Jared finally saw all of it.
It was a... dragon.
No. Not a dragon.
It was older than any dragon. More ancient. More primal.
Its body was shaped like a serpent, but it had no scales. Instead, it was covered in ayer of smooth dark sapphire hide, and under that hide, a dark red glow moved and streamed like molten fire under the earth.
Its head carried seven eyes. Two of them were those huge golden eyes, and
besides those, five smaller eyes were spread along both sides of its head, each one giving off a different color of light.
How long was its body?
Jared had no way to tell.
All he could see was that it kept rising from the darkness below, inch after inch, as if there were no end to it at all.
All seven of Return to the Void''s eyes fixed on the two of them inside the great mass of ice.
Then a voice sounded inside Jared''s mind.
It wasn''tnguage. It came as something more direct than words, a wave of thought that drove straight into his head.
It had no sound and no tone, but Jared still caught its meaning with perfect rity. "Hand over... the spoils... from the Ancient Battlefield."
Gwendolyn''s face changed on the spot.
"It wants the Heart of the Northern Abyss."
"Return to the Void guards thiske and the entrance to the Ancient Battlefield," she said under her breath to Jared. "It doesn''t allow anything to be taken out. It sensed the Heart of the Northern Abyss inside your body."
Jared frowned.
"The Heart of the Northern Abyss belongs to the Frost Deity Branch. Why should I hand it over to that thing?"
Before Gwendolyn could answer, Return to the Void''s voice came again.
This time, it pressed down harder than before, lower and heavier.
"Hand it over... or... die."
The voice exploded inside Jared''s head and knocked his vision ck for a moment.
The chaotic force inside him started moving on its own.
Violet radiance burst across his skin and canceled out most of the mental shock.
All seven of Return to the Void''s eyes flickered at the same time.
It seemed caught off guard by the chaotic force on Jared.
"Chaos... you are... that person''s... heir?"
Jared had no idea who it meant by that person, and he didn''t care to find out. "The Heart of the Northern Abyss has already fused with me. I can''t hand it over." Jared''s voice stayed level, but it didn''t bend. "If you want it,e take it." Gwendolyn snapped her head toward him, staring at him like she couldn''t believe what she''d just heard. "Have you lost your mind? Return to the Void''s strength is impossible to measure."
"I know," Jared cut in. "But we don''t have a way out."
He was right.
Return to the Void had already blocked the path to theke''s surface.
Even if they handed over the Heart of the Northern Abyss, there was no guarantee it would let them go.
If the only choices were to sit still and die or stake everything on one desperate move, then there wasn''t really a choice at all.
All seven of Return to the Void''s eyes narrowed at the same time.
That was how it showed its fury.
"Arrogant... human..."
Thekebed shook violently.
Return to the Void''s massive body drew inward, coiling tight, and then it snapped open.
Like a springpressed to its limit, it shot straight at them with a speed that didn''t even seem possible.
It moved so fast that even Jared''s enhanced vision couldn''t track it.
He only caught a sh of dark blue across his sight, and then a horrifying force mmed into the great mass of ice in front of him.
Boom!
The great mass of ice shattered in an instant.
Jared and Gwendolyn were sted backward, tumbling through theke for dozens
of miles before they barely forced themselves steady again.
A thin line of blood slipped from the corner of Jared''s mouth.
That single strike from Return to the Void had hit harder than the skeletons in the Ancient Battlefield by a margin he couldn''t evenpare.
"Split up!"
"Don''t give it the chance to catch us both at once!" Gwendolyn shouted.
The two of them shot off at the same time, each swimming in a different direction.
Return to the Void''s seven eyes shifted.
For a brief moment, it seemed to weigh which one to chase first.
Jared did not give it that moment.
The Dragonyer Sword came free.
Golden draconic energy exploded through theke and turned into the great golden dragon, a hundred miles long, as it roared and charged straight at Return to the Void.
Return to the Void did not even try to dodge.
It only flicked its tail.
That tail came down like a pir holding up the sky, carrying a crushing force as it mmed into the great golden dragon.
The great golden dragon burst apart with a thunderous crash, breaking into a storm of golden radiance.
But that instant of dy was exactly what Jared wanted.
The chaotic force inside him erupted without reserve.
Violet radiance poured out of him and stained the surroundingke water purple.
Inside that violet radiance was the overbearing force of the Golden Dragon Bloodline, the cold purity of the loe God Bloodline, and the all-embracing vastness of the chaotic force.
Jared poured everyst bit of power into the Dragonyer Sword.
His whole body turned into a streak of purple light as he shot straight at Return to
the Void''s head, aiming for those seven eyes.
Return to the Void seemed to sense the threat.
All seven eyes burst at once with blinding light.
Gold, red, blue, green, purple, white, and ck.
Seven different beams shot out of the seven eyes and wove together in front of
Return to the Void, forming a massive of light.
Jared''s purple de-re mmed into the light.
Boom!
The entire Voidreach Lake shook.
A huge stretch ofke water vanished under that force, exposing the rock and mud
at the bottom.
The temperature around them jumped by dozens of degrees Celsius in an instant.
Steam rolled everywhere, almost like a fairnd.
Cracks spread across the light, dense and spiderwebbed.
But Jared''s de-re had burned through thest of its power too.
The bacsh hurled him backward.
The web between his thumb and forefinger split open, and blood ran across the hilt
of the Dragonyer Sword.
Right then, Gwendolyn struck from Return to the Void''s other side.
Her icy divine radiance turned into countless ice needles as thin as hair.
Every single one carried the power of thew of the Ice Seal, and they shot at Return to the Void''s seven eyes without a sound.
Return to the Void caught the danger and tried to turn its head to defend itself.
But Jared''s light was still hanging in front of it, not yet gone, blocking its sight.
The ice needles slipped through the gaps in the light and drove cleanly, exactly, into Return to the Void''s seven eyes!
Roar!
For the first time, Return to the Void made a sound.
It wasn''t a mental pulse this time. It was a real roar, deafening enough to shake the
wholeke.
That roar carried so much pain and
fury it shattered the rocks on thekebed, drove the water into violent surges, and made blood seep from both Jared''s and Gwendolyn''s ears.
All seven eyes mmed shut at once.
Return to the Void''s body started twisting like mad.
Its tail, its torso, its head-every inch of it shook violently.
The dark red glow beneath its dark sapphire hide red brighter, like it was about to
rip straight out through the flesh.
"Its eyes are the weak point!"
Gwendolyn shouted, "Now! While we still can!"
Jared gritted his teeth and drove the chaotic force again.
This time, he held nothing back.
Violet radiance condensed on the Dragonyer Sword until it reached the limit.
The dragon sigils along the de shed wildly, and the whole sword gave off a
harsh, piercing hum.
He drew in a deep breath and poured everything into that strike.
All his power. All his will. All his life.
Then he let go.
The Dragonyer Sword turned into a streak of violet light.
Like a falling star trailing a long tail of fire, it shot straight toward the tworgest
golden eyes on Return to the Void''s head.
Return to the Void caught the deadly threat and whipped its head around wildly,
trying to dodge.
But all seven of its eyes had already
been pierced by the ice needles. Its
vision was blurred, and it had no way to track the Dragonyer Sword''s path with any uracy.
The purple streak punched through its eyelid and drove straight into its left eye!