Chapter 28: Diving into the Aether
Having eaten his fill and fully restored, Kai Xiusu stood once more before the massive stone door.
He didn’t push through immediately. Instead, he activated his abilities:
【Bear’s Resilience】
【Cat’s Elegance】
【Owl’s Wisdom】
Bear’s Resilience fortified his Constitution, Cat’s Elegance sharpened his Dexterity, and Owl’s Wisdom heightened his Perception. The Red Dragon was now at peak readiness—enhanced in every way.
After slathering himself in what he jokingly called the “Zoo Series” of spells, Kai Xiusu still felt uneasy. This was the legacy of a Legendary Druid—no one knew what traps or surprises might remain.
【Golden Shell】
Golden Elemental Energy surged within his core, converging upon the Red Dragon’s scales. They shimmered into a brilliant, metallic gold—so radiant, one might mistake him for a true Golden Dragon.
【Protection from Lightning Damage】
A faint, invisible barrier flared across his body as he let out a low, resonant cry. It shielded him from lightning strikes—no small comfort for a spellcaster.
“After all, I’m a spell-focused warrior.”
“Can’t have a proper performance without a little showmanship.”
Glancing down at the shimmering aura of spells clinging to his form, Kai Xiusu finally felt a spark of confidence. At last, he had some real底气.
The Red Dragon fixed his gaze on the stone door, took a deep breath, and stepped forward with unwavering resolve.
【Knock】
His claws flared with arcane energy as they struck the door.
Boom…
A thunderous crack echoed through the chamber. The heavy stone door groaned, then slowly began to rise.
Before him, the world opened up—vast, endless, and breathtaking.
It was a colossal, open space—wide enough to cradle an entire mountain. Yet only a narrow, suspended stone bridge stretched ahead. All other ground had collapsed downward by dozens of meters.
The cliffs were perfectly vertical, as if carved by a blade from above. Peering down from the bridge, beneath the eternal glow of Azure Flame Lamps, Kai Xiusu saw a chaotic graveyard of relics: shattered, colossal statues; the broken ruins of grand constructions; faded, indecipherable inscriptions; rusted, ancient weapons; and the towering skeletons of giants.
Above, the high ceiling was covered in murals—crude, not artistic, but pulsing with raw, primal power.
He saw the ancient wars between giants and dragons.
He saw the glorious expanse of the giant empire at its height.
He saw the towering figures of the giant gods.
And he saw the empire’s tragic fall—its cities reduced to ash, its people swallowed by ruin.
This wasn’t just art.
It was history—etched in stone.
This is what he collected—the relics of the giant empire, Kai Xiusu thought, stepping carefully across the bridge.
His wings slightly unfurled, his steps quiet, he remained alert—every sense tuned to the slightest threat.
At the far end of the bridge stood a throne.
Still stone, towering over twenty meters tall. No ornate carvings, only ancient, mysterious runes etched into its surface.
And seated upon it—motionless, silent—was the remains of a Storm Giant.
Its purple-gray skin was dust-covered, as if it had slumbered here for tens of thousands of years, unbroken by time. Yet, strangely, it hadn’t decayed into bones.
The last Storm Giant Seer…
Is this Landta?
The Red Dragon stared in fascination. How could one being—alone—create such a monument? But the sheer scale of this mausoleum proved beyond doubt the power he once wielded in life.
Kai Xiusu advanced, nearing the corpse to within a few dozen meters—
Then, disaster struck.
One of the giant’s eyes snapped open.
Within it raged a storm—unfathomable, furious, as if it had been waiting for centuries to punish the intruder.
Around him, strange crystals flared violently, pulsing with frenzied, overflowing elemental energy. The energy surged, coalescing like a living storm.
“Damn it!” Kai Xiusu felt a wave of terrifying magical force erupt from the corpse.
This power…
The Red Dragon lifted his head.
A maelstrom of swirling black clouds erupted from the giant’s body—spreading, multiplying, like a ravenous beast devouring the cavern. Lightning crackled. Winds howled. Thunder roared.
“Revenge Storm!”
The voice—ancient, primal—boomed through the chamber like a curse from the dawn of time.
Boom!
The shockwave alone shattered stalactites from the ceiling. Massive stones crashed down, filling the air with dust and debris.
Whhhrrrr—
The sound hammered into Kai Xiusu’s ears. It felt like being struck with a warhammer. For an instant, he was deaf—his world reduced to silence and white noise.
The storm clouds surged forward, closing in.
With no time to spare, the Red Dragon ignored the pain, the ringing, the dizziness—his will surged forward.
“Instant Teleportation!”
He channeled the spell with every ounce of focus, praying—begging—for it to work.
This was no ordinary spell. Teleportation had only a fifty-fifty chance of breaching the veil between the Prime Material Plane and the Astral Plane. If it failed, he’d be caught in the storm’s fury—no armor, no magic, no hope.
It worked!
A surge of energy tore through him—his body ripped from reality, crossing the boundary between the material and the ethereal.
[You have cast 【Teleportation】]
[Acquired special state: “Diving into the Aether”]
The Astral Plane—intermediary between the Prime Material Plane and the Inner Planes. It is a realm where the Void Essence of the Astral Plane touches every corner of the material world. Though the two planes are parallel and never intersect, one can glimpse the other.
And now, Kai Xiusu stood at the edge of that boundary.
Instantly, the world turned gray and black. His vision filled with chaotic, writhing lines.
His body entered a Disabled State—motionless, adrift in the endless void.
Then—
He saw it.
The storm clouds, still raging, swallowed his former position.
First came a torrential downpour of Corrosive Rain—pitting the stone bridge with countless holes.
Then, hailstones rained from the sky, crashing onto the stone with sharp, cracking impacts.
Lightning struck—powerful, devastating—ripping deep craters into the bridge’s surface. A storm of crackling electricity erupted, consuming the area where the Red Dragon had stood.
Lightning flashed in every direction—blinding, relentless.
Thunderbolts wove into a terrifying lattice, forming a Thunder Prison—a cage of death that reduced anything caught within to ash.
Boom!
Boom! Boom!
Multiple lightning strikes detonated the bridge, collapsing massive stone slabs into the abyss below. Had one struck the Red Dragon, he would have been vaporized.
Wind and ice raked the land beneath the storm. The once-grand mausoleum was now a desolate ruin—washed clean by fury.
To Kai Xiusu, the world had become a monochrome Mortuary of the Multitudes.
He had survived—thanks to the Teleportation spell, now safely within the Astral Plane.
Yet even now, his heart raced.
If he had stayed behind—no matter how strong his protection spells—there was no way he could have survived that storm. Not with its frenzied lightning, not with endless ice and wind.
This…
A powerful gravitational pull tugged at him—pulling him back toward the Prime Material Plane, sealing the rift in the Planar Barrier.
He fought it with every ounce of will. But it was futile.
He was too weak. The laws of the planes were beyond him.
He could only submit.
[Special state “Diving into the Aether” lost]
The Red Dragon reappeared—right where he had been.
His eyes widened.
What the hell—
Before he could react, the elemental energy surged again.
Winds and ice tore at him. Electric arcs leapt across the ground, racing toward his limbs.
Above, the storm clouds churned, gathering another terrifying Thunderbolt—its growl low, deep, like a rage long suppressed.
The worst was over.
But this—this was only the echo.
(End of Chapter)
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