The silence had weight now.
As Avi glided through the star-threaded dark, her massive wings barely disturbed the endless void around them. The world Sid once knew had long vanished behind — no sun, no sky. Only the cold black, pricked with distant flame.
But still… he felt nothing.
No pressure. No nausea. No freezing breath.
Nothing at all.
At first, Sid thought he was still under Avi's protection — that warm veil she'd cast when they left the atmosphere.
But something shifted.
He blinked and noticed the faint shimmer around him… was gone.
Gone?
Avi's head turned ever so slightly mid-flight. Her scarlet eyes sharpened, narrowing on Sid without breaking pace.
"...Strange."
Her voice, calm but laced with curiosity, drifted like smoke across the wind.
"Hmm?" Sid glanced at her, confused.
"You're no longer under my protection," she said plainly.
Sid tensed. "Wait—what?"
"I gradually removed it several moments ago."
He looked down at his hands. No frost. No discomfort. He felt completely fine.
Not even lightheaded.
Dante, still stretched across Avi's back with his hands behind his head, gave a small snort.
"The brat is something huh?"
"He's unaffected," Avi replied. "Even you, needed years of cultivation to resist the pressure this far out."
Dante didn't move, but a long silence followed.
His posture remained relaxed, but his brow twitched — just slightly.
Behind that lazy smirk, his mind raced.
What the hell is this kid…?
No mortal should survive open void. Not even prodigies. Not without a core, not without at least some spiritual foundation.
This wasn't resistance.
This was something else entirely.
He hid the knot forming in his chest and lazily waved a hand.
"Guess the boy's just an abnormal case," Dante muttered, smirking. "Freaks like him pop up once in a thousand years, right?"
Avi gave him a side glance — quiet, unreadable.
Sid just blinked between them. "...Should I be worried?"
"Only if you start glowing or sprout horns," Dante said. "In which case, I'm claiming you as my exotic pet."
Sid groaned. "Can't you go five minutes without trolling?"
"I tried once. Got bored."
Sid turned back to the view ahead.
Avi soared effortlessly through the void, her massive body glowing with a soft red shimmer. Her wings cut through the stars like silk, leaving faint ripples in the energy currents that swirled invisibly across the black. Her presence alone kept lesser beasts away — this was her domain.
Above and around them, Sid saw glimmering spheres hanging in the distance. Some small, others titanic. Some gleaming gold, others a faint violet, blue, or deep crimson. Currents of pale energy flowed between them, like rivers across a sea of stars.
"What are those?" he asked, eyes wide with quiet wonder.
Avi's voice drifted like a wind through crystal. "Worlds. Some living. Some broken. Some abandoned."
Dante shifted behind her. "Some you should pray never to land on."
Avi ignored him. Her voice became steadier now — no longer conversational, but as if she were drawing open a curtain Sid had never been allowed to touch.
"You've left the world of men, Sid," she said. "It's time you understand what truly surrounds you."
He leaned closer, listening.
"There are three great territories that shape the structure of the known universe. The Human Territory, where you were born. The Beast Territory, ruled by bloodlines older than mountains. And the Demon Territory — ever-changing, ever-warring, driven by chaos."
She didn't speak with fear. Only certainty.
Sid's brows drew in. "So… they're all enemies?"
"No. Not always. But not allies, either. Balance is not peace — it's just pressure, distributed."
Avi flew through a current of light, and the starlight turned red on her wings.
"Each territory is layered. The outskirts — called the Lower Worlds — are where mortals and common folk live. The energy is thin. Most die without ever awakening."
Sid nodded slowly.
"The Mid Worlds orbit closer to the center. Energy thickens. It's where awakened individuals live, where minor sects rise and fall. And then…"
She let the silence stretch.
"At the heart of each territory are the Upper Worlds. The seats of power. Where the ancient empires live and rule — the powerful bloodlines."
Sid blinked, then looked back. "So… is there also an Empire related to us?"
Dante opened one eye again. His voice was low, unreadable. "There is."
Sid stared for a moment longer but didn't press. The answer felt like a door that wasn't meant to be opened yet.
He turned his gaze down and asked instead, "Then where was our village?"
Avi answered without pause.
"In the Lower World. A place long forgotten by the rest of the universe."
That struck Sid harder than he expected.
His home — his entire life — was a dot in the dust. A dot no one remembered.
They flew on.
The darkness around them thickened with the weight of what had been said and what hadn't. The stars did not move. The rivers of energy whispered like winds through hollow trees. Sid said nothing. Not out of fear — but out of awe.
Eventually, he asked, "Where are we going?"
Dante, already smiling, sat up just enough to glance down at him.
"Somewhere in the Neutral territories."
Sid looked back. "What's that?"
Avi's voice turned quiet. "The space between all territories. A no-man's land. Lawless. Unmapped. Dangerous."
Dante's grin widened. "And full of opportunities."
"No empire claims it. No map defines it," Avi added. "It is the one place where all things mix — the forgotten, the forbidden, the free."
Sid watched the endless dark ahead. For the first time, he felt it — not just the scale of the universe, but the depth of how far he was being pulled from everything he once knew.
Dante stood up now, stretching his arms behind his head as he stared into the dark like it was home.
"Out there," he said, "it's the law of the jungle."