The atmosphere howled as thick clouds swirled and gathered high in the heavens, forming a vast, tumultuous sea of clouds. Yet the overaccumulation of vapor robbed this sea of clouds of its pure white hue, transforming it into the ominous darkness that precedes a thunderstorm.
It was like the calm before the storm, waiting only for the final moment to arrive.
The magic within the atmosphere was also changing. Centered around the supreme divine body, the concentration of magic in the air was increasing at an alarming rate.
Visible streams of air coiled around the goddess's body. At this moment, Tiamat was the very center of the world.
All these changes were brought about by the goddess standing above the sea, even while she remained self-sealed.
Yes, self-sealed.
Standing so close to Tiamat, Alaric could finally see her current form.
Tiamat's appearance was no different from what Alaric had once witnessed in the endless deep sea: the spiritual foundation of the Femme Fatale, which embodied the destiny of Alaric at this moment.
The emotions in his heart dissipated entirely upon seeing the restraints binding Tiamat's body.
Her hands and feet were restricted by objects resembling a straitjacket, preventing Tiamat from moving freely. She could only stand silently above the boundless sea.
Even after awakening from her cradle, she had not moved an inch toward the land, merely sending her offspring, Lahmu, to attack Uruk.
The chaotic tides, seen as an extension of Tiamat's authority, had also calmed after sending Lahmu ashore.
All of this was simply because Tiamat herself was sealed, limiting her ability to act to its fullest extent.
As for the origin of this seal, Alaric saw it immediately.
It was Tiamat's self-imposed seal.
A mother's love for her children—
The binding rope that wounds Beast II itself.
Though Beast II lamented and hated humanity's collective unconscious rejection of her—banishing her with the sentiment of "We no longer need you"—her deeper consciousness accepted this as "inevitable."
As a Beast whose essence was rooted in "motherhood," Beast II, even at the very end, retained the desire to protect humanity.
This self-imposed seal was the physical manifestation of that desire.
Realizing this, Alaric lowered his gaze, staring at Tiamat below. The turmoil in his heart grew ever more intense, to the point where even Alaric could no longer suppress it.
The Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-i-Sabbah, acted according to fate, a follower of the will of the heavens. Fate was destiny.
Alaric thought to himself: he had now seen the fate of this moment.
The fate of a wanderer estranged from his timeline—
Even if it was false and fleeting, existing only in this place, it was still fate that Alaric chose to follow. Guided by his heart, he made his decision.
"Tiamat!"
Gripping the holy lance tightly, Alaric's lips curled into a smile as he spoke: "Abandoned by the world! Are you truly my destiny?"
His voice, laden with countless emotions, overwhelmed the roaring winds and reached Tiamat's ears.
As if she truly understood the question Alaric had posed, Tiamat, standing atop the sea of life, slowly raised her head.
In her dazzling star-like eyes, there was only the figure of a single person. She gently opened her mouth—
"Aaaaaa——"
The response was not one of intelligence, but a primal roar, like that of an ancient beast.
Though her voice was like the sound of silver bells, the magic it carried sent alarm bells ringing in Alaric's mind.
Surging magic spread rapidly into the heavens with Tiamat's cry. Below, the surface of the sea began to form whirlpools, while the sky above, directly struck by the sound waves, was torn apart.
The atmosphere was instantly shredded, and under the influence of that magic, it turned into a vacuum, allowing the magic to spread unhindered.
BOOOOOM!
A deafening roar exploded in the heavens, rolling waves of air clashing against the ominous sea of clouds.
Having dodged early, Alaric watched the scene unfold, raising an eyebrow.
The sheer magic within Tiamat's casual cry was enough to make Alaric feel a sense of crisis. If he had taken that sound wave head-on, Alaic felt that even he would have been injured.
The power itself was secondary—this attack, which rejected communication, seemed to confirm Tiamat's stance.
Yet, when Alaic once again locked eyes with Tiamat, his pale golden dragon-like pupils suddenly widened—
In that instant, Alaric finally understood why the Mother of Life, Tiamat, was able to draw his spirit into communication despite being trapped in her cradle.
The missing medium was finally revealed—
It was the blood of the Red Dragon that Alaric possessed.
Tiamat was the origin of all life, the Mother of Origins, whose primordial divine body had taken the form of a dragon.
And Alaric, on the other hand, carried the bloodline of the Red Dragon of Britain. Though this bloodline, having evolved, had lost its original form and was developing toward a higher category of the dragon, its essence and origin remained the Dragon of Britain.
Tied to Britain, this connection deeply bound every part of Alaic, an inescapable fate lasting until the end of his life.
It was the curse—or love—of a departed king, transformed into a Proof of Love under the witness of the world's end.
