(Note: I added 500 words in the last chapter on 2024/4/19, don't forget to read them^^ You don't have to give extra pay if the chapter was unlocked before!^^)
Ansel stood on the balcony, gently caressing the sleek, dark yet gleaming barrel of Gleipnir. The sunlight refracted off the gun, mirroring his rare, contemplative expression in his sea-blue eyes.
"Ansel!"
A jubilant cry from behind startled him before he could turn; a gust of wind brushed against his back followed closely by so soft, firm cottons against his head.
The tall Miss Wolf leapt up, wrapping her arms around Ansel from behind, her legs entwined around his waist as she hung on his back, giggling, "Are we setting off?"
"It depends on father's plans."
Ansel, without turning, reached back to pat Seraphina's head, chuckling, "Looking forward to it?"
"Absolutely! That…uh, that Zero Realm Enigma sounds so formidable! Mr. Flalle even ntioned that my advancent to the fifth stage could happen there. I definitely want to see it."
Just yesterday, Flalle had inquired at the dinner table if Ansel had inford Seri about the Zero Realm Enigma, revealing to her that today Flalle intended to take Ansel to that mysterious realm.
The Hydral badge Flalle gifted her on her birthday not only withstands a full-force attack from a sixth-stage divine species for ten seconds but also serves as the key to the Zero Realm Enigma, capable of elevating Seraphina from the fourth to the fifth stage.
Unlike her knowledgeable sister, the naive Miss Wolf was unaware of what the Zero Realm Enigma truly entailed, hence her excitent when Flalle promised to take her along.
"Ans, Seri."
A mature male voice ca from behind as they affectionately clung to each other. Seraphina turned to see the handso, mature Hydral standing with one hand behind his back and the other resting on a scepter, smiling warmly at them.
"Are you ready? It's ti to depart."
Seraphina wanted to cheer but first instinctively glanced at Ansel, whom she was embracing.
"We are ready, father."
Ansel nodded slightly, his sinister black hand cannon transforming into a dignified scepter. Sensing Ansel's subtle unease, Seraphina silently slid off him and stood obediently to the side.
The young Hydral stood on the balcony, bathed in light, facing his father, and declared, "Let us seek what you need."
Flalle smiled, "It's just a short, uneventful journey that will broaden Seri's horizons. Don't be so solemn, Ans."
His scepter gently tapped the ground, and the pattern of a teleportation circle spontaneously outlined itself on the floor: "Let's go, soone is waiting for us."
With that, Flalle stepped into the teleportation circle first, vanishing from sight. Ansel, pausing briefly, quickly followed, with a thoughtful Seraphina trailing behind.
As the fleeting dazzle subsided and she reopened her eyes, Seraphina let out a scream in sheer terror.
"Waaah! Whe-whe-whe-where on earth is this place?"
The skin-pricking howl of the wind, the clear azure expanse of the endless sky, and the vast land stretching to the horizon, where all things seed minuscule and blended into a uniform hue, made Seraphina instinctively grasp Ansel, trembling as she stamred, "An-Ansel, has the teleportation gone awry?"
"We are on the upper middle section of Mount Elysian, the main peak of the Celestial Path mountains, approximately fourteen thousand ters above sea level," ca a cool voice from beside Ansel.
"Moreover, Mr. Flalle could not possibly err in such matters."
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At that mont, Seraphina, who had been shivering in fear of free-falling, widened her eyes in disbelief and turned around, exclaiming, "Ravenna!? How are you here?"
"... Please, call Helen, Miss Seraphina," Helen replied, frowning slightly next to Ansel. "I am here, of course, to enter the Zero Realm Enigma with Father."
"You... Ansel told you about this and not ?!"
Seraphina's angry shout even overpowered the howling wind. "You lied!"
"Mr. Flalle inford ," Helen responded calmly, "It was also a capricious choice of my own."
Hearing this, Seraphina cald down slightly, realizing that Ansel had not inford Helen either... Humph, presumptuous and utterly lacking in propriety!
As Seraphina's worries eased, Helen quietly glanced at Ansel, who was gazing at the sky, murmuring to herself:
Father didn't even tell Seraphina... Is she also not to be trusted?
Instead, Mr. Flalle invited , and likely her as well?
With these thoughts, Helen pondered for a mont before hearing a voice from above.
"Sorry, I was just having a chat with the master of this place,"
Flalle's laughter pierced through the roaring hurricane. "The greetings are over, prepare yourselves, youngsters, the portal is about to open."
The mature Hydral hovered in mid-air before the trio, his robe unswayed by the fierce winds capable of blowing stones off the mountain. He elegantly extended his scepter forward, and at the sa mont, Seraphina and Helen felt… an overwhelmingly massive and terrifying ether, gathering at the tip of the scepter with a montum that seed poised to annihilate everything.
Helen focused on the tip of Flalle's scepter, a manipulation of ether beyond her own comprehension, while Seraphina suddenly felt a chill down her spine and abruptly turned to look towards the higher, utterly inscrutable reaches above the clouds.
anwhile, Ansel, caressing his serpent-headed scepter, watched Flalle's figure in silence, his unusual deanor perceptible even to Seraphina.
Before long, the tip of Flalle's scepter began to oscillate, sending out ripples that grew larger and more exaggerated in amplitude and frequency as the ether increased, the winds enveloping the mountain crushed by the swirling vortex of condensed ether, and then—
Crack!
Seraphina struggled to describe the sound she had just heard, sowhat reminiscent of... glass shattering.
But what Flalle's scepter tip revealed was not shattered glass.
It was... a shattered world.
"Do not look," Ansel whispered, gently covering Seraphina and Helen's eyes with his hands.
"The fundantal essence is still too premature for you. Father has shielded all erosion, but for you now, rely gazing would cast you into the abyss."
anwhile, he himself gazed upon the scene before him, his expression unchanging.
There was neither the bizarre kaleidoscope of colors nor was it composed of abstract, distorted blocks of color; rather, it was profoundly simple.
It was rely black.
Encompassing everything, embracing all... When the world fractures, the essence of everything naturally flows forth.
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