Chapter 56 Sleeping Memory

In a space of complete darkness and emptiness, a long-slumbering consciousness began to glow faintly with starlight.

"Orion, Orion..."

A gentle female voice echoed in Orion's mind. The warm and kind tone reminded him of his mother.

"Is someone calling me?"

Orion felt like he had been asleep for a very long time, so long that his memories were fuzzy and his thoughts were slow and filtered.

He imagined himself in a vast forest filled with flowers and birds. A gentle breeze brushed against him, and the fragrance of the flowers filled the air, making him sigh in contentment.

"Ah, how beautiful nature is!"

But beautiful moments don't last forever. After experiencing this vision, Orion was pulled back into the dark, empty space.

In this darkness, three golden lights, like suns in the sky, shone steadily, never changing.

"Make a wish, Orion," the gentle female voice said again.

"Make a wish?"

"Yes, make a wish to me, and you can return to that beautiful, perfect world. You can experience all the beauty the world has to offer. You can escape pain, live freely, without hunger or illness, forever. Isn't that wonderful?"

"So, make a wish to me."

The voice was like a guiding light, lifting Orion's mind from the darkness and leading him toward the light.

Why would he refuse?

Though he wanted to say yes, a feeling deep in his soul made him hesitate, urging him to refuse.

"Come on, come on..."

Orion Astra, who was disoriented, raised his hand and reached upward as if trying to catch the only light available.

"The only one? Why is it the only one? Don't you have anyone to share it with?"

An unsettling thought crossed Orion's mind.

"Yes. You're always alone, and you will always be alone. People are naturally selfish. Is there anything wrong with having everything to yourself?" The soft female voice, though slightly anxious, continued guiding Orion's thoughts.

"No, no, no!"

Orion's inner voice protested, but the gentle female voice persisted.

"You are in endless darkness and nothingness. No one is here to save you, so why should you save others?"

"That seems to be true."

Orion seemed to be convinced, his eyes reflecting his troubled state. As he reached for the light, a blurry figure appeared before him.

It was the back of a blonde woman.

Soon, many more figures appeared behind her: people with gray hair and golden eyes, those who looked tangled, cold-faced green dragons, ordinary gray-haired men, fiery red-haired women...

And behind them, thousands of ordinary figures emerged, all smiling and waiting for Orion to return.

"I'm not alone!"

The light in Orion's eyes grew brighter, and the blurry figure began to solidify, almost becoming real.

"Damn it!"

An angry voice echoed through the space, causing Orion's actions to abruptly halt. A crack then appeared, slowly expanding until it consumed the entire world.

In the void, the world reduced to nothingness.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

"Damn humans, why can't you just stop?"

"Why can't you listen to me and believe in things like bonds, friendship, and other values?"

In this dark, empty space resides the true form of the stellaron. For the past seven years, since Orion Astra disappeared, similar scenes have happened hundreds of thousands of times. The stellaron always places Orion in the most terrifying and nothingness-filled darkness.

Generally, any ordinary person would break down mentally and be killed by others after a few days in such darkness.

But for Orion, the stellaron always strikes when his consciousness is at its weakest, placing hope in front of him. Even if he knows that this hope is a trap, he should grab it without hesitation.

"Why is this human so special? What keeps him going?"

The stellaron couldn't understand it. He didn't understand it seven years ago, and he still won't understand it later. Fortunately, he has absolute control over the spiritual space. Whenever the situation gets out of hand, he destroys the space and starts over.

When Orion died, several things fascinated him: a mirror and three golden lights.

The mirror fragments shimmered faintly, as if alive with some ancient power, their jagged edges gleaming under the dim light. The Stellaron loomed over them, its monstrous form pulsing with greed. It reached out, almost instinctively, desperate to consume the fragments, yet the energy within was too immense—too resistant.

With each attack, it managed to siphon minuscule particles from the fragments. But something was off. The more it absorbed, the more the Stellaron began to suspect that the particles weren't just fragments of power—they carried a trace of Orion himself.

The three golden lights floated nearby, untouched. No matter how close the stellaron moved, they remained beyond its grasp, radiating a force too pure, too distant.

Despite years of draining Orion's existence, reducing him to nearly nothing, something peculiar happened each time he was about to fade entirely. An unseen energy gathered around him, knitting his essence back together just enough to prevent his complete disappearance, ensuring he remained remembered—a presence that could not be forgotten.

With the seal loosening, the Stellaron had a brilliant plan. All he needed to do was destroy the small group of people Orion cared about and then show this scene to him.

The stellaron was confident she could completely eliminate Orion. As the seal weakened, the Stellaron Hunter merged part of itself with Orion's power, transforming into a "dragon that devours the world"—a mythical beast.

The results were unexpectedly effective. This Dragon of Eternal Winter's power was almost as strong as the very concept of "nature" on Jarilo-VI. It could use the four elements of wind, fire, thunder, and lightning to influence all natural phenomena on the planet, including meteorite impacts from hundreds of millions of years ago and other powerful natural disasters.

With such immense power, the stellaron didn't see how she could lose. Even though it had been defeated by Welt Yang, the stellaron believed that, connected to the planet's veins with endless vitality and energy, it could never be beaten by any human.

Orion's time was an exception—just a moment of carelessness, and Orion managed a sneak attack, sealing it initially.

"As long as we can hold back the giant dragon transformed from the stellaron and we can go to Everwinter Hill to awaken Orion's consciousness, it will be our victory."

On the city wall, Welt's voice trailed off, the final detail of his plan lingering in the air. Suddenly, a deep, guttural roar shattered the stillness, vibrating through the sky like a living earthquake. The sound was raw, primal. Everyone froze, their eyes widening as a massive shadow tore through the clouds—its dark, jagged form unmistakable. The Stellaron's incarnation was coming.

The wind shifted, carrying an unnatural chill, as the beast's silhouette loomed closer. Its glowing eyes cut through the darkness like molten embers, and with each beat of its colossal wings, the very atmosphere seemed to tremble in anticipation of the coming battle.

Far away, in the vast, unseen void where no human gaze could reach, something stirred.

Orion's spiritual body, sealed away in an endless abyss, twitched. His eyelids, once motionless, flickered ever so slightly. Then, from deep within his core, a faint spark—a barely visible flame—flickered to life, dim but determined.