Theo’s eyes widened.

For a moment, he just stared at Elise.

’’What?’’

Elise nodded slowly.

’’Yes, we’ve been able to perfectly track his whereabouts for around two years now.’’

She let out a bitter laugh as she shook her head.

’’We left him alone so we could use him as bait,’’ she continued. ’’We wanted to find who supplied, protected, and met with him.’’

Her expression darkened slightly.

’’And most of all... we wanted to use him to find the other calamities.’’

Theo’s mouth fell open, but no words came out.

Now he too understood the situation perfectly.

’’It’s just that the riots and unrest forced our hand,’’ Elise said, clenching her fist. ’’So we had to sacrifice that opportunity.’’

She paused for a moment.

’’Now he’s dead... but whatever trail he would’ve led us to is gone too.’’

Her voice was pure bitterness at this point.

Not that Theo couldn’t understand that, though.

The victory didn’t seem nearly as simple as it had been yesterday after all.

’Keeping him alive must’ve had its implications too,’ he thought, glancing at the ground. ’I wonder how many civilians...’

He didn’t want to finish the sentence.

It felt ugly to even think about.

Especially when it was all for nothing in the end.

’In the end, it’s still two to one for the Calamity Covenant.’

Still...

’I wonder if this was all considered in the fifth calamity’s plan though.’

Before he could think any further about it, Elise’s voice echoed out again.

’’Enough of that,’’ she said. ’’Start your training.’’

Theo nodded once.

He pushed the uncomfortable thoughts aside and stood up.

Those things were far outside his influence right now.

’At least with my current strength,’ he thought. ’Once I’m stronger...’

Walking towards the center of the room, he slowly extended his hand.

’The silver core stage for this spell is really straightforward,’ he thought. ’It simply redirects spells within the room.’

Gray mana began appearing in front of him in large amounts.

Unlike his other elements, chaos mana always felt strange.

It was unstable, like it wanted to move in a thousand different directions at once.

Theo took in a deep breath and followed the instructions from the manual.

’The first step,’ he thought, closing his eyes. ’The room itself.’

According to the manual, the doorway wasn’t the difficult part.

Rather, creating a connection with a chaos room was described as a hellish experience.

’Concentrate...’

Theo fell completely silent.

Deep inside, he found himself standing in front of his core.

His gaze locked onto his Chaos affinity immediately.

’Let’s do this.’

Letting out a deep breath, he focused on the affinity.

Outside, Elise couldn’t help but stare at Theo.

’Amazing,’ she thought. ’He’s truly an otherworldly talent.’

Not even a minute ago, she still thought she’d told him too much.

But those worries faded away one after another.

’Not many people can just switch away from depressing topics.’

She smiled faintly.

’Really makes me wonder what he’ll do in the future—’

Her eyes widened slightly.

Gray mana began surrounding Theo completely.

’’What? Already?’’

Then—

The mana vanished from sight.

But all her carefully trained senses told her the mana wasn’t gone.

It had simply turned invisible.

’Not only has he made the connection,’ she thought, eyes wide. ’He’s even made the mana disappear from sight already?!’

The only step that remained was the creation of the doorway.

And that was by far the easiest one.

’Chaos truly is something else,’ he thought, smiling faintly.

He could clearly feel the room now.

It floated somewhere beyond reality, roughly the size of a small house.

The sensation was so vivid, it made his skin crawl.

’Now just the door...’

Without wasting another second, he guided the mana forward.

Before long—

The mana gathered up in front of Theo and formed a door the size of his body.

’That’s it,’ he thought as a large smile appeared on his face.

The doorway stood perfectly in front of him.

As Theo glanced inside, he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

’Trees?’

’Why are those in there?’

He frowned slightly.

’Wasn’t this just supposed to be an empty space?’

That’s when it happened.

The trees suddenly flickered.

Theo’s eyes widened.

For a split second, they weren’t trees anymore.

Countless gray triangles occupied the same space instead.

Then the image changed again.

They became regular trees with gray leaves.

A second later, squares.

Then back to trees.

’Wait...’ he thought, stiffening in place. ’I’ve seen that phenomenon before.’

’It was inside that dream!’

When he’d awakened the element, he found himself in a place exactly like that.

’But... where is that?’

He slowly reached out to the doorway as his mind churned.

’’STOP!’’

Before he could respond, something hit his hand away from the doorway.

Theo snapped out of his thoughts.

He spun to Elise as the doorway vanished behind him.

’’Haven’t you read the damn manual?’’ she said, riasing her voice. ’’We never touch the doorway!’’

Theo blinked.

’’Huh?’’

’’It says it very clearly,’’ she continued. ’’It can pull casters who touch it inside.’’

’’And those who go in, NEVER return.’’

Theo’s expression immediately became strange.

"Never return?"

Elise nodded firmly.

"Every chaos user learns that rule."

Her eyes lingered on the place where the doorway had been.

Theo remained silent for a moment.

His thoughts drifted back to the flickering trees, the endless gray landscape, and the colossal creature from his awakening.

But for some reason, he didn’t mention any of it.

It was like something deep inside told him not to.

’’Then what exactly is inside?’’ he asked instead.

Elise shook her head.

’’No one knows.’’

Theo’s eyes narrowed slightly.

’No one?’ he thought. ’But what was it I saw then?’

It seemed like, at the very least...

He’d already seen more than what she and the manual had described.

His heart pounded slightly faster.

A strange mix of excitement and curiosity settled inside his chest.

’I wonder,’ he thought. ’Would I be able to explore it?’

’’Now stop trying to get yourself killed.’’

Elise’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

’’You’ve successfully formed the doorway.’’

’’With the remaining hour, I’ll be firing spells at you.’’

Theo nodded immediately.

’Right,’ he thought. ’Need to get my priorities straight.’

The arena would open soon.

Before that, he wanted to be able to use this spell in combat. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Time passed by rapidly.

Elise fired spell after spell at Theo, which he had to redirect.

As his response time quickened, she began steadily increasing the size and number of spells.

Finally, an entire hour had flown by.

’’Well done,’’ Elise said, nodding slowly. ’’You’ve been able to use it to a good degree now.’’

Theo sat on the ground, breathing heavily.

’’Thanks,’’ he said between breaths. ’’The training... was amazing.’’

Elise didn’t respond.

She calmly placed her pole back on the weapon rack.

Then turned back to him.

’’I’ve selected several more spells for you to learn,’’ she said. ’’We’ll start the day after the tournament.’’

Theo nodded once.

’’That’s good,’’ he said, glancing up at the ceiling.

After a moment, he pushed himself up from the ground.

’’Alright. I’ll have to get going now.’’

Elise nodded, a very faint smile on her face.

’’Good luck,’’ she said, her voice quieter than before. ’’I’ll be watching tomorrow, so give it your all.’’

Theo glanced back, taken aback.

Then a smile appeared on his face.

’’Don’t worry, I won’t let you down.’’