"What did you do?!" roared the furious demoness at Fey. Everyone else had already vanished, and all she could do was vent her frustration at the goddess.
"Me? I fulfilled your earlier wish. I sent you to that central place," Fey replied, indifferent.
"Then why did you bring me back?! Are you messing with me?!" the demoness shouted, outraged.
"Because I had to fulfill the little dragoness’s wish," Fey answered with the same indifference.
"What does that even mean?" the demoness asked, now sounding more melancholic.
Fey sighed and said dryly, "Her wish was to bring you back, and I had to grant it."
"You...!" The demoness’s face turned purple with rage, and she let out a furious roar. But there was nothing she could do. With a final growl, she stormed into the spatial channel ahead, crossing it alone this time.
Fey, on the other hand, let out a slight scoff. Her job was done—three winners and their wishes fulfilled. The golden hue in her eyes dimmed. She stepped into a spatial distortion and disappeared.
***
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The space rippled, revealing Nayr, Hibria, and the remaining blood golems and draconic beasts. They found themselves atop a massive mountain.
"Where are those two?!" shouted Nayr, searching frantically. The others also looked around hurriedly. The transport was complete, but the couple was no longer by their side.
"This place is vast, with many treasures scattered around. They must have gone elsewhere, and we’d only get in their way," Hibria said heavily.
Everyone nodded, as that was the only plausible explanation. However, they all remembered the wish that golem had made to Fey: he’d asked to be sent to a region where the entire army could benefit.
They had sacrificed their wish so that others could gain something, and now the couple had quickly split off to find what they could for themselves. Frustrated, everyone clenched their fists, feeling helpless that they couldn’t repay the couple’s aid.
"Don’t waste time. Look around," Hibria ordered. "There are many bones here, and these mountains probably hide something for all of us. When time’s up, we’ll regroup."
***
The couple soared through space like shooting stars, much like how they had arrived at this mission.
The moment they entered the third world, Alm and Bruno felt that something incredibly valuable awaited them at its center.
Fey had used the formation and manipulated spatial laws to send them to their desired location. Ruri merely rode the momentum, using her own laws to guide them toward another distant point.
They rocketed through the void until the energy of the laws began to wane. As they neared the center, they spotted a region surrounded by a spatial distortion, resembling a chaotic dome in constant rotation.
The couple observed it with excitement. The demoness clearly had the power to manipulate space, using a boon granted by the heroes. It was evident that this place was her destination, and within it lay her objective.
The hero had likely told her what was inside and helped her reach it. Now, the couple had outmaneuvered her and planned to claim it all.
Ruri slowed their descent by cutting off the energy from the laws. They landed heavily, but having recovered some Qi during the travel, they were unharmed.
A pair of eyes in the sky watched and monitored their every move.
The human observer grew increasingly intrigued by the couple. They were cunning, incredibly skilled in combat, and seemed to have no limits to the surprises they could pull off or what they could achieve. Yet curiously, everything about them was explainable.
That ex-missionary, like Fey, had clearly sensed the Behemoth and Primordial Dragon bloodlines in them. However, the bloodline wasn’t particularly strong, indicating they were descendants of two primordial beasts from some low-level universe.
Suddenly, his eyes widened. He saw the small dragoness draw her katana, and an intense offensive power surged through her. He focused closely and noticed her three vital energies burning away.
Then, she struck—and, to his astonishment, an opening appeared in the dome ahead. Without hesitation, the two leapt inside and disappeared.
’She sacrificed part of her life to do that... but entering there is undoubtedly worth it,’ the figure thought. Then, letting out a sigh, he narrowed his eyes.
He couldn’t see inside easily due to the high-level spatial laws. If he used some of his power, he could pierce through. However, doing so would weaken the laws, benefiting all the other test participants. Such direct interference would go against the rules. All he could do was wait for them to emerge; inside, they were no longer under observation.
The couple moved swiftly inside. As they reached their destination, they found themselves floating above a black sea.
Ruri sighed, feeling slightly weak, as Alm and Bruno placed their hands on her head. Quickly, they restored her soul and vital energy. Her mind, however, didn’t require healing; her mental cultivation would regenerate it swiftly.
"It’s been a while since I used the Eternal Bond, but... this is cheating, master!" Ruri complained, pouting. It was clear she preferred to recover the traditional way, but at that moment, there was no need for it anymore.
Alm and Bruno sighed, shifting their focus to the black waters below them. A connection to the Yin was perceptible, but something about it felt different. The energy reminded them of the power flowing from the demonic bloodline.
"This lake is a treasure for the demonic bloodline. Combined with the essence of that pure energy lake the demoness absorbed earlier, her body would undergo an immense transformation," Bruno commented calmly.
