Muen stepped into the sea of flowers.

This artificial area beneath Saint Maria Academy hadn’t changed much after the upheaval in Belrand before. The flawless blue sky still spread out like a painting, dotted with white clouds.

Only the flowers had been replaced. No longer were they multicolored roses, but a deep pink sea of tulips.

"You’re here?"

Mera was in the very middle of the flower sea, tinkering with something. She noticed Muen’s arrival, yet didn’t even lift her head.

Muen suddenly stopped.

He waited a bit. When he realized Mera had only greeted him and then ignored him, he couldn’t help frowning. After a brief moment of thought, he didn’t approach directly.

Instead, with Mera as the center, he kept circling her, carefully sizing up this old loli who was still wearing a strawberry pajama set to play cute, while looking extremely wary.

"What are you doing?"

Mera finally raised her head. Her amber-red eyes stared at the guarded Muen.

"Something’s off..."

Muen looked left and right and said gravely, "Teacher Mera, you rarely call me over in person. Even if you do, that means you’re starting a new round of torture. Why is it so peaceful today?"

"That makes me sound like some unscrupulous teacher who takes pleasure in her student’s suffering." Mera folded her arms.

"So Teacher Mera actually has self-awareness?"

Muen stroked his chin, shocked. "That really startled me."

"..."

Mera’s brows twitched, and then she suddenly smiled. "You brat, you’re just too sensitive. Have I done that many excessive things to you?"

"Not that many. I just got boiled in a pot, got sliced a few thousand times with a knife, got my head thrown up into the sky to fly around, and you secretly plotted something terrifying without telling me anything, that’s all."

Muen counted on his fingers, serious. "Really not that many."

"..."

A strange, eerie air drifted over the flower sea.

But Muen waited for a while, and the thing he expected still didn’t happen. Mera only blinked, then suddenly sighed.

"You brat, you have a bit of prejudice against your teacher. I did all of that for your own good."

"Secretly watching my jealous battlefield was for my own good too?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Muen saw a half-eaten watermelon sitting off to the side. Clearly, not long ago, this hateful old loli had been enjoying some gossip here. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"As your teacher, I have to care a little about my disciple’s love life. If one day you get chopped into pieces, I’ll know how to go tidy things up for you. Maybe I can even save something and bring it back, right?"

Mera suddenly stepped aside, revealing what she had been tinkering with the whole time.

Muen looked over, stunned for a moment, because no matter how he looked at it, that thing was... a bed?

Not the kind of icy operating table he used to lie on, but one thoughtfully laid with soft bedding. It was printed all over with cute little pink strawberries, fully displaying a certain old loli’s tacky taste.

"Come. Lie down."

Mera patted the mattress.

"What are you doing?"

Muen immediately crossed his arms over his chest, alert. "You thick-browed, big-eyed old loli—so you’re coveting my chastity too?"

"Say one more word and I’ll break your ass."

Mera spoke crude words with an innocent face. "Get up here. Now."

"Oh."

Knowing resistance was completely useless, Muen lay down with a nervous heart, inch by inch.

He interlaced his ten fingers and placed them on his chest, like someone in a coffin, waiting for the first shovel of earth to cover him.

But to his surprise, this bed was exceptionally comfortable.

It was like the firmness had been adjusted to his preferences. The moment Muen lay down, he felt his whole body relax automatically. Even his soul seemed to find a place to belong, and he couldn’t help letting out a comfortable groan.

"Go on, then. What’s the next torture?"

Muen still forced his face to stay stiff as he said, "Are you going to cut me open, or bolt some weird mechanical parts onto me? Whatever scheme you’ve got, just say it. I can take it now!"

"Don’t talk like I’m some shady quack doctor hiding in an underground clinic."

Mera leaned by the bedside. "Does it hurt?"

"Hurt? What hurts?"

Muen froze.

Not because of the random question, but because right now, Mera was propped by the bed with her cheek in her hand. Her chubby baby face held a soft smile, and she actually gave off a gentle feeling, like a wife watching her exhausted husband beside her.

"Here hurts."

Mera tapped Muen’s glabella.

