Only despair—that was what she felt when the one she saw as a mother sealed her and her kind away to protect them from that bastard. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to tear that false god apart. But there was someone she wanted to kill even more, and that was Valdir—the one who fought the one she considered a brother and betrayed Ylrie. She would make him regret it. That was the worst thing he could have done.
But how could a mere young elf fight someone at the level of a circle eight? How could she, still at circle four, ever reach him?
'There's only one way.'
She used her magic on herself to burn part of her body when she became unconscious. She was unconscious, but her will to take revenge was so strong that she managed to break the sleep her mother had cast upon them so they wouldn't have to suffer for possibly decades.
But that would not be possible for her. With flames burning her entire right arm and neck, she woke from that state in pure agony from that part of her body. Opening her eyes, she almost screamed in pain if not for something preventing it.
'I can't move.'
She couldn't speak or show much reaction. The only thing she could do was move her eyes from side to side.
Seeing her brothers and sisters floating, she realized she was floating in a forest that could be considered the size of a small village. That small forest floated within a white void.
What had happened there was that Ylrie managed to create a false dungeon where the rule was that no one could move or wake from a deep sleep. It was incredible—but even more incredible was that Lyrielle managed to make her magic leave her body even while unconscious. By seriously injuring herself, she had awakened from that sleep. The only problem now was another rule: not being able to move.
For someone desperate to grow stronger, that was the worst thing that could happen—especially not knowing when she would be able to move or how many years it would last. And that was exactly what happened. One year. Two. Five. Without moving. She was going mad. Her eyes were dark and red from exhaustion as she breathed in and out.
'I can't go insane. I can't. Keep training, Lyrielle.'
During those five years, she tried as much as possible to move—without success. So in the first week, she came up with a training idea. If she had managed to use magic even while unconscious, then using it now would be easy.
Among those trainings, she began using her fire to try to move. But it wasn't possible. Even activating fire magic on her feet to propel herself, something kept her in place.
Since that idea failed, she had to give up on moving and instead focus on developing her affinity. Because she was stationary, that development was slow. So slow that it took all five years for her to reach circle five.
'I have to be faster. Otherwise, how will I ever reach him?'
From then on, she tried to improve her fire breathing technique to enhance her affinity. It took her another year to evolve that breathing technique, increasing her development speed by twenty percent.
Instead of just training, she focused even more on developing it. Five years later, her development speed tripled.
At that moment, she returned to focusing on her affinity. At the same time, she began remembering the training her mother gave her when trying to teach her other affinities. Her mind was growing tired, even though her body was that of a seventeen-year-old.
'How old am I again?'
She tried to remember as four elements floated around her—fire, water, wind, and earth. She was currently training lightning.
Her current affinity levels were circle seven in fire magic, circle six in water magic, circle six in earth magic, and circle seven in wind magic. Lightning, which she was training, was circle five—the weakest among her five elements.
'I think I'm fifty-seven now.'
Her eyes were empty, even though she had broken every record in developing her abilities compared to any dark elf that had ever existed. She still wanted revenge—because that hatred had never left her heart—but for the first time in years, she wanted to do nothing.
As she closed her eyes, she honestly thought only one thing—that if she closed them, she would never open them again. For a simple reason: in the forty years since she entered this place, she had never wanted to sleep again.
'I…'
She began using all the elements to injure herself in order to stay awake. By doing that, she managed to remain conscious longer. In fact, she didn't even know how long anymore—and she stopped caring.
She finally reached circle eight in fire affinity, but she became stuck at that level like most mages did upon reaching it.
She would need a ritual or to break that mental barrier—but her mind was too exhausted for that. So she focused on training her other affinities. Among them, the only one that hadn't reached circle eight yet—but was close—was lightning.
'Someone…'
Even after achieving all of this, her expression was that of someone already dead. She just wanted to leave that place as quickly as possible before she closed her eyes.
She had managed to reduce the risk of falling into a coma using her water magic. But for that, she would need to move to cast what she wanted.
Having reached that level, she even managed to create a space within her mind where she could train movement skills—imitating what her brother used to do. Without a doubt, she had achieved something incredible. But what was the point of all of it if she would never wake up again? She didn't want to close her eyes. She didn't want to…
'Help…'
Just as her eyes were about to close, she saw a golden light—like the sun itself. She felt her back touch the ground. She managed to move and place her hand down to lift herself slightly.
"I wonder how I should welcome you… maybe a good phrase would be…"
Looking up, she saw two people. Their faces were covered by the sunlight, and one of them bore the seal mark of the dark elves. Her eyes focused—surprised and shining—when the golden-haired boy extended his hand toward her.
"Welcome to the original world."