Ethan's brow slowly knotted tighter and tighter.
This wouldn't do.
He didn't need a barely-walkable path for a single person—he needed a real withdrawal and supply corridor, sothing that could carry an army and warships. Ideally, the entire fleet could pass through here directly.
That way, even if the war in Elysion truly turned against them, they could retreat back to Erald Castle through this route fast, instead of getting trapped here with no way out.
But while he stared at the tunnel, thinking—
A Fairy suddenly ca bouncing up to him.
The little thing hugged a rock to its chest and held it up like it was presenting treasure.
Ethan looked down, and his first reaction was a frown.
At a ti like this, he'd assud the little thing was just ssing around. But in the next mont, his gaze stopped dead.
The stone's surface was rough and uneven, with broken edges still showing. Yet inside it, there was a complete golden rune embedded.
Not a broken line. Not a stray fragnt.
A full rune—clear outline, complete structure—sealed within the stone layer. If you didn't look closely, you'd never notice it.
The look in Ethan's eyes changed imdiately.
He snatched the rock away and examined it. The golden rune sat buried inside. It wasn't fully exposed, but just from its shape alone, it carried a completely different sense of stability.
In the next instant, thick white lightning gathered in Ethan's palm.
He didn't hesitate at all. He lifted his hand and slamd it down on the rock.
Lightning detonated. Under the combined impact of brute force and thunder, the stone's outer layer split on the spot.
Fragnts sprayed outward—and the golden rune sealed inside was finally revealed in full.
Feylora's eyes lit up.
She rushed forward almost imdiately, carefully cupping the golden rune in both hands, then hurried to press it against a nearby wall.
That wall was already covered in ancient markings. And the mont the golden rune touched it, it fit like it had always belonged there, responding perfectly with the abandoned runes around it—seamless, airtight.
The next second—
Humm!
Humm!
Humm!
Across heaven and earth, every dormant, abandoned rune lit up.
Light spread dot by dot, then connected in a blink. Walls, ground, snapped stone pillars, collapsed platforms—every rune buried in the ruins was awakened at once.
Dazzling radiance surged up from all directions, gathering into a torrent of energy so massive it was absurd, pouring straight into that spatial tunnel.
The tunnel's rim began to expand imdiately.
Not growing little by little—
It was forced outward almost brutally.
The narrow vortex structure inside was widened by sheer power. In the span of a breath, the entire passage swelled dozens of tis larger than before. Its rotation steadied, and even the dangerous turbulence that had been jumping and snapping around its edges was pressed down.
Excitent in Ethan's eyes hit its peak.
He didn't think any further. He charged forward and plunged straight into the spatial passage.
Inside, power still churned—but compared to the earlier state where it was nearly impossible to pass, it was far more stable now.
Ethan followed the widened route forward. It didn't take long before the light ahead flared.
In the next instant, he was already above Erald Castle.
And at this exact mont, the people inside Erald Castle clearly weren't ready.
A dinsional rift tearing open in the sky was enough to trigger alarms on its own—let alone one whose aura clearly didn't belong to any normal teleportation structure.
The garrisoned troops and powerhouses went on alert instantly. Plenty of people were already looking up, locking onto the rift, even preparing for an enemy intrusion.
But when the figure finally stepped out, the tense atmosphere stalled—then flipped into cheers in a heartbeat.
Because the one who ca out was Ethan.
Up in the sky, Ethan didn't waste even half a second responding to those emotions.
The mont he stabilized, he gave orders imdiately—have everyone stationed in Erald Castle mobilize large numbers of warships and reserve energy, and transport them through the newly opened passage straight into Elysion.
The orders rolled down in layers.
Erald Castle began to move at once.
Of course, this passage had only just been built.
Even with rune power supporting it, it could only be considered "approaching stable" right now—nowhere near perfect.
Relatively speaking, it was still too small. The amount of troops, supplies, and warships it could pass at once was limited.
But having it was better than not.
At least now, facing the war ahead, Ethan had real confidence under his feet.
After handling things on Erald Castle's side, he didn't delay. He imdiately crossed back through the passage, returning to Elysion.
But when he reappeared above the ruins, the scene in front of him had clearly changed from when he'd left.
The large number of Fairies gathered here had scattered in all directions. A portion remained at the ruins' center to maintain the runes and keep the passage running, but there were visibly fewer of them now, and the area around them felt emptier by a whole degree.
Ethan froze for a fraction of a second, then asked, "Where did everyone else go?"
A Fairy beside him imdiately bounced over, craning her head up at him, her voice bright with excitent.
"Master, we found a huge amount of rune energy underground!"
She spoke fast, urgent, her eyes shining.
"It looks like it can help us build several more spatial passages."
The mont Ethan heard that, the look in his eyes changed.
He'd already been thrilled by the rune power that kept surfacing in these ruins. Now he was being told there was even more—stronger—hidden beneath the ground. How could he possibly hold back?
With almost no hesitation, he turned and rushed down a staircase that led underground.
The steps ran deep.
The farther down he went, the denser the energy beca. This wasn't the kind of power that leaked everywhere on the surface—it had weight, the heavy pressure of sothing sealed in an enclosed space for far too long. When it hit him head-on, even his breathing carried a faint, heated tremor.
Golden runes were embedded all along both sides of the walls. Each one was whole and clear. Bright light flowed between the lines, like the entire underground structure itself was slowly running.
Ethan's pace unconsciously quickened.
When he finally entered the underground section, the scene snapped into sharper focus.
Feylora had already led the Fairies into busy work. So were pressed against the walls, trying to scrape out runes embedded in the stone. Others surrounded runes that had already been pried loose, releasing power again and again, trying to fully awaken the energy sealed inside.
The whole underground space was glowing.
And that light wasn't harsh—if anything, it felt like an ancient afterglow that had never truly gone out. Now that it had been stirred awake, it seeped out little by little from the stone walls, the ground, and the deeper structures beyond.
When the Fairies saw Ethan co down, their excitent flared instantly.
They stopped what they were doing and hurried to crowd around him.
Feylora ca up at a near run, the excitent on her face barely contained.
"Master, this dungeon has another layer to it!" She looked up at him, words spilling out fast. "Deeper down, there seem to be even more runes—stronger ones. If we can activate them all, we might be able to activate this entire altar beneath our feet."
As she spoke, she imdiately pulled out an extrely strange rune.
Its shape was clearly different from the patterns on the surrounding walls—its edges were tighter, more restrained, but its center felt like it was pinning down a force that refused to leak.
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