"Before, you forced that black sun to run without stopping, used black flame, and your mind already overdrew itself to the limit, didn’t it? Even if you used the palace array later to stabilize your mental power, that was only stabilization. It can’t increase your mental power, and it definitely can’t repair your mental space that’s already full of wounds."

"Yeah... I guess it hurts a little."

Muen tugged at the corner of his mouth and smiled, lying back on the pillow.

In truth, that was half true and half false.

Because that agony—your mind nearly dried out, nearly completely crushed—was no different from having your body crushed bit by bit. How could it be called only “a little”?

But Muen had long since gotten used to that kind of pain. Countless deaths in the Black Book, and multiple experiences facing those unspeakable things, had made his mind now—compared to his former weak self—strong by who knew how many times over.

"Mmn. Looks like you’re tougher than I imagined."

Mera tilted her head and studied Muen for a bit, then suddenly bloomed into a bright smile like a flower. She gently rubbed Muen’s head and said softly, "But don’t worry. Your dear teacher called you here precisely to help smooth out that pain."

"Is that so..."

Muen let out a breath of relief.

Looks like this time he’d misunderstood Teacher Mera. No matter how vile her personality was, she couldn’t possibly—

"Of course... the process of smoothing out the pain will be just a tiny bit uncomfortable. I guarantee you—just a tiny bit."

Mera suddenly raised her thumb and index finger, pinching out a fingertip universe.

"Just a tiny bit."

"What... you!"

Muen’s eyes widened at once. A thought of “as expected,” and an extremely ominous premonition, exploded together deep in his heart.

Of course it was already too late, because that damned old loli had always been faster with her hands than her mouth.

So before the curse words could even come out, Muen’s vision went black, and in an instant... he lost all consciousness.

...

...

"Hey, you pitiful assistant mister, wake up..."

"Wake up. Time’s almost here..."

"We should go to *&%￥..."

In a haze, Muen heard a faint voice, drifting and echoing around him.

This was...

But when he tried to find the source of the voice, countless speckles of noise and distortion—and some shattered images he couldn’t make out at all—suddenly surged toward him like he was inside the screen of an old television, endless and boundless.

He opened his eyes, and what he saw was...

"Ho. You’re awake."

That punchable baby-fat face of the old loli.

"Mmn... how long was I asleep?" Muen frowned. He forced down the urge to punch her and asked, still a bit dazed.

"By the outside time, three days."

Mera’s gaze swept over Muen. She even pried his eyelids open to check, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Mm. Looks like the effect is excellent. Your mental power has completely recovered. There shouldn’t be any aftereffects left, either."

"Recovered that fast? Three days... that’s a long time. I didn’t feel time passing at all. And ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ what you mean by ‘outside’ is—"

Just waking up, Muen had a whole pile of questions jammed in his head.

But when he moved even a little, and suddenly felt that smooth, rounded touch behind his head, every question temporarily vanished.

Because this softness and shape, by Muen’s long experience, could only be—

A lap pillow!

That’s right. Definitely a lap pillow!

But why would he be feeling a lap pillow right now? At a time like this, whether it was Celicia, Senior Sister, or Liya, it couldn’t possibly—

Muen’s eyes widened.

Don’t tell me this old loli finally couldn’t hold back her springtime heart, got moved by my handsomeness, so—

"You brat, you seem to be thinking something weird again."

Before Muen could say anything, Mera’s brows lifted, and she grinned mischievously.

"But I still advise you to get up quickly. Otherwise—"

"Otherwise?"

"Otherwise your chastity really will be in danger."

Mera moved her head away.

In an instant, when the deliberate concealment was gone, a huge shadow blocked all the light at once, covering Muen’s vision.

And in the middle of that shadow... was a face.

A face covered in thick flesh and tusks. Drool ran down the corners of its mouth. Tiny eyes locked onto him, full of bestiality and desire.

"This is... what?" Muen asked Mera blankly.

"This is an extinct demonic beast from a thousand years ago, called a Tak."

"A Tak?"

"Yes. This demonic beast has a trait. Because the number of males in the species is extremely small, and female Taks have extremely strong desire, well, that. They often capture males of other races. The more handsome, the more they like him."

"Then me—"

"Ah, that. As my cutest disciple, how could I bear to have you lying on the ground? So when I happened to run into one, I temporarily put you on her thighs."

