The time since he closed his eyes passed in a flash.
Several hours later, the morning light streaming through the curtains pulled Ren from sleep. Even after intense training sessions at the Lion Sanctum, he usually slept soundly, but today felt different—he felt more rested than he had in a long time. A glance at the clock revealed he was up earlier than planned.
"It's early, but I might as well get ready and take it easy."
Licia and Fiona had mentioned a restaurant on the main thoroughfare they were curious about, so they had made plans to meet there for breakfast. Before long, Ren left his room.
Once they finished their meal, the three of them set off for an aimless stroll while the air was still cool.
They debated their plans for the day—whether to explore unfamiliar parts of the city or simply enjoy their holiday relaxing at the inn. As they walked, they paused at a bridge, listening to the soothing rush of water while gazing out over the lake.
"Should we find a cafe to sit down and talk?" Ren asked.
"I suppose so," Licia replied. "Staying here is nice, but there are still plenty of places we haven't checked out yet."
"How about that shop you two were mentioning yesterday?"
Ren began to walk away from the bridge as he spoke, but at that exact moment, a shift occurred.
The sky above, where the morning crowds were beginning to gather, suddenly changed.
"What is that?"
A jagged streak of pale blue light tore through the void. It erupted from the direction of the Gate of the Starry Realm, surging upward with enough force to pierce the heavens.
Ten minutes earlier, in the plaza in front of the Gate of the Starry Realm.
Vane was enjoying a morning walk with Sera and Kaito when they happened upon the young girl from the day before—the one for whom Kaito had won a plushie at the shooting gallery.
She ran toward them, but her father followed behind, looking utterly flustered.
"M-my sincerest apologies! I had no idea who you were the other day! I was so impolite... Hey, you! Bow properly!"
"Good morning, Big Brother! Thank you for the other day... very much!"
"H-hey! I told you to greet them exactly as I said!"
The man had clearly learned of Kaito’s status and was now in a panic. The child, however, didn't seem to grasp the concept of high nobility; her father's frantic worrying went right over her head.
The three of them had no desire for stiff formalities.
"It's fine, really," Kaito said with a grin, kneeling down to bring himself to the girl's eye level. His voice was unusually gentle. "Morning. Did you make sure that plushie got home safe?"
"Yeah! We slept together in the room at the inn!"
"Glad to hear it. Take good care of it."
Sera looked at Kaito curiously. "Kaito? What's this about a plushie?"
"While we were out on our own yesterday. This little one looked like she wanted it, so I won it for her at the shooting game."
"Heh. Look at you, having a soft side."
Kaito laughed proudly, and the girl joined in with a giggle.
"So, out for a walk this morning?"
"Yeah! Daddy said the morning is cool and feels good!"
"Well, he’s right. As long as it stays like this—"
Kaito’s jovial mood evaporated instantly. He sensed something in the air and fell silent, standing up to scan the surroundings.
To the naked eye, nothing had changed. Yet, Vane and Sera immediately caught onto his change in demeanor and began searching the area as well.
"Big Brother?" the girl asked timidly.
"Wait here a second."
Giving the girl a reassuring smile, Kaito turned his gaze toward the Gate of the Starry Realm—and then further beyond. He stepped forward, shielding the girl and her father as he called out to his companions.
"Vane. Sera."
"I know," Vane replied.
"We can feel it too," Sera added.
Something was wrong. There was an inexplicable sense of wrongness in the air.
"What is this... the mana in the air is—!?"
Before Sera could finish, a crushing, suffocating pressure exploded through the area.
The three of them immediately took their stances toward the Gate of the Starry Realm. Other passersby began to feel the heavy atmosphere, and an uneasy murmur rippled through the plaza.
Then, it happened.
The mana drifting over the fountain in front of the Gate of the Starry Realm began to glow with blinding brilliance. A moment later, an intense pillar of light erupted from deep within the gate, soaring toward the clouds.
As the Gate of the Starry Realm itself began to emit a similar light, Vane and Sera drew their swords. The gate looked poised to explode.
"Sera! We have to protect everyone!" Vane shouted.
"Right!"
Before the shockwaves or flying debris from the gate’s eruption could reach the civilians, Kaito lunged forward.
"Leave this to me!"
He slammed his fist into the cobblestones, conjuring a massive wall of light-infused mana. He managed to contain the shockwaves and the shrapnel, but their relief was short-lived as another anomaly began to brew—this time, from deep beneath the plaza stones.
The three of them scrambled back from the gate. They had to get the people to safety. But just as the descendants of the Seven Heroes moved to act, a gust of wind arrived alongside a familiar, lighthearted voice.
"What on earth is going on here?"
The girl’s voice was followed by an intense wave of cold air. A surge of sword pressure accompanied by a White Wind swept through the area. A Two-colored Wave followed, stabilizing the immediate chaos. Sera and the others looked up to see three new arrivals.
"Thanks. It looks like everyone’s safe because of you."
Ren and his companions had arrived. Though they had been some distance away, they had sprinted to the plaza the moment they sensed the disturbance.
"Yes. That’s a relief, but..."
"We don't know what's happening with the gate either," Licia said, standing alert beside Sera.
Fiona remained by Ren’s side, her guard up. They looked toward the fountain, which was still flowing, though the water was now spilling over the broken cobblestones.
