My world-tree system-Chapter 72 - 71: Jade dragon

Foster sat up slowly, his body aching from the brutal impact of his fall. The ground beneath him was cold and smooth, as if carved from ancient, thousand-year-old stone. The air was dry, laden with the smell of ashes and mystery.

He glanced around. The corridor in which he found himself was narrow, its rough stone walls adorned with torches that had lit themselves upon his arrival, casting flickering shadows on the floor. Far behind him, the ceiling was closing in, cutting off any possibility of return. He had no choice but to move forward.

His fingers tightened on the handle of his katana. His heart was still beating violently against his chest, his body on high alert. This place was unnatural. It belonged neither to the world of the living, nor to the world he knew. He was somewhere else, a prisoner of a will he didn’t yet understand.

Foster walked slowly, his footsteps echoing in the absolute silence. Each torch flared up as he went along, illuminating the passage in a strange, almost unreal glow. The corridor seemed endless, a tunnel carved in rock from another time.

Then, after a moment, he stopped dead in his tracks.

In front of him stood an immense metal door, massive and imposing. It looked as if it had been forged to stand the test of time, its leaves adorned with intricate patterns. Foster squinted his eyes, intently detailing the engravings.

Two majestic, menacing dragons were depicted, their sinuous bodies intertwined in an eternal dance. Their open jaws spat out stylized flames that still seemed to vibrate under the glow of the torches. Every detail was of exceptional finesse, as if the artist who had fashioned it had wanted to breathe life into these creatures.

A shiver ran down Foster’s spine. This was no ordinary door. It exuded a presence, an ancient, indecipherable energy.

He placed a cautious hand on the icy metal. A slight vibration ran through his fingers, a muffled beat, similar to that of a sleeping heart.

- What is this place...? he murmured to himself.

Foster slowly slid his hand along the engraved metal, brushing his fingertips over the dragon motifs. The contact was icy, almost unreal, as if he were touching a living surface that had lain dormant for centuries. A strange sensation ran down his arm, a shiver that had nothing to do with the ambient temperature.

He took a deep breath and placed his palms flat against the massive doors. With a fluid movement, he pushed.

Nothing moved.

He gritted his teeth and pressed harder, mobilizing all his strength, but the door remained immovable, as immovable as a mountain. It wasn’t just a physical barrier-something was holding it shut.

Foster took a step back, his eyes roving over the intricate details of the metal. His gaze came to rest on the center of the door, where a circular latch sat, finely chiseled and adorned with inscriptions he didn’t understand. He reached out and brushed it with a hesitant finger before closing his fingers over it.

Then he knocked.

A thud sounded, as if a titanic hammer had struck a celestial anvil.

The echo spread through the corridor, rumbling like thunder locked within these thousand-year-old walls. The torches trembled, their light flickering under the vibration that shook the air. Foster felt the resonance run through his bones, a deep wave that seemed to respond to his gesture.

And then, slowly... the door moved.

A rumbling sound rose from the floor as the steel wings parted in a solemn movement. Dust fell in light swirls, revealing a dense darkness behind the gaping opening. A lukewarm breeze emanated from it, laden with an ancient, heavy odor, a mixture of ashes and forgotten secrets.

Foster stood still for a moment, staring at the entrance that opened up before him.

Then, without a word, he stepped forward, crossing the threshold into an unknown world.

Foster moved slowly through the immensity of the room, his footsteps echoing on the cold stone floor. The space around him was gigantic, as if carved out of the very heart of the earth, and the air was dense, charged with an almost tangible sense of antiquity. The walls, smooth and dark, seemed to absorb the light of the torches lining the corridor he had just left.

But his gaze was irresistibly drawn to the center of the room.

There sat a gigantic statue, a colossal work sculpted with almost unreal precision. It depicted several dragons, their bodies knotted in a fierce struggle against an entity whose very appearance aroused a deep sense of unease.

The monster against which they were fighting had no definite form. It seemed both to emerge from the ground and to melt into it, like a frozen shadow in the throes of metamorphosis. Its body, if it could be called such, was a tangle of deformed, gaping maws, ready to devour anything within reach.

The dragons, for their part, were frozen in a fighting posture, their claws tearing at the shapeless matter of the monster, their fangs sinking into this impalpable mass.

Every scale was carved with impressive meticulousness, every unfurled wing seemed to vibrate with restrained strength, every expression, despite the immobility of the stone, exuded fierce determination.

But it wasn’t just the size or complexity of the sculpture that caught Foster’s attention.

In the wide-open mouth of one of the dragons, firmly held between its sharp fangs, sat a deep green stone. A jade gem, smooth, almost too perfect, whose brilliance contrasted with the monochrome of the rest of the scene.

Foster stopped dead in his tracks.

- It’s beautiful," he murmured.

