They could not tell exactly how much time had passed, as the golden bubble transported them at a speed that would cause anyone weaker than B-rank to suffer greatly or even die from a severe heart attack.

When the speed finally came to a steady and bearable pace, the two of them realized that they had arrived at Eldertree City in the Heartland Nation. In other words, they had crossed an entire country, speeding through several large cities in such a short span of time.

Even the fastest aircraft built by the Ashleigh Aerospace Company would take at least half a day to complete such a long journey across the nation.

Not only were they in Eldertree City, the heart of the Heartland Nation, they were currently hovering above a familiar building, Axel Storm’s house.

Marlon easily recognized it because of the garden and the seemingly ordinary door at the end of the garden, which he could never forget. It was the door that led to other dimensions that Stormis used for training purposes. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Axel Storm said he wanted to show them why he hadn’t been idle, but why did he bring them to his house, which seemed pretty serene, as though the chaos had not spread toward this area at all?

Not just his house, the other houses around this area were also unscathed and looked completely untouched.

Nonetheless, while Marlon was pondering all this to himself, Axel Storm appeared between the two floating bubbles and, with a casual gesture of his hands, the bubbles let go of the two of them.

Maneuvering the air beneath him using his expert-level control of aether, Marlon landed cleanly on the lawn at the backyard of Axel Storm’s place, near the penthouse where they had their last meeting.

On the ground, he could not find anything that proved a fight had taken place here.

Norian and Axel Storm landed beside him, and Axel began strolling toward the door.

Marlon began to make several predictions in his mind.

The last time he knew about this place, both Stormis and Mrs. Victoria had to use some chants to open the door.

But Axel simply pushed the door open without uttering a word, and behold, a completely new world lay before their eyes.

It was a vast desert that stretched as far as the eye could see. The sun in the sky in this place was very bright, so bright that Marlon, who hadn’t expected it, had to shield his eyes with his hands before strolling alongside Axel and Norian into the place.

Axel noticed his reaction and flicked his wrist, and magically, the sun vanished from the sky as though it had never been there in the first place.

Marlon was very astonished by what he had just witnessed.

How could a human being perform such a feat?

He looked at Axel, this time with admiration, fear, and a strong determination to become like him, as he knew someone like him would definitely know all the secrets about Arden and the System.

Axel did not bother to explain to Marlon what he had just done as he simply looked forward.

Marlon traced his gaze forward and was met with a scene his eyes had missed earlier due to the intensity of the sunlight.

"Aurax... So many."

His eyes widened in disbelief.

Before now, he could swear on his life that among everyone in the garden, he was the one who had slain the most Aurax.

But seeing the scene before him now, he knew he had nothing on Axel Storm.

"These are the Aurax Legion, a group created by the Aurax King himself, composed of his strongest soldiers," Axel began to explain as they strolled closer toward the heap of Aurax corpses lying across the desert.

In the desert, there was no moon nor sun. The place was plunged into an inexplicable darkness comparable to an eclipse. Hunters with A-rank night vision skills would struggle to see here; those with B-rank and below would only be able to see a few steps ahead of them, and anything beyond D-rank would become completely useless here.

Fortunately for Marlon, his Eclipse Vision had been upgraded to S-rank during one of his evolutions, and he could see very clearly in this place. The same went for Norian.

As for Axel, he didn’t really need a skill. He could see everything more clearly than the two of them even with his eyes closed. Someone like him could be said to have become one with aether itself.

Away from that...

Marlon’s astonishment grew further the closer he got to the heap.

Axel also resumed his explanation.

"Among its army are the Aurax Crown Princes, Index-4 beings. A single one of them could take on hundreds of the strongest guardians in Arden and come out completely unscathed."

Axel nudged some of the special-looking Aurax among the heap.

These ones were much bigger. They were literal humanoid giants, and Marlon assumed they were at least eighteen feet tall. They had huge builds as well. They were easy to count due to their massive size, and there were five of them. Their corpses alone made the heap look even bigger and more terrifying.

Seeing them and hearing Axel’s words, Marlon could not help but imagine how strong the Aurax King himself was in comparison.

"And that person has challenged me?"

It was hard to digest.

Axel went ahead. He told Marlon about the soldiers who were Index-3 and were stronger than the feral Aurax, the beast-taming Aurax, and the giant octopus.

"The Aurax Crown Princes are the ones who created all the portals around Arden. Most of the monsters you have faced were either created by them or transported from other dimensions," Axel continued.

With this, one of the questions Marlon had was answered. But there were more questions. He became even more curious about the power of these beings.

"As you could already guess, they were able to access this dimension easily to target Storms."

Then Axel turned to Marlon and proceeded with more shocking news.

.....

A/N

I was away for two weeks.. faced some IRL difficulties

My birthday was yesterday as well.

I am back now so expect stable updates