Wasteland Echoer.

Chapter 640 Encountering "Choices" (Part 2)
“You look quite different from when we first met, Ye Mingyuan… No, I should call you ‘The Chosen One.’ According to the rules of the gods, once you replace a missing god and take His place, you must abandon your previous name, and everyone should address you by your new divine title.” Adaloni merely smiled politely, his face showing no excitement or joy at their long-awaited reunion.

At this moment, the Chooser had no wounds or traces of battle on his face, body, or arms. Instead, he had the fair face of a typical Khitan Ris youth, with short, jet-black hair, slightly pointed ears, and a not-so-high nose. Combined with his chubby cheeks and lips that appeared unusually red without any lipstick, he looked remarkably like a royal youth of the Flame Empire.

However, the slightly immature face paired with the broad, robust body looked somewhat unusual, as if divine power had caused a certain degree of "evolution" in human appearance, tending towards rationalization. However, the fiery robe, with its deep red base, cross-collar, and right-fastening style, was secured at the waist with rope to keep the exceptionally wide robe as close to the body as possible.

The Chosen One's fiery attire, except for the absence of a crown, closely resembles the exclusive formal wear of the Flame Empire's royal family. The upper part is embroidered with dragons in black thread, while the lower skirt is embroidered with dragon patterns with a distinctly oriental flair in gold thread. However, the back no longer features any dragon motifs, but instead displays a pattern of rice grains surrounding nine suns, symbolizing the agricultural traditions of the Flame Empire.

It seems that this fiery robe, exclusive to the chosen one of the gods, hints at His true identity.

"Yes, it's in that rural rice paddy-like Dragon Realm behind the Karlov Gate." The Chooser looked up at this space, so similar to the "Dwarven Core Realm," at the [Light] ore that was desperately consuming itself to generate a continuous stream of light energy, and at the searchlights that completely enveloped them, and said thoughtfully:

"I remember, the Karlov Gate was near Lake Jobel, at the foot of that mountain range. Back then, many expeditions came here spontaneously in search of the treasures left behind by the dragons. However, they didn't know that the so-called treasures of the dragons were actually the dragons themselves... which is you, Long Yuan."

"No, no, no, I shouldn't call you by your Khitan name, right? The language we use to communicate now doesn't belong to the Great Yan language family, but to the northern branch of Saint Lum language—Krusde. So, I should call you Adaloni, just like those hateful, pathetic, and pitiful Krusde people."

"It's just a title, a name, a... code name. Whether you're a god or a human, I should thank you for rescuing me from my bonds and granting me temporary freedom. But..." Adaloni's expression suddenly darkened. He raised his head slightly, looking at the Chooser with hostile eyes, and said in a deep voice:
"At that time, I only gained temporary freedom because the Eventre people at least respected the culture of the Khitanris and held a certain degree of worship and respect for the dragon race. But after you brought me to Crusde, I was plunged back into an even more difficult thousand-year imprisonment until the former leader of the Crusde Federation, Vasily, for his own conspiracy, personally brought me out together with 'Fubing' of the 'Order Society'."

"I...I'm just curious, what happened to you, General Light Hein of Eventlay, and Sophia, the girl you rescued from the 'Cursed Red Lord'? Why didn't you return to Khitanris in the end, but instead became a god after disappearing?"

"All of this is the choice of the wheel of fate, and the arrangement of the Creator. I came to this world originally to lead the Khitan-Lis people towards complete industrialization, hoping that they could break free from the shackles of the Black Min Islands, and go to the Far East, the dark deep sea, and the endless Central Ocean, to completely drive out all the ancient gods and usher in a great age of exploration." As the Chosen One spoke, he raised his arms extremely high, and with a wave of his hands, a layer of fierce and quickly disappearing flames appeared.

"It was the colonial era, wasn't it? The Age of Exploration hadn't fully begun. The power of the ancient gods was too great, so much so that they still controlled half the ocean. Expeditions west of the Endless Ice Ocean were almost completely wiped out, ultimately only reaching Vinlandia Island, on the edge of the Endless Western Ocean," Adaloni snorted disdainfully, refuting the Chosen One, saying:
"Venlandia is less an outpost that humanity painstakingly hid from the ancient forces, and more a 'forbidden fruit' given by the ancient gods to monitor humanity. Just like the apple tree that God deliberately planted in the Garden of Eden to punish Adam and Eve."