A shiver ran down his spine as he detailed the stone. He could almost feel something emanating from it, a presence, a muted energy, buried beneath centuries of silence. This was no mere ornament.

He inhaled deeply, then resumed his walk, slowly climbing the few steps leading up to the statue’s base.

Each step echoed through the room, as if the walls themselves were holding their breath.

He held out his hand.

Hesitation.

The air seemed to become charged with electricity around him. A strange sensation ran through his arm, as if his own energy echoed that of the jade.

At last, his fingers brushed against the stone’s polished surface.

An icy shiver ran up his spine.

Immediately, the whole room shuddered.

The torches flickered, casting moving shadows on the walls. A dull roar rose from the ground, a deep vibration, as if something immense were awakening beneath his feet.

Foster stepped back slightly, his gaze fixed on the gem, ready to draw his katana at the slightest threat.

The jade... pulsed.

A light, imperceptible at first glance, seemed to flow through it, like a slow, unfathomable heartbeat.

And the light engulfed him.

Foster didn’t even have time to scream.

The force that tore him from the ground was not merely physical. It was as if something grabbed him at the very core of his being, pulling him out of the real world. He felt his body dissolve, fragmented into a million particles of light, swept away in a blinding vortex.

Then silence.

Absolute, suffocating silence.

Foster opened his eyes, and what he saw left him speechless.

He was floating.

Around him, there was neither sky nor land. Just a white, infinite, immaculate ocean. No shadows, no identifiable light, just this brilliant purity that stretched on endlessly. Yet he could feel the ground beneath his feet, invisible but tangible. An imperceptible breeze brushed his face, making his hair ripple slightly.

He frowned.

- Where the hell am I!

His heart was beating a little too fast. His body was intact, but he felt different, as if a part of himself was floating outside his own existence. His gaze wandered over the non-existent horizon. Nothing moved, nothing breathed.

Then... a shudder.

Something was approaching.

A shadow stretched into the distance, faint at first, almost unreal. But it grew, stretched, taking shape in the endless whiteness. Foster felt an indescribable pressure descend upon him. A colossal presence, a thousand-year-old power slowly unveiling itself.

And then he saw it.

Descending from the void like a star falling from the firmament, a dragon appeared.

Foster felt his breath catch.

The dragon descended slowly, its immense jade body undulating with unreal fluidity, as if swimming in an invisible ocean. There was no flapping of wings, no noise, no turbulence in the air. It was simply there, gliding through space with overwhelming majesty.

When it landed, it wasn’t a landing. It didn’t hit the ground, it didn’t breathe, it didn’t tremble. He settled, as if the entire universe bent beneath his will to welcome him.

Foster felt a wave of raw power crush his chest.

The dragon was gigantic. No, the word was too weak. It was titanic, divine, almost inconceivable to a human mind. Its serpentine body stretched for an unimaginable distance, its immense, almost translucent wings stretched back like celestial sails, traversed by sinuous patterns that seemed to change and evolve with every second.

Her scales...

They were pure jade, shimmering in a light that didn’t exist, shimmering with a soft but impenetrable glow. Each one seemed cut with infinite precision, like a precious stone polished by the ages themselves. They weren’t just green; they contained reflections of gold, deep blue, silver and even shades of abysmal black. As if they contained fragments of the universe.

Her head...

Foster had never seen a face so terrifying and beautiful at the same time. Its elongated maw was framed by long filaments of energy, like living whiskers dancing in the windless air. Its horns, tapered and curved backwards, seemed carved from sacred stone, radiating an ancient, indecipherable aura.

Every movement of his jaw, every tiny wobble of his head gave off an impression of infinite wisdom, but also of a raw power capable of wiping out entire civilizations with a single breath.

And his eyes...

Two immense emerald orbs of unfathomable depth.

They weren’t just looking at Foster. They went right through him.

It was like being laid bare before a god, exposed in utter vulnerability. Those eyes didn’t just see his body, or even his soul. They saw everything he was, everything he had been, and everything he could become.

An icy shiver ran down Foster’s spine.

This dragon...

This was no mere creature. This was no mythical beast. It wasn’t even a living being in the sense he understood.

It was a force. A primordial entity, born before the world, woven into the threads of time and pure energy. It existed outside the laws of nature, outside the limits of life and death. He was the embodiment of an ancient power, so vast that the human mind could only touch a fraction of it without descending into madness.

The dragon watched him wordlessly.

Foster swallowed slowly.

His fingers tightened on the handle of his katana. An instinctive, useless gesture. He knew that brandishing his weapon here would make no sense. He was facing a force he could neither fight nor escape.

- Yes? he managed to say.

The dragon simply stared at him.

Foster felt a drop of sweat trickle down his temple.

- Welcome Foster. the dragon finally said.