The Verdant Veil group made their way back to the branching paths, with Eirene quietly leading at the front.
As they walked, a hush seed to settle over the ruin itself.
And when they finally stepped out onto the vast intersection of pathways—
They froze.
The colossal maidens were no longer roaming.
The towering stone figures... were now kneeling.
All of them.
Two long rows stretched down the corridor. Each maiden was bowing low with their veiled heads lowered and their crystal spears planted into the floor like ceremonial halberds.
The formation resembled a royal procession awaiting the arrival of a sovereign.
Marie whispered, stunned,
"...They were murdering everyone an hour ago."
Lucien murmured,
"Now they’re acting like palace knights."
And they were far from the only witnesses.
Hundreds of practitioners from every faction had gathered in the plaza, drawn by the quake that shook the ruin monts ago. So stared at the kneeling maidens in awe, others whispered frantically, and a few simply cried with relief.
The attacks had ceased imdiately after the tremor.
Soone gasped,
"They stopped... right after the quake! What happened?!"
Another whispered,
"Why are they kneeling now...?"
Eirene said nothing.
The keys beneath her robe pulsed faintly, but her expression remained calm.
Just then—
A surge of pressure rolled from one of the branching paths.
The Celestial-realm proxies erged, striding in with tense expressions.
One of them addressed everyone directly.
"We searched every corridor, every chamber, and every branch in this ruin."
He shook his head. "There is no exit. No path leads outside."
His companion added, voice grim,
"We even returned to the starting point. The Void Gate is gone... as if it never existed."
The shock spread instantly through the gathered factions, rippling like a second quake.
But that wasn’t all.
The proxy leaned closer and lowered his voice.
"And there is still no sign of the Nephralis or Varkhaal sects. No bodies, no aura traces... nothing. It’s as if the ruin swallowed them whole... or sent them sowhere else entirely."
Marie shivered.
Eirene frowned.
Lucien’s expression darkened.
After delivering their findings, the proxies turned to Lucien’s group.
"Your group is the second to enter. Did you possibly discover anything?"
Eirene answered before anyone else could.
"There is... one last path," she said quietly. "It only appears when all conditions are t."
Silence blanketed the plaza.
Everyone’s attention shifted to her.
Eirene looked toward the kneeling maidens.
"Follow where they bow," she continued. "They are pointing toward the final path."
The crowd turned as one.
All the colossal maidens were kneeling in formation, facing the sa direction, forming a corridor of stone bodies... almost ceremonial.
Eirene stepped forward.
The keys beneath her robe pulsed strongly.
A soft hum rippled across the ruin.
Gentle at first... then brighter... sharper... then...
FWOOOM—
The air in front of the kneeling maidens twisted and tore open.
A slit of light appeared. It widened and unfolded...
Until a shimring portal of pure starlight blood into existence.
Gasps erupted throughout the plaza.
"That’s—!"
"The final path!"
"It was hidden this whole ti!"
Even the Celestial proxies stepped back in awe.
Lucien and Marie stiffened at the sight.
Eirene’s hand instinctively touched the keys under her robe.
Lucien t her gaze and nodded once.
"This is it."
Eirene inhaled softly.
The portal pulsed, inviting them forward.
"Let’s finish our expedition," she whispered.
And the group stepped toward their final path.
•••
The mont they stepped through the starlit portal... the world shifted.
The sensation wasn’t like teleportation.
It was like the ruin blinked, and reality rearranged itself around them.
And then—
FWMP.
Their feet touched solid ground.
They were still underground... yet the space felt nothing like the previous chambers.
The air was heavier, thicker, and infused with a strange tallic scent that clung to their tongues.
Marie frowned.
"...This isn’t the sa layer."
Lucien turned slowly.
Behind them rose colossal walls, smooth as polished obsidian.
Lining the walls were colossal maidens, the sa stone guardians from before... only these ones were already kneeling as if escorting them to a throne they hadn’t yet seen.
But in front of them—
Everyone froze.
Because stretching out beyond the plaza...
...was a black sea.
A sea so vast its horizon disappeared into the dark.
A sea so still it reflected no light.
A sea so black it devoured the glow around it.
Lilith’s voice thinned.
"...A sea? Here?"
Marie whispered,
"That’s... not water. Right?"
No one answered.
Because they all felt it.
This was not water.
This was sothing dangerous and sothing that should not exist.
One practitioner from another faction stepped forward hesitantly.
"...The path must be across," he muttered. "It always is."
The proxies nodded grimly.
