Five months later.
Selene stood before the portal that marked the exit of the Ancient Realm, as its silver-blue surface rippled like liquid. Every demi-human, mage, or martial artist who passed through here and eventually went home, were usually much more mature, sometimes broken, and almost always stronger.
Selene too was… different.
If someone had met her only a few months ago, they'd have seen a woman who smiled easily, who softened around Arthur, and who laughed whenever he said something stupid. The woman who used to tease Arthur at every chance she got had now changed. The Selene standing here now had become colder.
Her long hair drifted in the wind, as she stood before the portal with an absentminded look in her eyes.
The change that was the most glaring was her aura, if before her aura appeared suppressive for an Archmage, now they would not be even able to stand before her without trying their best, as she had officially gained strength which was similar to a Sage-ranked mage. She had achieved something at twenty-nine years of age that many geniuses take their lifetime to reach.
She thought she'd feel proud. Instead, her expression was blank as she whispered to herself.
"…Five months."
Five months of searching the entire Ancient Realm for Arthur had proved fruitless.
After leaving the pocket dimension, she had separated from Arthur's friends and sought powerful monsters to fight with to hone her combat strength and absorb their cores. She also faced terrifying beasts powerful enough to end kingdoms and killed them for five long months.
The mana essence Arthur had given her, one of the rarest treasures inside the Ancient Realm, had also helped her skyrocket her strength. She hunted beasts, absorbed their cores, meditated under hostile conditions, and pushed her affinities and domain until her body nearly gave up.
Now, she stepped through the portal without hesitation, her heels clicking once against the stone before the world swallowed her with light.
She didn't look back. As she had someone to find, and if she could not find him here she would search the whole of Thyrandel for him.
…
Meanwhile, elsewhere inside the Ancient Realm, the rest of Arthur's group gathered before a second portal.
Finn, Leon, Eva, Natalya, Sophia, and the others stood together, all sporting new power levels that would've made their past selves appear like a child in front of them now.
Finn cracked his knuckles. "Archmage realm… Huh. Never thought I'd reach this stage before age thirty."
Natalya said from his side. "You achieved it because Arthur kept throwing insane resources at you."
Finn snorted. "Yeah, and? He gave them to us to use, not to keep them stored."
Leon exhaled, rubbing his thumb along the hilt of his sword. His aura had grown significantly calmer, but also sharper. "We can't rely on the Academy anymore. We've outgrown whatever they can offer there."
Eva nodded. "And the battlefield against the demons… is honestly the only place left to temper our foundations."
There was a quiet pause, everyone was thinking the same thing. Arthur should've been here with them.
The people who were accompanying them bid them goodbyes and entered the portal. As Finn and the others saw them enter the portal.
He gently asked, "Should we… visit Avalon first? The city Arthur built."
Leon nodded slowly. "We owe him that much."
"Alright," Finn said, trying to look confident even though his voice hit a slightly shaky octave. "Let's go see what Arthur built there."
They stepped through the portal together, vanishing from the Ancient realm.
…
Five months ago inside the spatial crack.
Arthur and Roderic were sucked into the collapsing spatial distortion; there was no "up," "down," or "sideways" in this place.
Arthur's charred and unconscious body tumbled and drifted through a void filled with a purple substance that behaved like both matter and energy.
It moved like smoke, yet appeared like liquid.
The moment Arthur's body entered the purple substance, his skin began to peel apart, literally flaking off like dust. His skin tore open and dissolved, even his muscles began to disintegrate and bones began to fragment. His regeneration stitched him back together only for the purple energy storm to tear him apart again.
After some time Arthur regained his consciousness and felt his body continuously regenerating and disintegrating. He would have been screaming his lungs out if not for his Pain Tolerance being extremely high.
In another location, Roderic appeared, his body spasming violently as his skin started to dissolve and evaporate.
Arthur managed to pry open his regenerated eyes, and made out Roderic's silhouette twisting in pain.
He saw Roderic screaming but no sound came out of his mouth as there was no air here, and his body was slowly disintegrating. Roderic, unable to withstand the onslaught of the unknown violent energy finally transformed into his draconic form. His body transformed into a huge dragon, but even then, his scales started to disintegrate as he struggled.
Arthur too looked like a horror movie prop. He had no skin, and had his muscle fibers exposed, which was continuously regenerating and disintegrating inside the purple storm.
If not for Pain Tolerance and Superior Regeneration, he'd have passed out instantly.
Arthur felt this unknown energy which occupied this space was extremely violent and was much more potent than mana and Chi.
And the moment he sensed how potent it was, a reckless idea appeared in his head.
Maybe he could absorb it.
Energy Absorption was one of his core abilities. It had evolved with him through every impossible battle.
So Arthur gritted his teeth and activated it.
Just one tiny sliver of purple energy seeped inside his body, and his body immediately reacted like it'd been injected with acid.
The purple energy immediately started to devour his mana and Chi. Arthur instantly realized this was not him just losing the said mana and Chi temporarily, but it was as it was ripped out of his being, forever lost.
