Twenty-five years have passed since Merin entered this dimension, and five years since all hell broke loose.
From the verandah, Valerie watches her four-year-old daughter playing with dolls in the garden.
She gazes at her with warmth, yet hidden behind her eyes is a storm of worry.
She knows the truth—her daughter, Allison, is chosen to be the vessel for someone the devourers call Mother.
Valerie still doesn't know who or what this Mother is, nor how powerful she might be.
But she knows the ceremony will take place when Allison turns eighteen—and every passing day makes her feel like time is running out.
They live in a lonely cottage deep inside a forest, but the forest is infested with devourer hybrids.
She might be able to escape alone—but with Allison, it would be nearly impossible.
So, she stays, quietly honing her magic, waiting for the moment she can break through to the Grand Master realm of witches.
She could break through now—but the breakthrough would create a disturbance, and she doesn't know how the devourers would react.
They might take Allison away.
So she waits and practices in silence, trying to refine her control and achieve a soundless breakthrough.
Even with the strength of a Grand Master, she might not be able to escape—so she must aim for the peak of the Grand Master realm before Allison turns eighteen.
She looks at Allison, who now turns and smiles at her.
In that little girl's face, she sees Adam.
And just like that, her thoughts drift to him.
Now she knows—Adam is from another world, and his strength may have reached the very peak of the world.
If he knows they are bonded mates, he probably doesn't care.
After all, the bond will disappear once Adam leaves the world.
So maybe he has no reason to come for her.
But if he knew about Allison... he might come—not for her, but for their child.
Suddenly, she gasps—Allison floats into the air, laughing softly as invisible magic lifts her dolls.
Valerie hurries forward, arms outstretched.
Elsewhere, across the sea in a snow-covered mountain range, a massive mountain looms silent under the grey sky.
At its heart, a door is embedded into the rock—cold, smooth, ancient.
Two sentinels in white robes stand on either side of the door, still as statues.
Then, from the swirling snow, a figure approaches—Robert, cloaked and wrapped in a transparent energy barrier.
In the past five years, he has transformed from a powerless man into a Rank 5 magic apprentice.
He has reached the peak—but can go no further.
Because there is no realm beyond.
He tried—he gathered knowledge from the Republic, from other worlds, from lost ruins, even from the Cult of Stars—but he failed.
The only way forward is if the creator of the magic apprentice profession creates the next realm.
And that creator has been behind the mountain door for five long years.
Robert walks to the guards and asks, "No movement?"
The guards understand. He means Adam.
The guards shake their heads in silence.
Robert sighs, disappointment tightening his face.
Then suddenly—his heart clenches.
An immense pressure crashes down from the sky, heavy and suffocating.
But there is no fear in his eyes.
Only elation.
He straightens, eyes fixed on the door.
Adam is coming out any moment now.
Inside the sealed mountain chamber, Merin sits cross-legged, his eyes closed, his breath steady but shallow.
Within the sea of his consciousness, a core spins slowly—its shape dense, its surface radiant.
With every rotation, it absorbs the surrounding magic energy and releases something new—not pure magic, not true energy, but a hybrid of both.
He grits his teeth as the energy floods his veins, altering the very structure of his body.
Time becomes meaningless under the agony of transformation.
Eventually, the pain fades.
In its place, a vast strength rises—followed by a piercing clarity.
He can see it all now—the particles, the threads that make up the dimension.
And he knows instinctively: he can manipulate them.
To test it, he focuses on the rocky floor beneath him.
With a thought, the jagged stone turns smooth—into paved concrete.
The transformation ripples outward, reshaping the entire hollowed chamber inside the mountain.
He opens his eyes with a frown.
This god-like ability comes with a cost—massive energy consumption.
That simple change from stone to concrete drained him deeply.
Used in battle, it would exhaust him in seconds.
But he also understands—this is only the beginning.
As his cultivation advances and his energy grows, the true scale of his power will emerge.
He spreads his new field outward.
It surges through the entire mountain range in seconds.
And with it, knowledge pours into him.
The world has changed.
The Republic and the Holy Cross Empire now stand as the dominant powers, ruling over their respective domains.
In the Republic, magic has become widespread—no longer hidden.
Ordinary people now carry small amounts of magic energy within them.
Some, with talent, have even reached Rank 5 in just five years.
But all are stalled at the same wall.
None knows how to advance.
Because the next step does not yet exist.
But now, Merin has returned.
Whereas the Holy Cross Empire shuns magic, every supernatural race that possesses it is either driven away or hunted down—except the devourers and humans with latent magic energy.
This rejection of magic, however, hasn't weakened the empire.
Instead, they've built a new practice system—the Way of the Knight.
Cultivation in this system comes through faith, through belief in the Cross Lady, the goddess worshipped by the Holy Cross Church.
The more devout the believer, the stronger they become.