Ren knelt and touched the water running over the stones. A strange mana, completely different from anything he’d felt before, tingled against his skin.
"Something is wrong," Fiona murmured, voicing the same unease Ren felt.
"We need to get everyone out of here," Ren said.
"Yes. Immediately—"
Fiona’s words were cut off as the ground itself began to fail.
The cobblestones shattered, and brilliant light began to leak from the cracks in the earth. A violent tremor shook the plaza, triggering screams from the crowd. Ren and Vane shared a silent nod, an unspoken agreement on their next moves.
However, the terrain change wasn't the only problem.
Ren noticed it first. There was no time to explain. He lunged forward, heading straight for the source of the anomaly where the water was spilling out.
"Don't come any closer!" he shouted as the others moved to follow.
In that instant, the center of the plaza rose in a jagged, spherical bulge, trapping Ren within. He looked back briefly at Licia and Fiona, his mouth moving as if to say something.
Then, a streak of light burst from the collapsing ground, surging into the sky. It carried a shockwave far more powerful than the first—a supernatural force that drained the very life and mana from anyone it touched.
Just before the light could sweep across the entire plaza, Ren swung his Mithril Magic Sword upward, channeling his Two-colored Wave.
Wave met light.
Enveloped in silver mana and freezing ice, the boy disappeared into the blinding radiance.
It was a voice Ren didn't recognize.
A voice that reached him through the darkness of his unconsciousness.
"So, you’ve returned again."
Ren felt the voice was right beside him. Despite being unconscious, his mind felt strangely clear. It was a mysterious voice—one that felt hauntingly familiar, yet entirely foreign.
The voice vanished as quickly as it had appeared. In its place came the sound of rushing water and a faint, rhythmic rumbling from deep within the earth.
Ren’s fingertips twitched. His eyelids fluttered open, and he slowly pushed himself up.
"Where... am I?"
He was in a place he had never seen. The entire area looked like an intricate labyrinth carved from stone. The space was divided into complex, multi-tiered levels, with water flowing through various channels.
At first, he thought it might be an underground sewer, but it was far too grandiose. The walls were decorated with magnificent carvings, and massive pillars stretched from the lowest depths toward the ceiling far above. It reminded him of the temple district in the Imperial Capital.
It was a massive temple, hidden deep beneath the earth.
(And that voice just now...)
He didn't know who it belonged to, but he didn't have the luxury of dwelling on it. He needed to focus on how he had ended up here.
He had been in the plaza at the Gate of the Starry Realm... trying to contain the anomaly.
As he pieced his memories together, Ren checked his watch. Not much time had passed, meaning it hadn't been long since he fell into this subterranean world.
The memories grew sharper. The plaza had collapsed right after he had suppressed the magical outburst. Licia, Fiona, Vane—they had all been doing their best, but Ren had been the fastest. He had taken the lead to push them back and draw the danger to himself.
Given that he was alone here, he knew he had succeeded in protecting them.
He stood up, speaking aloud to help process his thoughts.
"Why did I black out? I didn't take a hit to the head, and I didn't overdraw my mana..."
He had used the Authority Sword, but he wasn't so fragile that he would collapse from that alone. He knew his limits better than anyone.
There was only one other possibility.
"Was it that light?"
Even a moment's contact with it had felt like the strength was being sucked out of his body.
Unlike Ren, Licia had used her Star-Cleaver Art. As a Master Swordsman Class technique, it was designed to negate magic itself. And yet, even that hadn't been enough to stop that light.
That meant the light wasn't magical in nature.
"Then was it the power of a magic tool, or...?"
Could it have come from a magic tool or a holy relic? It seemed too powerful for that, and the scale of the damage was too great.
Wait. The aura felt somewhat similar to that healing power from yesterday. But that didn't make sense. That power had healed him—why would it cause something like this?
The questions piled up, but he wouldn't find answers by standing still.
"I want to find out if the others are okay, but..."
He looked up, expecting to see the sky through the hole in the plaza, but there was no light from the surface. Instead, a Glowing Mist hung in the air far above.
The mist looked dangerously similar to the light he had faced. He didn't want to touch it, and trying to break through from below might cause further collapses on the surface.
(Is it calm now because I suppressed the light? Even so, I shouldn't provoke it.)
He could feel a density of mana unlike anything he had ever encountered.
"I have to find another way out."
Ren sharpened his senses and caught the faint trace of a breeze. He confirmed his body was functioning correctly and began to walk toward the source of the draft.
He explored the area, and the further he went, the more he was convinced this was indeed a temple. The layout was a vertical and horizontal maze, but the architectural intent was clear.
His footsteps echoed over the sound of the water and the low rumble of the earth. Though it was dim, the ambient light was enough to see where he was going.
As he followed the air current up a set of stairs, Ren stopped at a landing. As soon as he stepped onto the stone, an emblem he hadn't noticed before began to glow with a faint light beneath his feet.
"Wait, this is..."
He stared at the mark, realizing he had seen it before.
"This emblem!"
It was unmistakable. It was the mark of Micel, God of Games—the same one he had seen in Muedi's Hideout.
Ren looked toward the large door at the top of the stairs. The same emblem was beginning to glow there as well.