Under the Red Dragon

Chaos, vacuum, the entire space was drained of air by the powerful Truthsayer commands, as ancient, witch-like dragon roars and human voices echoed, even space seemed to freeze for a moment.

Jessica and Paul Atreides were controlled in their thoughts and consciousness by the Dragon Emperor's Truthsayer commands, kneeling on the ground.

But Karon saw Paul Atreides, this boy with a gentle appearance, like sweet tea, with untamed eyes emanating from within.

Paul Atreides and Jessica were wearing stillsuits made by the local Fremen people, with air-filtering respirators on their nostrils, and rings and ornaments on their hands, all flashing in Karon's eyes.

In Karon's slightly flickering pupils, he saw the fleeting shadows behind the composition of these materials.

These items made of rubber, linen, metal, and inkpad, in the fleeting light and shadow of time and space, were smelted, forged, woven, and shaped from basic parts and structures.

Then, they were worn down over a long period of time, until they came before Karon's eyes, possessed by the two people before him.

Beside the kneeling two, there seemed to be countless thin lines, so fine that even a dragon couldn't distinguish them, hanging down from the sky, growing from the earth, and spreading out from the two kneeling people.

Karon's consciousness gently touched one of them, and heard a familiar voice, it was the trace of Paul Atreides' previous conversation with his mother Jessica, the carrier of information in the conversation.

He touched a line again, containing strong emotional fluctuations, from Paul Atreides' beliefs and thoughts.

These beliefs and thoughts were condensed into a short sentence, "I think, we are trapped here!" Paul said.

Why would such an ordinary sentence contain such heavy emotions?

Karon looked at the thousands of lines around him, things that mortals could not foresee, electromagnetic waves, invisible light, even radiation, fluctuating quantum information, and the fluctuating curves of life itself.

Many were unrelated to people, but from the information carriers wrapped around Jessica and Paul Atreides, Karon could sense their innermost thoughts and emotions through these connections.

He could use this to touch the information hidden deep in their hearts and brains, existence implies traces, which can be seen by Karon.

So Karon saw a huge amount of information, from Paul, from his dreams.

"It's coming, I see that bloody war is coming!"

Paul stood on a huge, city-like spaceship, looking down with his followers and warriors at the endless Fremen warriors spreading across the land.

The light emanating from the depths of the spaceship, like holy light descending in the thick fog, shone on Paul Atreides, like a destined savior, a divinely appointed messiah.

"This holy war spreading across the universe will be started by me, six hundred and fifty billion humans will die at my hands!"

The picture flickered, the light from above had turned into the only ray of light falling from the castle's skylight in the dark space.

The Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother, who controlled everything, sat on a chair interwoven with light and darkness, her expression obscured by the black veil.

An ancient and eerie voice like a witch sounded,

"Come here, kneel down!"

"A beast caught in a trap will bite off its own leg to save its life!"

"What will you do?"

Paul Atreides knelt before the Reverend Mother, reaching into that unknown darkness and fear, an unspeakable pain and torment, from the pain on his nerves and senses, almost causing him to collapse.

But he passed the test and survived.

The scene changed, Paul Atreides woke up from a nightmare, unable to suppress the resistance and tearing at this moment, he roared at Jessica: "It's all your fault, turning me into a monster!"

Fragments of past dreams, or scenes that had happened, changed and intertwined in Karon's pupils, a huge amount of information flowed through his mind, and the emotions and thoughts from Paul Atreides' heart were also perceived by him.

Karon closed his eyes and reopened them, the Paul Atreides he saw again was no longer an ordinary duke's son in distress, no longer a puppet woven into an artificial destiny, but driven by the general trend of the world.

The Paul Atreides he saw was a shining seed, a seed capable of giving birth to an idea, an idea powerful enough to transcend time and space, the idea of a person who transcends the past and the future.

He understood the thoughts contained in that short sentence, Paul Atreides and his mother Jessica were physically trapped on this Arrakis planet.

Their thoughts and actions were also trapped in the torrent of destiny woven by the Sisterhood, secular imperial power politics, and the general trend of the entire world.

In the dream fragments that Paul Atreides could predict, only seeking help from the Fremen with his mother Jessica could break the predicament of the family's destruction before him.

However, finding the Fremen and ruling them as the messiah artificially woven by the Sisterhood was one of the Sisterhood's plans.

The Lion Empire and the Harkonnen family's long-term exploitation of Arrakis and the massacre of the Fremen were the fuse for the holy war that would spread throughout the universe in the future, unchangeable, this generation's shackles of hatred.

But the future branches predicted by Paul Atreides' current ability only allow him to take this path in order to have the possibility of surviving.

Therefore, Paul Atreides obeyed the future fragments he predicted, seeking help from the Fremen, while resisting that terrifying future, that future of ruling the Fremen with religion and becoming the Fremen's messiah.

Because the path of the Messiah, in his eyes, cannot lead humanity to the future, when those fanatical Fremen bring the flames of war spreading throughout the universe in the name of God, he, Paul Atreides, cannot stop it.

