A lone smoke in the vast desert, a sunset over the sandy river.
The lone smoke was a sandstorm that reached to the heavens, and the setting sun was a hazy yellow, its afterglow cast upon the dull yellow desert.
Kalon strolled across the receding hot sand. As his claws and toes moved, all points of force on the sand particles were perfectly enveloped by him, making the Red Dragon, which had grown to twenty-one meters, appear as if it were walking on normal ground.
There was no sand depression, no flowing sand and gravel. It was as if the Giant Dragon, weighing tons, glided across the sand like a withered leaf, leaving almost no trace where it stepped.
Next to the Ancestral Red Dragon, Fafna, with her eyes covered by a soft silk cloth tied behind her head, could not move as effortlessly as Kalon.
Although Fafna's body weight was far less than that of the Ancestral Red Dragon, even with her own power, she couldn't achieve Kalon's instinctive ease and grace. Her feet would leave indentations in the quicksand and scattered gravel.
Although Fafna's eyes were covered, the Giant ogre, whose mental power had vastly increased and was difficult to control, observed with her mind's eye, seeing even more clearly than with physical eyes.
This was not the Ancestral Red Dragon using its power, nor any earth talent or magic, but entirely relying on its brain's instinctive adjustments.
Every muscle and every exertion of force throughout its body perfectly aligned with the surrounding environment, changing with each step, as if it were natural.
Even though Fafna tried to learn from the Ancestral Red Dragon's method, she couldn't master such a skill. She could only abandon her inner thoughts and walk on the sand at her own pace, following her master into the distance.
This place was thousands of miles away from the Imperial Legion's main floating island base, yet Kalon embarked on his quest with only one maid by his side.
After the first intake of spice, Kalon's brain and body both received an opportunity for evolution.
According to the research of the Mage Legion and the common knowledge extracted from the Harkonnen Family warrior Rabban's mind, although spice has powerful effects, continuous intake of spice will cause the body to develop resistance to this miraculous product, gradually diminishing its efficacy.
However, consuming too much spice also leads to severe addiction, with side effects that mortals find unbearable.
To prolong and enhance the effects of spice and reduce its addictive side effects, ordinary low-level mages need to wait at least a month after their first large intake before their second use.
And for the third time, at least three months apart are required.
Compared to the foundation of a low-level mage, the Ancestral Red Dragon's foundation seemed unfathomable. The upper limit for others using spice might not even reach the lower limit for the Red Dragon using spice.
But to allow the spice to exert greater efficacy, Kalon still devised his own intake plan according to the rules researched by the mages.
Therefore, after the second intake of spice on the tenth day, Kalon, carrying enough spice for a third use, embarked on his journey with his maid, Fafna.
During his journey, the world's information was organized meticulously by Kalon's brain and sub-brain, unlike the world seen in true vision.
If Kalon wished, the traces of structural changes in the exposed or buried rock layers within the salt flats and desert he scanned could easily calculate that Arrakis had undergone water erosion three million years ago.
If Kalon was willing to invest more energy, after learning more information, he could instantly calculate the exact year and time three million years ago.
But Kalon had no intention of investing energy in these meaningless calculations, because in his brain, memories of incidental scenes from his previous life were constantly at work.
He let his thoughts wander, using the previously acquired information to calculate the optimal direction for the Empire's actions after his arrival in this world.
And Kalon's own optimal path.
In this universe, after entering interstellar civilization, due to the 'Butlerian Jihad' against thinking machines, human society underwent a final transformation. Various great families rose from resurgence, eventually forming an imperial enfeoffment system centered around an Emperor in the stellar universe.
The various great nobles cooperated with each other but also competed in secret.
With the Corrino Family as the imperial royalty, seated high on the Golden Lion Throne, the Lion Throne Empire, which ruled all nobles, was the highest political power openly existing in the universe.
However, the imperial government of the noble alliance did not exclusively hold universal ruling power.
Because of the Butlerian Jihad, the civilized system regressed, and information exchange and transportation were hindered by spacetime.
Among humans, ancient religious doctrines resurfaced, establishing the rule: 'Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.'
And the Spacing Guild, which controlled the key to interstellar travel, also became a powerful force.
Therefore, the Lion Throne Empire was actually ruled jointly by three major powers: the Imperial Government, the Spacing Guild, and the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, which integrated all religious doctrines.
Coincidentally, humans with special abilities due to spice were the members of these three forces: the Navigators of the Spacing Guild, the Mentat Calculators who served as strategists for the great nobles, and the Truthsayers of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood!
