Chapter 123: What a Beautiful Dragon
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Once the floodgates had been opened, it became nearly impossible to hold back the surging tide. Especially when Lin Xu had a new excuse—an irresistible external force—to try dragging Heinrich into bed at any given moment. But… Heinrich couldn’t quite tell whether these urges truly came from Lin Xu himself, or if they were just erratic behaviors caused by the abnormal hormone levels.
All he could do was gently coax Lin Xu into settling down, and when the younger man finally fell asleep, Heinrich carefully pressed a hand to his lower belly. The outer layer of skin and muscle was soft when relaxed, but with a bit more pressure, he could feel the firmer shape of the eggshell beneath. The thought that a new life was growing inside that fragile shell made Heinrich pull back immediately, afraid to use too much force.
After leaving Dock 78 and exiting the Imperial Interstellar Route, the S297 jumped twice through hyperspace, en route to Thales.
Lin Xu’s body still reacted poorly to space-jumping technology.
During the two hyperspace jumps, Heinrich piloted the ship from the bridge, while Lin Xu’s mermaid tail emerged again. Though Heinrich had strapped him securely into the armchair, somehow, Lin Xu always managed to slide down onto the floor, radiating warmth and a syrupy scent of honey.
His dazed eyes and foggy awareness made it look like he was barely conscious—but what he did next made it hard to believe it wasn’t deliberate. He curled up beneath the control console, nestled between Heinrich’s knees, furrowing his brows and calling his name, tugging insistently at his hand.
But Heinrich was still adjusting the jump parameters. His hands were busy. So Lin Xu’s claws—sharp and unmistakably mermaid—ripped through the crisp fabric of Heinrich’s military uniform.
Heinrich gritted his teeth and endured until the ship finally stabilized in normal space. Only then did he haul Lin Xu out from under the console and pin him there, bracing him by the shoulders…
And after every time, Marshal Chu had to go back and delete the bridge surveillance footage in a rush. Meanwhile, the exhausted mermaid slept peacefully beside him, showing no signs of remorse.
Three days later, the S297 arrived in the Thales star system. A young blue star surged with radiant energy, casting a sapphire glow over the planet of Thales below.
After exiting hyperspace, just a few more hours would bring them into planetary orbit. The enormous world loomed ever closer. Earth had about seventy percent of its surface covered by water. From orbit, it looked like a blue marble.
But Thales was even purer. No visible landmasses could be seen from space—just an endless, vivid ocean. Occasionally, vast white cloud systems gathered in patches, like a layer of gossamer. And above that veil… was what they called the Divine Descent Barrier.
Heinrich and Lin Xu had reviewed all academic and military reports available on the barrier. Standard probes had no effect. The Divine Descent Barrier never responded to contact with outside visitors, like a wall of solid stone.
Military scientists had once launched a bold experiment, firing missiles directly at it. But the barrier simply absorbed the energy without a trace of damage—and without responding with any aggression.
This discovery left the military desperate to understand how such an energy-absorbing material worked. But despite pouring in massive funding, every scientific team came back empty-handed.
They had no way around it. The civilization that had constructed this barrier clearly possessed technology centuries—if not millennia—ahead of humanity. Perhaps in three thousand more years, humanity might finally reach the edge of that same scientific threshold.
As the ship’s autopilot guided them into low orbit around Thales, Heinrich and Lin Xu began changing into their full-seal exoskeletal spacesuits. Given the past failures of scientific expeditions, they had decided to try a different approach.
It was possible that the barrier could recognize mermaid genetics. If so, Heinrich and Lin Xu would take a space exploration pod, leave the ship, and approach the barrier. Once close enough, Lin Xu would attempt physical contact to see if the barrier would accept him.
Reports indicated that the barrier wasn’t hostile, so they weren’t overly concerned for their safety. Just in case, Lin Xu carried a few cold weapons inside his suit—more practical underwater than firearms, which might malfunction.
His mind was fully alert now, which made Heinrich suspect that all of Lin Xu’s previous dazed behavior might have just been an act to get his way. Once the pod detached from the S297, the main ship remained in orbit.
Heinrich took the controls while Lin Xu, seated beside him, checked the helmet seals and ensured the communication system was functioning.
Half an hour later, the pod stabilized in position—right before the Divine Descent Barrier, above Thales’s equator.
After they helped each other secure the booster units and helmets, the pod’s door opened. Air hissed out into the vacuum. Each man grabbed a tether connecting his suit to the pod and stepped into the void.
At this distance, the entire planet filled their vision. Only when they turned their heads could they see the darkness of space behind them.
The barrier looked like a faint, milky membrane—threads of light flickering across its surface. Researchers had discovered that those flickers weren’t random—they were actually data streams, exchanging some unknown kind of information.