Now he is stepping into the vast desert as if destined in dreams and rumors, but with a heavy responsibility like shackles, fear lingers, he must kill fear.

"This is also a person who wants to escape the hand of fate,"

Karon smiled slightly, the red dragon who had obtained a huge amount of information, introduced information and variables into his brain, and detected his own trajectory.

In an instant, countless result branches were displayed before Karon's eyes, but even after contacting Paul Atreides and obtaining a large amount of intersecting information, according to the world situation and changes understood by integrating these knowledge, and according to the various futures deduced from Paul Atreides' character and thinking.

Adding the established variables of the Fremen who had not actually intersected, Karon still could not perceive the end point of himself and the Golden Empire's army in this world.

The extension of each line stretched to at least thousands of years into the future, which even the ancestral red dragon could not see clearly.

They were densely interwoven, and even Karon's current ability could not sort them out.

So Karon turned his head and scanned the Fremen hidden in the dark desert canyon in the distance, the faces and life fluctuations of those Fremen were clearly visible in his eyes, without any obstruction.

When he saw a familiar face, Karon's brain flashed, it was the Fremen that Paul had dreamed of several times, a Fremen warrior, a Fremen girl.

And the information transmitted by each of these Fremen was touched by the ancestral red dragon one by one, and then gathered together.

Grasping this ray of inspiration, the brain's calculation and the mind's premonition worked together, the infinitely extending future lines quickly converged, and the messages conveyed by countless branch lines all indicated that the road of the Golden Empire was three thousand and five hundred years later in the future.

And this was the result of the ancestral red dragon and the Golden Empire not directly interfering.

If Karon led the Golden Empire's army to directly interfere with the direction of the entire event, then their road would come to an end in twelve years.

Either retreat back to the main camp of the Akania world, or collapse in this interstellar world, only the ancestral red dragon can exist here for a long time.

"So, does that plane god in the world of ice and fire want to trap the Golden Empire in this world for three thousand and five hundred years, and use this result to make us give up our original plan?"

Karon raised his head, looked at the two moons in the sky, and revealed an excited color in his pupils.

Within his body, abundant energy supported the rapid operation of his brain, one possible branch line after another was abandoned, selected, and finally locked down by Karon.

"Then, let's see, who can escape the established orbit and escape the original destiny!"

The rotation of thoughts was just a moment, in this short moment, Karon revealed the locked future lines one by one.

Paul Atreides and Jessica had just recovered from the emperor's Truthsayer commands and got up from the ground.

Jessica was both horrified and shocked, the Truthsayer commands of the Sisterhood witches only had two possibilities: effectiveness and failure.

There had never been a situation like the one happening before her, clearly effective in front of the other party, awakening the power of the Truthsayer, but unable to affect others.

Most importantly, that person, or non-human, who seemed to have walked out of legends, had learned the Truthsayer spells in an instant, but this was a witch Truthsayer that only women could learn, except for Paul Atreides, the male witch accidentally created by the Sisterhood.

Paul Atreides was much calmer than his mother, he just looked at Karon in confusion, although Karon used Truthsayer to make him kneel, he did not feel any malice or conspiracy from Karon.

"Who exactly are you?"

Paul Atreides asked calmly, but the hand hidden behind his back quietly gripped his weapon.

"It seems, you haven't understood yet,"

Karon looked at Paul Atreides and smiled gently.

Although using Truthsayer was out of interest, it was also a probing behavior towards Paul.

Karon now knew that although the other party had the ability to think across time and space, he did not have the power to cross time and space.

This also meant that Paul, who had not grown to the expected extent, was still in the original stage, so he could not understand Karon's actions.

"Understand what?"

Paul Atreides looked at this man whose perfection could not be compared to the moonlight with a puzzled gaze, although his ability to foresee the future was not yet mature, he had sufficient warning about himself, and every danger could be foreseen by him.

And in front of this man, his premonition was not triggered, so he was not very nervous.

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"Although dreams are wonderful, the important things happen outside of dreams, because we who are awake can do what we should do,"

Karon's tall body looked down at Paul Atreides, but his eyes were filled with the gentleness of a god looking down on the world.

The true form of the ancestral red dragon, at this moment, spread its wings and claws from behind Karon, hovering in the air with majesty, the ancient dragon language in his mouth carried a majestic tone like a decree, and the poured out dragon might enveloped Paul and Jessica, but it was not oppression, but display.

At the same time, he said lightly in a human voice: "I hope that next time I ask you, you will answer, you understand!"

Fafner, like a saintly nun and angel, followed Karon with a smile, gradually moving away until they could no longer be seen clearly.

...

Buzzing,

The severe tinnitus made Paul Atreides frown, he stopped climbing the sand dune, the habit of the arrival of dream fragments and occasional sudden future fragments allowed him to quickly wake up from that nightmare-like feeling of weakness and panic.

