Enrico opens his eyes in a completely empty place. He felt his body heavy and couldn't move a single finger properly. All the accumulated exhaustion hit him at once—he had only endured this much because of the mana in his body, which increased how much his body could handle.
"Huff…"
His breathing started to grow irregular, so Enrico took a step forward with great difficulty and noticed that beneath him felt like something liquid. As he took another step, two staircases appeared.
To be honest, he couldn't even speak properly. When he took a second step, two staircases appeared in front of him—one going up and the other going down. This was different from what happened with Tolen in the story. Was it because it was different for every person? He didn't know. Even Tolen was the only one who trained to reach this state.
'Tolen's was also a staircase, but the place was in his backyard… and there was only one staircase.'
The one going up had a small red light at the top, while the one going down was completely dark. Enrico didn't know what it was, and it could be dangerous. He didn't know if the downward staircase would really break his potential, so he chose to follow the original story and simply go up.
'…Many would say it's easier to go down, but if you trip on the stairs, you might end up dead.'
He had to be careful. With difficulty, he approached the staircase, only managing to step on the first step after thirty minutes, each step causing the liquid below to ripple endlessly. As he stepped on the first step, the pressure on his body increased, and he noticed his right ear started to bleed.
'Damn it, my body… it feels like it's breaking…'
"Huff… huff… huff…"
He tried to lift his foot to the second step, but it dropped back down, and the area below began to crack. From now on, he had to be careful—if the first step broke, there would be no going back.
Shhhhhh
A sound appeared behind him, and when he turned around, a shadow stood where he had been at the start.
'What is that?'
The shadow was pitch black and looked like him, with no color except for what seemed like a void. It stared at him with black sclera, and its eyes took on their usual golden color—but the pupil dilated and contracted constantly, trying to assume a specific shape.
'What is this feeling?'
He didn't know what that feeling was, but he was certain that if he stayed here any longer, something bad would happen. So, he immediately tried to climb the second step.
'Besides, I need to return to the real world as soon as possible because I don't know how long my body can handle being in the zero state.'
Tolen had taken two weeks to escape his mental realm and fully break his limit, but because of the promise he made to himself, Enrico couldn't wait two weeks.
'And to make things worse, this had to happen right in the middle of a fight. If this keeps up, the boss will wake up…'
He tried to take another step as the pressure increased. He had to break through this limit no matter what.
---
Valença, who was still covering herself, finally decided to get up and drink water from a nearby river.
"Enrico is taking too long."
It had already been more than forty minutes, and he still hadn't returned, so she started looking for him.
"Where could he be?"
A deer approached her and lowered its head. Valença smiled, petting its head and tried to continue, but the deer insisted she follow.
"You want me to go with you? But my friend… I mean, my rival…"
The deer bit her shirt, so she decided to follow it, thinking Enrico must be okay. After a few minutes, she arrived at a nearly dead tree surrounded by several animals.
"What is this?"
She saw the deer nodding its head, urging her toward the tree. As she approached, the animals moved aside. Getting close, she felt as if something was calling her and, though uncertain, stepped closer without touching.
The animals seemed to want her to go further, so she raised her hand and touched the tree. It began to disappear in the form of light, and the animals looked on, waiting for something. As the light vanished, a small floating flame with glowing eyes and vague outlines of burning wings appeared in front of her.
"Quil?... quil, quil."
The small flame began to circle Valença as if it were happy and curious. Valença looked at it as if it were something she was meant to meet long ago.
"How strange…"
The flame seemed a bit down, but she quickly and gently explained, like a mother, that she wasn't calling it strange.
"What's your name?"
"His first name is Incandis."
Val'Drakar appeared, walking slowly. He hadn't expected to find the chosen girl here and was grateful these two children had come.
'To think I would meet the chosen one and a boy trying to save the Dark Elf race on the same day…'
He thought these two must've been sent by God, to be so lucky as to find two such promising children. Incandis circled Valença happily, making her smile.
"So he has more than one name?"
"Yes, this is his first evolution. You'll find out the rest in the future once you become stronger."
"What do you mean?"
He pointed to the back of her hand, which now had a wing-shaped mark, and she was surprised.
"So he's a magic spirit… incredible."
Long ago, there were many magical spirits, but due to several disasters, their numbers had dropped below ten percent in the current era. They were so rare that people would kill for one.
"Are you sure you want to make a contract with me?"
Incandis rested on Valença's palm, as if firmly saying yes. And Valença had to admit, even though she had asked that, she wanted to stay with him—not just because he was cute, but to become stronger.
"That's right, I have to find Enrico and I'll take the opportunity to show—"
A water explosion echoed from the river about thirty meters away, surrounded by trees. Valença stood up, and Val'Drakar looked seriously in that direction.
"Looks like Mister Enrico is facing the Water Assassin… I didn't think we'd run into him so soon. I should've warned you, I apologize."
"No need to apologize."
Valença started running toward where the explosion had come from. When she arrived, she saw a crater the size of a house, and in the middle of it, a battle was happening. A body flew past her, thrown back and slamming into the trees.
At the center of the crater was what looked like a monstrous, humanoid shark. Its tail thrashed, and it had sharp claws and fangs. It stared at where the body had landed. Beneath its feet were several headless, charred bodies spread across the battlefield—over thirty of them appeared to be humanoid fish.
She felt the atmosphere shift—something that always happened when rank phases or mages surpassed the second circle. That Nartheis was similar to Val'Drakar, but after fighting him, she realized he hadn't gone all out, so why now?
Footsteps came from behind her, and she saw Enrico with lifeless eyes, wounded, blood flowing from his ears and mouth. He threw himself back into the fight without even looking at her.
"Why is Enrico fighting alone when he hasn't even reached the second circle yet? No… that's a stupid question to ask about him…"
"I never thought I'd see someone like that again…"
Valença's hair covered her eyes as Val'Drakar's voice spoke behind her, surprised by Enrico's condition. He knelt, showing respect. He never thought he'd see someone risk breaking their body to evolve again—not since those two Elves who died trying the same.
"I thought that had been lost to time…"
Valença seemed to snap back to reality and ran to help Enrico. She didn't know what was happening, but from Val'Drakar's words, Enrico seemed to be evolving again…
'My heart is racing…'
There was a small smile on her face, and Incandis followed close by, as if he wanted to fight too.
"I'll evolve first."