Tonight, Alice joins the hunt.

The timeline for the two of them then jumped dramatically, instantly transporting them to a distant place several months in the future.

Time flies like an arrow, and the days slip by like a shuttle. This metaphor has become a reality at this moment. The sun rises and then sets, and the emerald green leaves turn red and yellow before withering away. Time and space rush towards some future place with a momentum that is even faster than when flowing backward. And when it stops, the middle of the night, with its stars and moon, has returned to the two of them.

Zheng Zha and Xilin appeared once again at the gates of Morningstar City, which looked much the same as when they left. The only difference was that Lydia, the servant who had been blocking the gate, had completely vanished. Alice, who was standing nearby, had also disappeared.

Alice isn't here, and neither is Lydia.

Celine reached out and touched the sky. A detection spell, largely based on information gathering principles, was smoothly cast. The altered 'past' history appeared clearly in her eyes. She quickly filtered out the useless information that dominated the intelligence, extracting and reading the valuable parts of the past.

First, the legend of the Dragonborn has vanished. Although the Dragonborn song still resounds in the taverns, no certified Dragonborn has appeared on the land, no one has witnessed the absorption of dragon souls. Zheng Zha, who slew the dragon, is revered by the many mortals of Whiterun as a hermit who wishes to remain anonymous. But no matter how high the rewards and honors offered by the lords, no one can find the whereabouts of this 'Dragon Slayer'.

Secondly, the cities tragically destroyed by the dragons all survived. Whiterun, Loristed, and Morthal, which was later half-destroyed, all remained intact. Dragons still appeared, but were repelled by many local heroes and mortal armies, or simply did not attack these cities that should have been destroyed. Many who should have died survived, and moreover, the civil war sweeping Skyrim was forcibly suppressed by the dragons before it could erupt. Rumors circulated that negotiations between the Imperial Legion and the rebels were already underway in secret. Perhaps peace was just around the corner.

Third, a seemingly cold and aloof swordswoman who had passed through Whiterun vanished into the vast wasteland after leaving the city gates. No one ever saw her again, and no one paid her any attention. Aside from a few mortals who had once interacted with her, the entire landscape had forgotten her.

The Dragonborn have vanished from the earth, and the world has become a better place because of their disappearance.

Celine sighed softly, slightly relieved. She glanced at Zheng Zha beside her, who had been looking around anxiously the moment he returned, muttering, "Margot Lloyd is missing... what should we do?" His worry was palpable. She gently rubbed her forehead.

How should I talk to him about it?

Tell him the truth, tell him that all his previous interference in the 'past' was just for show. His true purpose wasn't to prevent Alice from being interfered with by external forces—

Are you kidding me? The causal threads on Alice's body are a tangled mess, impossible to untangle! What we did before was just a drop in the ocean; once things get bigger, it'll be impossible to sort them out!

—Then tell him that his true purpose is to use multiple changes in spacetime to push Alice into the stage of gathering the light of the soul without her main consciousness being aware, and to forcibly start her spacetime tribulation.

No way! Explaining science to idiots is such a hassle!

So Xilin shook her head and said to Zheng Zha in a serious tone.

"There's no need to think about what to do, because we've already done what we could."

"External intervention is ultimately limited. From now on, it depends on her own efforts."

Chapter 71: Alice's Fusion

Celine is right, they've done all they can. Now it's up to Alice herself.

When Alice, having weathered the aftershocks of the time-space shift, appeared in the present era—mid-night of the Night Star—alongside the returned Sirin and others, she found her memories rapidly shifting and distorting. New memories were forming, while old ones silently faded away.

She tilted her head slightly.

The flow of old memories abruptly ceased, while traces of new memories immediately appeared in her mind, which she then scanned with magnification and emphasis. The events of the past few months were swept over in a single glance, every detail meticulously observed and comprehensively analyzed.

In her new memory, after leaving Whiterun, she headed straight north. She traversed vast plains, snow-covered forests, and mountains. Along the way, she occasionally vanquished undead creatures blocking her path—the undead the Nords called dragon priests, as well as snow trolls, snow elves, frost wraiths, and other miscellaneous monsters. The journey took approximately one month, and her final destination on land was an ancient dwarven ruin.

Without any mission or goal, he wandered aimlessly around the surface and interior of the ancient ruins. After casually taking down some ancient mechanical artifacts such as brass robots and dwarf centurions, a well-hidden trigger mechanism silently activated. Once the mechanism finished working, he randomly chose a path and found himself in Blackfall.

What followed was a relaxed and casual underground exploration. Blackfall, after all, is underground, a suitable habitat for cave-dwelling creatures and various reptiles. Finding living people with whom to communicate is incredibly difficult. And since there are no communicators, there are no quests; without quests, there are no goals.

