourself. You know that wasn’t a dream." He spoke seriously, saying something he knew would be difficult for her to hear, but his gaze conveyed reassurance and warmth.

Dandara shuddered at his touch but silently nodded.

Priam let out a soft sigh without moving his hand away. "Besides... Given your bloodline, your name, and your abilities... you know perfectly well who that person is, don’t you?"

Dandara’s gaze froze. Her entire body stiffened, as if her mind refused to process the weight of that revelation.

Priam nodded affirmatively, keeping his eyes on her. "If you have any doubts, I can confirm it for you: that was the Sovereign Goddess. And those memories... are your memories."

"H-how... is that... possible...?" Dandara stammered, her mind on the verge of collapse.

"Ever since the day I met you, I already knew how incredible you were. I’ll admit that was the initial spark that made me want you by my side. But in a very short time, you proved to me that you were the most trustworthy and precious person I could ever rely on."

Hearing that, Dandara swallowed hard, feeling Priam’s warm breath so close to her face as she gazed deep into his eyes.

"I possess the same System you saw in your dream, with only a few minor differences. When I checked your status at the beginning, I noticed something completely anomalous and theoretically impossible. But it was during that mission, when you received the Goddess’s Inheritance, that I finally confirmed who you really were..."

Priam paused briefly when he noticed the change in her expression.

"You already know the truth. Ever since you set foot in the sect, deep down, you’ve felt that everything was familiar to you—after all, you’re the one who created it all."

Feeling her mind spin, he moved even closer, sliding his hands around her back and gently pulling her against his chest.

"You’ve heard me tell the races we visited several times that the Sovereign Goddess had indeed returned and that I was her Missionary. Did you think I was lying? No. I simply left out one tiny detail... she had been walking right beside me the entire time, standing before them, having merely forgotten who she was for a while."

Dandara trembled from head to toe, completely in shock.

Priam took a deep breath, gently stroking her hair.

Dandara took a few moments to process how close they were, until Priam’s warmth, his scent, and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat drew her back to a sense of safety. She hugged him back with all her strength, burying her face in his chest.

Several minutes passed before the trembling in her body finally stopped, and her breathing settled.

When they pulled away slightly, their faces still almost touching and their hands intertwined...

[Synchronization: 50%]

Priam read the green notification and let out a restrained snort of amusement.

Then, he looked at Dandara seriously and began the heartfelt conversation they had needed to have for so long.

He started recounting everything he knew about her true origins. He also explained in detail the nature of this world, the existence of other worlds, and the deeper identities of both of them.

"We’re invaders. This isn’t our world of origin. We were sent here with a clear purpose: to stop the Sovereigns from continuing to devour other worlds."

Those words echoed through Dandara’s mind like a thunderclap.

Priam continued in a calm, measured tone, explaining their Main Mission in detail and revealing just how extraordinary the world they had come from truly was.

He told her that practically all the Sovereigns had been nearly killed and wiped out from that world following the intervention of just one of the two Supreme Sovereigns.

The six current Sovereigns had survived purely through luck and because they possessed anomalous powers. However, after they fled, not even the Supreme Sovereigns had been able to pursue them directly across the boundaries between worlds.

That was why Dandara and Priam had been sent.

They needed to develop their Secret World so that, in the future, they could dominate the Ur-World and create the ultimate opportunity to exterminate the six Sovereigns.

The conversation lasted for nearly an entire day. Priam explained every point without rushing, allowing her to process each detail and patiently answering every question she had.

Dandara wanted to better understand the fragments of her own past.

Priam had very little concrete information, but he theorized that she must have deep ties to one of the two Supreme Sovereigns from their original world.

He knew that the Dandara of old had retained the memories of her true identity and that, when those genuine memories resurfaced, that was probably when the dream had been interrupted.

From that point onward, the Sovereign Goddess had emerged into the world.

By the end of the explanation, as she saw the unwavering confidence in Priam’s eyes and realized that they were bound together on this journey until the very end, Dandara’s chaotic aura dissipated completely.

In its place, a profound and magnetic connection to him began to pour out from every pore of her being.

After sharing everything he knew, Priam explained how she had managed to recover this first part of her memories: the newly acquired innate technique, World Pillar Resonance, was reenergizing her dormant World Pillar.

"Unfortunately, our synchronization has stalled at 50%... I have no idea how to reach 100% quickly. The System hasn’t even given me a hint about how to progress," Priam commented, his tone tinged with slight helplessness.

Hearing this, Dandara’s expression suddenly changed.