"Have you eaten properly?" Adrian asked as he teleported back in the mansion.

Forgelet was sitting quietly in the garden.

She looked better than she had the previous day, though her shoulders still slumped slightly, and the usual vigor in her expression remained absent.

"Yes, I’m alright." She nodded with a faint smile. "Thank you for preparing so much for me."

Adrian smiled back gently. "Most of the credit goes to Ariana. I barely did anything."

His gaze shifted toward the silver-haired woman sitting nearby, who was holding a small plate while smiling softly in return.

Beside her, Annabelle had already fallen asleep, her head resting against Ariana’s shoulder.

Adrian looked back at Forgelet. "Do you need anything else? Did you rest properly, or should you sleep a little more?"

She had only arrived the previous night and managed to rest for a few hours at most.

Considering the kind of horrifying ordeal she had endured, even several days of sleep wouldn’t have been enough to truly recover from it.

But Forgelet shook her head.

"No, I’m fine now. We can talk."

The giant dwarf already understood what Adrian wanted to ask. He had simply been too considerate to force the subject.

Adrian let out a slow breath before sitting down across from her on the ground, crossing his legs casually.

Removing his glasses, he spoke in a calm voice.

"You don’t have to push yourself if you aren’t ready to talk about it yet."

Evilyn shook her head once more.

"No, it’s alright now." Her gaze lowered slightly. "I can’t keep running from reality forever. I’m only a guest here. Soon, I’ll have to return to my world and deal with everything."

Ariana immediately sighed at those words.

"You aren’t a guest, Evilyn," she said gently. "You’re part of this family."

For the first time since arriving, a genuine smile appeared on Evilyn’s face.

"Thank you, Ariana."

Then her expression slowly softened again as she looked down, taking a quiet moment to gather her thoughts before speaking further.

"It... arrived like an inevitable disaster," she began quietly. "As far as I can remember, all we saw at first was a seed. A massive seed launched from an unimaginable distance. Its trajectory was predictable, yet we couldn’t intercept it."

"Was it moving too fast?" Adrian asked.

Evilyn slowly shook her head.

"No... it was more like anything that approached it became useless." Her brows furrowed faintly as she recalled the event. "As though some ancient form of sorcery had been woven around it. Every defensive measure we deployed failed miserably the moment it got close."

Ariana exchanged a glance with Adrian before asking,

"Didn’t your workshop have any independent magicians?"

"We did," Evilyn replied with a nod. "But even they couldn’t understand what kind of spell was being used." Her expression darkened slightly. "Even my spell-nullifying bullets had no effect whatsoever."

"Witchcraft..." Adrian muttered under his breath before he could stop himself.

Evilyn’s eyes widened immediately.

"You know something about it?" she asked at once.

Adrian glanced down, looking at his fingers before speaking.

"Well... I’ve encountered a few magicians against whom your bullets were ineffective." His expression turned thoughtful. "Some of them were simply too powerful, but a few weaker ones practiced a very peculiar branch of sorcery."

"Witchcraft..." Evilyn muttered under her breath. "A forgotten form of magic."

She frowned slightly while thinking.

"I’ve only heard fragments about it. Do you know where it originated from?"

That question instantly placed Adrian in an awkward position.

The witches were connected to Darkness itself, a being that had likely shaped their sorcery and given birth to an entirely different lineage of magic.

But there was no way he could openly explain something like that.

After all, Adrian had never told anyone on the server about his connection to Darkness.

"It was from some notes," Ariana suddenly spoke up, smoothly stepping into the conversation after seemingly understanding Adrian’s dilemma immediately. "Notes provided by a few close friends." She tilted her head slightly toward him. "It was Tia and Ruby who showed them to you, right?"

Adrian instantly caught on to what she was doing.

"Right. Actually, it was both of them," he replied naturally. "They shared records from ancient times. Apparently, they were written by someone who spent their life documenting major events happening across the world."

"Do you have any idea how we can deal with it?" Putting aside her curiosity, Forgelet focused on the thing that mattered most to her.

Adrian crossed his arms thoughtfully. "You mentioned there were flames and intense heat everywhere around you, right? Tell us more about that."

Forgelet nodded slowly.

She didn’t need time to recall the details.

That incident had carved itself far too deeply into her mind.

"The moment the seed struck the surface, it released a violent surge that spread through the entire area," she explained quietly. "Our machines failed instantly. The magical pressure contained within it was overwhelming. The independent magic users collapsed to their knees almost immediately because of how sensitive they were to magical waves."

Her fingers tightened slightly around the plate in her hands.

"Then... the seed ignited."

Her voice grew heavier.

"A dark, ominous flame spread from it and began expanding in every direction."

The garden fell silent as she continued.

"We tried everything to extinguish it. Every element. Every tool. Every resource I possessed was thrown at those flames." Her eyes lowered faintly. "But nothing worked. It was as though the fire could devour the very essence of existence itself."

A heavy silence settled over the group after her words.

Adrian understood better than most just how vast Evilyn’s resources truly were.

Until recently, he himself had relied heavily on her support, and even now, many of her golems were still being used to guard the greenhouses and the academy.

For someone like her to sound this defeated...

Whatever had attacked her world was far beyond ordinary.

I need to see it myself, Adrian concluded inwardly.

But just as he was about to voice his thoughts, an unfamiliar voice suddenly cut through the conversation.

"They really went all out this time, huh?"

Everyone instantly turned toward the source of the voice.

The moment they realized someone had entered without triggering a single barrier or alarm, tension surged through the atmosphere.

Then their eyes landed on the figure standing there.

And immediately, they understood why none of the defenses had reacted.

Nytharos.

Adrian and Ariana immediately rose to their feet.

Evilyn, meanwhile, was too stunned to react right away.

"You..." Adrian called out cautiously. "...why are you here?"

He couldn’t sense any hostility from Nytharos.

Even so, the fallen being had caused far too many disasters over the years for Adrian to lower his guard so easily.

Nytharos slowly raised his hands, showing no intention of attacking.

"I’m not here to fight any of you," he said calmly. "I’ve come to explain what truly happened in her world."

His gaze shifted toward Evilyn.

Then, after a brief pause, he added,

"I know why she was targeted in the first place."

°°°°°°°

A/N:- Thanks for reading.

The matter of fact is, the moment Adrian liberated Nytharos, the endgame, the final arc would be in motion.

Stay tuned till then.