Dragon Raja 4; Chapter 29: Journey to the End of the World (29)

Dragon Raja 4

“Can’t you trigger some self-destruction mechanism?”

“Our engineers are trying, but I doubt they’ll make it in time.”

“So, what do you want written on your tombstone? And what flowers should I bring when I visit your grave?”

“We still have a near-Earth tracking weapon: ‘Longinus.’ It’s now a race between Longinus and the “Divine Punishment”.”

“The Gattuso family sure has a lot of toys. Well, good luck then,”  Anjou said, hanging up.

Everyone was teetering on the edge of life and death, and they could only rely on themselves. As he made his call, three drones flew in a triangular formation, screaming toward them. With the previous attempt, they had underestimated the combat prowess of these two old men, so this time they sent an entire squadron.

Henkel stood in the middle of the road, his body half-paralyzed, staring blankly at the distant ruins, looking more aged and forlorn than he had pretended to be.  Anjou could imagine how he felt, like a farmer watching his life’s work go up in flames. Henkel was now a homeless old man.  Anjou walked over, handing him a cigar. Henkel turned around, stared at him silently for a moment, then took the cigar with trembling hands, clamping it between his lips. He leaned in toward the lighter Anjou offered.

Anjou helped Henkel over to the roadside, leaning against the fence. “The genetic leak from 1943, the original explosion site that’s still missing, and the Divine Kingdom within the Arctic Circle… everything stems from there. That ship has been quietly sailing for 13 years, but this time, it’s really going to find the gate to the Divine Kingdom. Then, the new gods will begin to replace the old. We’re not on the list for the new gods. No matter how hard we try, it won’t make a difference. The key is whether the gate in the Arctic Circle opens or not.”

Henkel nodded. “The icebreaker lost contact with the outside world because it sailed into a massive incubation site. When ancient dragons hatch, they generate a powerful elemental field to protect their incubation ground. It’s like a black hole for information—nothing goes in, and nothing comes out. How long has that thing been incubating in the Arctic Circle? A hundred years? A thousand years? Even a single genetic leak from it has caused explosive evolution in the surrounding marine life. It could truly change the entire world.”

Anjou also nodded. “What’s incubating in that Arctic hatchery… is far scarier than anything we’ve encountered so far!”

At that moment, the drones had already adjusted their aim, preparing to launch missiles at them. Yet, neither of them paid any attention to the dangerous iron birds.

Two F-15D fighter jets swooped down from the clouds, firing decoy missiles first. The missiles created a huge fan-shaped barrage, the bright flare of the burning thermite drawing the drones’ missiles away. With a deafening explosion, the drone squadron rapidly ascended to escape the fighter jets’ pursuit, but the jets’ machine guns had already begun spitting fire. These two jets had been tailing them ever since they left the estate—EVA’s promised air support.

“All of our hopes now rest on that boy you sent on the ship, right? Chu Zihang?” Henkel gazed at the fireworks-filled sky. “Will he make the right choices?”

“He’s not just any boy. He’s someone who returned from a Nibelungen,”  Anjou said quietly. “If I’m not mistaken, he’s been chosen either by a supreme being or by fate itself.”

“What exactly are you people nurturing? Lu Mingfei, Chu… Are you trying to raise a dragon you can control?”

“I thought I knew, but what I know might only be what some people want me to know… I hope he can destroy that incubation site.”

“How will he destroy it? Are we going to send him an atomic bomb? They’re not hard to buy, but we don’t have such exceptional couriers.” Henkel shrugged.

“That icebreaker is nuclear-powered. Its reactor is a bomb,”  Anjou said, pulling out his phone to call another number. “EVA, notify Lu Mingfei and Caesar to deploy.”

Meanwhile, in the sky over the Atlantic, a flight bound for Rio de Janeiro suddenly dropped in altitude, the plane shaking violently in turbulent air, as if something had gone wrong.

As the passengers were gripped by collective fear, a flight attendant approached a young male passenger, kneeling on one knee beside him and gently shaking his arm.

She was the brightest and gentlest of all the flight attendants, with a graceful figure, a sweet smile, golden hair, and the striking features typical of a Bavarian girl.

The young man had just woken from a dream and was confused by this sudden and beautiful encounter. He locked eyes with the Bavarian girl for two seconds, reluctant to look away, but eventually, he shyly turned his head.

“Mr. Lu, I’m sorry, but we have to change your itinerary. You will immediately transfer to a connecting flight. I apologize for the abruptness, but unfortunately, you cannot cancel this change yourself,” the Bavarian girl said sternly.

