Then, right before their eyes, something shifted in the void of space, an overlapping mirrors, shards, incompressible.

A thin, vertical column of crimson light stretched open above the sky.

Lines of text began to scrawl across it, smeared with what looked like blood along the edges.

And yet... each word was disturbingly clear.

[A world filled with filth, the land was broken, the faith remained unshaken!]

[And without these, those beings came uninvited!]

[Welcome the great will, and you shall obtain eternal happiness]

[Welcome to the Authority of emotions! The author of clarity]

“…Huh?” Mize whispered, her voice faltering as her eyes widened.

[Stay]

Something in her chest dropped.

What was the word that appeared in the gap of dimensions? None of them noticed it, but the word was... a decree.

Liam didn’t notice either.

His face had already darkened, eyes squinting slightly as if to pierce the unnatural words just now.

And then… it arrived.

A figure.

No fanfare.

No flashy arrival.

Just one figure, stepping slowly and soundlessly from the colossal golden portal, floating through the air like it had always belonged there.

Swoosh.

The portal closed in an instant, gone, like it never existed.

Only the figure remained.

Suspended over the air. Human-sized. And deeply wrong.

"A figure..." Mize whispered. Then again, more faintly, “A figure…”

"A figure?"

"A figure?"

"W-what?"

She tried to focus.

Her brows furrowed, divine sense spreading like ripples across the battlefield, but her expression twisted.

“…Why can’t I see?” she breathed, voice shaking.

It wasn’t just her.

Liam's grip around her waist tightened. He didn’t speak, but the tension in his grasp said enough..

The weight of the moment crushed any space for denial.

Even he couldn’t discern the figure’s details. No face. No presence. No shape. Just something vaguely human... lost in a blur of mist.

And that silence was far worse than any scream.

Then, with a flick of his fingers, Liam recalled all of his shadow summons.

Instantly, they vanished from the battlefield, sucked back into his space.

In the same breath, he gave the order. "Mimi," he said calmly, but fast, "Teleport your entire force out of here"

Mize blinked, startled. “What?” She turned to him, then glanced back at the distant figure.

She bit her lip hard and nodded.

The Broken Blade Legion scattered across the ground began to disappear, vanishing into arcs of light as she relocated them near the castle perimeter.

At the same time, she transmitted a mental order: all true lords, evacuate immediately.

Within seconds, all monster lords had vanished back to the dungeon.

Only a few remained, seven of her True Kings, herself, Liam, and Saka off to the side.

Mize exhaled.

And for the first time in a long while… she genuinely didn’t know what to do.

Nothing in the atmosphere had changed, no roar, no aura, no visible power, and yet, everything felt off.

The air was... normal, in the worst way. She glanced at Liam again from the corner of her eye.

He met her look, and offered a nod. “Don’t worry,” he said, voice low. “If anything feels off, I’ll forfeit immediately.”

[None]

She gave a soft hum in response, barely audible.

Her eyes swept toward the others.

Saka? She didn’t bother relying on him. This had long passed the scope of a normal battle.

What truly terrified her was that even with her divine sense, she still couldn’t grasp what she was looking at.

No outline, no emotion, no flow of energy. Just...

“…Mist?” she muttered, clearly unsettled.

"And why is It not moving?"

“Obscured,” Liam corrected gently. His expression was still composed as he tried to keep the situation under control.

He drew in a slow breath, then added, “And if I’m right… that’s a Taboo Being.”

[Dare]

Mize went pale.

Her heart thudded. The divine sense she had been calmly spreading out suddenly expanded in panic, desperate to capture any hint of movement from the figure.

A Taboo Being?

Her throat ran dry.

The entities that didn’t follow the laws of Awakeners or divinity. Entities that fed on belief, twisted reality, and shattered minds.

In a sense, similar and yet different from her.

Not just powerful. Existences that devoured worlds. So this… this wasn’t a final boss or enemy Lord.

This was something else entirely, no wonder the rewards were given early.

“…The warp really is targeting us,” Mize whispered, fear finally creeping into her voice as she locked eyes with the still, unseeable figure.

Her fists clenched.

She wanted to back away.

She wanted to run.

But then.

[Come]

“I want to try.”

Liam’s voice cut through the tension.

She blinked, stunned, as he suddenly stepped forward.

His grip on her loosened. Then he slowly let her go altogether, peeling away from her warmth.

[Come]

Mize reached instinctively, trying to grab his sleeve.

But Liam simply caught her hand mid-reach.

Their fingers met, and he gave her a look.

“It’s fine,” he said. “I just want to see… how far I am from something like that

.”

[Come]

His eyes never left the figure ahead.

“This is just a test,” he added. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll forfeit immediately.

Notice anything strange?

...

[None]

Mize hesitated. Her body tensed for a moment, feeling something was off, instinctively clinging to the dread clawing at her chest.

Liam saw it instantly. He could read her too well. But before either of them could move.

Zoom...

Space twisted.

The air flickered with unnatural light. Then, like a ripple through dimensions, a voice echoed out, threading itself directly into their minds.

“No need for that… child. My presence here is a bit too much for you to even test your… curiosity.” Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs novel(ꜰ)ire.net

It didn’t sound like a voice at all, more like garbled waves of impossible frequencies, alien sounds that shouldn’t exist, forcefully translated into something they could understand.

