It clearly did not understand how Ivy had remained mentally awake despite supposedly being in a deep sleep state.

Meanwhile, Ivy slowly sat upright within the dreamlike darkness surrounding her.

Her eyes became cold.

"Whoever you are," she said calmly, "you seem to know about my previous life."

Her voice gradually sharpened.

"Maybe you’re trying to help me. Or maybe you’re trying to gain something from me."

A dangerous chill slowly spread through the darkness.

"But let me make one thing clear."

Ivy’s expression turned terrifyingly cold.

"If you are manipulating me... then one day, I will come after you too."

Then suddenly, the mysterious voice laughed.

However, rather than mocking her, the laughter sounded genuinely surprised.

Finally, the voice quietly replied. "What if I told you... that I am you?"

The moment those words entered her ears, Ivy froze completely.

"What?" she asked blankly.

The voice continued softly. "I am you... but from the..."

Suddenly, the voice distorted violently.

The connection abruptly cut off before the sentence could finish.

The next second, Ivy instantly woke up from her dream.

Cold sweat covered her back.

Her breathing became uneven as she quickly looked around the room.

For a long moment, she simply sat there silently, trying to process everything that had just happened.

’Who... was that?’ she thought uneasily.

That voice had indeed sounded similar to hers.

Yet at the same time, it felt completely different.

It sounded older. More mature. Weary.

Filled with endless exhaustion and wisdom.

It absolutely did not sound like the current version of herself.

A terrifying possibility slowly formed inside Ivy’s mind.

’What if... it really was me?’

If the other party truly was her from another timeline... Then why was she giving such strange instructions?

Why was she obsessively pushing her toward the throne?

Could it really be a future version of herself?

As that possibility surfaced, Ivy suddenly felt as though she was about to remember something extremely important.

However, no matter how hard she tried, the memory remained just out of reach.

Eventually, after over an hour passed uselessly, Ivy finally gave up.

Just as she was preparing to consult Silas about everything, she suddenly received an urgent alert from the temporal storage.

The message instantly caused her expression to change.

Ariana was in danger.

Without hesitation, Ivy immediately entered the temporal storage space.

The moment she arrived, her eyes narrowed sharply.

Ariana’s body was trembling violently.

Her face had become deathly pale, while veins bulged unnaturally beneath her skin. It looked as though some invisible entity was forcefully draining the energy directly out of her body.

Seeing that sight, Ivy’s expression instantly darkened.

"Shit..." she cursed under her breath.

At that moment, she immediately understood.

Ariana had succeeded.

Whatever ritual or portal activation Ariana had performed earlier had finally reached completion.

The energy draining from her body was clear proof.

Ivy quickly rushed toward her.

Meanwhile, Ariana slowly raised her head weakly.

A strange smile suddenly appeared on her pale face.

Then she looked directly into Ivy’s eyes.

"You failed, Ivy," Ariana whispered weakly.

Her voice sounded distorted and eerie. "You lost."

A cold chill immediately spread up Ivy’s spine.

Ariana continued weakly.

"Now... prepare yourself for the consequences."

The moment she finished speaking, her body suddenly went limp, and she fainted completely.

Hearing those words, Ivy’s expression turned incomparably grim.

Without wasting another second, she immediately exited the temporal storage and went searching for Silas.

Once she found him, she quickly explained everything.

The moment Silas heard about the portal, his expression darkened terribly.

"How?" he muttered sharply. "How was she able to hide the portal so thoroughly? We searched for so long and still couldn’t locate it."

Ivy’s eyes remained cold.

Taking a slow breath, she spoke in a calm but grim voice.

"What matters most right now... is determining how many superior beings have already crossed through the portal."

Silas agreed with Ivy’s final words after a long moment of silence, and the others gradually nodded as well.

"This is not the time to panic," Silas muttered in a calm voice. "If we lose our composure now, then we are already dead. What we need is analysis."

Ivy gave a slow nod as her cold eyes swept across the room.

"We need information before emotions. Deploy the forces immediately. Search every possible location and report every abnormal signal."

Very soon, countless forces began cutting through the gloomy skies.

The government forces were also mobilized at the same time after Ivy’s side directly contacted them.

The higher authorities and Carter had already known about the existence of the superior beings long ago.

However, even after all this time, Carter still found it difficult to accept the truth.

The aliens that humanity had once captured and experimented on were now the same beings responsible for this horrifying apocalypse.

’If I had stopped those experiments back then... would things have turned out differently?’

For the first time in years, genuine guilt surfaced inside his heart.

He silently made a decision that if humanity somehow survived this catastrophe, he would never again allow any inhumane experiments involving extraterrestrial life.

However, while many people were drowning in fear, there were also others who felt overwhelming excitement.

One of them was a man named Benny.

Benny was technically a mid-ranking official, but deep within his heart, he had always possessed an obsession with superior life forms.

Since childhood, he had fantasized about encountering intelligent beings beyond Earth. Now that he finally knew they truly existed, his excitement became uncontrollable.

Rather than siding completely with humanity, Benny constantly thought about how he could gain the favor of those superior beings.

’Humans are weak and temporary,’ Benny thought while staring obsessively at classified reports.

’If I can stand beside the superior beings, then maybe I can survive no matter what happens.’

Because of this dangerous mindset, Benny secretly interfered with multiple operations.

Several important investigations were delayed because of his hidden tampering. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

He intentionally redirected resources, erased traces, and obstructed searches in hopes that the superior beings would eventually notice his loyalty.