Among them, the Harkonnen Family, to which the warrior Rabban belonged, was a noble force within the Imperial Government. Baron Harkonnen, the family head, originally controlled Arrakis, and this planet was part of the Harkonnen Family's fiefdom.
However, the Emperor of the Lion Throne Empire, wary of the Atreides Ducal Family, who had a claim to the Imperial succession and powerful strength, reassigned the Atreides Family to Arrakis.
This led to the Harkonnen Family, who originally controlled the spice production and gained huge profits, colluding with the scheming Emperor. The Emperor dispatched the Sardaukar Legion to join the Harkonnen Family in annihilating the Atreides Ducal Family's forces that had moved to Arrakis.
Now, Arrakis had returned to the rule of the Harkonnen Family.
Rabban was a high-ranking commander of the Harkonnen Family's legion. He was accidentally captured by the Dragon's Mage Legion on his way back to base, thus revealing this overt information.
However, from his fluctuating memories, Kalon knew that Paul Atreides, the only son of Duke Atreides, and his mother Lady Jessica, from the annihilated Atreides Family, had not died.
A fleeting scene from his past combined with Rabban's memory allowed Kalon to confirm that Paul and Lady Jessica, abandoned in the desert by the Harkonnen Family warriors to be devoured by sandworms, must have escaped into the heart of the desert, seeking help from the local natives, the Fremen.
It was not based on his own abilities of deduction; Kalon had not yet intersected with these two survivors, so there was no information to provide a basis for his inference.
His understanding of this world came from his past life's memories and existing information, but it was barely a feather's worth compared to the vast and real universe.
But Kalon's powerful psychic intuition told the Red Dragon that perhaps by meeting that special Child of the Age, the focal point where all forces converged, the center where the past and future were woven together in the present—Paul Atreides—
He could follow the clues, and by intersecting information, find a trace of a path to leave this world and go to the World of Ice and Fire.
So Kalon, with his maid, traveled along the desert, heading towards the possible strongholds where the native Fremen might live.
For the Red Dragon, it was more like a challenge on a journey. He used no power, relying on his brain's computational and deductive abilities to search for Fremen settlements through every minute clue.
The concentration of water molecules hidden in the air and the traces of occasional activity hidden in remote corners were all captured by Kalon's eyes.
Occasionally, he and Fafna would also see tiny flashes of lightning on the sand's surface, signs caused by the friction of sandworms moving beneath the desert.
However, after tasting sandworms, Kalon no longer intended to hunt these precious spice producers. These sandworms had become a never-ending source of wealth in the Dragon's eyes, constantly producing treasure.
The setting sun sank below the sand, and two moons gradually appeared in the sky, one large and one small.
But before Kalon, a surging sandstorm approached. The storm, moving at hundreds of kilometers per hour, swept in with wild sand under the hazy night sky, like a shadow devouring everything.
However, Kalon did not take Fafna to avoid this relatively small storm.
The Ancestral Red Dragon spread his claw tips, and a dazzling magical light condensed at his claw tip, forming a rotating seed-like shape.
The sixty-eight thousand nine hundred and sixty magic runes he controlled flowed and flickered like brilliant light bands on the surface of the seed, instantly arranging themselves into various spell models.
Dozens of spells were immediately released according to the models, cast upon Fafna, who quietly followed beside him.
Steel Bones, Growth Enhancement, Dragon Scale Art, Spell Shield, Earth Barrier, and other spells enveloped Fafna tightly, enough to easily withstand the bombardment of magic-powered heavy cannons.
The magical problems that once plagued the Ancestral Red Dragon were easily solved after consuming spice and successfully initiating evolution. Now, Kalon could unleash dozens of low to mid-tier spells with a mere flick of his claw or a thought, truly a torrent of magic.
Fafna smiled, a master and a servant, long familiar with each other, needing no words. Then, one dragon and one person directly stepped into the sandstorm.
A true gale is a force that destroys everything, making even human-made destruction feel inferior.
These fine or coarse sand particles, swept up by the sandstorm, struck all exposed objects within sight with astonishing kinetic energy. Between heaven and earth, only wild sand remained, nothing else.
This was not a momentary impact; anything exposed to the furiously swirling sand and dust would face continuous impacts.
Even alloy spacecraft, capable of traversing the cosmic void as part of an interstellar civilization, would be slowly ground away by the continuous assault of the wild sand, turning into fragments finer than sand.