Lin Xu activated his booster and drifted closer. The barrier was now just within reach. He held back a deep breath and reached for Heinrich’s hand. “Heinrich, hold on to me. If it lets me through… maybe I can take you with me.”
It was only a possibility. No one had ever tried it before. Heinrich leaned forward and, through their gloves, caught Lin Xu’s hand.
Worry prickled at the back of his mind—could the Divine Descent Barrier even recognize Lin Xu’s mermaid genes through the layers of their spacesuits? And if it couldn’t… What then? Lin Xu’s body wouldn’t survive direct exposure to the vacuum of space—the radiation and freezing temperatures would destroy him.
But in truth, the barrier was far more advanced than either of them had imagined. It didn’t need Lin Xu to revert to his mermaid form. It didn’t even need him to remove his glove. The barrier instantly identified his genetic signature—and not only allowed him through, but also pulled Heinrich along with him, simply because their hands were joined.
The tethers that still connected them to the exploration pod strained as the gravitational force within the barrier suddenly increased. They plummeted toward the surface of Thales, dragging the distant pod toward the barrier with them.
“Lin Xu! Detach the tether!” Heinrich shouted.
Lin Xu turned to him and yelled something back, but the comms crackled with static—completely dead. Inside the barrier, all electronics had failed.
Heinrich yanked Lin Xu toward him and reached for the tether clasps, quickly unlocking the latches that bound them to the pod. High above, the pilotless vessel spun off-course. Unable to brake in the vacuum, it collided with the barrier and exploded in a bloom of fire and oxygen—a silent blossom of light in the void.
To the barrier, it was like a dragonfly skimming the surface of a pond—just a ripple, quickly gone.
As they fell through the upper atmosphere, the violent friction against their suits threatened to ignite them. Both men yanked off their helmets and flung away the boosters and oxygen packs to avoid combustion. The moment their hands let go, those components erupted mid-air in a fiery burst.
Lin Xu clutched Heinrich tightly and activated his telekinesis, wrapping them both in its protective force. But with their combined weight and the sheer acceleration of the fall, he couldn’t stop their descent—he could only slow it, barely. Falling from ten thousand meters, even into an ocean, was no small matter. Their bodies might be stronger than most, but that didn’t make them invincible.
Lin Xu pushed his ability to its limit, dizziness and disorientation clawing at him. Just as his vision blurred and his grip on consciousness began to fray, they pierced the troposphere. Cold, wet clouds enveloped them.
The moment the moisture touched him, a sharp pain split through Lin Xu’s head. His powers flickered violently, surging and sputtering. Darkness pressed in. Heinrich held him tight, saying nothing. His eyes were shut, his body trembling. It wasn’t just the cold—something else was building inside him, something he couldn’t hold back anymore. And then—with a loud tear of cloth—massive dragon wings burst through Heinrich’s uniform.
They unfurled in the open air, fighting the wind with a desperate, powerful beat. But even with the wings, they couldn’t stop falling. Not completely. So Heinrich did the only thing he could—he wrapped his wings tightly around Lin Xu, shielding him from the full force of the winds.
The cloud cover wrapped around them like a blanket of fog, and as they pierced through the final layer, a thunderous roar echoed across the sky. It drowned out the shrieking wind. In the next heartbeat, the sensation of freefall vanished. Weightlessness.
Lin Xu felt the shift in gravity and slowly dialed down his telekinetic output. He forced his eyes open—and saw the silver-white chin of a dragon just beneath him.
Heinrich had transformed—for the first time—into his dragon form.
Massive compared to the exploration pod, his wings beat the air in powerful strokes. Sunlight shimmered across silver-white scales, creating a cascade of dazzling reflections. His foreclaws, careful and precise, cradled Lin Xu gently by the waist as he glided through the endless sky.
So beautiful…
Lin Xu’s head still spun, but he reached up and touched one of Heinrich’s claws, letting himself finally relax.
Even one of the dragon’s fingers was thicker than Lin Xu’s leg. There were no scales on the undersides—just smooth silver-white skin, with faint markings etched like runes. It was cold to the touch, slick from the high-altitude air, like polished ice. The dragon flew lower, sweeping across the endless ocean below, wings arcing downward as he scanned the planet for land—or even a shallow reef. Anything would do.
Heinrich wasn’t yet used to this form. He gripped a little tighter, afraid of hurting Lin Xu—but also terrified of letting him slip through his claws. When Lin Xu stirred and wrapped both arms around the dragon’s foreclaw, Heinrich finally relaxed just a little.
They flew for some time before, in the distance, greenery emerged along the horizon—an island breaking through the sea’s surface. Heinrich angled downward and accelerated toward it.
The island had thick forest on one side and a beach on the other. Heinrich chose the beach, flying low to clear the trees before landing. But just as his vast wings swept over the treetops—
Whoosh! Several feathered arrows shot from the dense canopy below.
Author’s Note:
Heehee, a dragon! Heehee!
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