Chapter 347: Ch 346: What Circumstances

The space around Lyra continued to shake, and cracks started to spread through the fog like glass that was about to shatter. The shadow immediately stopped and looked around with a startled expression.

<What is happening? Why is this space breaking apart? What did you do?>

For the first time, there was genuine panic in its voice, and Lyra could not help but smile.

She slowly stood up despite the pain in her body and looked at the cracks appearing around her.

"My master is coming to save me."

The shadow stared at her in disbelief. Her inner self? As if! This was nothing more than an imitation of herself, and now she was sure.

<Your master? What are you talking about?>

Lyra raised her hand and pointed towards one of the cracks as a small amount of magic began to seep through it.

"I already told you, didn’t I? I am a dog by choice. And if I am going to call myself his dog, then I have to show my devotion."

The magic slipping through the cracks started to gather around Lyra, and she could feel her strength slowly returning. She looked at the imposter in front of her with blank eyes.

There was no part of her that would have questioned her master. Especially not when she had engraved Kael’s presence in every part of her being... even her inner self.

The shadow took a step backwards.

<Impossible. This space should have completely isolated you from the outside. How are you receiving power from beyond it?>

"I don’t know. It must be because of my loyalty. After all, what is a hunting dog without its master?"

Lyra smiled confidently as she gathered the magic around herself. The shadow’s expression twisted with disbelief as Lyra’s power began to return.

She still could not reach her own magic, but she could borrow Kael’s. And it was responding to her as well, granting her the power that she needed in order to get out of this place.

<No! You cannot use your power here! I took it from you! It belongs to me! We are one and the same—>

"But we cannot be the same if we don’t serve the same master. I am myself."

Lyra raised her sword, and it reflected the surrounding light. It made the shadow cower, but she did not care. It was her final mercy to this thing that was perhaps a part of her or maybe an impostor.

She brought the sword down with a smile.

"I am Lyra, a hunting dog by choice. And now, I will cut you out of my life as well."

Her magic-crafted sword went through the shadow’s heart, making sure it wouldn’t be able to dodge. And then, the space she was in collapsed, and she noticed that the chimera demons around her were trying to get to her through the barrier.

The situation had not been dealt with, which was surprising.

"Kael—"

"Are you back now? I will find the core now. I did not want to risk breaking this space while you were still within the fog."

Kael explained, and Lyra let out a sigh of relief.

Really, her master was such a fool but a great person at the same time. How could she not be worried about him?

...

Kael let out a sigh of relief once he noticed that Lyra was back to herself. He was not sure what was going on with her or the fog, but he was relieved to see her back as herself.

"Ugh, I felt like I had the worst dream of my life. But I also know that it was not a dream. Just how powerful is this garment of god? Goddess Aria was not half as powerful..."

Lyra complained, and Kael refrained from telling her that Goddess Aria had lost most of her power after the corruption and killing off the current god of their previous world.

After seeing her memories and seeing the scope of what the true gods were capable of, he also knew that it was a miracle that she had survived killing the original god of their world.

’But it’s weird. Did Aria really kill the original god of our world and lose her power? There should be lingering effects on our world. And as for the power that was left behind...’

What was weirder was the fact that Kael had never thought about this before. In fact, this had never even occurred to him, which was a miracle. It was almost as if someone had blanked his mind...

’Or, as if someone had deliberately tried to hide the truth from me. Even now, thinking about this feels difficult...’

The more Kael tried to recall, the more he felt like he was walking into uncharted territory. His instincts kept trying to tell him that he needed to step back and that this was not something he should be thinking about.

"How interesting. Is this a result of divine intervention? To think that the gods are playing a game with us all. Do they think this is a joke?"

He was sure that it was because he had started absorbing the cores of this world’s god that he could see past all the illusions and pierce the truth of the gods. And it made him certain that Goddess Aria was not the only one who had tricked the world.

She was someone who had gotten tricked as well.

The god who came after Goddess Aria seemed to have realised her obsession and decided to use it. But how did he do it, and what did he mean by it? There were just too many questions inside Kael’s mind to make sense of it all.

But he did know one thing—it would all start to make sense once he uncovered more of the truth behind what happened. He just had to collect more fragments and uncover the truth.

It almost felt like he was being manipulated by greater forces, but even so, he wanted to know the truth.