If an adult Dragon were caught in a sandstorm, its scales might allow it to endure for a brief moment, but eventually, the storm would wear through its scales, forcing it to flee the area.
But Kalon's body stepped into it, his right wing slightly spread to shield Fafna beneath it, allowing the immense power, enough to destroy all mortal existence, to impact his own body.
Countless grains of sand, carrying astonishing kinetic energy, scoured the Ancestral Red Dragon's scales, grinding out a series of sparks, like a grinding wheel cutting steel, abrading Kalon's scales with a grating sound that set teeth on edge.
Threads of lightning coiled around the Red Dragon's wings and body; that was the electrostatic field generated by the raging sandstorm, polishing the Red Dragon's body along with the sand.
These grains of sand ground away at the Red Dragon's scales, slowly eroding the luster of the unprotected scales, thinning the thick, sturdy dragon scales until they were paper-thin, threatening to wear through the dragon's scales, then its skin and flesh, its sinews and steel-like bones.
But after ingesting the spice, Kalon's control over his body had reached the level of every minute cell. He extracted a trace of the energy contained within each cell, distributing it to the skin beneath the deliberately abraded scales as a reserve.
Whenever the Red Dragon's scales were about to be worn through, abundant energy would immediately surge into them, causing the Dragon's scales to grow rapidly, forming scales with even higher defense and toughness.
The same was true for the skin and flesh on his body not covered by scales; in the midst of decay, muscles would push out sand, then grow, then be damaged, achieving rebirth in the pain of growth and destruction.
In the world, many creatures temper themselves by using the stimulus of injury to gain a stronger body after repair.
The Ancestral Red Dragon was no different. Without tempering, relying solely on natural growth and construction, even with his sub-brain, he couldn't further increase his physical strength, just as experiments require a large number of samples to find better options.
Kalon's body continued to advance through the sandstorm purely by its natural tonnage, not because his weight was so immense that this astonishing power couldn't overturn him.
Rather, within his perfectly clear mind, every vector of every existence and every change in the storm swirling through the wild sand was under his control.
Kalon fully mobilized all the muscles and strength in his body, relying on his powerful physique and perception to sense the trajectories and changes of billions of sand grains, every subtle shift and direction of the wind, and the purpose and effect of every force.
By doing so, he adjusted his subtle movements and balance. The membrane wings on his wings simultaneously endured the tempering and baptism of the storm while adjusting their movements to dissipate the impacting wind force, allowing him to traverse the sandstorm solely with his physical body and mind.
The immense computational information caused Kalon's main brain and sub-brain to operate simultaneously. Countless massive vectors and wind force changes flashed in his brain, causing faint wisps of steam, long unseen, to emerge between the Red Dragon's scales.
This was an anomaly caused by the colossal energy running through the Red Dragon's body, required for the unusually massive calculations he was performing.
It had been a long time since Kalon had experienced his brain operating at such a high speed. He opened his mouth wide, excitedly revealing his long fangs, forcing himself to endure this state to quickly adapt to the results of his growth and evolution.
Whenever the Ancestral Red Dragon thought his brain was approaching its limit amidst the massive information calculations, his will brought him a new surprise.
In this continuous process of squeezing and tempering, Kalon's potential was fully exploited by himself, dedicating all his energy to his brain, letting his body's instincts wander aimlessly through the sandstorm.
Until a certain moment, Kalon felt the pressure around him suddenly ease. His body instinctively stopped supplying large amounts of energy, and his incredibly active brain instantly returned to a calm state, bringing him back to his senses.
The natural sandstorm, like a cataclysm, was now far behind him, receding like the shadow of a dying sun.
The two moons in the sky, one large and one small, hung over Dune, casting silver moonlight upon the land, which resembled mercury-yellow sand.
In the distance, atop a sand Dune, a man and a woman stood, gazing in astonishment at the man and dragon emerging from the grandfather-level desert storm, their faces filled with shock. Even a danger, a sand wave surging from beneath the sand, couldn't make them move.
The most terrifying creature of the desert, a Sandworm, rapidly traversed the sand's surface, but then suddenly turned as it approached the dragon and the man, churning lightning and sand waves, fleeing far away in another direction.
"What is that?"
Paul Atreides and his mother, Jessica, stared blankly at the man and dragon slowly approaching. As they walked, the dragon transformed back into a human, but the previous sight was no illusion.
The two clearly saw the other, like an ancient myth from a long-lost homeworld, parting the sand and dust like Moses parting the Red Sea.
"I don't... I don't know...!"