Ruri laughed teasingly. "She’ll probably take more than a day to get back here, starting from scratch and rushing desperately to this place. Let’s take everything, and then we’ll take back what she stole from us."
They nodded and began moving across the lake, heading towards its center. Everything around them was slightly distorted; it wasn’t easy to see far, and the high-level laws clouded their senses. Still, the place didn’t seem that vast. Before long, Ruri noticed something and jumped.
"THERE!" she exclaimed, pointing to a distortion ahead. "It... it’s a time vortex!"
Seeing the doubt in Bruno’s eyes, Ruri explained. In the divine knowledge of space-time they had imparted to her, there was information about this. The time vortex represented the peak of the divine laws of time.
Ruri started describing the stages and levels she had learned; from the basics to the advanced: time stagnation, time acceleration, time freezing, time distortion... And finally, the pinnacle—the union of all these elements, forming the time vortex.
"But this level only had a brief description saying: ’It’s the union of everything.’ It didn’t explain how. Surely, this is something only an immortal could do," Ruri concluded, admiring the phenomenon ahead.
Alm and Bruno nodded, in the future, they would acquire this immortal knowledge for her. But at that moment, everything seemed...
"Come on, come on! I can do it, master! There must be something good waiting for us there!" Ruri exclaimed eagerly, surprising the two, who thought it would be impossible to access that vortex without being too obvious.
For them, breaking it by force was simple. But a massive disturbance would occur, and they preferred not to take such risks early in the mission.
They moved as close as possible to the location. Ruri closed her eyes, focusing completely to analyze the distortion.
’Well, she doesn’t need to master this technically. She just needs to understand a bit of the flow and use the immortal space rune she has. Space and time are connected and can interact. Since this vortex was left here without anyone controlling it, dispersing it is possible... for her and her talent, of course.’
One hour... three... twelve hours later, Ruri opened her eyes.
"This is it!" she exclaimed, waving her hand, her eyes shining.
Alm and Bruno watched as the immortal-level laws twisted and suddenly dispersed. Ruri had done it, leaving enough time for them to explore.
But...
Quickly, the coloring of the place changed. A radiant golden light appeared in the center, and Alm and Bruno became alert.
"Divine Qi?" they exclaimed.
That energy was familiar. They had nicknamed it like that when, in the past, the Queen awakened the domain rune in Ruri. They removed the domain, and within Ruri’s mental sea, a little of that energy remained; left there by the queen. Later, they encountered the same type of energy with Almin and then with the immortal Oni.
They had asked Coltia and Yinou if they knew about it. Coltia was completely unaware. Yinou, on the other hand, said she didn’t know the name, but from the description, it seemed like the energy immortals used. But she didn’t know its purpose, because, according to her, a primordial beast didn’t need it.
Alm and Bruno knew very little about the immortal realms, while Coltia... she seemed to be very similar, and they, who had reached the immortal realms, couldn’t progress further. In her case, shortly after reaching that level, she was captured.
This time, however, the Divine Qi wasn’t dispersed. It seemed solid, concentrated in a two-meter sphere, clearly hiding something inside.
’A double layer of protection, huh? This Divine Qi can only be manipulated by immortals with a divine soul. And...’ Bruno murmured as he noticed something, ’Yes, there’s a defense mechanism. Any attempt to open it will cause it to explode.’
Alm agreed, the Divine Qi could transform into any energy or law. Someone had left it there, and from the sense of danger, they had surely put their will as a command. Not even a hero would dare to open it, or everything would be lost.
’The Queen could open this, but wouldn’t waste her time. It must be an inheritance left by some immortal who died in the war,’ Alm concluded.
Immediately, the two focused on the sense of danger. Then they concluded: ’Indeed, inside here, the one watching us isn’t seeing us.’
But it wasn’t necessary; they had manipulated this Divine Qi in the past with tattoos in the first levels, with almost no control over their soul power. Now, with a celestial soul and full mastery of the tattoo, it would be easy.
Once Ruri did her part, something only she could do, Alm and Bruno finished the process. The couple worked together perfectly.
In no time, they completely mastered the Divine Qi, preventing it from reacting. Then, they opened their inventory and stored all the energy.
Soon, the hidden content emerged...
"Heavens!" Ruri exclaimed, completely stunned.
Alm and Bruno were also surprised. Their minds quickly worked to process what they were seeing.
"This... is that?" Bruno asked Ruri.
"Yes! It’s the first technique master taught me: the Soul Sealing Technique!" Ruri replied, excited. (Chapter 24)
"But it’s different... it’s almost on a divine level!" she added, pointing to some small pulsating runes in front of her.