Pavela's world exploded.
This wasn't an exaggeration.
It truly exploded.
Her consciousness was being torn by so massive force, forcibly dragged out of her body.
The sensation was as if soone were rawly peeling her soul from her flesh—not a gentle separation, but a slow carving with a dull knife.
Pain.
Imnse pain.
But it was different from the pain in the Punishnt Camp where probes were inserted directly without modification.
The pain back then was pure physical trauma—nerves pierced, spinal cord invaded, electrical currents racing through bone marrow.
The current pain was sothing else entirely.
It was a tearing at the level of consciousness.
Pavela could feel her soul being elongated, twisted, and restructured.
It felt as if countless hands were simultaneously grabbing her consciousness and pulling hard in different directions.
Her vision was disintegrating.
The view of the cockpit, the indicator lights on the control panel, the ground rapidly approaching outside the window—all of it shattered into countless overlapping images before her eyes.
And then—
Golden light erupted from deep within her spine.
It was ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the power of the Path of the Magician.
It surged through the Spinal Probe into the cha, then surged back from the cha into her body, establishing a frantically pulsing circuit between the two.
At the edges of Pavela's pupils, golden rings began to rotate.
Faster and faster.
So fast that she could feel the scorching heat herself.
So fast that she could hear the system screaming.
--【Warning: Connection to The Way Back is deepening rapidly】--
--【Warning: External ntal interference detected】--
--【Warning: Path of the Magician sequence is leaping】--
--【What have you done now?!】--
--【resonance stone?!!】--
--【Which genius made a resonance stone into a Spinal Pro—】--
The system's screaming ca to an abrupt halt.
Because Pavela's consciousness had completely detached from reality.
She rely blinked subconsciously.
And then she was no longer in the cockpit.
She stood in an unfamiliar space.
A vast, empty space filled with golden light.
The ground was not solid.
At least not entirely.
It was like so translucent, flowing substance with golden ripples on the surface; every step she took stirred up circles of waves that quickly settled.
The sky was a pure gold.
If it could even be called a sky.
No clouds.
No sun.
Only countless golden lines interwoven in the air, like geotric patterns of extre complexity, constantly shifting, restructuring, and flowing.
Those lines were not static.
They were moving.
Growing.
Splitting.
rging.
Every line connected to so 'node' in the space, and those nodes—
Pavela looked up.
Countless geotric objects were suspended in the air.
Cubes, spheres, pyramids, polyhedrons—
They rotated slowly, their surfaces covered in precise patterns, resembling chanical devices yet also appearing like living organisms.
Every geotric body was glowing.
A golden light.
They were connected by those golden lines, forming a massive, complex network that Pavela could not understand at all.
She also saw souls.
Inside every geotric body floating in the air, a soul was sealed.
Pavela could see them.
Through those translucent geotric surfaces, she could see curled-up humanoid silhouettes inside.
So were whole.
So had begun to disintegrate, as if being dismantled piece by piece into smaller fragnts by so force.
Those fragnts drifted inside the geotric bodies, rotating slowly, then being absorbed by those golden patterns.
These souls did not scream.
They did not struggle.
They just stayed quietly in those geotric cages, allowing themselves to be decomposed, restructured, and transford into so 'purer' form.
Pavela could feel their emotions.
Confusion.
Daze.
Acceptance.
And a strange kind of... peace.
It was as if they had forgotten who they once were, forgotten why they were here, leaving only a vague, abstract sense of existence.
They were no longer 'people'.
They were becoming 'concepts'.
They were becoming 'rules'.
Pavela blinked.
Where the hell did this Spinal Interface send her?
Is this still Eisenburg?
She looked down again, and then she saw a familiar 'thing'.
It was a humanoid figure.
To be precise, it was a figure pieced together from countless geotric bodies.
Its head was a perfect sphere, its surface covered in dense golden patterns.
Its torso was a cube, with different patterns carved on each of its six faces.
Its limbs were connected by countless small polyhedrons, every joint a precise chanical structure.
It had no face.
At least not in the traditional sense of facial features.
But Pavela could feel it 'looking' at her.
Through the pulsing of those golden patterns.
Through the rotation of those geotric bodies.
Through the vibration of the golden lines connecting the parts of its body.
The Gatekeeper.
Oh, it's the fucking ntal Space!
And this ti it's a real ntal Space!
The Gatekeeper opened its 'mouth'—
A crack split open in its spherical head, the edges of the crack being perfect geotric planes, with pure golden light inside.
"Welco—"
Its voice had just sounded.
When Pavela's fist smashed into its face.
To be precise, it smashed into its spherical head.
A dull thud.
The Gatekeeper's words were forcibly cut off, its entire body staggered back two steps, and a crack appeared on its spherical head, with golden light leaking from the fissure.
"Ugh—"
It let out a muffled groan.
Pavela did not imdiately follow up.
Because at the sa mont her fist hit the Gatekeeper—
She felt a punch land on her own face as well.
The position was exactly the sa as the punch she gave the Gatekeeper.
Right cheek.
Below the cheekbone.
The force, the angle, the sensation of impact—completely identical.
Pavela's head was knocked to one side by the punch; she could feel the stinging pain on her cheek, as if the inside of her mouth had been cut by her teeth, and a tallic taste of blood began to spread on the tip of her tongue.
She reached out and touched her face.
No wound.
This was the ntal Space; of course there wouldn't be a wound.
But the pain was real.
The Gatekeeper clutched the crack on its spherical head; the fissure was slowly healing, and the golden light was gradually receding.
"You clearly felt it last ti."
Its voice carried a hint of helplessness.
"We are originally one and the sa existence."
"Attacking is attacking yourself."
"Stop wasting your effort—"
Before it could finish, it saw Pavela starting to roll up her sleeves.
"Wait—"
Pavela charged!
The Gatekeeper began to panic.
"Are you crazy?!"
Pavela did not answer.
Her fist smashed into the Gatekeeper's head again.
This ti it was the left cheek.
The Gatekeeper's head was knocked to the right, and another crack appeared.
Simultaneously, the sa pain ca from Pavela's left cheek.
She didn't stop.
Third punch.
Abdon.
The Gatekeeper's cubic torso was dented inward, and the golden light flickered violently.
A blunt impact of pain also ca from Pavela's abdon, as if an iron rod had been thrust into her stomach.
But she didn't even flinch.
Fourth punch.
Fifth punch.
Sixth punch.
Every punch landed solidly on the Gatekeeper's body.
The entire ntal Space echoed with the Gatekeeper's screams.
"Stop—stop—you lunatic—"
"We are one—hitting is hitting yourself—"
"You'll die—you'll beat yourself to death—"
Pavela turned a deaf ear.
Her fists fell like raindrops on the Gatekeeper.
Head, torso, limbs—
She smashed every single part.
The Gatekeeper's geotric body began to disintegrate.
Those precise polyhedral joints began to loosen.
Those golden connection lines began to snap.
It tried to resist.
Tried to bind Pavela with those golden lines.
But Pavela simply grabbed those lines, yanked them apart, and continued to swing her fists.
Finally—
The Gatekeeper completely lost its ability to resist.
Its geotric body was shattered, countless polyhedrons scattered on the ground, the golden light dimd until it was almost invisible.
Its spherical head was covered in cracks, like a glass ball about to shatter.
Pavela grabbed its head and lifted it from the ground.
Her hands were trembling.
Because it really did hurt.
She hadn't held back at all just now.
But her gaze was very calm.
Eerily calm.
"So this ti."
She said.
"What exactly do you want to do?"
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