She wandered aimlessly, killing and slaying, countless strange cave-dwelling creatures falling to her hands along the way. Then, as time flowed into the middle of the night, her memories reached their limit, and she discovered that the place she was standing on was precisely the spot where her past self had ultimately chosen to fall in another part of her memory.

Why did I do this? — "…………"

The girl asked herself the question, but this time, no "I don't know" appeared in her mind. She shook her head slightly, and although she didn't show a "doubtful" expression, the action undeniably conveyed the meaning of "doubt."

The first memory in her mind remained vivid; she clearly remembered the months of adventure she had experienced as a dragonborn. She still remembered that power, the dragon roar she had gained by devouring dragon souls. And that power she had acquired from that memory immediately gathered in her abdomen, echoed in her throat, and then rose into the air, transforming into a tangible breath of power!

—'FUS-RO—DAH！ ！ ！ (Dragon language: Unyielding power)'

A tangible shockwave erupted suddenly, transforming into a massive torrent of power that surged into the air. The broad, thick sonic wave tore a long gas tunnel through the dark underground world. This immense force continued to tumble and spread into the distance until it collided with the giant star atop the ancient ruins of a distant city—a star that resembled the sun of the underworld!

A deafening roar, like the tolling of a bell, echoed throughout the entire Black Hell, accompanied by the twisting of the air. The sound waves, expanding outward at the speed of sound, surged in all directions with the vibration of the great star! With the roar, it seemed that some extraordinary ancient being had been quietly awakened from a long dream. However, this change, which would immediately raise an absolute alarm in ordinary people, was not enough to stir Alice's heart.

She simply watched quietly, observing the trajectory of the sound waves she had torn apart, and then the long-dormant computing power unit in her mind began to operate silently.

I know perfectly well what Sirin did. She altered the past and then made it reflect back into the present. If my past self hadn't been injured, then my present self wouldn't bear these scars. And she deprived my past self of the opportunity to slay a dragon, so my power as a dragonborn shouldn't have awakened. Even if it had, without absorbing the dragon's soul, I wouldn't be able to unleash a sufficiently powerful dragon roar.

She knew exactly when she learned the dragon roar of 'Unyielding Power'—it was a discovery she made in the Coldfall Mountains. After defeating an ancient ghoul lord, she saw several powerful dragon syllables on a nearby dragon language monument that recorded the lord's history. Even after learning it, at that time, she still couldn't unleash the full power of the dragon roar.

The essence of a Dragonborn is that of a being half-dragon, half-human. They are neither leaning to the left nor the right. Learning the dragon roar, a power only true dragons can unleash, is easy; but unleashing it is far from simple. If we consider the dragon roar as an automated machine, dragon language is its circuitry, and the dragon soul is the power source. For a mortal, or a half-dragon, half-human, to unleash a dragon roar, there are only two paths: decades of arduous training or usurping the soul of another true dragon.

The past has been altered; I, in the present, have never killed the dragon Minimenir.

[I haven't killed any dragons, nor have I undergone even a few days of training. Yet, I can now wield the special power they can only use through the medium of their dragon souls.]

【why is that?】

Not long ago, the strange perspective she possessed at another point in time surfaced in her memory. Even though Alice hadn't yet devoured Minimenir at that point in time, she was able to share the vision of her past self, even the vision of a past self that hadn't yet become a part of her, from the perspective of her future self. And she knew very well that synchronized vision wasn't the limit of this power's potential; if she wanted, she could completely overwrite her past self, or even the dragon that hadn't yet become her at that point in time!

—If she wanted to do it.

—If you want to do it!

"Do I want to do this now?" — In her mind, all Alice could grasp was a vast emptiness. There was no agreement, no objection, not even an 'I don't know'.

However, the next moment, she suddenly found that she had an extra perspective!

A surface city surrounded by woodland suddenly appeared before her eyes, this being from the underground Black Abyss. And then, she felt herself spreading her wings and soaring!

At this moment, she became the golden-red dragon Minimenir, who was killed by Zheng Zha in this online world and then resurrected because of the immortality of the dragon soul!

Chapter 72 Alice's Awakening

I didn't devour it at this point in time, but it is a part of me.

Alice pondered—she had begun her own 'thinking' at some point, and she was making that 'thinking' move in a direction that was more complex with each passing moment.

The dragon, the resurrected dragon, still alive at this point in time, but in another, slightly altered online world, it had already been devoured by Alice. Its perspective was shared with hers.

Does having the same perspective mean having the same mindset?

Alice pondered, her long-dormant brain quietly stirring. One new question after another quietly surfaced from the deepest recesses of her mind, and this complex thirst for knowledge propelled her, prompting her to shift her will towards a perspective that did not belong to the Blackfall landscape. Then, in the next moment, she found that her primary perspective had switched!

