Roar!
Return to the Void''s roar turned even more shrill, even more savage.
Dark sapphire blood burst out of its eye.
The blood ran so hot it boiled theke water around it.
The scalding water burned Jared until his skin split and tore.
He still didn''t back off. He charged straight at Return to the Void instead.
Gwendolyn moved too.
One from the left, one from the right, the two of them rushed Return to the Void''s head at the same time.
Jared''s chaotic force and Gwendolyn''s Frost God''s power met above Return to the Void''s head.
The two forces fused together and erupted with even greater power than before.
Pale golden radiance poured from their hands and took shape as a massive greatsword of light, then came crashing down at Return to the Void''s head!
Return to the Void let out one final roar, and then...
It went still.
Its massive body locked in ce in theke water.
All seven eyes stayed shut, while dark sapphire blood slowly leaked from the sockets and stained the surrounding water a dark red.
The greatsword of light hacked into the top of its head and left behind a deep wound, but it wasn''t fatal.
Jared dragged in breath after breath. There wasn''t a single ce on his body that didn''t hurt.
Gwendolyn wasn''t doing any better.
Her face had gone whiter than paper, her lips were purple, and her whole body looked ready to give out at any second.
A thin slit opened in each of Return to the Void''s seven eyes.
This time, the nk indifference in that gaze was gone.
In its ce was something far moreplicated. Rage. Refusal. And a trace of... acknowledgment?
"Chaos... heir... you... won."
Return to the Void''s voice sounded inside Jared''s head, much weaker than before.
"Take... the Heart of the Northern Abyss... and go... but... be careful... he is still... alive..."
After that, Return to the Void''s eyes closedpletely.
Its body slowly sank back to the bottom of theke and returned to that stretch of darkness.
The dark sapphireke gradually calmed.
Its temperature began to return to normal too.
Jared and Gwendolyn looked at each other.
In each other''s eyes, they both saw the same thing-the thin, shaky relief of having survived.
"Go."
Jared grabbed Gwendolyn''s hand and swam for theke''s surface.
This time, nothing stopped them.
By the time the two of them broke through theke''s surface, it was already evening.
The Worldtree''s golden leaves shimmered in thest light of sunset, like countless golden stars.
The aurora drifted slowly overhead, its color fading from pale white into a soft pink- violet.
Jared stumbled up onto thekeshore.
The second he made it to solid ground, his whole body gave out and he copsed t onto the grass.
Gwendolyn sat down beside him.
She looked just as drained.
The two of them stayed quiet for a long time.
"What Return to the Void said at the end..." Gwendolyn said first. "When he said
someone''s still alive, was he talking about Aldric?"
Jared nodded.
"A remnant soul of Aldric really is inside me.
Return to the Void sensed it."
Gwendolyn''s brow tightened. "Return to the Void told you to be careful. Does that mean Aldric''s remnant soul... is a threat to you?"
Jared gave a bitter smile. "A single remnant soul-how much of a threat c?n that be? It''s so weak now it can barely hold itself together Whats it supposed to do to me?"
Gwendolyn shook her head. "Don''t underestimate Aldric. He was the progenitor of the Frost Deity Branch. The very first being between heaven and earth to grasp thew of frost. Whatever methods he had they''re beyond anything we can imagine."
Jared said nothing.
He only closed his eyes and tried once more to sense where that remnant soul was inside him.
This time, he found it.
That remnant soul... wasn''t in the spirit well anymore.
It was moving.
It was moving toward his consciousness field.
Jared''s eyes flew open, and all the color drained from his face.
"What is it?" Gwendolyn asked.
"It''s moving into my consciousness field..." Jared said, his voice shaking. "It''s trying
to body-snatch me!"
Gwendolyn shot to her feet and pressed both hands against Jared''s temples.
Ice-blue divine radiance poured wildly into his head as she tried to stop that remnant soul.
But the remnant soul moved too fast.
It was as if it had waited countless years for this exact moment.
It knew every meridian in Jared''s body, every pressure point, like the back of its
hand.
Before Gwendolyn''s divine radiance could catch up, it had already rushed into Jared''s consciousness field.
In the next instant, Jared''s awareness was yanked straight into it.
His consciousness field was a golden sea.
Countless golden motes floated above its surface. They were his memories, his emotions, and fragments of his soul.
At the very center of the consciousness field, a book was shing with golden radiance.
It was the Aureate Codex.
It stood there quietly in the middle of that sea, giving off a soft, warm glow.
And now, an ice-blue phantom hung suspended above the consciousness field.
It was a blurred human outline.
Its face couldn''t be seen clearly. All Jared could make out was a suit of ancient armor and a pair of enormous ice-wings spread behind it.
A biting chill rolled off it.
Under its feet, a thinyer of frost had already formed across the golden sea inside
the consciousness field.
"How many years has it been..." the phantom said its voice old and low. "How many years has it been ve finally waited long enough for this moment."
The phantom''s gaze dropped to the book at the center of the consciousness field,
and his brow drew tight.
"The Aureate Codex? Didn''t see thating... You''ve actually got something like this in your consciousness field?"
His gaze swept across the golden ocean in the consciousness field again and caught the drifting golden motes, Jared''s memories.
"Golden Dragon Bloodline... chaotic force... and even the aura of the Frost Deity Branch..."
A trace of eagerness slipped into the phantom''s voice. "This body is even more perfect than I expected."
He lifted a hand and reached into the deepest part of Jared''s soul.