Vernoso's breath comes ragged, fire-law burning off him in wild waves as he pushes his body to its limit. His hand dips into his robes, clutching something tight—a crystal sphere veined with cracks, its glow unstable, dangerous.

Alix's eyes narrow, catching the faint shimmer. He doesn't slow, stormlight curling around him, but his voice carries, low and cutting.

"So you've still got a trick left. What are you planning, human?"

Vernoso's teeth grind, his lips curling back in a snarl. "You think you've cornered me? Hah! You'll never have me!"

He slams the crystal against his chest.

It fractures with a sound like screaming glass. The morning air twists violently as space itself shudders. Symbols of ancient origin flare around Vernoso's body, bright and unstable. The very earth splits, the sky ripples, a distortion pulling outward in every direction.

Alix halts for the first time, his gaze sharp, assessing. The pressure is different—not law fire, displacement, reality itself bending.

Alix narrows his eyes, stormlight flickering sharper around his frame. "A new toy?"

Vernoso's face twists into a manic grin, teeth bared as the crystal sinks deeper into his chest, fusing with his flesh.

"Haha—let's see if you can still keep that mug face of yours in the next moment!!"

A pulse erupts, and suddenly the world lurches. A violent suction grips Alix's body—not wind, not flame, but something deeper. The law of space itself tears at him, pulling everything toward the collapsing core around Vernoso. The battlefield warps; mountains stretch like shadows, the morning sun folds into distorted arcs, and the air hums with unbearable tension.

Vernoso's voice echoes through the rupture, wild and mocking, carried by the tearing space.

"I hope I won't see you again, freak of nature—hahaha!!"

Alix's body jerks forward, the pull of the vortex absolute. Stormlight sputters, his stacked buffs unraveling one by one. Lightning gutters, frost fades, even his storm aura bleeds away as if being devoured by the tunnel.

The next moment—darkness.

Alix is hurled into a spiraling void, a tunnel of fractured mirrors and broken stars. His body compresses, stretched, crushed, and freed in rapid succession. Pressure gnaws at his bones, claws at his skin, and seeks to unmake his essence. His breathing grows heavy, the void trying to strip away everything that defines him.

"Tch." Alix steadies his grip on his spear, eyes flashing with cold light. "That thing… it must be an item that tears open space itself. A teleportation artifact."

The void shrieks around him. His buffs continue to dissolve—yet his expression doesn't break. Calm, focused, decisive.

With a thought, he pulls open his system inventory. His hand closes around a cold, silver talisman etched with lines of shifting runes. The moment it touches his palm, it vibrates with quiet power—an item forged to shield against the madness of space.

He presses the talisman against his chest. It flares instantly, a dome of translucent light wrapping his body, pushing back the gnawing void-energy. The pressure lessens, the tearing sensation steadies.

Around him, the space tunnel continues to twist and howl—but Alix's form is now anchored, stormlight beginning to flicker back, restrained yet alive. His eyes sharpen, a dangerous gleam in them.

"Run all you want." His voice is a quiet growl, swallowed by the void. "No matter where this throws us… I'll find you."

The tunnel trembles, light splitting ahead into countless fractures—gateways to unknown continents.

The tunnel rattles, fractures of light slamming shut one after another until only a single path remains. The pull intensifies, then—

BOOOOM.

It spits Alix out like a stone flung from a sling. He crashes through the treeline, snapping trunks and branches, until his boots slam into solid earth. Dust sprays, leaves rain down. The silver talisman flickers once before fading into nothingness, its job complete.

Alix straightens slowly. His eyes sweep the surroundings—jagged peaks rising in the distance, dense green stretching in every direction, morning mist caught in the canopy. The air is heavy with the scent of pine and damp stone.

A mountainous forest.

He exhales, sharp and steady. "Tch. Looks like that space-warp tossed me somewhere random."