This connection, manifested in the bloodline of the Red Dragon, gave the Mother of Origins, Tiamat, an avenue to act. The Mother of Origins' call, as the voice of a mother's love, could overcome any obstacle to reach her child. Therefore, even while trapped in her cradle, Tiamat had been able to briefly draw Alaric's consciousness from his body.
Thus, the two had met in that distant, unreachable dream.
And this absurd encounter, which had occurred once before, seemed to be happening again at this very moment.
Before the will of the Supreme Divine Spirit, Alaric, as a mere human, appeared incomparably insignificant, unable to do anything but allow the call of Tiamat to take effect.
This caused Alaric's consciousness to once again leave his body—
But this time, the cradle had already disappeared, and the false place that allowed Alaric and Tiamat to meet had also vanished. As a result, Alaric quickly regained consciousness, as if he had merely been momentarily absent-minded.
Yet, in the face of a formidable enemy, even a single moment of distraction could lead to fatal consequences—
Light approached.
It was a silent light that surpassed the speed of Alaric's reaction. Even with his instinctive warning, Alaric was unable to evade it.
The beam of light seemed to have truly reached the realm of light itself, exceeding the limits of human comprehension.
Squelch!
Before this beam of light, it was only natural that his body would be pierced through.
A bowl-sized hole, clean and through-and-through, appeared on Alaric's chest. His smooth ribs, along with broken organs, wriggled faintly, while scarlet blood gushed out from the wound, flowing into the Sea of Life below!
In that instant alone, Alaric's draconic heart was completely pierced and destroyed. The extraordinary restoration of his magical power and its operation were seemingly severed entirely!
Alaric's expression didn't change. He began generating magical energy using the Holy Spear Rhongomyniad, combining it with magical energy drawn from the ley lines to heal his body.
A mere mortal wound caused by a pierced heart was not enough to kill him.
The damage to his heart was secondary; the critical issue was whether the magic circuits represented by the draconic heart could heal.
Magic circuits, regarded as pseudo-organs, were far more difficult to restore than physical tissue. Although Alaric believed in his regenerative abilities, he still harbored slight concern.
What troubled Alaric the most, though, was the method of attack Tiamat had employed—
That light, without a doubt, had been fired from Tiamat's twin stellar eyes, moving at an incredible speed that left Alaic completely unable to react.
It truly seemed to have reached the speed of light—if not, then at least near-light speed.
Before the Primordial Goddess, the physical laws anchored to the planet's surface seemed to hold no sway.
The ultimate boundaries sought by humanity were nothing more than the ordinary to the Mother of Origins.
"What exactly are you thinking?"
Alaric clutched his chest, staring at Tiamat below. Scarlet blood continuously flowed from between his fingers, as if water from the heavenly river were falling from the Nine Heavens, merging with the chaotic tides.
If a battle had broken out at this moment, Alaric would have accepted it. But up to now, he had not sensed any hostility from Tiamat.
It was as if these two attacks were merely greetings, not even qualifying as real assaults on Tiamat.
Yet, just these two trivial greetings had inflicted terrifying injuries on Alaric, preventing him from even beginning the fight.
A pierced heart was already a fatal wound for humans. Even a Servant would perish from such an injury. The heart was not only the location of the spiritual core but also the channel for magical energy.
If the heart was pierced, one would be either dead or close to it.
Even after suffering such an injury, Alaric still did not harbor hostility or killing intent toward Tiamat.
Staring at Tiamat, his heart surged with a desire to possess her—
To take her… to touch her… to speak to her… to devour her…
The various longings that had once appeared in his heart now occupied Alaric's entire being, leaving no room for hostility—only the natural desire to consume her.
This was wrong.
Alaric was deeply aware of this. Tiamat, one of the Seven Evils of Humanity, was the Beast of Restraint that devoured human order. She was the enemy of the world, the enemy of humanity, and the obstacle standing in the way of Alaric's path to a golden future.
He had to fight her, to defeat her.
This had been his confirmed objective ever since learning of Tiamat's awakening. But Alaric—
"Is this fate, King Hassan?"
Staring blankly at Tiamat, Alaric recalled that from their very first meeting, he had been able to see in Tiamat a situation similar to his own.
The Mother of Origins, Tiamat, was the primordial womb abandoned after creation. She had been used as the soil that nurtured life, but when Earth's environment stabilized and its ecosystem was established, she was deemed unnecessary and exiled to the Imaginary Number World (the Inner World—not even a parallel world, but a lifeless imaginary space).
Compared to Tiamat, who had been rejected and banished after creation, Alaric had been rejected by the world from the very beginning.
Forever unclear about his existence, Alaic had struggled to survive in the singularities created by the Magecraft King, experiencing much and growing greatly.
It was only with the assistance of the Lion King and countless knights that he had made it to this point, standing face-to-face with the Primordial Goddess.
And at this moment, Alaric could conclude:
Among all humans in this world—
Alaric alone was not one of Tiamat's children. He was the sole anomaly among the seven billion.