Episode 689

“Why is it my mother?”

Zeke, residing within Terracan’s body, was thrown into turmoil.

At that moment, Chronos moved the child with the dark eyes from his embrace toward the rift in space.

The child floated gently, then was drawn into the fissure.

Crackle!

As the child neared the rift, a powerful plasma current sparked around them. Fortunately, a translucent barrier shielded the child from harm.

With pure eyes, the child reached out toward Terracan.

Terracan, frozen and unable to move, watched helplessly and shouted at Chronos.

“Chronos! Where are you sending the child?”

Chronos ignored Terracan’s desperate cries, focusing solely on sending the child through the rift.

Crackle!

The child, encased in the protective barrier, crossed the rift and fell into the arms of Laura Agamemnon on the other side.

Waaah!

The child’s cries echoed from beyond the rift.

Zeke, now an ethereal form having left Terracan’s body, stared blankly through the rift at Laura Agamemnon holding the child. Then, the shocking truth dawned on him.

“That child… is me?”

He had always known Arthur Draker and Laura Agamemnon weren’t his biological parents. He had been curious about his origins, but the lack of information meant even the Akashic Code couldn’t provide answers.

Now, through these past memories, he finally understood where he came from.

He placed a hand over his heart.

“Bahamuth is… my mother, and my father is…”

He looked at Terracan, who was screaming in agony before Chronos. A legendary dragon slayer who ended the Liberation War and became a mythical figure, yet couldn’t reveal his true paternity to his son, the Holy King Geo Luvern, after losing his beloved partner.

Chronos, gazing at Terracan, spoke.

“This is the only way to protect the child.”

Terracan, slowly regaining movement, began to approach Chronos. He reached out toward Laura Agamemnon and the infant Zeke visible through the rift.

Waaah!

Seeing the stranger, baby Zeke burst into tears.

Laura Agamemnon, holding the child, looked at him with tender eyes and began to sing a lullaby in a gentle voice.

Zeke, hearing the lullaby echoing from beyond the rift, found tears streaming down his face.

As baby Zeke calmed to the sound of the lullaby, a rumble shook the air.

Arthur Draker, exuding a menacing aura, entered the cave wielding Caliburn.

Laura Agamemnon, holding the child, immediately reached out toward the approaching Arthur Draker.

Whoosh!

A golden shield enveloped Laura and baby Zeke. As she attempted to vanish into the light with the child, Arthur Draker snapped his fingers.

Snap!

Astonishingly, the golden aura surrounding Laura dissipated instantly.

Startled, Laura glared at Arthur Draker and placed the child in a basket on the altar.

As she summoned her power, golden currents began to flow from her body.

Crackle!

Arthur Draker sneered at Laura’s defiance.

“Do you think you can face me with that incomplete power?”

With those words, Arthur Draker reached out toward Laura.

The golden currents flickering around her body scattered, and she was lifted into the air, pinned against the wall in a cruciform position by an unknown force.

Glaring at Arthur Draker, she shouted defiantly.

“You will never have your way!”

Arthur Draker raised Caliburn with a chilling smile.

“A prophet refusing to prophesy. Yes, that can happen.”

In an instant, Arthur Draker’s eyes turned a demonic red, and Caliburn pierced Laura Agamemnon’s heart.

Thud!

Arthur Draker, still indifferent, looked at her and spoke.

“But I can’t let the prophet fall into someone else’s hands.”

Laura, with a sharp gaze, retorted with a smirk.

“Arthur Draker, no matter how much you struggle… the wheel of fate will eventually break.”

Arthur frowned at her words, then swiftly withdrew the sword from her heart.

Thud!

Laura Agamemnon collapsed to the ground, bleeding.

Zeke watched the scene unfold, a memory he had glimpsed through Mephistopheles’ kaleidoscope.

Arthur Draker had attempted to kill the infant Zeke in the basket, but Laura Agamemnon, even as she lay dying, invoked the Akashic Code to stop him.

As Laura Agamemnon’s life faded, Arthur Draker stood over her.

At that moment, Chronos reached toward the rift.

Whoosh!

A mystical light emanated from her body, enveloping Laura Agamemnon as it crossed the rift.

Whoosh!

Zeke, from a different angle than during the kaleidoscope vision, saw Laura Agamemnon bathed in light.

She, still alive, looked at Chronos beyond the rift with serene eyes, as if she had foreseen this destined flow of events.

Chronos extended his hand again, and Laura Agamemnon, wrapped in the mystical light, transformed into a radiant form and crossed the rift.

Zeke realized that her disappearance back then was due to Chronos’ power.

Chronos then retrieved something from his embrace, and Zeke was taken aback.

“An Elder Dragon relic?”

A mysterious aura surrounded the black dragon statue.

Chronos spoke to the aura.

“Laura, are you sure you won’t regret this?”

In response, the aura moved away from the dragon statue, taking shape.

The light, now in the form of Laura Agamemnon, looked at Chronos and spoke.

“If my choice can shatter this relentless wheel of fate… then I wish to do so.”

Chronos continued.

“It will be a long and arduous wait.”