Silence answers him, save for the whisper of leaves swaying above. No trace of Vernoso's aura. No ripple of fire-law. Only the quiet heartbeat of untamed wilderness.

Alix tilts his head, eyes narrowing as he tests the air again. Nothing. He clicks his tongue.

"So, he ended up somewhere else."

Alix exhales, mana flickering faintly around him as he looks up at the sky beyond the treetops.

Without hesitation, he flies off, and his figure blurs upward, cutting through the mist and bursting above the canopy. The mountain winds whip against him, carrying scents of pine and iron-rich stone.

But the peace doesn't last.

A screech tears through the sky, sharp and guttural. From the side, a massive beast lunges—a winged predator, scales glinting like obsidian, its claws dripping with killing intent. Its aura screams Tier 6.

Alix's eyes narrow. His sword flashes free, a streak of silver wrapped in stormlight. One clean arc—

SHRRRK!

The beast's head parts from its body, blood scattering in a crimson mist. Its corpse plummets into the trees, snapping trunks on impact.

Alix doesn't even slow. He flicks the blood from his blade, voice calm, almost bored.

"One down."

But the forest answers back.

Branches whip as another Tier 6 beast explodes upward, this one armored in jagged stone, its roar shaking the air. Behind it, several lesser auras rise—Tier 5s, surging like a tide. The air thickens with killing intent as the mountains themselves seem to disgorge their guardians.

The stone beast lunges. Alix twists midair, his blade carving downward in a storm-lit arc.

BOOOM!

The slash cleaves through its neck, stormlight tearing through its body. It crashes into the canopy, sending a shockwave through the forest below.

Another Tier 6 comes from above, talons spread wide, its body like a black eagle large enough to blot out the sun. Alix spins, lightning flickering at his feet.

"Persistent." His voice is flat.

He thrusts upward, sword piercing straight through its chest. Lightning detonates from the blade, ripping through flesh and bone. The eagle convulses, shrieking, then falls limp, its wings folding as it crashes down the mountainside.

For a minute, the forest howls with life and death. Beasts rush from every direction—fangs, claws, scales, wings. Tier 5s fall in waves, their bodies torn apart by sword arcs too fast to follow. Three Tier 6 guardians meet the same end, their corpses burning with stormlight wounds that refuse to close.

And then, silence.

Alix hovers midair, his sword humming faintly, blood dripping off the edge before being burned clean by crackling lightning. His eyes sweep the mountains. No more beasts. Only the wind.

He exhales, steady. "It's sure this place is packed with strong beasts."

His gaze turns to the far horizon where the peaks give way to what looks like plains, rivers glinting faintly under the morning sun, and something else—vast shapes of cities or ruins too far to tell.

Alix tilts his head, stormlight curling faintly around him. A smirk tugs at his lips.

"I wonder… what continent is this?"

Alix continues to fly, cutting across the clouds with ease, his aura leaving faint ripples in the air. The mountain range sprawls beneath him like an endless sea of stone, but as he pushes further, something unusual takes shape in the distance.

At first, it looks like another jagged peak, but the closer he gets, the clearer it becomes—a colossal mountain with its summit sliced flat, as though a god's blade had sheared it clean. Atop that flattened peak rests a city.

The sight is striking. Towers of obsidian and silver rise like fangs against the sky, walls carved directly from the mountain stone. Bridges arc across deep chasms, connecting different tiers of the city. Wide avenues bustle with life—winged beasts gliding between spires, hulking forms carrying goods, sharp-eyed sentinels patrolling the walls.

Alix slows, hovering above the edge of the clouds, watching. His stormlight dims slightly, not to conceal himself, but to take in the details without drawing premature attention.

"Monsters," he mutters, his eyes narrowing as he sees them clearly. Minotaurs hauling crates. Serpentine figures coiled on market steps. Arachne weaving shimmering nets above open plazas. Demonic-looking guards clad in dark armor standing watch at the gates.

There's no mistaking it. This is a city of monster-kind, thriving and ordered.