"Chosen One, even if you stay in Khitanris, it will be difficult to usher in the Age of Exploration, but rather a great colonial era. The direction of this world is different from your original world. There is a fundamental difference in the underlying logic between the two eras. I predict that perhaps a complete Age of Exploration will not arrive until after the Star Era."

“It seems, Long Yuan, no, Adaloni, you haven’t been alone in the more than a thousand years you’ve spent in the Sener prison. This knowledge was probably given to you by the guards who kept you, and by those who came in from the outside, wasn’t it?” The Chosen One sensed hostility in Adaloni’s tone, glanced at him, and then turned away with a displeased expression.

"Do you know, Chosen One? The number of 'tragic beings' in Sernar Prison is more than ten times that of the Dragon Realm. Those 'extraordinary monsters,' 'mages,' 'extraordinary beings,' 'lost beings,' and 'alien monsters' imprisoned at the bottom have basically all gone completely insane after a year of imprisonment. Of course, many of them were already insane to begin with," Adaloni lamented to the Chosen One.
"The 'sorrow' there will sometimes plunge you into a hallucination of cold and heat, sometimes make your head dizzy and your whole body ache, sometimes trap you in a nightmare from which you cannot wake up, and sometimes make you struggle between mental derangement and real-world pain. If it weren't for my gradually disappearing dragon bloodline protecting me, I would probably have become a demonic dragon long ago, a puppet of the Crusaders."

"Actually, you want to know what happened after Wright Hein joined the war, right? I remember, I was originally going to take you and Sophia out of the city to Nabsk in the east to meet him, and then, after successfully entering Crusad through the war, return to the Flame Empire." The Chosen One flicked the wide sleeves of his flame-patterned robe, turned around, put his hands behind his back, looked at the two of them, and began to speak:

"However, in Torii Town, I encountered the Lord of the Night. At that time, Light Hein had already died from the first round of 'divine fire' that Eventlay threw at Nebusker. I was forced to pray to the Lord of the Night to preserve Light Hein's soul."

"What's the use of preserving a soul?" Adaloni roared, barely able to conceal the rage in his eyes.
"We both know that once the physical body is destroyed, the soul loses its vessel. Even if the Creator himself descends, he cannot revive it. Even if he is revived, he will only be a walking corpse with some of the original body's memories."

"And the soul that the Lord of the Night preserved for you, I guess it was preserved using the 'consciousness transfer technique,' right? In the words of the Crusad scientists, what was preserved was merely a copy of its memories; its soul had long since disappeared, and everything had returned to the vast universe created by the Creator."

"That's not true!" The Chosen One suddenly turned around, glaring angrily at Adaloni. Immediately afterward, he swung his right hand upward in a wide arc, unleashing a burst of fire-based magical energy in the form of a dragon from within his body, which scattered and rushed outward like a bursting supernova.

Fortunately, Dark's water-based magical energy has a natural sensitivity to fire-based magical energy. He urgently mobilized the water within his body to form an ice shield just strong enough to withstand one attack from a god, thus neutralizing the fierce flames.

However, when the flames, which reeked of engine oil and decay, came into contact with the nearly smooth floor, they strangely split into grids of similar size and evenly spaced intervals. At their center, they formed cauldrons used by the ancient nobles of the Flame Empire for cooking, or perhaps immortals were unconsciously refining "elixirs" to strengthen their bodies.

In reality, these rather strange cauldrons of fire lasted for less than three seconds before dissipating in all directions, leaving behind streams of flame like flowing water, which transformed into the "divine bird Golden Crow" of the Khitan-Lis culture and vanished into the air, leaving behind crimson spider lilies that instantly grew and bloomed from the floor.