"We see no route around it. No bridges. No formations pointing another way."
It was true.
The plaza ended abruptly at the black shoreline.
There was no other direction.
A young practitioner from a minor sect inhaled sharply and extended his spiritual sense, attempting to probe the dark surface.
The result was imdiate.
SHHHK—!!
He scread.
Everyone saw it. His spiritual sense, the invisible field around him, caught fire.
He stumbled back, clutching his head.
"It—It burns the spirit! It burns—!"
Lucien narrowed his eyes.
Several more tried, desperate or foolish.
All recoiled.
All were injured.
So fainted.
The verdict was clear.
The sea rejected anything made of energy—
Just then...
A man stepped forward with a confident grin.
A noble from the Ninefold Pavilion, judging by the embroidered crest on his sleeve.
"Keh. Amateurs," he scoffed. "Who needs spirit sense? The Hall didn’t suppress storage rings."
He tapped his ring.
FWIP—
A sleek mana-powered sky skimr appeared. It was sothing between a boat and a hovering sled, designed for aerial travel.
Gasps broke out.
Marie muttered. "Oh wow, soone brought a whole vehicle too."
The man climbed on smugly.
"While the rest of you stand around shaking, I’ll just be on my way."
He pushed the activation rune.
VMMM—
The skimr humd to life.
It floated.
Then surged forward across the Black Sea.
Or so they thought....
Because the mont it crossed the shoreline—
Everything failed.
The skimr’s runes flickered.
The levitation plates dimd.
Then—
PSSSHHHHH!!!
Mana drained out of the machine, sucked downward as if the sea had a mouth.
"No—NO—NO—!"
The vehicle dropped.
Everyone watched... frozen horror on their faces... as the skimr plunged into the black surface.
The man leapt out in panic—
But the mont his body touched the Black Sea—
He turned... into a skeleton.
His bones clattered once, then sank silently beneath the surface.
Marie covered her mouth.
"...He just... died."
Lucien did not look away.
"Anything holding energy... even life-force... it absorbs."
The plaza fell into terrified silence.
One of the Celestial-realm proxies staggered forward, face pale.
"No... It can’t be. This... this is—"
Her partner finished in a hushed, horrified tone.
"The Abyssal Pool."
Whispers spread instantly.
"The Abyssal Pool...? That’s just a legend—"
"Impossible... it’s said to erase worlds—!"
"How can it be here... Isn’t it sothing from the Abyss?!"
The proxy trembled.
"In ancient texts... the Abyssal Pool devours every form of energy. Only pure physical matter can cross it."
Everyone stared at the silent horizon.
A sea that consud everything.
A path they were required to cross.
Marie swallowed hard.
"So... how do we get across a sea that kills anything alive?"
The proxies had no answer.
Lucien exhaled slowly.
He already understood the severity of the situation.
He couldn’t use his drops as every single one of them contained divine energy.
He couldn’t use his skills either. The mont a skill activated, energy would flare, and the Abyssal Pool would swallow him whole before he even took a second step.
He couldn’t even Skywalk.
•••
One by one, more factions arrived at the plaza overlooking the Abyssal Pool.
The Starforge Cartel, the black-robed faction, the Silent Monastery monks, the Lunareth Sect, the Obsidian Collegium scholars, and countless independent practitioners.
They took a single look at the liquefied abyss stretching endlessly before them...
and to the countless practitioners stuck before it.
They imdiately understood.
Crossing it would not be simple.
A few older practitioners murmured grimly...
"Then the path is physical."
"We need matter. Real matter."
"Anything holding mana will dissolve."
Everyone fell silent.
Because although the solution sounded simple...
it was practically impossible.
They were practitioners.
None of them carried crude mortal materials.
Every tool, every weapon, and every treasure they possessed carried energy.
Even the fabric of their clothes had traces of mana woven into them.
One monk dumped out his storage ring.
Every item shimred faintly with mana.
"No... not a single mundane item..."
Another practitioner cursed under his breath.
"Our entire lives are built around energy. Without it, we have nothing."
Panic began to ripple through the group.
Lucien, however, remained calm.
While everyone else only had refined tools, spirit-forged tals, talismans, and mana-laden gear...
He had an entire world inside him.
An entire ecosystem of basic matter, raw resources, and common materials.
Lucien opened his Craft interface.
’What materials do I actually lack?’
Nothing.
He had everything he needed.
And even if he didn’t... with the Law of Creation, he could simply make it.
He issued a silent command.
Deep within his inner world, monsters began cutting down ordinary logs.
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