NOVEL NEXT Chapter416-Luna’s Longing
When Daniel heard the words spoken by Luke, the Goddess of Luck, his expression stiffened in slight confusion.
Why… why was Luke apologizing to him?
It was baffling. Over this entire period, she had done nothing but offer him help—timely and substantial assistance that had saved him more than once. For her to bow her head and apologize seemed completely unnecessary.
Sensing his unspoken question, Luke continued, her voice calm but tinged with a quiet sadness:
"Lord Daniel, there are things you will come to understand in due time. For now, know only this: we must part ways. If we remain here any longer, the very same catastrophe from ages past will reawaken upon the Land of Origin. That ancient disaster would play itself out once more, and that is something none of us can permit."
She paused, then added softly,
"This time, we only appeared because Aurelia attempted to strike you down. She has begun to regard you as the single greatest obstacle on her chosen path forward. You know her temperament—she seeks to eliminate every risk, every potential threat. And so…"
Before Luke could finish her sentence, a figure rushed forward from the side.
"Crossbridge!"
With a cry filled with emotion, Luna suddenly threw herself into Daniel's arms. She clung tightly to him, her voice trembling with sincerity.
"Lord Crossbridge, I have missed you so much. Did you… did you miss me, even a little?"
Daniel blinked in surprise, then let out a faint, awkward smile. His expression turned wry, almost comical, as though he had been caught off guard.
The once-small girl—how had she grown so much? In the blink of an eye, countless years had slipped away, and she was no longer the fragile child he remembered.
Truly, time flows like a song, he thought with a sigh of nostalgia.
He was about to exchange a few warm words with Luna, but before he could, the earth in the distance suddenly trembled violently.
The ground shuddered with terrifying force, and a deep rumble reverberated through the air. The gathered gods instinctively turned their gazes toward the source.
It was clear that the disturbance came from the place they had been whispering about earlier—
the prison of the Apocalypse.
Only genuine gods could possibly suppress something of that scale.
Daniel's heart clenched, and a shadow of worry crossed his face.
What kind of calamity could this be, that even gods themselves must intervene personally to restrain it?
If such an Apocalypse were to spill unchecked into the Land of Origin… then the entirety of humankind—indeed, every living race—might find themselves doomed, with no chance of survival.
The gravity of it sank deep into Daniel's chest, and his expression grew solemn.
And yet, when he looked down at Luna, who clung to him with the same warmth and affection as she had ten thousand years ago, he could not help but smile gently, his features softening with tenderness.
"No matter what else happens, to see you again like this—it is truly a blessing," he said warmly.
Both Luke and Luna nodded faintly, but their eyes soon turned once again toward the distance, where the ground trembled ever more violently.
Another quake came, this time from the opposite direction. The air itself quivered.
Luke's face hardened.
"It is no use. We cannot linger here any longer. If we delay, those already holding the seal will not last."
Daniel frowned, but he understood.
Clearly, the "they" Luna referred to must also be beings of godlike stature. That meant other deities were already battling desperately to suppress the Apocalypse, pouring their strength into restraining it.
The mere absence of Luke and her companions had caused the seal to loosen noticeably. That alone spoke volumes about the horror of the thing they were fighting.
The Apocalypse must be a calamity so dreadful that even Daniel's imagination fell short of grasping its true extent.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Daniel asked immediately. "Perhaps I could assist, even if only a little!"
Luna's mind power surged, and her thoughts flowed directly into Daniel's consciousness. Their communication was seamless, faster than spoken words, as if no time was wasted at all.
And in that instant, the Backworld itself seemed to shudder with unseen transformations.
Luke gave the faintest of nods, silently confirming Luna's unspoken message.
Her lips parted, her tone resolute:
"What we need is the blood of the ancient gods—ancient deities of different domains. The quantity required is… ten thousand samples."
Daniel's eyes widened slightly at the sheer number. Ten thousand!
But he did not hesitate. He resolved on the spot to act.
He quickly explained to Luna the details of his Star Upgrade Quest, and how it coincided with their need for such blood.