Lady Jessica's trembling voice exposed her fear and apprehension without a doubt.
Lady Jessica, as a member of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, was a religious member with special abilities and consciousness.
As a Sisterhood that unified all religions, unlike other sects, who either awaited the coming of a savior or worshipped one.
The Bene Gesserit knew that there were no gods in the world, so they created saviors, personally crafting a chosen one, a messiah-like savior controlled by the Sisterhood.
This savior was called by the Sisterhood—Kwisatz Haderach.
For thousands of years, members of the Sisterhood had been attempting to achieve this goal.
They relied on genetic selection through mating with outstanding members of various families to obtain and study the genes of all human families.
To this end, members of the Sisterhood executing the plan mastered unparalleled abilities by consuming drugs made from spice and undergoing rigorous physical and mental training.
The most outstanding individuals could even control their bodies at a cellular level, and when acquiring the genes of a target family for pregnancy and breeding, they could freely control the sex of the fetus.
Before creating the Sisterhood's 'Messiah,' all children born were girls to be used for future mating and breeding.
They could also control blood flow, body temperature, heart rate, and consciousness. They were exceptionally skilled, and their combat abilities were almost unmatched.
They could even use their minds in conjunction with the Voice to briefly control the minds and thoughts of others, and could easily distinguish lies from truth.
After consuming the special product from the death of a Sandworm—the Water of Life—these powerful, witch-like individuals could also unlock ancestral memories in their bloodline, gaining insight into all history, past and present, and possessing all the knowledge and wisdom of their female ancestors.
The savior they sought to create, the 'Kwisatz Haderach,' would be born male according to the plan, possessing all the memories of both male and female ancestors of all human families, becoming a human computer Mentat.
He would also be able to predict the future like a Navigator, becoming the Golden Lion Emperor of the Lion Throne Empire, ruling the empire and leading all humanity towards the future envisioned and controlled by the Sisterhood.
Although Paul Atreides was an unplanned outcome of his mother Jessica falling in love with Duke Atreides, he still possessed the potential and qualifications to become the savior.
He possessed the knowledge and skills of a witch, and the ability to observe fragments of the future in his dreams, temporarily recognized by the Sisterhood as one of the goals of their plan.
But even if the Sisterhood's savior truly descended, they would not possess such calm and mighty power to walk through a sandstorm.
Even though Jessica was a witch, and Paul Atreides was also stronger than ordinary people, they still needed to wear life-sustaining equipment just to walk and survive in the desert.
They couldn't be like those two god-like beings, who could walk through the raging sand simply dressed in simple yet luxurious silk robes.
Lady Jessica, as a member of the religious order, was even more uncontrollably terrified.
Because as they drew closer, both of them could see that the figures of the approaching pair were incredibly tall. They themselves, standing before the three-and-a-half-meter-tall figures, were like weak children.
But the towering stature did not detract from their perfect forms; instead, it enhanced the divine radiance emanating from them.
Although the man's gaze was gentle, and his contours and bones were of an indescribable and unmatchable perfection, the deep indifference in his eyes was like the divine nature in the eyes of a god, viewing all beings as equals.
Although the woman's eyes were covered with a silk band, her beautiful body and face appeared exceptionally holy, like an angelic saint accompanying a deity.
A terrifying possibility flashed through Lady Jessica's mind. Her astute brain was confused by this dreadful conjecture, making her tremble as she cried out, "Stop, tell me, who exactly are you?"
The surrounding air was as if a vacuum had been created, and an ancient, witch-like voice, like an echo, simultaneously resonated with Lady Jessica's voice, majestic, powerful, and authoritative.
It was as if Jessica had summoned all the power of her ancestors when she spoke.
But Jessica's Voice could not control the mind, thoughts, or actions of either Kalon or Fafna. The moment Jessica spoke, Kalon instinctively analyzed the variations in her language.
He instantly memorized Jessica's accent and pronunciation, her tone, pitch, volume, and every detail of her throat movements. He also instantly detected the emotions and thoughts in Jessica's heart as she instinctively used the Voice.
Then he opened his mouth, and an ancient voice, a human voice mixed with the echoing roar of a dragon, simultaneously rang out,
"Kneel!"
The majestic and powerful human voice rang out, and the dragon's roar vibrated with it. Its absolute Voice instantly made Jessica and Paul Atreides kneel to the ground; their previous mental training had absolutely no effect.
In that instant, Kalon learned this witch's art of the Voice, but from the Dragon Emperor's mouth, this Voice was like a divine decree.