Mera spread her hands, looking like a good teacher thinking of her student.

Muen’s mouth twitched. He slowly turned his head and met the Tak’s tiny eyes, filled with—

"Ugly freak, die!!"

A blade flash blazed bright. Roaring and clamor, along with a furious shout, shattered the stillness of the wilds.

...

...

"Hah... this demonic beast... why is this demonic beast so strong?"

Half an hour later, Muen braced his hands on his knees, panting with an utterly wrecked expression.

"Damn it. I almost couldn’t beat it. It looked like a normal demonic beast..."

"A demonic beast that can casually capture males of other races and still survive isn’t some normal demonic beast."

Mera shrugged. "Well, but this thing is already extinct now anyway."

"Extinct..."

Muen straightened. "So what is this? Why am I running into an extinct demonic beast, and this place—"

He looked around.

Red sand and dust swirled with a cold wind that came from nowhere, making visibility extremely low.

Underfoot was cracked sand and black hard rock. Forget green plants—he couldn’t even see soil, that vessel of life.

As far as he could see, there was no vitality at all. Only dead silence.

"Do you remember the Sacred Tree not long ago? This is something I made based on inspiration I got from It, using the Eternal Bell as the foundation."

"A phantom of the past?"

"More or less. Except because I added interference from the Authority of Time, it’s more real."

Mera grabbed a rock, crushed it, and let the fine grit spill through her fingers.

"So... this is a thousand years ago too? The First King’s era?"

"It’s a thousand years ago, but a thousand years earlier than the First King."

Mera walked forward and pointed.

"Look there."

Muen’s gaze sharpened. Following where Mera pointed, he raised his head.

As the sand and dust thinned a little, what was revealed before Muen was...

A cliff that was almost vertical, dropping straight down, bottomless.

Black-red rock on the outside, smooth and sheer as if split by a blade. A pebble, lightly kicked down, fell and fell—yet for a long time, there was no echo at all. What shocked Muen even more was the length that cut off the entire ground within his field of view, and...

No matter how he lifted his eyes, no matter how he tried to force his gaze through the vast, drifting sand, he couldn’t see the opposite cliff at all—what that represented was its width.

"This is..."

"The Abyss."

Mera answered softly.

"The Abyss now, and the Abyss a thousand years ago."

"This is... the Abyss from legend?"

Muen opened his mouth in shock. He suddenly crouched down and touched the smooth cut face of the cliff.

"Father fought the demon race in a place like this? I thought the so-called Abyss was some more abstract concept. I didn’t think it was literally... a gigantic, unbelievable rift valley?"

"Maybe you’re not wrong. The Abyss itself does carry a bit of an abstract concept."

Mera pointed again.

"Look."

As the knife-like wind howled, the drifting sand thinned again, and Muen finally saw it—those warped hollows above the Abyss, appearing and disappearing, like cracks, yet constantly sealing back up.

"Some terrifying power nearly tore the space above the Abyss apart, making it, in a sense, truly isolated from this continent. Of course, this kind of spatial tearing can’t isolate every single place, so the Abyss has multiple exits. The one your father guards should be one of them."

"So..."

Muen didn’t dwell on that question for long. After a brief silence, he asked instead, "How did the Abyss come to be?"

"You haven’t heard?"

"No. But I have a bit of a guess."

"Having a guess is already good. Something like this couldn’t possibly remain in recorded history."

Mera stared at the Abyss. In her crimson eyes, complicated glimmers flickered.

"The so-called Abyss is nothing more than the scar left behind when we campaigned against the First Evil God back then. To put it more simply, this is... a wound of the world."

"The First Evil God... the Demon God?"

"Yes."

"If the Abyss was caused by the Demon God... then the so-called demon race—"

"Of course it’s not like how any beast with demonic power inside it gets called a demonic beast. The demon race... is actually the group of believers who once worshiped the Demon God."

Mera lowered her eyelids. Her five fingers made a grasping motion, like she wanted to seize something within the Abyss. Her expression grew even more complicated.

"After the Demon God died, the pollution on those believers disappeared, and their minds were no longer affected by the Demon God, but their mutations remained, and the power the Demon God once bestowed remained. So they broke away from the scope of humanity and became... what people now call the demon race."