CHAPTER 1065: FROM OTHER SIDE

The woman’s words made both Erend and Adrius tense. Their steps faltered ever so slightly, and then they glanced at each other, the same flicker reflected in their eyes.

A silent understanding passed between them, heavy with worry and fear.

Erend’s frown deepened.

"She knows... at least a little. She must have felt the presence or the traces of its energy, if she can say that much."

His chest tightened with the reality of what that meant.

Adrius also had reached the same conclusion. Yet neither of them spoke it aloud. Instead both kept their faces carefully composed and forced calm into their expressions as though these masks could hide the turmoil gnawing beneath their faces.

"What do you mean by that?" Adrius asked at last, his tone smooth and measured.

The woman looked back over her shoulder, her pace never slowing.

Her hood shadowed her features but there was something sly in the tilt of her head.

"What do I mean? Come now, Archmage. You already know."

Adrius’s eyes narrowed slightly. "I know what it is, and I can feel it. But I want to hear what you’ve seen yourself. Perhaps it will offer me insight that I lack."

A soft smirk curved the woman’s lips. "How amusing. The great Archmage himself admits he cannot see everything. The strongest Mage in the kingdom, searching for scraps of knowledge from someone like me."

"I never claimed such things," Adrius replied calmly. "You people just assume. I am not nearly as strong as you think."

The woman gave a thin smile, clearly unconvinced.

She knew full well the truth of his reputation but she found herself admiring him all the more for the absence of arrogance in his voice.

Her expression then changed to something more serious as she continued speaking.

"There have been fluctuations and strange movements of energy spilling into this world from... elsewhere. I believe it is from another dimension. They don’t belong here. I don’t understand them."

Adrius inclined his head. "Yes. This is not from any dimension I know either."

The woman’s voice dropped low, her words laced with quiet warning. "The appearance of new Magic is not a blessing and instead It can be a disaster, you know that, Archmage. It could disturb the natural flow of this world, and disrupt spellwork... or worse, corrupts the Magic altogether."

Adrius nodded slowly, his face unreadable.

He cast a brief glance toward Erend, the exchange was subtle but full of gravity.

Erend remained silent behind them, his hands curling into fists beside his face.

"So it’s not just my world. It’s also reaching here and spreading too. But why? What do they want?"

His worry deepened with each passing second like an invisible pressure gnawing at him even more. As if what he had now was not the worse thing that could happen.

Then, as if struck by sudden realization, the woman stopped mid-step and glanced back at them.

"Tell me... You seek a Fey with a human body. Is it to track this anomaly in the Magical realm?"

Adrius paused for a heartbeat. Then he sighed, seeing no reason to hide it any longer. "Yes."

The woman’s smile faded, her features tightening with thought.

She said nothing more as the cavern widened into a chamber.

Before them now stood a small shack built against the stone wall, its door of rough wood bound with rusted iron.

She pushed it open with a creak and gestured lightly. "Welcome to my home."

Inside, the air was musty and cool.

The interior was not a house, but pretty much being used as a storage place. Shelves stacked with jars of preserved herbs, bones, and strange trinkets glinting in the light.

Old cloths with sealing runes were draped across crates and the floor was littered with dried straw.

And there, in the center of the room, stood the Fey.

Its form was eerily human yet unnaturally still like a mannequin carved from flesh.

The skin was pale and flawless, the eyes were dull and empty of life. Its chest rose and fell in the faintest imitation of breathing but its body remained rigid as though suspended between being alive and not.

The cavern’s silence pressed down on them as Erend stared at the figure. He felt like the weight of its unnatural presence filling the room around him.

A cold discomfort stirring deep within him as his eyes lingered on the Fey. The sight was not just disturbing because of its uncanny form but also because of the energy radiating from it.

It felt like something hollow, unnatural, and wrong. Even as a Dragonborn who had witnessed countless horrors across different worlds this one unsettled him in a way he couldn’t shake.

"What in the hell is this thing supposed to be?"

he thought.

The Fey’s body resembled a human youth, tall and lean, perhaps no older than a teenager. But it was utterly unnatural.

Its skin was smooth and pale, its face expressionless and blank. More unnerving was its body was nude but lacking genitals.

The absence of genitals made it uncanny and stripped of identity, almost like a doll carved too perfectly from flesh.

Adrius just gave a small nod, a look of satisfaction flickering in his eyes, as if he had finally found what he had been searching for.

He placed the pouch of gold he had shown earlier into the woman’s hand and stepped closer to the Fey.

His eyes swept over it, his fingers twitching as if testing its aura.

Then he nodded again. "Yes. This one is in good condition."

"Archmage, you can use my operating room here if you wish," the woman said, her tone curious.

Adrius turned his gaze on her. "Oh? You would allow that?"

The woman’s lips curved faintly beneath her hood.

"I want to know what you plan to do with it. Knowledge is far more valuable to me than gold. Then tell me, what is his role in all this?" Her eyes shifted toward Erend.

Erend felt her gaze linger but he kept his face unreadable.

Adrius was silent for a moment, lost in thought.

Then he gave a small hum and nodded. "It can be done here. Carrying this Fey outside would only be troublesome. I can also answer some of your questions."

The woman’s smile deepened, satisfied with his decision.

Without another word, she turned and moved toward a smaller door at the far side of the chamber.

She pushed it open, revealing another passage, and gestured for them to follow.

Adrius lifted his hand and the Fey’s rigid body rose into the air as if weightless, drifting after him.

"Come on," Adrius said over his shoulder to Erend.

Erend sighed, then followed without a word.

—