Miguel’s lips parted as if he’d lost his words.

Then he sprang up from the driver’s seat and shouted, "Spit right now! Elder!"

"Whoa! What the hell? Why are you yelling? And what do you mean, spit?" Thesaya flinched, her shoulders twitching, as she shot back.

Miguel, eyes blazing, snapped, "Don’t ask—just do it! Hurry!"

"Alright, alright. Calm down, Prosthetic. I’ll do it. What a weird request," muttering in confusion, Thesaya leaned forward and spat directly onto Miguel’s face.

The spit trailed down the bridge of his nose. Miguel blinked blankly.

"What are you doing?"

"You told me to spit."

"Not on me— I meant... ha... no, never mind."

Squeezing his eyes shut, Miguel wiped his face with his sleeve.

"Anyway, you spat, so that’s good enough. You almost jinxed it properly... now it’s undone."

"Ohhh, so that’s why you sometimes stop mid-sentence and spit like that?" Thesaya clapped her hands together in realization, then added, "If you had something that useful, you should’ve told me sooner. You’ve just been grumbling every time I said anything."

"Up until now, the ones we’ve been dealing with were monsters or corrupted, weren’t they? I might not like it, but there was always at least someone who wanted things to end up that way."

Snorting, Miguel brushed off his arms.

"But this time, we’re talking about ordinary people. People who clawed their way to survival in this hellhole."

"So even if they’ve turned into bandits, you don’t want to kill them?" Thesaya asked, one corner of her mouth curling crookedly.

Clicking his tongue, Miguel sat back down in the driver’s seat. "Anyone can go down the wrong path. Hardship can turn even a good person into a killer."

He glanced up at the dark, cloud-choked sky, shrugging. "Even if they’ve become bandits now, if he closes that rift, then before long, they’ll return to their old lives. And repent for whatever they’ve done."

"That’s if I can even do it," Ian said, tossing the bottle toward Miguel with his Willful Grasp. "But if our priest here feels that strongly about it, I suppose we’ll have to try not to kill anyone, even if things go south."

He didn’t forget to add that part.

Lily’s gaze followed the bottle as it flew, and Miguel cleared his throat awkwardly before reaching out to catch it.

"Yeah, well. Everyone makes mistakes. If they’re not completely corrupted down to the soul, they deserve a chance."

"Hmph." Thesaya snorted, shrugging. "I didn’t think it would go that way, but I was imagining the worst—honestly, I thought it might even be fun. I’ll reflect on that and repent."

"How very fairy-like of you..." Miguel muttered, shaking his head as he took a drink.

Thesaya clasped her hands together in front of her chest and continued, "Don’t worry, Prosthetic. A group of outsiders just pushed their way through this nightmare to get here. Do you really think they’d rush out so easily? They’ll stay on guard and watch first."

She glanced at Ian, a peculiar smile forming. "And even if they do come out, there’s a higher chance we’ll run into trouble of a different kind."

"Whatever that is, I’d rather pass. Let’s just try this quietly and move on," Ian replied without even looking at her.

He didn’t have to think long to figure out what kind of "trouble" she meant. That was exactly why he had no intention of getting anywhere near the city.

They’ve got sentries, so we should assume they’ve already spotted us by now.

Ian swept a glance toward the city off to the left. The estate and the city appeared reversed compared to before, likely because they had come down from the north this time. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Either way, those people wouldn’t stay hidden on alert for long. If the intruders didn’t leave, those inside would eventually have no choice but to come out—whether to drive them off or figure out who they were.

And once that happened, things would inevitably get messy.

Especially since we’re heading straight for where the vampires’ den used to be... they’ll come out even faster.

Anxiety had a way of eating away at patience.

Three, maybe four days at most.

Clicking his tongue, Ian shifted his gaze.

"Turn the carriage around, Miguel. The main gate’s blocked. Looks like they’ve stacked logs in place of doors."

Miguel whipped his head forward, then frowned. "Huh? Ah, damn, you’re right."

It had been hard to tell from afar, but now even he could see that the gate had been completely sealed off.

"Well, safer to stay completely cut off. What a boring way to live," Thesaya narrowed her eyes as she looked ahead.

"If we break that, it’ll be hard to fix. Let’s head toward the section with the wooden barricades instead." Ian added, scanning the wall.

He extended his right hand toward the driver’s seat. The bottle Miguel handed over floated into his grasp, and Ian flicked Nila’s reins.

"Yeah. That’ll do."

As Ian caught the bottle, Nila moved ahead of the carriage, veering diagonally to the right.

Miguel followed, steering the carriage across the dry, ashen field.

Snort...

As Nila stepped onto the field, Moro’s breathing sounded from behind.

At a single glance from Nila, it slowed its pace, widened the distance, and naturally circled toward the left side of the carriage.

"Wouldn’t breaking through those barricades be hard to fix, too? Looks like they sharpened the tops as well," Miguel asked from behind, likely having noticed the structure up ahead.

Lowering the bottle, Ian shrugged. "I’m not planning to break it. I’ll try pulling it out. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just knock it over. They can deal with the rest."

"Ah, yeah. I suppose you’ll handle it just fine." Miguel nodded.

Ian fixed his gaze on the wall ahead and the slanted barricades set up beyond it.

Even if it was lower than a typical city wall, a wall was still a wall. The wooden barricades, with their sharpened stakes lined up in a row, didn’t even reach half the wall’s height.

I should be able to pull them out and knock them over...

He wouldn’t know until he tried, but the chances were good. As his skill level had risen, the maximum output of his Willful Grasp had increased as well.

Of course, that meant greater mental strain, but for a moment, it was more than manageable.