Their heads snapped forward.

Just a few meters ahead, the figure now sat midair, cross-legged.

Even at this short distance, they couldn’t make out a single feature. Not one. No face, no limbs, nothing but shifting haze and soft distortions, as though reality itself refused to give shape to it.

It was like looking at something your brain wasn’t built to perceive.

Liam was the first to react, barely.

Everything had happened in less than a decibel’s worth of time, if that even made sense.

But sense, reality, warped around them. Senses dull, from wanting to forfeit to wanting to try his limit.

Noticing it?

Mize was still frozen, her mind lagging behind, unable to keep up.

Taboo beings didn’t follow logic. Time, space, cause and effect, none of it applied when they were around. Not in the same way.

In that twisted fraction of a moment, Liam’s hand darted toward hers. His thought was simple but honest, throw her into the inner space where his real body resided.

That space was his domain, fully under his control.

But before he could make the move.

Whoosh.

A gust of wind passed gently between them.

And when their surroundings snapped back into focus. They weren’t standing anymore.

Both of them now sat cross-legged on soft cushions suspended midair, a low ornate table between them.

Across from them, the figure remained seated, still incomprehensible, still shrouded in unnameable distortion.

"I mean no harm, child.”

Boom...

The words didn’t come through their ears. They moved through their minds like waves in a quiet lake, echoing without sound.

And just like that, the confusion, the tension, the fear, it all vanished.

[Authority of emotions]

Not because they were ready. But because it was taken from them.

Their bodies relaxed involuntarily, breathing slowed, muscles slackened. Not peace. Just a forced clarity, smoothed over by something greater than their will.

Liam blinked, pupils trembling slightly as he looked up. But a wave of pressure smothered the rising fear, turning it into a calm he didn’t ask for.

“…Forced state of clarity?” Mize murmured first. Her voice was steady, but only because it couldn’t be anything else.

She felt... too calm. Too clear. Like her emotions had been bound in velvet.

"It is.”

The figure’s form leaned forward, what might’ve been hands propping up its head, casual, curious, indifferent.

“Otherwise, I doubt we’d have a proper conversation.”

It tapped its fingers on the table.

Tap… tap… tap...

With every sound, the sky above flickered, colors warping, lights bending. No one else saw it. Only the two of them.

Even the clouds turned into... Strange shapes that made no sense. From time to time, the sky would warp into incomprehensible scene, which the two couldn't make sense of what it was at all.

Liam’s gaze flicked to the clouds in the far distance. They weren’t moving, constantly shifting as if it was made out of a billion moving needles.

Birds frozen mid-flight. Pebbles and cracked earth held mid-fall. Time… had stopped.

“…Senior?” he asked quietly.

"Yes,” the figure replied. “I stopped this trial ground’s time.”

…!!!

Mize’s heart jumped, but only for a second. Because that response had been so offhand. So casual.

She and Liam didn’t speak afterwards. Not because they were silent. But because the urge to speak was gone.

Fear didn’t exist. Panic didn’t exist. Even curiosity had been dimmed.

They weren’t being threatened, not directly. But they were completely, undeniably, powerless.

Even the warp’s laws, those that ruled this entire realm, had been bent. And that truth alone hit harder than anything else.

“Let’s make this quick, child.”

“I only came to talk. It’s been… a while since I left my own dimension.”

The figure shrugged. Or made a gesture like it.

“It gets lonely... And now, I was forcibly summoned here to act as the final obstacle for you"

"I became... Interested. After all, I am still a lord myself"

"And for the warp itself to invite a being like me to interfere, to become an obstruction to a newbie lord in a trial ground!"

"Strange... "

"Strange... "

"But I don't play by his rules"

The words reached them strangely, some twisted mixture of tone and no-tone, like a melody played with no notes. And still, they understood.

Liam’s eyes narrowed slightly. He straightened his posture, hands resting calmly atop his thighs.

“This junior doesn’t understand,” he said carefully, “but if Senior wishes to speak, then… what topic shall it be?”

"Topic?” the figure mused. Eyes, of gaze, gazes, or sights... Shifted.

Clearly amused, and he paused briefly.

Tapping his chin, if it was even a "chin".

Then, by each tap of his fingers, the terrain changed strangely beneath them. At times, the land became water, lava, strange golden liquid and more.

Then, the changes returned back to normal as the being stopped tapping.

“How about a question instead.”

He forwarded his fingers, finger, unknown.

Its focus shifted.

Toward Liam.

And the question arrived, not spoken, not thought, but imposed:

"Your true body isn’t here, how interesting"

"That space you hide in… it’s very similar to a pocket dimension. Similar to my domain, and yet different. As for your true appearance, you are very similar to those beings"

"You have full ownership, don't you. Tell me, are you one of the Old Ones?”

Liam’s heart skipped. For a moment, he didn’t breathe. Then, without turning his head, he glanced toward Mize.

After all, this question touched his biggest fear directly, which was to be exposed before Mize.

Would she doubt him?

Would she start to wonder?

But Mize simply slid her hand across his thigh and gently placed it over his.

“I don’t mind,” she said softly, smiling at him. “I love you, always.”