"The Lord of the Night told me that my mission was to rescue you dragons from the dark and hopeless Dragon Realm and become the new leaders of the dragon race. However, the tide of mechanization and industrialization has swept through the Flame Empire for many years. The 'Western Reforms' and the 'Iron Movement' have turned even a nation like Khitanris, rich in magical energy and natural power, into a 'barren graveyard of magic.'" Blood tears streamed from the Chooser's eyes as he stared at Adaroni and roared:
"Do you know? The Supreme Spirit Emperor's plan was originally perfect. The power of the spirit stones, the opening of the floating divine realm and the Dragon Realm Gate on the edge of Flame City were originally very stable and would not attract meteorites. However, it was the imbalance of the demonic source power that caused the 'Flame Balance' to erupt. In order to reconcile the lost fire power in Flame City, 'Flame Meteors' naturally condensed in the sky and crashed into the city to make up for everything."

"Therefore, I was unable to lead the dragon race and Khitanris to become the new emperor, the new 'dragon leader,' and was forced to wander in an era of depleted magical energy until I met the Lord of the Night in Torii Town."

"Aren't you afraid that everything the Lord of the Night says is actually a carefully crafted lie? During the Third Age, he also attempted to usurp power from Khitanris and support the prince he had groomed," Dark illustrated.

The decision-maker was taken aback at first, then carefully examined the young man dressed as a Cruz officer, sniffing the scent on Dark's body, and sneered:

"Your power comes from the Lord of the Night, and your profession is also a gift from the Lord of the Night. You are His apostle, yet you oppose Him. That's interesting. Now I will tell you more about my story."

The Chosen One stood atop the mechanical coffin belonging to the Supreme Spirit Emperor, embedded within the platform, gazing at Adaloni, whose dragon horns and wings had grown back, whose arms were covered in scales, and whose eyes glowed crimson yet remained oblivious, and at Dark, who still possessed a composure and spiritual power beyond human comprehension, and further recounted:

"The Crusaders told me that they invited me and Wright Hein to live in Icefall City not because they valued Wright Hein's ability to kill the Cursed Red Lord and eliminate the risk of the 'Strange Church' for Icefall City, but simply because they valued his military talent."

“But since Eventlay and Crusad have gone to war, and Light Hein is dead, in order to return to the Flame Empire, I have no choice but to hand over Adaloni in exchange for the opportunity to leave the empire. This is also part of the deal between the Lord of the Night and me.”

“Keep talking, you scoundrel of a selector.” Adaloni suppressed his inner rage, his hands trembling. Even though the “Khitan Rys Ring” around his neck was shining with a red glow that was rapidly releasing the power of the dragon race, he still managed to retain some of the rationality that belonged to human beings.

"The Lord of the Night forbade my immediate return to Khitanris, for the 'Prophecy of the End' has already appeared. Just before Ryan Hein died, he too read the 'Prophecy' which appeared in his dreams in poetic form. At that time, His apostle, Arctosia, actually clearly revealed the future of the Crusad Empire, and the future of the entire world—that is, what would happen after the 'New Era Crisis.'" The Chosen One took a half-step back and explained:
"Wright Hein knew that if he did not escape Crusad's transport convoy, he would become a wronged soul under the 'Heavenly Punishment Fire,' but he still chose to walk towards death without hesitation, just to offer his soul to the Lord of the Night and secure a place for me among the ordinal gods."

"The Lord of the Night predicted that the Crusd Empire would be destroyed in this 'Heavenly Punishment Fire,' which would then trigger the 'Early Heartless Virus,' which had been buried deep underground for a long time, causing the 'New Era Crisis' five hundred years ahead of schedule. However, the Goddess of Light, the Lord of Eternal Crimson, and other gods of light/fire, in order to plunder the powerful energy contained in the 'Heavenly Punishment Fire,' secretly weakened its power, which ultimately led to the hegemony of Ivan XXII, causing you to be forgotten in the Senel Prison until now."

"Are you ready to repent?" Aardroni asked, his voice a mixture of admonition and warning, as he growled like a wild beast.

"No." The Chosen One's answer was straightforward. "Because only the true 'New Era Crisis' will cause the magical energy in nature to revive. He wants me to first record everything that happened in these two eras as the Chosen One, and then, after the magical energy is sufficient, let me restore my suppressed dragon bloodline and become the true Order 3 God: the Dragon Sovereign."

"You, me, and even the Order Keepers and the Destiny Chasers of this era are all the price we must pay. Only when the true dragons collectively roar at the 'Dawn of Darkness' can humanity and all living beings escape the long night of the wasteland and usher in the dawn of stars."