The young man snapped awake. “Huh? Are you from the college? What’s going on? Where do I transfer? Who should I contact?”

He had bought a budget economy ticket, and since passengers in economy had to pay extra to use the internet, this was one of the rare moments when he wasn’t in contact with EVA.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying. I only know that under orders from the airline’s higher-ups, based on very complicated international and air traffic laws, I must carry out the orders given to me. Please follow me.” The Bavarian girl grabbed his hand and his travel bag, leading him to the middle of the cabin. The young man felt a bit awkward under the envious and angry stares of the other male passengers.

The head flight attendant had already marked an X on the cabin floor with tape, and the Bavarian girl positioned the young man on the mark while three other attendants helped him put on a parachute.

“Stop joking! What kind of commercial flight prepares parachute jumps? Are you really not from the college? Don’t expect me to jump from here! This is the Atlantic! I may be an intern commissioner, but I’m still human—I have rights, okay? No matter how urgent the situation is, even if the world’s ending, you can’t just throw me into the ocean!” The young man rambled, but he still cooperated with the girls’ actions.

“If you make it to land alive, feel free to call me.” The Bavarian girl slipped her business card into his pocket and patted his chest.

Suddenly, the head attendant opened the door behind the young man, and the pressurized cabin’s high-pressure airflow blew him, along with the door and several pieces of luggage, into the blue sky and white clouds.

The pilot had lowered the altitude earlier just for this moment. The plane was now flying smoothly at 3,000 meters, so the pressure difference inside and outside the cabin wasn’t significant. Even with the door gone, the plane could still land safely—after all, the nearest airport was less than 50 kilometers away. But as the young man had pointed out, below him was indeed the vast Atlantic Ocean. His superiors couldn’t wait for him to land and regroup at that airport; they had sent him directly on a new mission.

“One day, you’ll be the death of me…” his sigh lingered in the ears of the remaining passengers.

“Thank you for flying with us! Hermes Airlines looks forward to welcoming you again!” The flight attendants’ cheerful voices echoed in the sky. The young man had never wondered why EVA always booked him with Hermes Airlines, even when he didn’t specify the airline, or why it was so easy for him to get a platinum card with them. Cassell College was a major shareholder of the company, so of course, EVA prioritized supporting its own business.

A transport plane burst through the clouds, having been trailing the flight from below the entire time. The young man deployed his parachute, grabbed the rope lowered from the transport plane, and skillfully climbed aboard.

At that moment, in the heart of Rome, as the city’s lights flickered on, a golden-haired young man gazed at the twilight sky.

A meteor-like flash streaked across the sky, but no cataclysmic impact followed. Couples out for dates and busy office workers didn’t notice the phenomenon, but a group of priests walking out of a church suddenly stopped, knelt together, and began to pray.

In the distant low Earth orbit, the “Divine Punishment” No. 111 was destroyed by Longinus before it could open its missile bay, scattering the hard tungsten rods into space. Longinus, in fact, is a satellite equipped with a high-power laser, operating in a higher orbit. At the brief moment when their orbits intersected, it opened fire and hit its target.

Frost had originally asked Caesar to leave his office, but Caesar stayed. He trusted the Gattuso family’s engineers and understood that in the rush hour, only he could be evacuated by helicopter. The people in this office had no choice but to await their fate or flee helplessly, so he decided to stay with them. As long as he stayed, their morale would not break.

“The crisis has been averted,” Parsi pulled down the curtains, “Shall we head to the airport now? Your private jet is fully fueled and ready to fly to an airport near the Arctic Circle.”

Caesar turned around and stared at the large screen, signaling Parsi to replay the video.

The video featured Anjou giving a speech at the school board, recorded six months earlier. A few minutes ago, this document had been sent to Caesar’s PAD, and after watching it, he remained silent for a long time.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what you have just received is an updated version of the Earth Report. Half a month ago, our exploration team successfully found the resting place of the Earth and Mountain King. We used to believe that with the fall of the Dragon Kings, the Nibelungen they constructed would collapse, disappear, or lock itself, but we were wrong. It has fused with the real world. We found a hatchery filled with iron tracks in our world, it was an abandoned subway repair factory in the western suburbs of Beijing. Many of its details match the descriptions of the end of the Nibelungen as described by Commissioner Chu Zihang.”  Anjou gestured,

The hatchery that Chu Zihang had drawn from memory, and a photo of the abandoned factory, were projected side by side for the board members.