Chapter 2169

Elowen sensed it too. Even with half her divine soul nearly gone, she slowly opened her eyes and looked up at the sky once more, but said not a single word. The smile blooming in her eyes now held the weight of a thousand unsaid words. Lucan had died to protect Celestria without regrets, and she, too, felt no regret. All she wished was to leave behind the last trace of her divine soul and wait a thousand years for him to return. Shannon stood still and gazed at Elowen nestled beside Lucan. Before the last of the Ten-Tailed Elythune's divine soul strength completely faded away, she stepped forward. Walking toward Elowen, she removed the soul bell from her wrist and gently placed it in Elowen's fading hand. Elowen had asked her for it more than once, but she'd never agreed. But now… "You win. My soul bell's yours." Elowen looked down at the soul bell in her hands. After a long pause, her lips curled into a soft, faint smile. As a breeze swept through, the soul bell and her body shimmered into flecks of mystic light, scattering into the sky. The bell chimed clearly and familiarly. Drawn by the sound, Lucan's true form dissolved into mystic light and followed. … It was done. Celestria was scarred and shattered, but what could be done had been done. The rest would be up to Celestrians to mend on their own, and Shannon and Benjamin would no longer interfere. Before returning the body to Benemir, the two took a moment to say goodbye to Trevaris and Velquin. Velquin now looked like a six-year-old child. His round eyes were swollen, and his soft, chubby cheeks puffed up in aggrievance. He whimpered, "You're leaving too?" Lucan and Elowen were gone, and now, Shannon and Benjamin were leaving too. As a mini phoenix barely a few months old, he was filled with sorrow. Born carrying the ancestral memory of the phoenix clan, he naturally understood everything that had happened in the past few days, and that gave him more reason to be sad. The four of them were the first people he'd seen upon hatching, but now, all of them were leaving. Faced with his reluctant gaze, Shannon felt the same, but there was no longer any reason to stay. She reached out and gently ruffled his hair. "Time will come when we meet again one day." If she could, she wanted to tell him not to try purifying Vlad. She didn't want him to sacrifice himself or their next meeting to be through Trevaris, formed from a divine soul fragment. But she knew that timeline couldn't be undone. Just like Lucan and Elowen's fate, Velquin's future was sealed. Velquin stifled as his swollen eyes brimmed with stubborn light. With effort, he gathered an orb of phoenix flames in his palm, born from his divine soul. Turning to look at Trevaris, he said, "I'm still not strong enough, so this is all the strength of my divine soul I can spare for now. "You were born from my divine soul, so don't bring shame to the phoenix clan. Don't ever let bad things like Vlad control you again." Flames rippled around Trevaris' body. He nodded solemnly and promised. "I won't!" When he was stronger, not only would he never fall to Vlad again, but he'd also destroy it! Velquuin smiled and pushed the phoenix flames forward. Trevaris spread his wings and, with a soft cry, swallowed the phoenix flames whole. Empowered by the strength of the divine soul, the mini phoenix's body ignited in a wave of brilliant flame. As those flames grew, they soared upward, now many times his previous size. Shannon and Benjamin shared a glance. Without hesitation, their divine souls separated from Benemir and Serelith's bodies. As Shannon spread her arms to open the domain, a wisp of Soul Tree's presence unfurled. The presence shimmered and took shape as a massive tree in the void. Drawn by power, it attempted to split a rift. Once again, the time-traveling portal reappeared.