A Nightmare’s Echo and a Glimpse of Divinity

“Ha… ha… what… was that just now?” Ziyao lay on the bed, clutching her chest and gasping for breath.

Everything in the dream was blurry now. The only thing that remained was a sharp, tearing pain in her chest.

A nightmare. This was the first time Ziyao had been startled awake in the middle of the night since her transmigration. Ever since she had learned magic, she had never experienced a nightmare.

And why did the sensations from her dream linger in reality? This was completely wrong.

“Ugh…” After gasping for a moment on the bed, Ziyao finally regained a sliver of her strength.

She rolled over, and the starlit river outside her window immediately caught her eye. This brilliant celestial river was the most magnificent sight in this world’s night sky.

It was two in the morning. Calculating the time from the starry sky was a skill every mage had to master.

Climbing out of bed, Ziyao walked stiffly to the window. She pushed open the pane, and the cool autumn breeze brushed against her face, somewhat invigorating her.

The moon was full, hanging majestically in the western sky, guarded by brilliant stars. Moonlight spilled into the room, bathing Ziyao in a silvery glow.

Legend had it that every deceased person transformed into a star in the heavens. She wondered how many lives had been lost to create this vast sea of stars. And the moon, the largest star in the night sky—whose passing had turned it into this?

Perhaps it was the deity representing peace. That would certainly suit them.

The two girls who had appeared in her recent dream were likely those celestial beings: the Lord of Radiance and the King of Shadows.

She hadn’t expected them to both be girls.

Wait, they were both girls!

Ziyao’s mind began to reel. The God of Water was female; the God of Light was female; and the God of Darkness was also female… Were all deities, then, yuri?

Shaking her head, Ziyao banished this unsettling conjecture. The idea of all deities being yuri was simply too preposterous.

“Ha, it hurts so much. Why are dream experiences affecting my physical body?” A fresh wave of excruciating pain seized her chest, making Ziyao gasp sharply.

Was it a succubus? It couldn’t be; such creatures were utterly incapable of breaching the forbidden spells surrounding the Imperial Capital. A curse? Impossible. Her magical attainments were far from shallow; even a Sage would struggle to curse her without her knowledge.

She had already examined her chest; there were no wounds, only her usual fair skin.

After gazing at the moon for a while longer, Ziyao felt a pang of boredom. The ancient, unchanging starry sky, though beautiful, was uninteresting. She was no astrologer. Those practitioners could glimpse fragments of fate within the flow of the starlit river, but Ziyao possessed no such ability.

Fate… what an irritating word.

It was as if everything people did was predetermined, all efforts futile. Ziyao simply could not accept this notion. The efforts of humanity could not be so casually dismissed by the concept of fate.

Clutching her aching chest, Ziyao switched on the magic lamp in her room. The warm, yellow light illuminated the entire space, making her feel somewhat better.

Return to bed and sleep? Ziyao doubted she could fall asleep in her current state. Though powerfully strong, she was, at her core, merely human. She could not simply ignore this pain.

If sleep was impossible, then reading a book was her only recourse. Sitting at her desk, Ziyao opened the book that chronicled the secret history of the deities.

“Now that I know those three are all girls, some of the things written here are almost unbearable to read.”

The relationship between the God of Light and the God of Darkness also became intriguing. Were it not for the God of Water, perhaps these two would have developed feelings for each other. Alas, they ultimately became bitter enemies.

She wondered what had become of the God of Darkness. Although they had shattered their own divinity, as long as they still existed in the world, re-condensing their divine essence should be a minor matter.

The people taken by the God of Darkness became known as the Demon Race. They had endured countless ages of trials, and their power was not to be underestimated. Every so often, scattered members of the Demon Race would appear across the continent. They were identifiable by their distinctive dark magic, and they committed every imaginable atrocity, from arson to plunder.

“The Demon Race is our greatest enemy.” Almost everyone held this belief.

Of course, Ziyao was not among them. To her, there was fundamentally no difference between humans and demons; as long as they didn’t hinder her research, she couldn’t be bothered with such chaotic affairs.

However, the fact that some people on the continent had reached an understanding with the Demon Race was something Ziyao had not anticipated.

“[Someone is colluding with the Demon Race, attempting to assassinate the little princess during the Blossom Festival.]” This was the information Raphael had previously relayed to Ziyao.

It seemed these people placed considerable faith in the prophecy. ‘The imperial princess who will unite the continent’—those astrologers certainly had a way with words. What could such a delicate young girl possibly do? She still required assistance for her daily life.

If not for her craving for the books in the Royal Library, Ziyao would never have bothered with such illogical prophecies.

“Unable to bear the emptiness of the night sky, the King of Night sought out the Lord of Water. Together, they leveled the world’s most magnificent mountain and lifted it into the heavens.”

Such were the deities; moving mountains and filling seas with a mere thought. Simply because they disliked an empty night sky, they transformed a towering peak into the moon. However, both of these deities now seemed to have fallen from their divine positions.

It only went to show that life was unpredictable. Even the immensely powerful deities would eventually meet their end.

The pain in her chest subsided slightly. Ziyao closed her book and then her eyes. Then, a sudden burst of inspiration struck her. A tiny crack appeared in the great door that had blocked her for so long.

Swish, swish, swish—

Using her hand as a brush, she drew lines of blue light in the air. Soon, an incredibly complex blue magic array materialized.

It wasn’t enough. Ziyao opened her eyes. What else was important…

Blurred images flashed before her eyes—her recent dream. She found it! She grasped that fragment, and a line of text surfaced in her mind.

“So that’s it…”

Ancient characters were embedded one by one into the magic array. With each character embedded, the array’s glow deepened, and Ziyao’s complexion grew paler.

Magical exhaustion. A colossal problem now confronted Ziyao. Embedding ancient characters into a magic array demanded an immense amount of magical energy. Each ancient character significantly amplified the spell’s power.

Every forbidden spell array contained at least ten embedded ancient characters, yet Ziyao’s current limit was eight. If she could successfully complete this magic array, she would formally step into the realm of a Sage.

But if she failed this time, who knew how long she would have to wait for another opportunity.