Dragon Raja 4; Chapter 42: Journey to the End of the World (42)

Dragon Raja 4

Suddenly, Reginleif realized she was the most ridiculous fool in this story. Why hadn’t she just gotten into a lifeboat and fled earlier? Why had she risked her life to come here and make a fool of herself? She could never surpass her, let alone become her.

She stared blankly at the person approaching with a knife, tears silently flowing down her face, mixing with the frozen blood on her cheeks, making her look like a dirty doll. She pouted and began to wail like a heartbroken child: “What’s so special about her! She doesn’t like you, but I can like you!”

Macallan couldn’t help but smile at such a childish remark. This girl had inherited part of the Black Emperor’s genes, but she hadn’t developed the heart of a Dragon King.

But Jörmungandr was slightly shaken, her pace visibly slowed. Her usual rhythm was broken, and her heels touched the ground again. Her expression shifted rapidly, sometimes mocking, sometimes confused, and sometimes appearing on the verge of screaming in anger. She pressed her palm hard against her forehead, veins bulging on her neck, and her eyes flashing dangerously. She was now only a few steps away from Reginleif, a few steps before she could swing her blade and decapitate her. But now, each inch she moved took tremendous effort, and the wooden ship’s deck cracked under the immense friction.

Macallan also slowed his pace, staring intently at Jörmungandr. “Are the memories of the past still troubling you, my dear sister?”

He gripped the bloodstained steel pipe tightly, but no one knew whether his target was Reginleif or Jörmungandr.

Chu Zihang slowly stepped back, the familiar folding knife slipping out of his sleeve; Xia Mi’s hands, which had been behind her back, lowered, revealing long, black claws.

They continued to gaze at each other, but in an instant, the misty, beautiful looks between them faded, replaced by two pairs of blazing dragon eyes.

The fog hadn’t lifted, but this quiet little world was about to collapse. The surroundings of the basketball court silently disintegrated into fragments, drifting away like dandelions in the wind.

They stood on burning cinders, twisted tracks stretching in all directions like steel serpents. A rusted train stood still beside the broken platform.

This was Station 100 of the Beijing Metro, Jörmungandr’s place of demise.

What had just occurred was nothing more than a beautiful illusion woven by Jörmungandr. Their souls were actually trapped in this abandoned subway station—this was their eternal battlefield.

Although the years they spent together were beautiful, the most unforgettable memories were often of the harm they caused each other. Chu Zihang hadn’t forgotten, and neither had Jörmungandr.

Reginleif’s voice echoed above them like a thunderous roar from the heavens: “What’s so special about her! She doesn’t like you, but I can like you!”

Earlier, all her shouting and screaming hadn’t awakened Chu Zihang, but now, with only frustration and defiance left in her, she didn’t expect that this one sentence would shake the peaceful souls within the fabricated space.

“So, you’re leaving me?” Xia Mi said, looking completely indifferent. “She’s right, there’s nothing special about me. There are plenty of others who can like you instead.”

“You always said Xia Mi was a figment, a fragment of memories in my mind. Only now do I understand. It wasn’t you who created this fictional Xia Mi—it was me, wasn’t it?”

Xia Mi was silent for a moment before tearing her jersey apart. She stood naked, slender and delicate, yet covered in gleaming scales with joints bent backward like a menacing demon.

This was Jörmungandr’s infant form from Chu Zihang’s memory, far from the image of the imperial girl in the red dress and golden crown, and nothing like the “World Serpent” said to be vast enough to encircle the globe. It seemed she purposely showed this form to Chu Zihang, a form caught between Xia Mi and Jörmungandr, with babyish cheeks still slightly puffy.

“Yes!” Jörmungandr slowly lifted her gaze, dragon eyes gleaming with mockery. “Every time I appeared before you, I used a different identity: the girl who went to the aquarium with you, the cheerleader who cheered for you, the classmate who studied with you after school… You gathered fragments of these people to piece together Xia Mi, a phantom you created to comfort yourself so you wouldn’t drown in the lake of loneliness. You were Xia Mi’s first creator. I merely played her role. She belongs to you. I’ve always only been Jörmungandr!”

“So Xia Mi was my prison, wasn’t she? My greatest enemy all along has been Xia Mi—an illusion I made for myself.”