Clip-clop, clip-clop—

Nila quickened its pace.

At some point, the city to the left had disappeared behind the wall. Ian didn’t spare it another glance. His eyes were fixed on the approaching barricade.

Soon, a faint ripple spread through the center of his dark pupils.

Crk... creak...

The long line of wooden barricades began to tremble. For a moment, the entire barricade shuddered, and a faint crease formed between Ian’s brows.

"It’s... It’s working!" Miguel’s hushed exclamation came from behind.

Two of the logs were yanked straight out of the ground.

The surrounding stakes swayed back and forth but somehow held firm, likely driven deep into the earth. The uprooted logs, their sharpened bases exposed, suddenly shot inward.

Thud!

The heavy timbers crashed and rolled across the dirt, kicking up clouds of dust. By then, Ian was already pulling out another.

Rumble—

The sound of rolling logs continued.

Ian finally relaxed his shoulders only when a gap wide enough for the carriage to pass through had opened.

"Let’s go in," he said, glancing briefly behind him as he flicked Nila’s reins.

Maintaining it for long is harder than I thought.

He took a sip to push back the headache squeezing his skull.

"That power of yours, no matter how many times I see it, is incredible. It’s nothing like magic or miracles," Miguel spoke as he followed Nila through the opening.

Lily, seated beside him, stared quietly at Ian. Her blue eyes remained as calm as ever, but there was no doubt she was intrigued.

"It’s a will taking physical form, so of course it’s different," said Thesaya, laced with amusement. "I still don’t understand how a bloodline power like that even works."

People cast spells and receive divine blessings, and yet this is what amazes you?

Ian let out a silent, dry laugh.

In any case, the group had now entered Glumir.

Clip-clop, clip-clop—

Barren hills stretched ahead, along with fields where withered crops struggled to grow. A narrow stream, thinner than Ian remembered, ran alongside.

"To think they survived here for years... they must’ve suffered more than we can imagine," Miguel said from behind.

Thesaya answered with a scoff, "Well, it probably wasn’t always like this. It must’ve gotten worse over time."

"Still, at this rate, I doubt they’d last another year."

"Enough of that, Prosthetic. If you’ve got the energy to worry about them, worry about us instead."

"Tch... well, you’re not wrong..."

Ian, walking ahead, didn’t respond at all.

The Glumir he remembered had been a full-fledged demonic realm, crawling with monsters and demons.

He had stayed in the city for a time as well, but his injuries had been too severe to take in the surroundings properly. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he wasn’t looking around.

Thump... thump...

His essence bead had pulsed with a faint resonance.

No matter how much he tried to suppress it, it didn’t stop. And with it came faint, fragmented emotions that seeped in much like what he sometimes felt from his familiars.

Is the Empress’s will lingering here?

Ian crested the gentle hill and took in the ruins of the Labyrinth Mansion spread out before him.

Just as Thesaya had said, there wasn’t even a trace left of the estate or its vast garden. The entire area was barren, covered in dark, brittle soil with no single blade of grass.

Thump... thump...

But that alone couldn’t be the reason the resonance of his essence bead was growing clearer.

Ian’s gaze drifted upward, sweeping across the cloud-choked sky.

Is it because I’ve gone deeper? Or because my third eye has opened further?

To his sight, beyond the stillness of the dark clouds, a crack shimmered faintly, tinged with ominous hues.

It looked like a cracked pane of glass.

Its scale was impossible to grasp. It felt as though it were etched only above Glumir, yet simultaneously stretched endlessly beyond.

Snort—

Nila exhaled sharply, unease in its breath as it strode forward. It must have sensed the waves of chaos emanating from Ian.

However, Ian couldn’t spare it any attention.

Thump... thump...

The clearer the resonance of his essence became, the sharper the rift in the sky appeared.

Between its rifts, violet and purple surged like an aurora, spilling across his vision like paint. The next instant, it felt as though the world flipped upside down, and he was falling straight into it.

So it does work after all.

Ian wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

If anything, he felt a quiet sense of relief. He had expected a quest to trigger the moment his essence bead resonated, though he had also suspected there might be additional conditions.

Thump... thump...

As the violet and purple currents swelled, the resonance deepened. The sensation of falling faded, replaced by a strange, weightless drift that wrapped around his consciousness.

Swoosh—

Chaos, thick as fog, began to slowly swirl around him.

Watching it unfold, a single thought finally surfaced in Ian’s mind.

But why isn’t a quest appearing?

There was no time to dwell on it.

The vortex of chaos sped up, and the resonance of the essence bead grew strong enough to shake his entire awareness.

He quickly realized his essence bead was absorbing the chaos.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Startled, Ian immediately forced it down.

It had already grown enough. If it absorbed this much chaos, it might spiral out of control again. Worse, it could consume his consciousness entirely and fuse with it.

Thump... thump...

As if pressed down by his will, the resonance of his essence bead gradually weakened. The vortex of chaos slowed as well.

Is this a corrupted awakening event? Another stage of the essence bead? Or just a trap—

Even as he struggled to contain it, thoughts raced chaotically through his mind, but none of them was reassuring.

And the resonance still hadn’t fully faded.

Thump... thump...

As if resisting, it continued to pulse—still drawing in chaos, little by little.

Which meant, given enough time, it would only grow stronger.

Divinity. I need to awaken my divinity—

His frantic train of thought came to an abrupt halt. Something cold and smooth slithered up along his body.

—I was wondering why things suddenly got so noisy...

A low, chuckling laugh echoed.

Then came a languid, eerie whisper, brushing against his mind.

—Looks like you’ve finally decided to break free of your restraints... or you’ve found yourself in a situation where you desperately need my help, my friend.