Chapter 1211 — Release
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
To witness all this from such close quarters was to feel an indescribable shock: it was as though a prostrate hill were slowly rising to its feet, as though the very earth were swelling upward before their eyes. Gao Yang and Belantia alike stared wide-eyed in astonishment, so stunned that speech failed them; they instinctively retreated two steps, trying to see more clearly. Yet the giant deer had merely lifted its head, and already its upper body stood so high that even craning their necks they could scarcely make out the nape of its neck.
And as the giant deer rose, the ancient alloy remains that had pierced its body and nailed it to the earth gave out a grating, squealing sound that set the teeth on edge. The metal and crystal that had once held the power of a god in absolute suppression now lost their peculiar property; the residual energy within them seemed neutralized and canceled out by some invisible force. As the glow coursing across their surfaces swiftly dimmed, they began to snap and fall away, one after another, tearing loose or being squeezed out bit by bit from Amorn's wounds. The sounds of writhing flesh and grinding metal came without cease, and fine motes of light drifted down from the air—
No one could imagine what agony this must bring, yet Amorn kept a reverent silence throughout the entire process, until he stood fully upright, until those immense metal remains dropped to the ground like boulders tumbling from a mountain. Only then, standing with his head held high in the dark Courtyard of Defiance, did a low sigh finally sound—a sigh tangled with countless emotions that defied explanation.
It was a human sigh.
At last his wounds began to heal, and at an unprecedented speed; before Gao Yang and Belantia's eyes they closed rapidly. Only then did Gao Yang recover from the stunning spectacle. He seemed thoughtful, as though he had worked something out, and then he gave a slight nod. "Congratulations. You're finally free."
"Yes. Free…" Amorn lowered his head. His voice was low and pleasant, yet it was unclear whom that "freedom" of his referred to. Just then a storm wreathed in arcane flashes suddenly rushed in from the distant depths of dark chaos, and beside Amorn it coalesced into the figure of Milmina, Goddess of Magic. This lady, tall as a bell tower, raised her head to look at the God of Nature, who was far taller still, and after watching him in silence for a long while, she suddenly smiled faintly. "Oh my. A medical miracle."
"Your jokes, as always, make it very hard for me to laugh." Amorn muttered low, and his body swiftly contracted in the light—as though, freed from the last of his bonds, he now had greater mastery over himself. The frame that had grown so vast over the long years of his maturation began to shrink rapidly: first from the size of a hill to that of a castle, then from a castle to a great hall, and finally his body came to rest at this size—still enormous by mortal standards, still requiring one to look up, but at least no longer so absurdly exaggerated as before, and Milmina no longer needed to crane her neck to see him.
Only after all this did Amorn let out a soft breath and turn to look at Milmina. "Tell me the truth—did you realize long ago that I could break free of these things? It suddenly occurs to me now, there were several times your eyes looked very strange…"
"And what if I did?" Milmina smiled gently, her eyes, veiled in thin mist, narrowing slightly. "That isn't for me to decide, and it isn't for you to decide either… Even if you already possessed the 'conditions' to break free of these bonds, you still couldn't stand—you should understand that what binds you is not merely these things here, and not even merely your own 'divine nature.' In the end, you are too much like a god."