Arthur let the purifying flame consume his form. His wounds slowly disappearing . But while his wounds disappeared he still felt pain from the flames. The white flames were a double-edged sword, they healed him physically, but damaged him mentally.
[You have understood 'emptiness' your understanding of the world is changing. System rebooting…]
'Seriously? Again? Second time this week…'
He sighed before looking up at the small fracture in the sky. He didn't have any time to waste, as the cold was only getting worse. He climbed up onto the tip of the statue and put his hand into the fracture, the sky rippled like waves as he felt his hand enter the warm embrace of the abyss. He slowly moved into the abyss until his whole body had been consumed by the fracture. Then his whole field of view flipped, he was falling. The skies in the abyss were grey. The only thing in the sky was a black sun, that radiated only darkness. He grew lightheaded as he entered the realm. He observed the abyss, it was much larger than the mortal realm was, the land was so vast on a scale he could barely understand, there were giants, serpents, dragons. As he felt his consciousness slipping. A shadowy colossus formed right in front of him and stopped his fall. He could barely understand the booming voice before he slipped into a deep sleep.
"So the star herself has sent her herald to me…how lucky I am…and such a young child as well…oh how cruel fate can be…"
Arthur passed out moments later. He immediately awoke in the library of memories. Waking up on the floor littered with books and paper. He decided to prolong his study of the runes for a while to let him recover mentally. He looked to his right and saw only darkness. And a lone figure sitting in it.
'Is that the knights memories?' He walked into the darkness, his foot splashing onto a watery reflective surface. He walked forward until he was close enough to the knight to touch him. And once he did a vast amount of knowledge entered him. The knight himself used to a servant of the light goddess, also known as the ruler of the stars. In his memories she saw the lady. Her beauty outshone even the brightest sun. Her white hair flowed like an endless spring of beautiful clear water. Clad in a brilliant white armor. While the knight was clad in similar armor himself. Kneeling in front of her. He could not make out the words being exchanged. All he knew is that the goddess had opened the fracture to the abyss.
And that she had vanished into it, and the knight had waited there for hundreds of years, even erecting a statue of her so he would never forget. Until the abyssal energies leaked from the fracture and corrupted the knight, and the knight lost every aspect of himself. And the cold corrupted the mountains with it. As the memories finished flowing through his mind. Arthur put his hand on the knights shoulder.
"You did well. Thank you for your service…"
The world around him turned white as the knight faded into crystal dust.
'...this is really starting to get old. Him and that damn old man.'
As he left the rift and it disappeared from his library. He sighed and sat back down on the floor of the endless realm of knowledge.
'How in the world am I ever supposed to fully utilize the knowledge of a dragon? This library is too damn big.'
[System rebooted. Thank you for waiting. Changes: You no longer see the world through the sight of 'levels' instead, you see it as the stage of one's Mana Core. Your core is currently of the 'awakened' rank. Cores rank from awakened>ascended>alpha>omega>zenith. You have also gained the ability to utilize draconic runes you have comprehended without weaving.]
'Huh...I didn't know that strength could be based on mana cores...but what the hell was the point of even having leveling in the first place? Feels like some shitty excuse for laziness...anyways, I think I heard about this in the original game before, if I remember correctly. The calamity dragon had an alpha and omega core. To represent beginning and ending. If the calamity dragon was that strong...how strong is a being with a zenith core? And the ability to use runes without weaving? Thats insane...although it doesn't remove the mental strain. It's still good.'
He sighed and dismissed the system, after reading through a few more history books. He learned of some of the strongest dragons. The white and black dragon respectively, the ones who created the black and white flames. Apparently the black dragon, Thanatos, had 3 zenith cores. And was part god. While the white dragon, Gaia, was the same.
After spending 3 days in the library of memories straight. He finally woke up. The colossus made of shadow was nowhere to be seen. And he was lying on a grassy plane, surrounded only by darkness.
'Ah...warmth...'
This was the abyss.