Now that the meeting with the demon queen had finally come to an end, despite not having decided whether they would participate in the raid to eliminate Demon King Rigal.

At least for now, Ryan didn’t want to think about it and headed toward the village with his companions.

Or so he thought, but instead of being transported to the village upon crossing through the portal.

Somehow he was transported to another place, thus ending up in a completely white space.

Ryan spun around in every direction in complete alertness, raising his guard while trying to locate the source of that sound.

"Who’s there?" Ryan asked aloud.

But the voice did not return. The silence stretched on for a moment longer.

Ryan frowned, feeling the strange pressure of the environment on his shoulders as he took a couple of steps forward.

"What is this place?" he demanded again, tightly gripping the hilt of his sword.

Then, right behind his back, a subtle echo resonated loudly, as if a heavy object had suddenly slammed down onto the ground.

"Fire Wall!" He reacted purely on instinct, activating his skill before turning around.

A curtain of intense, orange flames erupted between him and the noise that had just seemed to come from behind.

However, whatever was on the other side simply walked straight forward, passing through the fire as if it didn’t even exist.

The figure came completely enveloped in a brilliant blue aura that seemed to repel the heat of the flames, preventing the fire from burning her.

’What the hell... is it a human?’

She was an adult woman, dressed in a white outfit adorned with fine, glittering golden threads.

On her neck area, a strange symbol engraved onto her skin stood out, a mark Ryan had never seen before, neither in this world nor the other.

She had long, deep red hair and light-colored eyes that conveyed a profound calmness and serenity when looking at him.

Her face did not show an expression of arrogance or superiority; she simply observed him like someone gazing at a familiar old painting.

Ryan tightened his grip on the hilt of his drawn sword. "Don’t come any closer, tell me who you are."

The woman stopped a few meters away, keeping her arms down and showing that she carried no visible weapon of any kind.

"I should have spoken with you a long time ago, Ryan," she spoke in a measured voice that seemed to calm the air around her.

"But the truth is, I had absolutely no way of locating your position until now. Calm down, I am not your enemy."

’She says she’s not my enemy, but she walked right through my technique like it was nothing... is this her way of intimidating me with her power?’

"Why did you bring me to this place? Are you human?"

Then, the red-haired woman smiled slightly at him, a soft smile that did not seem to hide any malicious intent.

"You can call me Udriela," she replied, taking a small step forward. "And stay calm, I didn’t bring you here to harm you."

"I couldn’t say that I am human, but I am one of those primarily responsible for your soul arriving in this world in the first place," the woman revealed naturally.

"So you had something to do with my death in the office?" Ryan asked, recalling his collapse in front of his monitor.

"No, that was an event caused purely by your own bad luck and the exhaustion of your own body," Udriela clarified immediately.

"But at that precise moment, we did intervene to take your soul and bring it to this place before it could dissolve into nothingness."

The woman let out a soft sigh, averting her gaze toward the white void for a brief second before focusing on him once more.

"I have tried to contact you on repeated occasions, but it has been an impossible task."

Ryan let out an ironic laugh, finding a glaring flaw in the explanation the woman was giving him.

"Are you telling me that you have the power to transfer my soul to another world, but it’s impossible for you to appear before me?" he questioned.

She looked at him with a seriousness that completely wiped away her cheerful demeanor, evaluating the young man’s mental sharpness.

However, the tense expression lasted only a short while, quickly returning to the kind and measured tone she had shown since the beginning.

"Listen Ryan, there is no simple way for us to just manifest in the physical plane of this world," she explained.

"And you seem to carry something with you deep inside. Something that makes it very difficult to contact you using the system."

Ryan stood processing the statement for an instant, keeping a cold mind while analyzing the woman’s words.

’The only thing I could have with me, hidden and that she didn’t expect to find, is my debt bug,’ he thought.

’But... if this is another world, then how the hell did that thing transfer over here with me?’

The doubt was shelved in his mind for later, knowing it wasn’t the time to reveal his greatest advantage to a potential deity.

"But then, now that you’ve found me, what are you doing here?"

Udriela clasped her hands together in front of her white dress, adopting a much more formal posture.

"Listen, up until now you have been fighting completely alone on this continent, without the guidance that heroes usually receive," she said.

"And despite that, you have accumulated an amount of power that far surpasses the S-rank that the church considers an achievement worthy of applause."

She paused briefly, looking at the edge of the chimera sword that Ryan still held with absolute firmness.

"In terms of stats, you should be very close to the power of someone with a higher rank, and that is despite still being at your current level," Udriela continued.

"But in addition to that advancement, you have gained a massive number of enemies across the entire world due to your actions."

The red-haired woman took a step to the side, observing the white infinity. "Which makes it very difficult for us to be able to protect you."

"Protect?" Ryan let out a snort, cutting off the flow of her words.

"Don’t talk nonsense, woman. At no point during my stay in this world have I felt that protection you speak of."

He advanced a step, causing the tip of his sword to rest just inches away from the chest of the woman’s white outfit.

"From the way you arrived and how you act, it’s obvious you’re only faking kindness. I’m questioning whether I should attack you right now, so tell me once and for all what you want here."

Udriela did not show even a shred of fear in the face of his words, keeping her clear eyes fixed on Ryan’s intense gaze.

"I’m sorry to tell you that if you decide to attack me now, you will achieve absolutely no result," she responded calmly.

"This figure you see in front of you is merely a projection generated by the system; physically, my body is not present here."

’That means that even for her, it’s the same result; she won’t be able to touch me or use her skills against me,’ he deduced.

"You have been fighting on the wrong side, Ryan, supporting races and demons that only seek chaos," she asserted.

"But despite your mistakes, we are willing to forget about all the holy knights you killed, even the S-ranks who were sent into the forest and never returned."

She extended her right hand toward him, displaying a clean palm that emitted a faint, constant glow of energy.

"We are willing to clear your reputation before the human nations and erase your criminal record," the woman offered.

"The only thing we ask in exchange for this generosity is for you to officially join the holy knights."