No, it wasn't a change of perspective; rather, both different perspectives became her primary viewpoint. As the mortal in Blackfall took a step forward, the dragon above a city in Skyrim Province continued to flap its wings. She simultaneously controlled her dragon mind and human body without any interference, and she felt no discomfort or strain whatsoever!

—She, a mortal, walked towards a nearby boulder. Her ebony blade flashed, instantly severing several subterranean crawling creatures attracted by her living aura. The dark, poisonous blood hissed as it burned the ground. A swarm of strange insects hiding in the crevices of the rocks cried out and fled.

She sat down on the rock, her gaze immediately shifting to the distant, ancient underground city of dwarves. It seemed as if some enormous, living thing had been awakened by the pulsation of the luminous star. And that enormous creature seemed to cast a complex and enigmatic gaze toward her.

—As a dragon, she flapped her wings, soaring above a forest city. She casually found a relatively flat, open patch of ground, roared, and breathed fire before descending. She executed the aerial maneuvering and speed-changing abilities of dragons flawlessly, landing gracefully on her chosen patch of flat ground.

The place wasn't far from the forest city. The moment she landed, local guards who had long observed her circling in the surrounding airspace launched a surprise attack on her, shouting various encouraging slogans. First came arrows, then spells, and then a large number of powerful warriors and spellcasters swarmed in—they unleashed devastating battle aura and magical energy at Alice/Minimnir without warning, only to be thwarted by the protective barrier she casually erected.

The war was simplistic, so much so that the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves was too great to warrant serious attention. A single breath of dragonfire could shatter this army's ranks, and a storm could drive away the highly mobile spellcasters. While dealing with this childish sparring, Alice's mind continued to function.

[The dragon Minimenir, that is me. And it is me because I defeated it in another dimensional world, using my Dragonborn powers to devour its soul.]

[Then—the other dragons I devoured in another timeline. Nahagriu, whom I defeated near Loristed, and Fjørnak, whom I defeated in the mountains near Morsal. Were they also part of me?]

The girl's thoughts raced, but the next moment, two new perspectives appeared in her mind at her will! One perspective was from a snow-capped mountaintop, looking down at the distant city below. The other perspective was from the plains, where a mammoth was being hunted and cooked with dragon fire!

The dragon near Loristed, Nahagriu, is her.

The dragon near the Mosar border, Fujnak, is also her.

She had never even met the latter two in this online world, yet these two dragons became a part of her the moment she gained this understanding!

The will, power, and worldview of the three dragons and one person began to interfere with each other. If this were an ordinary being who had not yet achieved transcendence, it would be an instant death, a complete collapse of body and mind. Even for a great being newly attaining transcendence, it would be enough to cause internal chaos in the power and form of existence of this immortal being. However, for Alice, who at this moment had no heart, this so-called disorder of existence was less than a gentle breeze blowing in her face!

Her four bodies blinked simultaneously, easily dismissing the backlash that would be a catastrophe for others. As a Loristed dragon, Nahagriu abandoned the well-done mammoth steak and flew south towards Minimenir. Meanwhile, another dragon near Morsal, Fjørnak, turned north, riding the monsoon towards Morningstar City.

Four bodies, four realms of existence. And in her memory, there were no more dragons she had devoured. Her mortal body, residing in the Blackfall, leaped from the rock and followed the glowing mushrooms that grew throughout the Blackfall towards the ancient dwarven fortress. Vaguely, she seemed to sense another enormous dragon, and in that instant of 'sense,' a power to read information quietly surged from the depths of her being.

The dragon's name is Vasuyo, a giant dragon who made a pact with the dwarves in ancient times and slumbers here to guard their city. That luminous star is actually a giant bell; when it is rung, the ancient dragon awakens from its slumber and fulfills its promise.

The information and intelligence surfaced clearly in her mind, and then all the information about the dragon appeared in Alice's mind. She knew it was a long, slender, purple dragon, that it was bound by oaths and magic, and that it could not breathe frost but only exhale fire.

Then, she heard the flapping of dragon wings. She saw a dark purple dragon gliding silently from the shadows of the underground dome, then letting out a piercing scream the moment it was spotted, and swooping down towards her!

She gazed at it, her reflection shimmering in its dark purple dragon eyes. Alice instinctively placed her hand on the hilt of the ebony blade. Yet, in the instant she drew her sword to strike, another inexplicable thought quietly surfaced in her mind.

Could you... be me too?

next moment--

The surging dragonfire grazed Alice's hair, scorching the rocks behind her into ash, while a scorching wind whipped up beside her ear. At the same time, the perspective controlled by 'Alice' shifted from four to five!

The ancient, slumbering dragon Vasuyo of the Blackfall Region also became her. Or to put it another way, this dragon... was a part of her from the very beginning!

Alice, a mortal, gently reached out and touched the tip of the dragon Vasuyo's nose. Alice, as Vasuyo, in turn, lowered her neck slightly when their perspectives synchronized, allowing her mortal self to touch the tip of her nose.

