Chapter 1330: 88. The Scene

The academy, the Sea of Flowers.

The tulips that had bloomed not long ago had already withered away. Now, the entire place was covered in some kind of nameless little flower.

As a gentle breeze swept through, colorful petals immediately scattered in every direction like dandelion seeds, beautiful beyond description.

An enchanting sea of flowers, an azure sky, and a breeze that seemed to have been created by magic......

The instant Muen stepped into this area, instinct told him that something was wrong.

"What kind of weird atmosphere is this?"

Muen narrowed his eyes, his nerves immediately going taut.

He had come to the Sea of Flowers more than once.

Sometimes, this place was like a calm ocean, while beneath its peaceful surface, violent waves secretly surged.

Sometimes, it was like an oasis in the desert. Although it was dangerous most of the time, after an exhausting journey, it could always offer him at least a little comfort.

More often than not, it was like some unknown creature's nest, because you could never know what sort of surprise......

Or fright......

The one who lived here had secretly prepared for you.

But this time alone, the atmosphere of the Sea of Flowers was completely different from anything Muen had ever experienced before.

It......

"Why does it feel so festive?"

Petals danced through the air like colorful banners fluttering in the wind.

The moment Muen walked in, he had the strange feeling that he hadn't come to the Sea of Flowers at all, but to someone's wedding ceremony.

There was even an extremely conspicuous curtain spread beneath the azure sky, looking as though it might start showing embarrassing childhood footage of the groom running around naked at any moment.

Muen's heart immediately tightened.

After what had happened before, scenes like this had already left him with a bit of psychological trauma.

......Fortunately, Muen quickly ruled out that possibility.

Putting aside whose territory this Sea of Flowers actually was, the image on the curtain was pitch-black, gloomy, and frightening.

No matter how you looked at it, it wasn't something that belonged at a wedding.

So......

"What is this? An outdoor movie?"

Muen's expression turned strange.

Did this world have movies?

Or was this merely some kind of image created through magic?

But what kind of scene could possibly be worth that woman putting together such an extravagant setup just to watch it?

Her glorious history of defeating an Evil God's projection?

Curious about experiencing something like this for the first time, Muen continued forward, wanting to see exactly what kind of scene could possibly deserve to be recorded in such a grand fashion.

"The image moved."

Finally, when he reached the very center of the Sea of Flowers, the place with the clearest view of the curtain, the pitch-black image that had seemed frozen in place finally began to change.

The darkness was instantly pierced by dazzling light.

The black image finally became visible, and Muen saw a vaguely familiar building appear before his eyes.

Before his mind even had time to process it, the building suddenly collapsed amid blazing flames.

"Whoa."

Muen subconsciously exclaimed in admiration.

The angle of this scene......

Or rather, the position from which it had been recorded......

Was exceptionally good.

It was obviously nothing more than an ordinary explosion, yet somehow it had been filmed with the grandeur of the birth of the universe itself.

It was enough to shake the soul.

And it also made him increasingly eager to see what came next.

What exactly was it going to be?

A battle between great powers?

Monsters tearing each other apart?

Or a beautiful girl saving the world?

——None of the above.

Within Muen's excited pupils, which suddenly froze solid, the answer was finally revealed.

The explosion had not yet faded......

Or rather, immediately following that explosion.

In that fleeting instant, a huge black and ferocious dragon suddenly broke free from the building that looked almost miniature compared to its enormous body, violently shaking its head and tail as it emerged.

Countless fragments of stone and clouds of dust exploded outward, only to be stopped by the magical barrier surrounding the building.

But before the black dragon, that barrier was no different from a sheet of paper.

It spread wings vast enough to blot out the sky, whipping up a raging gale that seemed capable of ravaging the entire world.

Its long tail swept through the air, carving open pitch-black spatial fissures.

It raised its head high, its molten-gold eyes filled with a cold arrogance that looked down upon all living beings.

Then it released an earthshaking roar and, in a single instant, shattered through the barrier and shot into the sky.

The thunderous explosion was swallowed by that roar.

Combined with the incredibly realistic three-dimensional surround sound, it made the viewer feel as though they had been transported directly into the scene.

The heart raced.

The blood boiled.

Just seeing that dragon soar into the sky was enough to leave someone rooted to the spot in stunned silence.

And when combined with everything else in the image—the destroyed building, the burning flames, the rising clouds of smoke, and the silhouette of the shattered city in the distance......

What an astonishing scene.

What an overwhelming sight.

Except......

Muen's boiling blood quickly froze completely.

Because his gaze, guided by some instinctive awareness, slowly moved downward.

Sure enough.

As though the scene had deliberately cut to a close-up, amid the devastated ruins he saw......

Himself.

His eyes rolled back, his face twisted in pain, lying flat on his back in an utterly humiliating posture.

"???"

"Well? Isn't this scene absolutely beautiful?"

Someone suddenly snapped their fingers.

The image on the curtain abruptly rewound all the way back to its original pitch-black starting point.

Then it began playing again.

Only this time, rather than focusing on the overwhelming scale and impact of the overall scene, the perspective suddenly shifted and concentrated much more closely on the black dragon itself.

Embarrassment, anger, and panic.

It was difficult to imagine such expressions appearing on the face of such an overwhelmingly majestic dragon.

Combined with her identity, it became even harder to comprehend.

Of course, the Muen with his eyes rolled all the way back remained displayed the entire time in a small close-up window......

The two images complemented each other.

They clearly seemed to have absolutely nothing to do with one another, and yet together they were more than enough to inspire endless imagination in anyone watching.

"To tell you the truth, after a thousand years, this is still the first time I've ever seen that woman make an expression like that. And it was so obvious even while she was in dragon form...... Oh my, oh my. This really is the sort of beautiful scene worth preserving for the rest of one's life."

Mela was still dressed in her strawberry-print nightgown, except one small arm was wrapped around an empty bucket of popcorn.

Anyone could tell at a glance......

She had thoroughly enjoyed watching this spectacle.

"Want me to send you a copy of the recording, my dear disciple? Since you're one of the main stars, I can even send you the high-definition version."

Mela gently patted Muen's shoulder with a tender smile.

"......Exciting?" Muen smiled along with her.

"Very exciting!"

Mela answered with complete seriousness.

"I got wet just watching it."

"Is that so? Well, that's just wonderf—— Wonderful my ass!"

Muen's muscles instantly tensed.

His alchemical core activated.

Time Delay.

Thunderclap!

What had once been an extremely basic technique now erupted with unimaginable power in the hands of Muen, whose physical body had already reached the level of a Crowned One.

Without holding back in the slightest, Muen threw a punch straight at that little girl's face.

In an instant, it was as though the entire Sea of Flowers began trembling.

However......

Faced with such a terrifying attack, Mela merely swayed backward with lazy ease and casually avoided it.

"Oh my, oh my."

She even had enough time to put on a sorrowful expression and wipe nonexistent tears from the corner of her eye with her free hand.

"After not seeing each other for so long, is this really how my dearest disciple treats his teacher? And here I went out of my way to record such an important moment in your life, yet you won't even thank me?"