【 THE SEALED WORLD 】
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White waves crashed against the shore, while the cries of seabirds echoed as they circled overhead.
It was a stretch of golden beach, the deep blue sea extending endlessly to the horizon. In the distance inland lay dense, verdant forests, from which the occasional cry of beasts and birds could be heard.
Suddenly, the clouds above began to churn as fierce winds arose while bolts of lightning streaked across the sky, writhing like tongues of fla.
Monts later, the roiling clouds ford a massive vortex, and the space at its center grew increasingly distorted.
Lightning continued to flash, and a vast black swirling portal appeared in the skies.
From within that dark vortex, a shattered fortress was expelled along with torrents of black earth and stone, carrying with it the corpses of nurous demons as it tilted downward and crashed toward the ground.
With a thunderous explosion, the beautiful beach was buried beneath ruins, while the sea surged violently from the impact, waves towering high before gradually subsiding after a long while.
Curious, unidentified beasts were drawn to the sudden commotion. They approached cautiously, sniffing the air with their long, narrow snouts.
Without warning, a section of the debris burst apart. The piercing sound startled the timid creatures, which imdiately tucked their tails and fled, before vanishing into the forest.
In the next mont, a graceful figure rose from the wreckage.
Silver-haired and violet-eyed, clad in a divine regalia, it was none other than Evé.
She frowned slightly as she surveyed this unfamiliar world.
Her gaze soon settled upon the boundless sea in the distance, as well as the sun in the sky, which appeared the size of a great wheel, pale gold in color, with golden runes flowing continuously around it.
“This place is…”
The runes encircling the sun gradually overlapped with the patterns she had previously observed in the mories of elven souls provided by Hela from the Netherworld.
Evé quickly realized where she was.
“I was actually sent directly into that mysterious hidden world by Leviathan?”
Her expression turned sowhat peculiar.
It was entirely unexpected…
She had been contemplating how to enter this place, yet ironically enough, her enemy had delivered her directly at it.
Nonetheless, Evé did not rejoice rashly.
After all, Leviathan would not have sent her here without reason.
Her gaze swept across the surrounding ruins of the fortress and the dead demons, yet she was not surprised.
Monts earlier, she had been forcibly dragged into a passageway. The turbulent void storm there was enough to annihilate any being below the rank of a true god.
Not only the demons, even the players were no longer within her range of perception. Alternatively, the connection between the entire ga system and her incarnation had also beco extrely faint.
Most likely, those ten players had already respawned back to the World Tree, or perhaps they had not been pulled in at all.
With a quiet sigh, Evé understood that she would have to act alone from here on.
She closed her eyes and began to perceive her surroundings through the power of her divine soul and it did not take long for her to notice sothing amiss.
“The mana of this world is exceedingly thin…”
Sensing that the density of mana in the air was only slightly higher than that of the demirealm of Ouros, Eve’s brows knit together.
Clearly, the magical energy level of this world was far lower than that of the World of Seigües.
After examining the state of her incarnation, her suspicion was confird.
“Hm. Seems like I can only exert power at the upper Gold-rank. The maximum strength this world can sustain does not exceed the Legendary-rank…”
Every realm has its limitations for which power if could accommodate.
And these limits define the total amount of power that extraordinary beings within the world can wield without destabilizing the world itself.
Therefore, if that limit is exceeded, the stability of the entire realm would be compromised. At best, it may cause long-lasting magical disturbances. But at worst, it may damage the world’s very foundation, leading to a decline in its mana energy level or even total collapse.
However, as Evé continued her probe, she discovered sothing unusual.
“No… it is not that the mana level is too low. Rather, the magical energy of this world seems to have been heavily drained, and thus, the realm has yet to recover…”
“The elental forces in space are far more stable than those in the Ouros, and their activity is no less than that of the World of Seigües. So in theory, this should be a top-tier realm…”
“Strange… it is not just that the mana is depleted. There appears to be a force suppressing my ability to exert power beyond the Gold-rank. Even my perception has been significantly restricted…”
“Hmm… is the power of a seal?”
With that thought, Evé looked toward the sky.
Her gaze lingered on the golden runes surrounding the sun, and a realization ford in her mind.
“I see… So this world has indeed been sealed.”
“Not only that, but all beings within this realm have their power sealed as well, restricted to a rank consistent with the realm’s current mana capacity to accommodate.”
Evé fell into contemplation.
“This kind of seal… seems more like a form of protection.”
“I should first attempt to establish contact with my true body and determine my exact location.”
However, when she tried to do so, she found that the attempt failed.
In this realm, she was unable to sense the location of the World of Seigües at all.
Establishing a position required a reference point, and without one, localization was practically impossible.
To Eve’s perception, it was as though she had entered a sealed black box, cut off from sensing any position beyond it.
“This, too, is part of the function of the seal…”
Her expression grew slightly more serious.
She attempted to summon the Gate of Reversal and the Sword of Damocles once more. This ti, the summoning succeeded. However, upon their appearance, Evé discovered that both divine artifacts had likewise been sealed.
Though still functional, the Gate of Reversal had been weakened to the point that it could only perform fixed-point teleportation within a range of one hundred kiloters. As for the Sword of Damocles, its Absolute Severance ability had been drastically diminished, reduced to a re Sharpness effect.
“What a formidable seal… Could this truly be Leviathan’s doing? Since when have that Demon Lord beco so adept at sealing?”
Evé was inwardly astonished.
As the inheritor of the World Tree’s legacy, she considered herself to possess a certain degree of expertise in sealing techniques.
Yet even she could not imagine producing a seal of such overwhelming scope and complexity.
This seal was far more powerful than anything she had encountered so far.
“From another perspective, if the seal of this world is so powerful, then perhaps by uncovering a way to control it, I may find a path to ascend in strength without drawing attention…”
Evé pondered.
At this mont, she also began to understand Leviathan’s real intentions.
Most likely, Leviathan sought to imprison her here, using this seal to confine her while preparing for their invasion of the World of Seigües.
Fortunately, the seal seems to had not reached the point of severing the connection between her incarnation and her true body. Since she could still transfer her primary consciousness back to her main body in the World of Seigües.
However, she had an indistinct intuition…
If she were to shift her primary consciousness now, she might never be able to reconnect with this incarnation trapped here in this world again.
In other words, unless she could free this incarnation, she would have only two choices: Either temporarily relinquish direct control of her true body, or completely abandon this incarnation of hers entirely and return to the World of Seigües.
Naturally, this incarnation embodied a great deal of her effort and had proven highly convenient as a disguise.
Thus, Evé had no intention of discarding it just like that.
As for the matters regarding the World of Seigües, even without directly controlling her true body, she could still issue commands remotely through the network of faith and the ga system.
With her true body present there, the world could still endure for so ti, even in the face of an invasion.
During that ti, Evé needed to find a way to ascend to a higher rank of divine power as quickly as possible.
“I should begin by investigating this world first. The Shadow elves must have settled here sowhere. Once I find them, I may better understand this world and discover an opportunity to escape, or even to advance…”
With this in mind, Evé decided to venture inland in search of traces of the shadow elves.
She glanced down at the divine regalia she’s wearing ford from her power and considered altering her appearance to that of Zero.
However, at that mont, sothing in the nearby wreckage suddenly stirred as an elf clad in black armor struggled to his feet, shaking his head groggily.
With brown hair and brown eyes, it was the player known as Optimist.
He raised his head in confusion, only to et Eve’s gaze directly.
Evé: “…”
Optimist: “…”
Imdiately afterward, several more movent rippled through other parts of the wreckage as well, as one disheveled player after another erged from the rubble.
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