Agavert’s outpost.

The rays pouring from Marbas’s eyes vanished with a crackling sound.

At the same time, focus gradually returned to the eyes of the people inside the room one by one.

Ardiana collapsed helplessly onto the floor.

"No... it can’t be... this can’t be happening."

Even when Tesetan told her in the imperial palace garden, she had refused to believe it.

No—

she simply had not wanted to believe it.

"Why... why..."

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, and tears poured down onto the white bedsheets like rain.

"Why did it have to be my daughter..."

The World Tree was an absolute existence.

And at the same time, it was the only being capable of stopping the current disaster of the Magic Crystals.

At that moment—

Tesetan strode past Ardiana and moved forward quickly.

Straight toward Marbas.

"Who is Terasil? Talk."

"A aaaah! M Master’s father! What are you doing?!"

The moment he saw the murderous expression on Tesetan’s face, Marbas squeaked and stumbled backward.

The lion ears atop his head flattened tightly.

Tesetan continued:

"The World Tree said it when it handed the seed to Krazar. It said to give it to Terasil. Then Terasil would plant the seed inside Ardiana, and afterward it would pass on to Tie."

"Y Yes! That’s exactly right! Everything you saw was true!"

"Then where is this Terasil now?!"

Ribia and Allerik flinched.

They had spent many years beside Tesetan, yet this was the first time they had ever seen him lose control so completely.

Even Marbas seemed to understand the seriousness of the situation, because he hurriedly raised both hands.

"F First calm down. I understand what you’re thinking too!"

Tesetan ground his teeth together.

Marbas’s ears twitched nervously.

"Like you just said, Lord Terasil was the one who planted the seed. So... perhaps he also knows how to extract it again."

Ardiana abruptly sprang to her feet.

Even hope ignited in the eyes of Bale and Basto, who had remained silent until now.

But nobody expected the words that came next.

"...Assuming Lord Terasil wasn’t destroyed."

Tesetan’s lips stiffened shut.

For several seconds, silence filled the room so completely that even breathing could not be heard.

"Terasil... was destroyed?"

Marbas looked up fearfully.

Still wearing the form of a young boy, he twisted his fingers together anxiously.

"The vine Magic Crystal in the ancient palace. Do you remember it...?"

Tesetan’s eyes widened.

The vine Magic Crystal in the ancient palace.

How could he possibly forget it?

He had assaulted that Magic Crystal not once, but twice.

The first time had been before the regression.

Before Lucarion activated temporal magic.

Back then, Agavert did not yet exist, and Tie had not even been born.

At the time, he participated in the assault as the leader of Tregava.

Together with Ardiana, he fought against the tentacles inside the underground chamber of the ancient palace.

But in the middle of the battle, Ardiana was contaminated by poisonous demonic energy.

'Don’t come closer!'

'Take the squad members and leave! If you get consumed too, it’ll all be over!'

Ardiana had been dying.

Demonic energy covered her entire body, and Tesetan understood as well.

If he left her there, that moment might truly become their end.

'But there was no other choice.'

They needed reinforcements.

Simply locating the heart of the Magic Crystal hidden beneath the underground chamber had already been a tremendous achievement, so no matter what, they had to destroy it.

"I remember too."

Ardiana muttered quietly beside him.

It seemed she too was recalling the events of that synchronized timeline.

"You were the first to climb back up. And I..."

Pain twisted her expression.

The agony spreading across her body.

Her skin gradually turning dark red.

And the demonic energy continuously pouring from the heart of the Magic Crystal.

"I thought it was over."

She had been certain she would die.

But then something unbelievable happened.

Ardiana lifted her head.

"There was something there, Tesetan."

Her blue eyes trembled faintly with unease.

"Something came out from the heart. Then it felt like it pierced directly into my own heart..."

Ardiana’s lips quivered.

"And the demonic energy disappeared. Even though my entire body had already been contaminated. It had climbed all the way up to my throat, and I could barely breathe."

Tesetan clenched his fists tightly.

Now he finally understood.

He finally understood ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) what Marbas had been trying to explain.

With a trembling voice, Tesetan asked:

"That vine Magic Crystal... those tentacles Ardiana destroyed... that was Terasil?"

Marbas’s gaze darkened.

After a long silence, he nodded weakly.

"Yes. In the end, Lord Terasil also failed to escape the frenzy."

With a gloomy expression, he turned toward the bed.

Tie, Lucarion, and Pupu all lay there unconscious, as though asleep.

"But he still preserved his final mission. So even after losing his mind, he placed the heart inside Master’s mother."

Ardiana staggered.

"As you already know, in that timeline, Master was safely born. The seed naturally passed from Mother to Master. Originally, the seed was supposed to remain safely within Tallocium. And when the time came, the Absolute was meant to be reborn inside Master."

But then a problem appeared.

"The political situation surrounding the imperial authority in Tallocium was extremely unstable. That’s why Master was entrusted not to her mother, but to a mercenary squad. And by then, Lord Krazar had already turned into a Magic Creature. Of course, Lord Lucarion was still there, but he too was barely preserving his sanity..."

It was a cruel irony.

The seed of the World Tree had safely taken root inside Tie, but almost nobody capable of protecting the child remained.

Meanwhile, Papa was a terrifyingly intelligent being.

Instinctively, he realized that the World Tree was preparing some other plan.

And after that, he relentlessly hunted Lucarion and the other servants of the World Tree.

So that not even the slightest chance of resistance would remain.

"In the end, one variable created another. On the Elderin Plains, inside that canyon."

Marbas’s eyes glowed.

The scene from that day unfolded before everyone.

A day Tesetan remembered clearly.

'Kiiiiiiieeeek!'

Lucarion stood on the brink of complete frenzy.

He was only moments away from destroying Tregava and killing Tesetan along with Tie.

But the seed of the World Tree was absolute.

At the final moment, Lucarion sensed its breath within Tie’s chest.

'Master...?'

The being he was destined to obey.

The power sustaining his existence.

A new fate capable of replacing the uprooted World Tree.

But time had already run out, and the situation continued worsening.

From the opposite side of the canyon, the pursuers sent by Papa were drawing closer.

'The tree’s aura...'

'Find it.'

'Find it and pursue it to the very end.'

Lucarion had no choice left.

If Tie also fell into Papa’s hands, the world would end.

He had to find a way.

A way to escape the pursuers.

A way to protect Astie.

Tregava had been destroyed, and Astie’s father, Tesetan, had lost one arm.

And at that moment, Lucarion’s gaze caught something.

'Master is in danger.'

'We need to run.'

'He’s tracking us.'

Among the spirits circling anxiously through the air—

the power of the World Tree shining brightly inside Tie’s chest.

'If I use this power... perhaps.'

Dimensional transfer.

A sorcery no one except the Absolute could activate.

Which was precisely why the price was so cruel.

Lucarion would remain sealed inside the Bed of Repose for a very long time, unable to emerge until someone awakened him.

And when he eventually woke up one day, he would inevitably lose all of his memories.

But even so.

'I have to.'

At that moment, it was the only way to protect Tie.

BOOM—!

Soon, an explosion of light swallowed the entire canyon.

The world turned white, and a spatial passage opened.

Another world.

Three people crossed over into Korea.

Lucarion, Tie, and—

'...No.'

The one who continued moving forward even then, trying to protect his daughter.

'Not Astie...'

The one who kept driving himself onward with his remaining arm pressed against the ground again and again.

'Not my daughter—!'

And so, at the very last moment, Tesetan grabbed hold of Lucarion’s leg.