Laura turned her gaze beyond the rift, where Decker was now holding the child.

It was the moment Arthur Draker named the child “Zeke.”

“Zeke… I have glimpsed the future fate of that child through your power, Chronos. A harsh, grueling, thorny path awaits him.”

A golden aura flowed from Laura Agamemnon’s light-formed body.

“I wish to be the guide for Zeke, who bears the destiny of a savior.”

Chronos nodded at her words, tears unknowingly streaming down his face at her noble sacrifice.

He offered the Elder Dragon relic to the light-formed Laura Agamemnon.

She transformed back into a radiant form and was drawn into the relic.

Whoosh!

With a powerful vibration, the light merged with the black dragon statue.

Even in his ethereal state, Zeke instinctively cried out.

“No!”

Laura had sacrificed everything to save the cursed Agamemnon family. Now, she chose another sacrifice for Zeke’s life.

But it was a memory of the past, and Zeke’s cry dispersed into nothingness.

As the golden light fully merged with the Elder Dragon relic, a message appeared before Zeke’s eyes.

[The core of the broken Kabbalah system is replaced with a noble soul.]

[The Kabbalah system’s operating system is updated.]

[System ‘Laura’ is now active.]

Zeke’s eyes widened at the message.

“System Laura?”

He stared blankly at the system message before him.

He had always thought of it as part of the Kabbalah system.

Many of his choices had been influenced by quests presented by the system.

But now he realized that many of those choices, which he had attributed to the system’s arrangement and coincidence, were actually guided by Laura Agamemnon, who had sacrificed her soul to become part of the system.

“Mother…”

Though not his birth mother, Laura Agamemnon had been aiding him since he acquired the Elder Dragon relic and unlocked the Kabbalah system.

Realizing this, Zeke couldn’t hold back his tears.

Despite their brief encounter in the past, he had cherished the thought of her as his mother.

Though she wasn’t his biological mother, knowing that Laura Agamemnon had waited over a thousand years and become his guardian overwhelmed him with emotion.

Meanwhile, Terracan, now standing right before Chronos, cried out to her.

“Cronos! What have you done with my child?”

Cronos, holding the relic of the Elder Dragon possessed by Laura Agamemnon, turned his gaze towards Terracan.

Looking down at him, she spoke with a calm authority.

“That child is the savior of the future, the only hope to shatter the wheel of fate.”

Terracan’s voice erupted with fury, his presence radiating a palpable menace.

“Cronos! Was it not enough to use me and Bahamut? Now you want to drag my child into your prophecy? I don’t care about saviors or destiny! All I asked was for you to keep my child safe! How could you…?”

With his sword Zahhak drawn, Terracan seemed ready to strike Cronos down in his rage.

Cronos, meeting Terracan’s lethal glare, looked back with eyes full of pity.

“The time has come, Terracan, immortal bearer of misfortune. The child of salvation will return to you. Prepare yourself for that day. Be ready to awaken the full power of Bahamut within the child.”

As Cronos spoke, his body began to glow with a radiant light.

A deep hum resonated through the air.

Cronos, now a silver luminescence, merged into the black dragon statue just as Laura Agamemnon had.

Terracan shouted after him, desperation in his voice.

“Cronos! Don’t run away! Give me back my child! Cronos!”

But his cries fell on deaf ears.

The silver light fully absorbed into the dragon statue, and at that moment, a message appeared before Zeke’s eyes.

[The soul of Cronos, the Watcher of Time, is absorbed into the Kabbalah system.]

[The soul of the Time Dragon reacts with the power of the Triune Relics, recreating the power of the God of Chaos.]

[The recreated primordial power ‘Reset’ combines with the promised power of the Elder Dragon.]

[All conditions for the activation of the irreversible promised power are met.]

A powerful vibration shook the air as the dragon statue vanished in a burst of light.

Simultaneously, the rift that had connected across a millennium closed, leaving Terracan alone in the clock tower.

Terracan, now alone, collapsed to his knees on the altar, his expression one of utter desolation.

He looked as worn and exhausted as he had in the visions of the Ark.

Zeke, now a spectral form, watched Terracan’s forlorn figure.

The man he had long sought, his true father.

Terracan Draker, the hero from a thousand years ago, or rather, Siegfried Draker, who shared his name, was indeed his father.

Zeke, in his ethereal state, slowly approached the despairing Terracan.

But in this realm of memories, there was nothing Zeke could do to ease his father’s suffering.

Then, unexpectedly, a voice broke the silence.

“I never imagined I would meet you like this, across a thousand years.”

Zeke lifted his head at the sound.

A figure wrapped in bandages, a sentinel, emerged from the shadows.

With Terracan between them, Zeke and the sentinel locked eyes.

Zeke, looking at Terracan, who had become a sentinel bound to the final tower, spoke slowly.

“Why did you make this choice? You still had King Geo Luvern, yet you revealed nothing to him… Why?”

“I was searching for you.”

The sentinel’s eyes glowed as he fixed his gaze on Zeke, continuing his explanation.

“To find my lost son, I chose to bind myself to the tower.”