Luna listened, then slowly raised her hand.
From the abyssal night sky above, a beam of pure, silvery moonlight descended.
It was soft to behold, almost tender, like the caress of a spring breeze. Yet when it touched the bodies of the ancient gods lurking in the shadows, the effect was catastrophic.
One after another, explosions thundered through the Backworld.
Ancient beings of demigod rank, false gods, and half-divine creatures—all of them had no chance to react, no time to understand what was happening. In the blink of an eye, their bodies were torn apart, obliterated into fragments under the serene, merciless glow of Luna's lunar radiance.
It was beautiful, and it was terrifying.
She turned her eyes back to Daniel, her voice heavy with emotion.
"We must leave now, Lord Crossbridge. Please… take good care of yourself."
With those words, she embraced him tightly once more. Her slender frame struck against him with a force like a ball thrown into his chest. And then, in the very next instant, both Luna and Luke's figures dissolved into nothingness, vanishing completely from the Backworld.
The God of Life, Laeve, offered Daniel one final gentle smile. Her eyes were kind, full of reassurance, and then she too faded away like a breeze dispersing into the air.
At that precise moment, the sky above tore open with a deafening roar.
A colossal bolt of lightning crashed downward, its impact landing far to the north, thousands of miles away.
And yet even at that distance, the result was catastrophic—entire forests of towering ancient trees were reduced to ash and cinders in a single instant.
Daniel's face darkened.
This lightning strike… its force was on par with the blow of a god. How dreadful… how truly dreadful this Backworld is!
For a moment, awe and fear mingled in his heart.
Then he shook the feelings aside. He had no time to be overwhelmed.
The task was clear: he must gather the Blood of the Ancient Gods.
Thanks to Luna's intervention, the slaughter was already complete. Daniel no longer needed to worry about how to kill them; his role now was simply to collect the remains.
And yet, even as he worked, his mind turned over countless thoughts.
For example, Aurelia's current stance—she had refrained from forcing a war. Why?
Based on what Luna had said, it seemed the battle raging in another part of the Backworld was even more perilous.
So perilous, in fact, that Aurelia herself had to lend her power to suppress the Apocalypse.
That would explain why she had abandoned the chance to kill him after her initial attempt. She had judged that the opportunity was gone, and immediately withdrawn to return to her more urgent duty.
Thus, whether it was Aurelia or Luna's group, their true aim was the same: to prevent the Apocalypse from fully breaking free.
As Daniel collected the blood, he sifted through all the clues in his mind, weaving them together through mental deduction.
The deities had not given him all the details, but he could still glimpse the larger picture.
And, he thought with a faint smile, he had reaped tremendous benefits regardless.
If not for Luna's aid, harvesting ten thousand samples of ancient god blood would have been nearly impossible for him.
So does this count as fortune won from peril?
He chuckled softly to himself and shook his head. Then, carefully, he placed all the collected blood into his backpack space.
With a thought, he activated the Tree of Faith, and in the blink of an eye, he returned from the Backworld to the Star Upgrade Hall inside Winterhold Castle.
[Star Upgrade Quest: Completed]
Reward: Level cap raised to 400.
Reward: Obtained second divine seat of the Infinity Domain.
Prompt: Accept the next stage of the quest?
Daniel did not hesitate. He retrieved massive quantities of Exp Drops from his backpack and used them at once.
In the blink of an eye, his level surged, climbing rapidly until it reached the new cap of 400.
At the same time, the newly acquired divine seat began its fusion process, integrating with the Infinity Domain.
The effect was astonishing—his divine power within the Infinity Domain doubled in strength.
And most importantly of all, Daniel had finally stepped into the realm of the demigod in full, complete form.
This meant that his demigod strength now surpassed nearly every other demigod in existence.
Of course, divine seat fusion was not a simple matter, and it came with challenges of its own. But even so, the results filled Daniel with awe and excitement.
For the first time, he truly felt he had crossed a threshold.
This power… this is only the beginning.