Heiress Unmasked: Shaking the World With Geomancy novel Chapter 2168

Elowen knelt on the solemn altar.

Her long, snow-white hair dulled strand by strand as the strength of the Ten-Tailed Elythune's divine soul within her gradually faded.

Yet, she seemed not to care. Resting her head lightly against the dragon's body, her face relaxed in serenity.

For a long time, Elowen simply lay there with her eyes closed and arms wrapped around Lucan's true form, unmoving.

Shannon and Benjamin both felt a tremor in their hearts. In their minds, the image they'd seen in the dream surfaced once more.

She'd always been the woman sleeping soundly upon a mountain range. In the thousands of years after Lucan became the Dragon Vein, this was how she'd remained, always watching over him until her divine soul completely faded away.

Now, Shannon was sure that the last glance Elowen cast at Benjamin confirmed she'd recognized him. She knew who Benjamin was and had guessed his true form.

That was why she chose to sacrifice her divine soul, so Lucan would be reborn as the Dragon Vein.

In this world, there had never been a Dragon Vein.

For tens of thousands of years, the mortal realm had never birthed a true Dragon Vein, much less one capable of taking form.

It was Elowen who'd nurtured the Dragon Vein with her own hands. Her ability to form a marriage contract with Benjamin and be recognized by the Divine Power had never been a mere accident.

Emotions that defied words welled within Shannon, but she knew she couldn't stop what was happening.

All of this was the karma of this timeline. Even she and Benjamin were strands in this great web of karma.

Her hand reached out and instinctively grasped his.

Benjamin's fingers stiffened for a moment before he responded with an equally firm grip. It seemed he feared she might vanish in the next breath like Elowen before them.

He'd never imagined that his birth came from the sacrifice of a divine soul. Now, he understood what was missing in the rootless emptiness of the divine soul he'd carried for millennia; this was it.

But… If he had a choice, he would never have wished for her to do this.

As long as the mortal realm prevailed, the incarnation of human malice, Vlad, would never vanish completely.

Velquin couldn't bring himself to destroy the world Lucan died protecting, so he offered himself in its place to Vlad.

But in the end, he failed too.

…

As Elowen's divine soul faded away, so did the barrier she'd erected.

At that moment, the skies above the altar swiftly darkened with thick clouds pressing down their crushing weight. Thunder cracked, and the air trembled with the Might of the Divine Power of this timeline.

Shannon could sense the Divine Power's fury, not because Elowen defined the heavens by turning Lucan's dragon bones into the Dragon Vein to guard the lands, but because she'd destroyed her divine soul in doing so.

Somehow, there was heartbreak and sorrow within that fury.