Jona Velli accelerated, her muscles tensing even further.
She swam upstream relentlessly; by now, her scales had already been scoured away by the River of Time, revealing the flesh hidden beneath them.
The powerful force within the river water left Jona Velli's flesh pitted and scarred, and it was visibly eroding away before her eyes.
Jona Velli knew very well that if she weren't a Time Dragon, naturally immune to time-based attacks, she would have died the moment she stepped into the River of Time.
Even so, despite being a Time Dragon, she was still too weak. Her body could not withstand the power of the waters of time; this supreme level of power had completely exceeded the limits of what her immunity could endure!
If her body completely dissipated and she failed to withdraw her consciousness and soul in time, she would die as well.
One must understand that entering the River of Time means the terrifying power of time will demand the intruder's life as payment.
Every wash, every scouring would directly strike at the soul, the will, and the body.
However, as the King of Time and the absolute master of the time element, the power of time inevitably showed them some favor, choosing to prioritize attacking their physical bodies.
For any other creature—excluding those who mastered time abilities—even a Third-Class God or even a Second-Class God would find it difficult to last ten seconds.
Except for a few beings with immense power or special treasures, all would sink and be lost within the River of Time.
This was the terror of time power.
Jona Velli endured the agony throughout her body, dragging her bloody, battered remains as she swam forward with all her might.
Suddenly, Jona Velli's eyes lit up as she saw the spray of a wave not far ahead projecting the image of when the Three Dragons were gathered together.
"This is it!"
Jona Velli cried out, dragging her nearly exhausted and broken dragon body as she accelerated once more.
Suddenly, one of Jona Velli's radiant gold eyeballs fell out of its socket, dangling outside, while her right front claw was reduced to nothing but white bone with bloody scraps of meat hanging from it.
Only then did she realize with a shock that her powerful dragon body had nearly reached its limit and was on the verge of collapse.
Jona Velli grit her teeth, enduring the intense pain as she continued to push forward.
"No, I can't fall here! I absolutely cannot!
Friel needs me, Gris needs me, and even the servants I spent a hundred years cultivating need me!
I can't let everything go up in flames, and besides... I have no way back!!
Right now, I must persevere!"
Crack—
The right wing Jona Velli was flapping so hard snapped on the spot. The sudden development caused her to lose balance instantly, and just as she was about to sink into the River of Time, Jona Velli grew fiercely determined.
"Looking Back!"
Violent time power surged from her body, but the effect was minimal, only barely managing to reattach the broken dragon wing.
But that was enough. Jona Velli used it to lunge forward and regain her balance, though the right wing snapped once again.
Having just survived that narrow escape, Jona Velli's dragon heart pounded as she let out a heavy sigh of relief, but time waited for no one, and she immediately resumed her movement.
The reason Jona Velli hadn't used her time power from the start was that any time power she used would be largely absorbed by the River of Time, wasting her strength for nothing.
That single use of [Looking Back] just now had consumed nearly three-tenths of her total mana reserves.
Before one trouble could subside, another arose. The tension in Jona Velli's muscles began to fade, replaced by a sense of numbness and weakness spreading through her dragon body as her great strength rapidly depleted—it was the precursor to the end of her forced burst of power.
"Damn it, why now of all times!"
Jona Velli grit her teeth, a sense of despair involuntarily rising in her heart.
"Is this... the end after all?"
She thought this way; it was an uncontrollable thought as the suffocating feeling of death wrapped around her like a tide.
Jona Velli's consciousness gradually sank, her vision began to blur, and her bodily movements grew smaller and smaller.
In her daze, a wave splashed up, and a scene from history reflected into Jona Velli's remaining dragon eye.
It was a dying Red Dragon, an adult female Red Dragon who had lost the lower half of her body and whose scales were scorched black.
She lay on the ground, her gaze vacant, with the other half of her body nowhere to be seen.
Her black-and-red snout opened and closed as she uttered weak dragon language in a raspy voice.
"Is it still... impossible?
Did I break my promise? I really wanted to... see you... one last time before I die... my... Shou... yu, Qiaonawei... li..."
As she spoke, Friel couldn't help but curl the corners of her mouth upward. Her pupils were completely dilated, yet she still maintained a sense of tenderness and a hint of happiness, though it was mostly regret.
Seeing this scene, Jona Velli suddenly snapped awake, filled with immense shock.
One must know that the term 'Shouyu' is a way to address a secret crush among dragons.
It implies that the other party is a corner of the world one wishes to protect in silence, yet never speaks the words aloud.
This kind of vocabulary is generally used by dragons of an aloof and restrained nature; it is very, very rare among Chromatic Dragons, and most dragons who use these special words to express love are Metal Dragons.
And the words Friel spoke before her death... no matter how dense Jona Velli was or how slow her mind might be, at this moment—this moment of near-death—she understood Friel's feelings.
In an instant, it was like a revelation for Jona Velli. If Friel liked her, then all the strange behavior from before was suddenly explained.
"So... Friel, you..."
Jona Velli's heart was in a turmoil. From beginning to end, she had only seen Friel as a friend or a sister, and she had dismissed Friel's strange actions as part of her eccentric personality; she had never imagined that Friel wanted to pursue her.
But to be honest, upon learning that Friel liked her, Jona Velli felt a flicker of secret joy, even happiness.
Now, her entire body seemed filled with motivation once again!
"Friel! I've received your feelings. Leave the rest... to me!"
Jona Velli pushed forward with grit, having found a source of strength and power from who knows where.
Soon, Jona Velli was within arm's reach of the point in time she wanted to return to.
Just as she was overjoyed and prepared to dive straight in, a massive wave crashed toward her.
Jona Velli had no way to dodge, so with a determined heart, she crashed directly forward.
"Today... no one can stop me!"
Boom!
Crash—
The massive wave submerged the struggling Jona Velli, and the surging River of Time lost that single figure that had been swimming against the current.
One second... five seconds... ten seconds... is it all over?
(The End...)
(Biyiniao: Stop! I won't allow it!!)
A Rift in Time abruptly appeared on the surface of the River of Time, and a Silver Dragon charged out from within.
The moment he appeared, he was surrounded and attacked by the surging time power, the river water frantically scouring his dragon body.
His once spirited Silver Dragon body was instantly covered in wounds and left in tatters.
But as if he felt no pain, Bolite's historical projection looked into the River of Time.
"Light of Mutual Instants!"
Although Silver Dragons are not masters of all elements, their incredibly high magical talent means that when they use other elemental magic, the power is immense, showing almost no difference from creatures with a natural affinity for that element.
A golden magic circle suddenly appeared beneath Bolite, and a corresponding magic circle abruptly appeared within the river as well.
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