“Now that you’ve grown up, you can abandon that illusion and walk out. There’s a whole world out there, full of girls who will like you,” Jörmungandr said with a cold smile. “Isn’t Reginleif nice? Her rank is no lower than mine. Though in the future, such ranks may become cheap, she’s lively and beautiful, just like Xia Mi. She’s the type you’d like.”

“This has nothing to do with her. The mist is clearing, and the truth will eventually emerge,” Chu Zihang said softly.

He recalled the dream, where he drifted past on a small boat, and Xia Mi stood with a paper umbrella on the bridge. The dense fog covered the world, and that was the only reason they could see no one but each other.

“Stop mentioning that dream!” Jörmungandr said coldly. “Your boat could pass under that bridge a thousand times, and I still wouldn’t jump aboard!”

Chu Zihang was slightly startled, but then he understood. That dream hadn’t been his alone. In the same dream, he and Jörmungandr had stood on different sides.

His entire body cracked with the sound of his bones snapping. The golden flames in his eyes blazed intensely, and his blood exploded directly into the third stage.

The heart of the lion for battle was unleashed, and boiling dragon blood surged through his body. The King’s Blaze burned fiercely, black serpents of fire, thousands of degrees hot, coiling around him.

Jörmungandr waved her hand, opening the domain of the Yanling: Heaven and Earth Furnace. Purple lightning coursed along the iron tracks, and the fragments of the tracks slowly floated upward, heated by the lightning to the verge of melting.

Suddenly, their figures disappeared from where they stood. The air currents they stirred in their high-speed movements broke the sound barrier, producing a deafening boom.

In the next moment, they had swapped places, standing back-to-back in stillness. The sonic boom cloud they created hadn’t dissipated, and the fire serpents still danced wildly in the mist. But the battle was already over.

“No regrets? You could’ve stayed in the mist forever,” Jörmungandr said, raising her hand and throwing the bent folding knife far away.

“Remembering the encounter in the mist is enough,” Chu Zihang said quietly, looking down at the dark hole in his left chest.

Jörmungandr’s power had always far surpassed his, no matter how much he enhanced his blood. His narrow victory years ago had only been due to luck.

“When your soul is obliterated, what will you use to remember?” Jörmungandr crushed the still faintly beating heart. “I won’t make the same mistake twice.”

In the real world, Jörmungandr lowered her hands from her eyes. She began to tremble slightly, as if unable to endure the overwhelming pain, and fell to her knees, clutching her chest tightly.

Reginleif heard a tremendous cracking sound from within her body, as though something had broken. She didn’t know whether to feel happy or nervous. The girl who had been about to kill her seemed to have suffered some internal injury, but the damage appeared to be linked to Chu. She didn’t want to hurt Chu but wanted him to wake from that shell.

Hesitantly, Reginleif reached out to support Jörmungandr, who still looked like Chu Zihang. However, the moment she touched Jörmungandr’s body, she realized she was as hot as freshly forged steel.

Jörmungandr suddenly raised her head, locking eyes with Reginleif. The sheer authority in her dragon pupils startled Reginleif into retreating. The sound of cracking bones filled the air as Jörmungandr’s body rapidly grew more muscular. Golden needles emerged from her skin and unfurled into bright red scales, while delicate white scales formed a pattern around her nose, like a flower blossom. Her bulging muscles and inhuman joints created a seductive yet powerful dragon form, achieving in moments what countless fitness enthusiasts could never accomplish in a lifetime.

This wasn’t evolution but a form of awakening. Moments later, Jörmungandr slowly straightened her back, revealing a nearly two-meter-tall, magnificent creature, unlike anything seen before. Her entire body emitted a soft glow like fireflies, her exquisite features radiated majesty, and her towering form exuded strength. Remarkably, both masculine and feminine beauty were perfectly embodied in her singular form.

However, Reginleif sensed that Chu Zihang’s presence had vanished. The person before her was as dazzling as a flower but as unyielding as steel. Her eyes were breathtakingly beautiful, yet they were devoid of warmth.

“So beautiful! So beautiful!” Macallan whispered in awe. “This is truly you! This is my sister, Jörmungandr!”

Jörmungandr slowly raised her eyes and stared at Macallan. “If I lose to my inner demons, will you kill me, brother?”

“If you lose to your inner demons, you won’t be you anymore. I’ll help you kill that demon and continue our shared mission.”

“He’s no demon, just some trash in my memory,” Jörmungandr said coldly. “It just takes a bit of time to clear away the garbage.”

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