At the edge of the Void Battlefield, the fighting was not as cataclysmic as at the main rift front—but it was no less brutal.
Chaotic rifts in space twisted and tore unpredictably, swallowing everything within reach.
In one corner of this war-torn sector, Lilith led Team Star on a precision-cleansing and stabilization mission.
Their coordination had long reached perfection; Fiona, in her Ancient Dragon form, served as a living fortress—her vast wings shielding the Star Shine assault ship and the core members beneath them.
This sector technically fell under Elarielle's jurisdiction.
The elven queen had even moved her forward command center directly aboard the Star Shine.
Her emerald eyes rarely left the tactical star map—and never strayed far from Lilith herself.
Even with Fiona's immense protection and Lilith's own strength, now at the level of an Astral Envoy, Elarielle's fierce, almost obsessive protectiveness would not let her relax.
Assigning Lilith to a relatively quiet, rear-edge combat zone was already her greatest concession.
She wanted Lilith where her sight—and her power—could reach at all times.
The skirmish ended quickly. The team was just about to rest when—
VMMM—!!
Without warning, a rift opened less than a hundred meters off the ship's bow.
Unlike any normal spatial fissure, it exuded an impossible, devouring pull.
"Watch out!"
Fiona reacted first, letting out a roar that shook the void as she hurled her massive body forward to block the crack.But it was too late.
The rift had no pattern, no rhythm—and its power was far beyond that of ordinary space phenomena.
Lilith happened to be right at the heart of its gravitational range.
Her staff flared with blinding starlight as she tried to resist, but the pull shattered every defense, as if it unraveled the laws of force themselves.
In the next instant, she was gone—swallowed whole by the chaotic fissure.
"LILITH!!"
Elarielle's scream tore the void.
Her body burst with radiant green light as she transformed into a streaking comet, hurling herself toward the rift to pull Lilith back—but the anomaly rejected her utterly, flinging her back with invisible repulsion.
Fiona roared in fury, diving straight into the rift after Lilith.
Her claws caught the girl's arm—and the next heartbeat, the rift consumed them both.
The crack began to shrink at terrifying speed.
Kai the Shadowblade lunged from the darkness, but grasped only a few shards of starlight.
Olivia's strings snapped; Avira's nature barrier shattered before it even reached the edge.
In seconds, the fissure sealed itself—and vanished.
Silence.
Only cold emptiness remained.
Lilith was gone.
Panic, guilt, disbelief—every emotion crushed the Star Shine's crew beneath its weight.
Elarielle's face turned as pale as frost; she could barely stay standing.
Meanwhile—
In the World Tree Gardens, Leo, who had been monitoring the battlefield through countless threads of causality, snapped his eyes open.
Rage and dread flooded his gaze like twin storms.
"Lilith!!"
His figure vanished—and reappeared an instant later in the Star Shine's command chamber.
"Where is Lilith?"
His voice was calm—but the coldness within it dropped the room's temperature even lower than the void outside.
Elarielle's voice trembled with tears and guilt.
"S–Sir… Lilith and Fiona were caught by a sudden rift… it pulled them in before we could—"
She never finished.
A pressure like a dying star burst outward.
It wasn't directed at anyone—merely the unintentional surge of power from his spiraling emotions.
VMMMM—
Waves of invisible energy swept out from him.
Every light-screen in the command deck flickered to black; instruments sparked and died.
Elarielle and everyone present collapsed unconscious, their minds overwhelmed by the force.
Within seconds, the Star Shine fell silent.
Only Leo stood, expression dark as the abyss.
Why?
"System!?"
"Why did my Astrological Precognition show Lilith returning safely? Why… did this happen?!"
[Ding—]
Interference originates from the Sakend Universe Plane.
Its fundamental laws and causal structures differ significantly from this universe.
The host's prior predictions were calculated under current-universe parameters and cannot account for cross-dimensional anomalies.
Hence, predictive deviation occurred.
"Her current condition?" Leo's voice trembled with fury and fear. "Tell me the truth."
"If she's in danger… I don't care what I destroy—I'll tear through the walls of the cosmos to bring her back."
At that moment, Leo was no longer the composed, brilliant President—but simply a father terrified for his daughter's life.
Lilith was the reflection of his entire world.
And with his power, the threat wasn't idle;he could break the universe itself if he chose to.
[Ding—]
Host, be at ease. Cross-plane causal analysis indicates that target "Lilith Grey" and the ancient dragon "Fiona" are not in danger.
Instead, they have been drawn into an ancient relic inheritance sequence that resonates perfectly with Lilith's Star Bloodline. It is classified as a major opportunity.
Safety index: 99.98%.
Leo exhaled—slowly.
The crushing weight on his chest eased at last.
Yet his brows remained drawn tight.
An opportunity?
He didn't care about opportunity.
He cared if Lilith was safe—if she was afraid.
"As long as she's not in danger…" he murmured, though his voice still trembled. "She's in a foreign universe… strange lands…"
"At least Fiona's with her."
He glanced down at the unconscious figures scattered across the deck—Elarielle and the others.
Drawing a deep breath, he suppressed his Sanctuary-rank aura completely.
A gentle wave of energy spread from his palm.
Soft light passed over the crew; one by one, they stirred and awoke, groggy but alive.
Elarielle was the first to rise.Her eyes filled instantly with tears of remorse and fear.
"My lord… I…"
Team Star members knelt, voices trembling with guilt.
"We failed in our duty. Please, President, punish us."
Leo cut them off.
His tone had returned to calm—but beneath that calm was something vast and incomprehensible, a pressure that made every soul in the room shudder with awe and terror.
"There is no need for guilt. This was not your fault."
His gaze swept over them all.
"Lilith is safe—for now. In fact, she's stumbled upon a blessing."
The room let out a collective sigh of relief.
To them, it was the best news imaginable.
They had seen too many torn apart by rifts; if Lilith had perished, none of them could have forgiven themselves.
Leo turned toward the window.
Outside, the stars still burned amidst the chaos of war.
"But…" His voice deepened. "This farce has gone on long enough."
His eyes narrowed.
The distant void reflected in them flared with gold.
"It's time to end this battle—and bring my daughter home."