The dean just stood there, staring straight ahead. His face twisted with shock, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. The sheer absurdity of the sight hit him like a hammer.

"What kind of absurd joke is this...?" he muttered. His legs gave out, and he slowly sank to his knees on the broken floor.

What he saw was a massive space tear still hanging in the air. Lava dripped from its jagged edges, glowing bright red and orange.

The tear had not closed at all. Heat rolled off it in waves, making the air shimmer and sting his skin.

The ground around it stayed scorched and cracked, as if the force that ripped the space open was too strong for the tower to heal.

He stayed on his knees, heart pounding hard in his chest.

A storm of feelings crashed through him, confusion, fear, and deep awe. He had been so sure the masked figures were Julius and Rosalina.

He had come here ready to kill them. But now everything looked different. Far more terrifying.

These traces left behind were not normal.

’The one who fought here...’ he turned his head slowly toward the space tear. That person was someone the dean could not even begin to understand.

From the looks of it, the tear had been made with extreme speed and raw power. Clear signs of fire path energy still burned in the air, thick and heavy.

His earlier guess that the caster was at Void Core stage had been completely wrong.

Something like this could only be done by someone at the Infinite Core stage, the dean realized.

He swallowed hard, his messy beard brushing against his chest as he breathed. Right now, he did not know if he was lucky that he had not arrived earlier... or unlucky that he had entered the tower at all.

If either of those spell casters had still been here, he would have died without any doubt.

The dean stayed on his knees like that for what felt like an hour or two. His mind had gone completely blank.

Everything he once believed had vanished like mist under the morning sun. He sat there, utterly dumbfounded by how differently things had turned out.

"I better get out of here," he finally decided.

There was no one around right now, but who knew if the ones who fought here might return? It was a million times better to be safe than sorry.

He pushed himself up quickly, turned around, and walked back the way he came.

Since he had not taken the trials on the tenth or eleventh floors, no barriers stopped him. He willed himself out of the tower and left without any trouble.

*****

Meanwhile, in the continent of Auranel, at the Hayes clan’s main residence. It was an extravagant building, no, it was more fitting to call it a grand castle.

The castle stretched about 150 meters from side to side and 80 meters wide. Its height was harder to judge, but it rose around 30 meters tall.

Sharp stone spears jutted up from the ground around it. The entire structure was built from smooth white sandstone that shone brightly in the sunlight.

That was only the outside. Inside, everything felt even more luxurious. The walls in each section glowed with different rich colors.

The furniture looked like works of art, and beautiful paintings hung here and there.

Most of the paintings showed one person, Julius. Sometimes he stood with his mom and dad, sometimes alone. Many of them were from when he was just a little boy.

"My baby boy," the words were written in elegant letters outside Julius’s room.

Inside the room, Julius’s brows twitched.

His forehead was covered in sweat. His clothes were soaked through, sticking to his skin.

He shifted to one side, trying to shake off the discomfort. But strong, warm hands pulled him back and held him close.

Something soft and squishy, like a warm pillow, pressed gently against the side of his face.

The feeling brought him slowly back to his senses. At first, all he saw was soft blankness.

"Hmm?" Julius frowned, unable to tell what was pressing on him. Yet the gentle scent and the comforting softness felt strangely familiar and nice.

He reached out slowly and grabbed one of them with a gentle squeeze.

In that moment, he knew exactly what, and whose, they were.

His face turned bright red. But he did not let go. Instead, he squeezed a little more. ’Yeah... these are my Rose’s boobs!’

He kept squeezing them lightly. They felt curvy and round in his hands, full like ripe melons now that her body had grown.

He did not know if they would taste juicy, but he could not stop touching them. ’Hehehe, aren’t I one lucky fucker,’ he thought with a grin.

He still remembered the brutal fight where he had almost died. He had trapped Rosalina in the infinite space to keep her safe.

His mom must have taken her out after everything ended. Now she lay here with him, sleeping peacefully.

His mind still felt foggy, but the picture was clear. She had probably made a big fuss about taking care of him.

After all she had been through, exhaustion had finally pulled her under, and she had fallen asleep right beside him.

’Lol, this is what we call life.’ He felt a little uncomfortable about sleeping with a woman like this, but he had already seen her completely naked before, and she had not minded at all.

She had even told him that if he got flustered just seeing her bare, how would he ever give her children? Besides, he was a man.

Who in their right mind would not feel happy touching soft boobs first thing after waking up?

Even though his face stayed a bit red and shy, he kept squeezing them gently.

’How soft they are... and her curves too,’ he thought.

’She really is the perfect model of a mature woman. Hehe, touching my Rose? Even if some god had told me I would touch her like this one day, I would not have believed it. It is a great prize for everything I went through.’

His face lit up with pure joy from the sudden experience. He slowly lifted his gaze.

Sure enough, the face resting so close to his was Rosalina’s. He reached out carefully and touched her cheek. It felt soft and bouncy under his fingers.

Then he moved to her lips. They were like soft rose petals, pink and full of charm.

They stayed slightly open, giving him a small glimpse of her white teeth. It looked like she was quietly inviting him closer.

’Damn! I still can’t believe such beauty fell for me!’

He slowly reached out with his left hand and gently pulled her lower lip with his thumb.

’Really... if this is not heaven, then what is?’