Thick black mist rose from the ground, rolling before everyone's eyes along with the howling wind.

Levi raised a hand to cover his nose and mouth, bracing against the gale while trying to observe what lay within the dark fog.

Vladimir stood motionless, quietly watching the black mist sweep past his feet as he gazed solemnly at where it originated.

The black fog continued to coil and twist, even climbing past the towering treetops to engulf Sapphirose in the distance.

She lifted her head, raising an arm to shield her face, keeping one eye closed as she desperately tried to maintain consciousness while watching this eerie black mist gradually swallow her.

A massive yet narrow shadow stretched upward, completely blocking out the moonlit sky above.

The stars overhead were all submerged in darkness as the heavens fell into a deep, deathly silence.

Levi narrowed his eyes as the air around him rapidly compressed. Tiny water droplets slowly gathered and floated on either side of his body, trembling slightly.

Finally, in the sky, the enormous black shadow took physical form.

A massive shadow black as night, seemingly capable of snatching the round moon from above and crushing it to dust in its beak.

Its huge, sharp obsidian talons tore small rifts in space itself, while dense black mist squeezed out from between its countless feathers, completely blanketing the world.

A damp, cold smell quickly reached Levi's nostrils, like lingering resentment from an ancient tomb, making it hard to breathe.

The jet-black giant eagle swept across the boundless sky, as if the entire heavens would be consumed by darkness in the next moment.

The black mist behind had already spread far into the distance.

Even the sky above the royal capital was gradually being polluted by the encroaching fog, sinking into absolute darkness.

Levi sensed the immense danger approaching and attempted to resist.

But when he looked up, the water molecules gathered around him suddenly froze in mid-air.

As if time itself had stopped, all the water droplets hung suspended, no longer even quivering in shape.

"What is this?" Levi exclaimed, staring at the surrounding water droplets.

Countless mages around them collapsed, their bodies going limp as they shut their eyes. After being entwined by wisps of black mist, they lost consciousness and fainted.

Levi instinctively glanced around, only to find that he and Vladimir were the only ones who remained conscious.

Thus there was no one who could answer their questions.

The massive black eagle form blocked out the sky above them.

A giant single eye slowly opened in the heavens, as if tearing through the endless darkness.

A vortex slowly twisted out from the absolute blackness.

That enormous pupil usurped the moon's position as the sickly yellow eye continued to rotate.

The vertical pupil split into countless tiny eye-pupils packed densely together, but they were all fixed unwaveringly on the two men below.

When Vladimir was caught in that gaze, he could sense his body hair beginning to move unconsciously.

As if it had escaped his body's control and developed a will to flee.

In an instant, the world around them became unstable like a mirage, the shaking reality beginning to reconstruct itself as blocks of blurry colors were thrown before their eyes.

The distorted colors seemed to form twisted, deformed creatures, chaotic and blasphemous.

Both Levi and Vladimir noticed the anomaly in their surroundings.

"An illusion..." Levi narrowed his eyes, but his surroundings merely wavered slightly, with no sign of any terrifying entities approaching.

Vladimir also noticed this and quietly dropped his combat stance, standing silently in this space.

This created illusion seemingly had no intention of targeting them.

Soon, the illusion gradually faded away, like colors dissolving in water.

When they came to their senses, they found that the severely wounded Sapphirose had been taken away, vanishing without a trace.

Vladimir spat and cursed: "What the hell was that damned bird thing?"

Blue ripples still flickered in Levi's eyes as he looked at the fallen mages around them and slowly said: "I don't understand."

He raised his head, looking around.

They were surrounded by suddenly risen, thick walls on all sides.

Like shocking earthen walls that had trapped them all inside.

Levi reached out to touch them, feeling the walls were somewhat damp, covered in straight vertical lines.

As if realizing something, he looked up.

A moon shone through the towering tree canopy into his eyes.

Only then did Levi make a shocking discovery.

They weren't trapped by high walls at all - rather, the ground where they stood had sunk deep into an enormous crater!

The forest floor had completely collapsed, yet strangely, the surrounding trees showed no signs of breaking.

The crater was incredibly vast, even terrifyingly so.

Like the aftermath of some catastrophic magic spell, it stretched deep and far.

Viewed from above, this massive crater appeared jarringly out of place on the earth's surface.

Yet none of them had felt any injury from its formation.

A miracle...

At this moment, Levi suddenly noticed.

Near the earthen pit, there remained a small path.

The path was perfectly straight - he could clearly see how the ground on both sides had been completely leveled.

"This direction..."

Straight to the royal capital.

Levi fell silent.

That unknown monster.

Had spared them.

...

In the mist, Sapphirose dragged her heavily wounded body, running swiftly through the outskirts of the royal capital.

Above her pale head, Vega sat leisurely, appearing completely at ease.

Even as she stumbled on the rough ground, showing signs of instability, it seemed utterly detached, completely unaffected.

"As I said, the next time we meet."

"Don't disappoint me."

The sharp, deep voice rang out above her head. Though just a simple sentence, it sent chills down Sapphirose's spine.

She suddenly stopped, leaning against a tall tree while breathing heavily.

Her green snake-like pupils slowly contracted as she gazed toward the distant sky.

"I..."

The crow's black silhouette flashed constantly through her mind.

She had disappointed it.

Sapphirose didn't know why she would have such thoughts.

But she knew very clearly that she had no power to resist before that crow.

Then, Vega's voice sounded by her ear again:

"So, I will give you one more chance."

"Become stronger."

Sapphirose froze in place, her emotions complexly intertwined, seemingly frozen and impossible to express.

How could she become stronger?

Suddenly, howling winds swept through the surroundings, lifting scattered grass debris from the ground.

Before her, the space began forming a black vortex under the fierce winds.

Sapphirose turned to look as that space seemed to rapidly distort under some force.

In the next moment, darkness rapidly spread from nowhere, a void rift being torn open into a twisting passage exit.

A man wearing a black coat, carrying himself with extraordinary dignity, slowly walked out.

Upon seeing the newcomer, the crow fluttered its wings and flew to land on Viktor.

Sapphirose froze in place the moment she saw Viktor.

She could clearly sense the extremely profound aura carried by the man before her, even far surpassing the previous two.

Yet when her gaze swept over Viktor, the danger level assessment flashed before her eyes:

[Target detected, Danger Level - None]

Indeed, none.

Even though that void rift had clearly made Sapphirose feel this power was already twisted to an extreme degree.

One could say even being able to shatter the sky would not be surprising.

Could it be... her body's judgment was wrong?

At this moment, Viktor's voice slowly rang out:

"Hard to understand?"

The coat behind him seemed to reignite like flames, crimson magic runes gradually lighting up and quickly spreading across the entire surface of the coat.

As the red light spread from top to bottom, even the hem began burning with slight flames.

Instantly, Sapphirose's eyes widened.

[Target detected, Danger Level - Extremely High]

This dangerous aura was still rising, showing no signs of stopping.

In a daze, Sapphirose felt frost suddenly descend as a cold sensation spread from her back.

Sapphirose let out a painful, piercing scream.

Even birds within ten miles were startled and scattered.

She fell to her knees as blood vessels bulged violently beneath her skin.

On her back, a white wing was brutally severed.

It fell to the ground, gradually soaking in blood.

Hot red blood gushed from the massive wound, pressing down all the surrounding grass.

Blood continued to slowly flow from the wound.

Sapphirose curled up on the ground, breathing painfully and rapidly.

Viktor stood before Sapphirose, holding a transparent wind blade formed from high-speed air flow, coldly looking at her:

"Our first lesson."

"Has begun."