The bright moon was in the sky, Jessica, his mother, was still by his side, but the traces of the sandstorm and the traces of the sandworm's past seemed to have been erased by the natural power of the desert, completely non-existent.

And, those two, Paul Atreides had a premonition, but didn't want to, and didn't dare to admit the creatures.

"Huh, what does this illusory future fragment foreshadow, maybe, I will meet them soon," Paul Atreides thought, his eyes subconsciously swept across his mother's face.

That was a horrified, shocked, confused, and fearful expression mixed together, close to distortion, which made Paul Atreides couldn't help but be stunned.

Wrapped in a stillsuit, shielding all wind and sand, his body felt a chill instantly rushing straight from the tail of his spine to the back of his head, making Paul Atreides' entire head suddenly shiver.

His mother, Lady Jessica, did not have the same ability as himself, to receive predictive information of future fragments in dreams and reality, which meant that it was not a predictive fragment about the future.

However, this future predictive fragment information was completely in his mind in the form of information, although it was like reality.

There were also no traces of the raging sandstorm left on the sand surface, and the sand channels where the sandworms moved had not been born, so was that scene just now an illusory future, or a past reality?

But the dangerous intuition interrupted Paul Atreides' thoughts, the shoes under his feet touched a dangerous switch in the desert.

He subconsciously stepped on it twice, and the sand-consolidated bulge that could transmit the rhythm and vibration frequency equivalent to attracting the sandworms under the sand surface immediately sounded with a thud.

"Not good, run, it's thumper," Paul shouted, grabbed his mother, and ran quickly towards the canyon outside the sand surface.

At this time, the two could no longer care about stepping on those sandy steps specially used by the Fremen to walk through the desert, no longer caring about the rhythm like the desert's original sound, and ran madly towards the gap channel opened by the rocky dwarf mountain.

Rumbling, the huge sandworm窜动under the sand surface, rushing towards the two, wanting to devour the two tiny humans into that huge and hideous mouth.

However, the Fremen hidden in the canyon activated their thumpers, vibrating with special frequency echoes to attract sandworms and lure them away, allowing the two to enter the canyon unharmed.

Here, they saw the Fremen who wrapped themselves in linen robes to slow down the evaporation of moisture from their bodies.

"Don't run, that will only waste the moisture in your body," a voice rang out, as a middle-aged Fremen warrior with a short beard, covered in linen, sat lazily on a low rock vein.

"Hey, Stilgar, you've seen me. We met when my father summoned you," Paul shouted quickly, surrounded by a dozen Fremen.

"Oh, it's the Duke's son," Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen in this place, said, "I know you."

But the Fremen warriors next to him approached Paul and Jessica, the daggers made of sandworm teeth in their hands flashing coldly, and said, "What are we waiting for? The moisture in their bodies is what we need!"

"No, no, no," Stilgar said, stopping them. "This is the boy I mentioned to you. We can't touch him."

"How could he be the Lisan al Gaib? (In Fremen, it means Voice from the Outer World, the same as Messiah!)"

An older female Fremen warrior's voice rang out. These Fremen, both men and women, were strong warriors, with a habit of equality for all. Even their leader could not forcibly subdue the tribesmen with his own powerful will.

"He hasn't proven himself yet!"

"They are weak!"

The Fremen warriors spoke one after another.

In the eyes of these Fremen, only the strong were worthy of living on this land. The weak would only become food, either for the sandworms, or for the desert, or become a source of moisture for the Fremen.

"Jamis," Stilgar stopped the most ferocious warrior, and said with a serious face, "They crossed the Shihulu Trail. They are brave. His words and deeds do not resemble those of the weak. His father was the same."

Paul's father, Duke Leto Atreides, was a nobleman with far-sighted vision. Although he was killed by the Harkonnen family and the Emperor's legions, his proactive approach to peaceful coexistence with these Fremen was admired by the Fremen leader.

"It was my thumper that saved them. Wake up, Stilgar, he is not the chosen one!"

Jamis responded. This powerful warrior was not afraid in front of the tribal leader, because the Fremen only served their one and only Sand Lord—Shihulu. The leader could only guide them in the right way.

Moreover, Jamis was a Fremen from the north, and unlike those fundamentalist Fremen in the south who believed in the messianic savior, he didn't care much for the propaganda spread by the Bene Gesserit spies—the Fremen Reverend Mothers.

The situation began to become tense. In the words of the tribal warriors, Stilgar also wanted to abandon Jessica, only sheltering Paul, the man who could be trained to become a warrior.

Meanwhile, Calan and Fafner stood at the top of the canyon, looking down at everything that was happening.

Mortals could hardly observe traces of their existence, allowing them to be naturally overlooked like the wind in the sky, the sand around them, and the stones under their feet.

"Fafner," Calan said, looking down below, suddenly opening his mouth.

"Yes? Master!"

"Do you think there are others like us, like gods, watching everything Paul is facing, observing our actions and trajectories!"

"Maybe, Master, even you don't know, so I'm even less clear!"

"But no matter what happens, I will be by your side!"

"Haha, good!"