Arthur stopped absorbing anymore and examined the purple energy coursing through his body and destroying it. Arthur tried to restrain the purple energy but was unable to as it ran havoc inside his body, ripping apart muscle, bone, and organs at once.
He sighed internally and hardened his resolve and decided to trust his Adaptive Evolution. Ignoring every survival instinct screaming at him, Arthur overrode his own hesitation and activated Energy Absorption to the maximum.
The purple energy rushed inside his body like a dam collapsing. And it wantonly started devouring his mana and Chi from his foundation.
His body's disintegration started to increase as his muscles vanished, then his bones and internal organs started to disintegrate, and Arthur again lost consciousness as even his enhanced Pain Tolerance couldn't let him bear the soul searing pain his body was going through.
…
This process continued for a few hours, and slowly the rate of disintegration started to slow down, and new internal organs, bones and muscles started to appear as his figure was covered with a golden glow.
And this golden glow was not from his Chi, but something that appeared from his soul and a unique change started to happen inside his body, after all the purple energy in this space was sucked inside his body. This golden energy had appeared once before when he was injected with the ECHO Serum, but Arthur was not aware of it.
Every organelle, from the nucleus to mitochondria started to undergo a terrifying change. His mana core vanished and inside every cell of his body the nucleus started to get converted into a new core with the previous function of the nucleus and new functions to store and produce the purple energy. The original nucleus was getting replaced by a tiny glowing core that radiated power, and each cell became a micro-core for the purple energy.
His entire body was now a network of cores generating and manipulating the purple energy.
His mana core was gone, which was the same for his Chi. But in their place was something terrifyingly potent.
Arthur didn't know how long had passed, as he regained his consciousness.
The first thing he saw was the unknown golden energy covering his body. The golden energy flowed outward from within him, like a seed sprouting through soil. And as it spread, Arthur's body began to rebuild.
When the glow faded, Arthur hovered upright, his body fully restored, and his eyes glowing faintly with a purple luster.
He could feel it, this new energy was on a completely different scale.
His entire body tingled with the sensation of limitless potential, like every particle inside him was humming excitedly.
He reached out with curiosity, to test his strength.
But the next second he noticed he had lost connection with his dimensional storage. It was still located on his arm, but he noticed the device was breaking apart due to the onslaught of the purple energy.
He tried controlling the purple energy and separated the device, the purple energy followed his intention as the broken dimensional device finally stopped breaking apart, but the damage was already done and the space inside the device appeared cracked, if not for the durability of the SOH it would have been destroyed.
He sighed internally as, to restore it was a monumental task as even the Guardian AI does not have the technology that the Krozonites used to build it. But what happened next surprised him, the golden energy that was surrounding him, covered the device and it vanished.
Arthur panicked as all his resources were inside the SOH and if it was gone, he would lose a very important trump card. Just when he was reeling with shock, he felt a sudden ping in his mind as new data started to get downloaded in his consciousness, and it came from the golden energy inside his soul.
He was confused at first, but everything started to become clear, the golden energy came from the depth of his soul. He still didn't understand what the golden energy was and had no way of controlling it, but it helped him again to recover the dimensional storage and instead of it being a separate device the dimensional storage was created inside his flesh.
It was now part of him, and he could access his spatial storage with a mere thought.
There was also other information regarding what had changed inside his body. The new energy was called Aether, and it was a powerful force that allowed control over elemental, cosmic, spiritual, transcendental and primordial forces.
It is said to be a celestial element that binds the four classical elements, and is said to be the fifth element. Mana, Chi, aura are an aspect of Aether, and now that Aether coursed through his body. The gruelling process just now granted him an ability called Aether Manipulation, which allows him to generate and control the celestial element.
…
Arthur finally looked at the figure of the injured Roderic who had reverted back to his humanoid form, he was unconscious and was recovering as there was no Aether left in the space anymore.
His eyes fluttered open and the first thing he saw was Arthur floating in front of him and widened his eyes as he believed Arthur must have died.
'How?!' he exclaimed inwardly. He had only been able to survive due to all the treasures he had with him, and after he noticed the concentration of Aether getting less due to some unknown reason, he was sure of his survival. But he never imagined Arthur would appear in front of him without a scratch on his body.
And before he could even say anything Arthur snapped his finger and his body burst apart.
After finally killing Roderic, Arthur contacted the Guardian AI, "Guardian,"
It answered instantly. [Commander, we appear to be inside a spatial crack. And it appears there is a spatial and temporal storm surrounding it.]
Arthur frowned. 'Can we go back to Thyrandel using the Obelisk?'
[Affirmative. But the temporal storm is accelerating the flow of time to an uncertain ratio, and it is highly probable that you will return at a vastly different time.]
Arthur's eyes widened. He didn't waste another second, and pulled out the Obelisk, activating it to open a portal to Thyrandel.
He stepped through the portal, vanishing from the spatial crack and leaving behind the void. He wanted to test his new powers and understand them thoroughly, but it seems he would have to do that later.
***
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