"I'm ready."
After waiting a few minutes outside, Bell saw Ais step out fully equipped in her combat gear. The pouch at her waist bulged slightly—it was the one Loki had bought her early on, packed with all kinds of medicines just in case.
"Then let's go."
A spatial rift tore open behind Bell. He turned and stepped through it.
Ais followed right after him.
They crossed the warped tunnel of space and emerged into a dense forest.
Ais froze for a couple of seconds, then turned to see the massive outer wall of Orario behind them.
"This is... outside?"
"Yes. We'll need to move quietly. What's happening this time could become serious if it gets out, so it's best to handle it carefully."
"Alright, I understand."
She didn't know the reason for the secrecy, but she trusted that Bell had his reasons.
Once the rift closed, Bell began contacting the four deities of his Familia.
"Hestia, has Artemis specified the exact location?"
[She has. But it's ten days away from Orario.]
"Ten days? That's quite far."
Bell rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Clearly, that couldn't mean a ten-day walk. It was probably a ten-day journey by carriage—and even then, it was still a considerable distance.
His spatial abilities could, in theory, ignore distance and bring him to the destination instantly—but only if he had previously locked onto the spatial coordinates. Traveling to an unmarked location like that was far too dangerous. It was practically asking to die.
Space manipulation was powerful, but without accurate positioning, the landing point would be completely random.
And to Bell, "random" was no different from suicide.
He hated randomness more than anything.
"No choice then... looks like I'll have to try another method."
Narrowing his eyes, Bell conjured a world map before him. Orario was marked in a bright, almost cartoonish style, while another marked point showed roughly where Artemis had run into trouble.
The distance between the two was enormous. Even assuming ten days by carriage... Bell doubted any carriage could move that fast.
"Hestia, the ten days you mentioned—does that refer to a carriage ride?"
[No, that's the time it takes on a flying Wyvern.]
"..."
...Fantastic.
Wyverns were true Dragonkin, and their speed was terrifying. There were no obstacles in the sky, and even Land Dragons couldn't compare to their pace.
If a Wyvern needed ten days to reach that place, then it really was far from Orario.
There was no room for hesitation—only one method would work.
Runes allowed for several forms of teleportation, but they all required a precise understanding of the environment and spatial conditions. Without that knowledge, one could end up crashing into barriers or solid ground every few dozen meters.
Bell disliked revealing his trump cards, but given the distance involved, he didn't have much of a choice.
He turned to Ais.
"Sword Princess, I may need to bring you along for the rest of the journey. Can you accept that?"
"Mhm, that's fine."
"Good."
Once Ais gave her consent, Bell—never one for unnecessary words—walked right up to her. Under her confused gaze, he suddenly lifted her into his arms in a horizontal carry.
"???"
Ais was completely bewildered by his sudden action. Before she could ask what was happening, she felt an overwhelming surge of magic radiating from Bell's body.
"Let's go."
He bent his knees slightly, and in the next instant, explosive power erupted beneath them. Bell leapt into the air, soaring hundreds of meters high while holding Ais in his arms.
Stepping on air hardened by magic, Bell shot forward, and in a flash of lightning, both of them vanished beyond Orario's outer walls.
"!?"
Bell was long used to the near-light speed of his Lightning Transformation, but for Ais, the experience was utterly terrifying.
'Wh-what… what's going on?'
Her mind couldn't keep up with the speed. The world around her blurred into pure white, as though they were flying through a void of light.
The only thing she could still see was Bell—his form holding her steady in his arms.
"Don't worry. We'll be there soon."
Almost in the blink of an eye, the white void faded. Though they were still surrounded by forest, Ais could already see a lake in the distance with an island at its center—the very location Artemis had marked.
"We're here."
"So fast!?"
Ais's golden eyes widened in disbelief, her face filled with astonishment. She hadn't expected to arrive so quickly.
Looking around, she saw dense, endless forest in every direction. Not even a trace of human presence could be sensed.
Her ability to perceive her surroundings was exceptional—the wind itself served as her eyes and ears, helping her read the world around her.
Yet this place felt completely foreign. That alone told her how far they must have traveled in that single instant.
How could anyone move this fast?
"!"
Meanwhile, within the Hestia Familia, Artemis—watching the projected image—stared with her mouth agape, utterly stunned.
"That... That speed... Is that the Stream of Light?"
"Have children in the lower world actually reached such speed now?"
Her worldview felt like it was collapsing. She couldn't recall any child in the lower realms ever possessing such power.
"Ah... I must be dreaming. Children from the lower world reaching divine speed? Yes, that has to be a dream."
Stream of Light was the term gods used to describe a transcendent level of speed. Even in Tenkai, only a few deities could reach it.
Only those who command the power of speed can reach that level.
Hermes, for instance, could do it with ease—his mastery over movement and speed made him the undisputed expert among the gods.
That was why he was often called the "Errand Boy" in the divine realm.
But once in Genkai, even gods with speed authority could no longer reach such a speed without their divine power.
Thus, it became accepted among the gods that no one in the lower world could attain divine speed.
A truth that, as it turned out, simply didn't apply to Bell.
...
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