Like a hand touching a foot, like lips touching a tongue. The whole process was natural and without any abnormality, and the two sensations of touching and being touched were simultaneously and accurately perceived by the senses of both bodies.

[It's strange, I've never even come into contact with this dragon. I've never even reached the Blackfall. Yet you are me, your power, will, spirit, and way of being are all part of me. However, before I realized this, I had never wielded power of this magnitude.]

She blinked, activating the spatial teleportation abilities of the two dragons, 'Nahagriu' and 'Forgionk', to facilitate travel. The next moment, the city of Foxes, where 'Minimnir' resided, and Morningstar, where 'Alice' had lingered for a long time in the previous timeline, appeared before her!

She saw Minimenir driving away a group of defeated soldiers, saw the routed mortals, and heard their desperate, terrified roars at the appearance of the second dragon. The two dragon bodies that had descended simultaneously did not interfere with each other; on the contrary, they coordinated perfectly, one above the other, the two different-colored dragons toying with the defeated soldiers, seeing through their feigned retreat and destroying a dragon-hunting trap!

The situation in the south went smoothly, and so did the north. When 'Forgonak' appeared above Morningstar City, unsurprisingly causing a stir, Zheng Zha and Xilin, who were drinking wine by the railing at the top of the city's most luxurious tavern, also came into her view. The moment she appeared and saw them, Zheng Zha instinctively summoned his crimson killing blade, only to be stopped by Xilin beside him.

A strange feeling, an interesting feeling.

Alice, transformed into the dragon Fujnark, glanced at the two figures from afar, concluding that their location, the shift in the timeline, and the absence of any interference with their memories. She then flapped her wings and silently retreated as she had arrived. As she retreated, her five thought processes—one human and four dragons—began to operate even more rapidly.

[The timeline is correct. It is indeed the middle of the night of the Star Moon, the fourth and a half month since I have memories of this world. And in this timeline, I have never encountered any dragon from the very beginning. There are no gaps in my memories of this timeline, and there is no possibility of mental interference.]

[At the same time, my memories from the previous timeline are also complete. I absolutely never came to Blackfall, much less had I come into contact with Vasuyo. And because the point of time shift is when I left Whiterun, the possibility that I came to Blackfall four and a half months ago can be completely ruled out. After eliminating some low-value options, the truth becomes clearly clear.]

Her thoughts continued to operate, accompanied by the proliferation of her 'body' and the application of her computational abilities. Her thinking gradually transformed from its previous rigidity and inflexibility to fluency and sophistication. One new idea after another burst forth from the depths of her soul, only to be rejected or corrected by her.

Her eyes remained devoid of emotion. Yet, her mind grew sharper with each passing second. After several rounds of elimination, she pieced together a logically sound theory.

Meanwhile, the four giant dragons on the surface simultaneously flew towards the nearest mountains, or directly used the spacetime interference power of their dragon bodies to leap to the tops of the mountains. Provocative dragon roars burst from their throats, spreading rapidly in all directions of Skyrim Province from these four hills as their base.

This is the language of dragons, and the target of the dragon language's provocation is naturally other dragons.

These dragons are a part of me, the reason being that I defeated them at some point in time and devoured their souls. This level of change is even higher than the worldline shifts caused by spacetime interference. This might be related to the fact that dragons are essentially spacetime fragments.

Many questions remain, but let's disregard the less important ones for now. Assuming the above reasoning holds true, my ability to assimilate the three dragons—Minimnir, Nahagriu, and Fjørnak—in the current timeline is because I clearly remember defeating and devouring them in the previous timeline. By the same token, is my ability to assimilate Vasuyo, whom I've never encountered before, also for the same reason?

The four dragons atop the four mountain peaks tilted their heads simultaneously, and the provocative roar of the first victim quickly reached the senses of Fjørnak, who was located near Morningstar City. A dragon that didn't seem to be developing very well was rapidly approaching Alice's body in this location.

'Saloknir'—Iris's body, named Minimenir, easily recognized the dragon's name by reading the information. This dragon should have resided in the distant eastern border of Skyrim, in a forest about five or six hundred kilometers from here. Because it wasn't particularly strong among the dragons, it became the only unfortunate creature banished by mortals while other dragons ravaged the land. And when it appeared in Iris's sight, she saw her own reflection in its eyes.

Without communication or confrontation, silently, Alice's dominant perspective changed from five to six.

The weak Eastern Dragon Saloknir was also her, also her Alice. And she knew very well that even in the previous timeline, she had never been to the Eastern Realm.

And so, the speculation became fact.

So, the timeline had already changed more than once before those two arrived here? Then...

She looked into the distance, listening to the dragon's roar that grew louder with the fluctuations in space.

"How many times have I repeated this foolish story in this world?"