Merin had once assumed the Cross Lady was a fabrication—a tool created by the church to control the masses.
But evidence continues to mount, and it now seems she is real.
Even so, with the sheer power she supposedly commands, Merin should be able to sense her presence from across the continent.
He can sense every extraordinary being whose realm exceeds Professional Rank 6.
And yet, five places in the Holy Cross continent remain blank in his mind—utterly void, shielded from his perception.
He focuses, tries to pierce the shielding with his field, but fails.
But he succeeded in his true purpose as he had found the Cross Lady.
His purpose here is complete.
He stands up to leave the chamber.
But then pauses.
He suddenly realises—he didn't sense Valerie.
Closing his eyes again, he expands his field across all continents.
Still nothing.
Not a trace.
Did she die?
Or is she hiding?
But why would she need to hide?
To Merin, Valerie was—and remains—an experiment.
He wanted to understand why the dimension bonded them, what kind of magic their child would possess after inheriting from three races.
He accepted the bond only to study the outcome.
But over time, as they spent days together, something else took root.
A quiet affection.
He came to admire her determination—her focus, her relentless drive, her refusal to be shaped by anyone's will but her own.
And he realised why she had never acknowledged their bond aloud.
Valerie wanted strength.
She wanted to change the fate of supernatural races by herself.
She wanted the burden of survival and struggle to fall on her shoulders, not their child's.
So now, Merin wants to know what happened to her.
He moves without hesitation, stepping out of the room and spotting Robert.
Robert opens his mouth, likely to offer congratulations—but Merin cuts him off.
"Where is Valerie?"
Robert falls silent.
"A week after you entered closed retreat," he says at last, "Valerie disappeared. Most likely captured."
Merin's eyes flash.
Valerie might still be alive—but he doesn't know where she is.
Perhaps she's in one of the five shielded zones, the only places in the world beyond his perception.
And he knows now—who took her, and why.
It all became clear when he discovered the truth about the Cross Lady.
Her physical body is dead.
But her soul has fused with the will of the dimension itself.
She's gained a life far beyond what mortals can endure.
Yet she remains trapped.
Caged.
To escape, she needs a body—
Not just any vessel, but the most talented, most powerful one in the entire dimension.
Merin knows how she plans to get it.
And very likely... she already has it.
She's waiting.
Waiting for that body to grow.
And when the time comes—
She will walk free.
A week later, Merin gathers all the important figures of the Republic—humans from the origin world, natives of this dimension, and the high-ranking supernatural races.
By now, every powerful being knows the truth of Merin and his group: that they're not of this world.
They come together to witness Adam's breakthrough into the Earth Transformation Realm.
Merin explains how martial artists can break through and what changes they undergo after crossing that threshold.
Excitement spreads through the hall as the truth settles in.
They begin to discuss the final war.
Many who came from the origin world express their longing for home—after all, they've been trapped in this dimension for twenty-five years, cut off from their families and their past.
But Adam alone is not enough.
To wage war, they need more martial artists in the Earth Transformation Realm.
After debate, the majority agree to launch the attack ten years from now.
Then Merin, silent until now, says calmly, "How about fourteen years later?"
Surprised, they ask why.
Merin answers, "Because my child will be eighteen then."
The room falls into stunned silence.
Does Adam have a child?
Dozens of voices ask the same question—who's the mother?
One of the original members of Merin's group answers quietly, "Valerie."
Confusion ripples through the supernatural races.
That name—Valerie—they all know it.
She was once the hope of their kind before the Republic's true rise.
Many had believed she would give birth to the prophesied child.
When she vanished, they searched, only to discover she had ties with a seemingly ordinary human professor.
With the rise of the Republic, their search lost urgency.
Now they realise—Valerie is Adam's mate.
Their child is the prophesied one.
Urgency takes over the room.
They speak of searching for Valerie and her child immediately—some even suggest launching a full-scale attack on the empire now.
But Merin raises a hand and speaks one name.
"The Cross Lady."
The room falls quiet again.
They had always suspected she was real—now Adam confirms it.
And with that confirmation comes dread.
They learn from Adam that the Cross Lady can't be harmed.
Not physically.
Not now.
Without her death, the empire can never truly fall.
One elder asks, "Is there a way to kill her?"
Adam answers.
He speaks of the prophecy.
The child of prophecy is being prepared as the vessel for the Cross Lady to escape her prison.
Only after she takes over the child's body can she be truly slain.
A silence heavier than the last one settles.
Someone says softly, "But that means the child will die too."
Adam doesn't flinch.
He shows no hesitation.
He simply says, "That will be the perfect moment to kill her."
Then he turns and walks out of the room.
The others stay behind—silent, disturbed, and heavy-hearted.
Not one of them saw even a flicker of doubt in Adam's eyes when his child's death was mentioned.