Chapter 21

Do you know the arrogant ruler? — I believe you must, for He is known by all in this world, everyone knows Him.

A thousand years ago, after the fall of the first deity, the arrogant power was left as an ember and preserved at the center of the world — this is how the books of the human world describe it, right?

Actually, it is not like that.

The deities left behind a total of nine powers. The other eight are not important, but what matters is that in the end, only arrogance remained.

In order to seize each other’s power, to fight over the remaining little magic and resources of this world, the noble and sacred powers left behind by the deities behaved like the lowest, most vile ancient demons of the wasteland, following the law of survival of the fittest, tearing and hunting each other.

At that time, the center of the world was a massive arena, and every few decades, one power would be defeated in this contest and devoured by the others. They were wolves, hyenas, the dark side of the deities, incarnations of the filthiest and most evil demons in the world.

The one who triumphed in this bloody and dark contest was Deritz.

Accompanying the fierce struggle at the center of the world was the tragic end of humanity.

At that time, because the vortex at the center of the world was still expanding, the continent’s magic was draining more and more each day. The depletion of magic led to shortages of various resources, yet humanity’s numbers continued to grow. The central temple had no choice but to send the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to handle this crisis.

— They were the four horsemen you saw in your dreams.

Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death.

They brought disasters to the world, greatly reducing the number of humans and other life forms, and barely maintained the balance of the world.

When the Four Horsemen returned, the world’s vortex had finally stopped its centuries-long growth, and began to supply magic to this broken world from the outside. Everything began to revive.

Thus, they were also called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

…Talli, I know what you want to hear. Don’t rush.

It was because of the reverse growth of the vortex that you were transported here from another world. By the look on your face, it seems you’ve already guessed it, and you’re not too surprised.

But you must know, safely passing through the vortex at the center of the world to arrive in this world is almost impossible. Countless lives from other time and space were caught in the vortex, but before they could even reach this world, they were reduced to ash within the vortex’s path.

You’re still alive, at least your soul still exists — that is something you should be grateful for.

To return, you still must go through the vortex at the center of the world — yes, just like when you came, for that, you need to make the magic of this world expand rapidly, to reach the point where the vortex grows outward again.

I know this sounds like a fantasy, but it’s not absurd.

Talli, you know the arrogant ruler, Deritz. Then you must also know that He is the monarch of all things in the world, possessing almost all the divine power that originated from the age of the deities — a power in the era of revival strong enough to crush and reverse the world.

— That’s right.

Talli, don’t show such an incredulous expression. To return, you can only make Deritz die. Only His death can cause the magic of this world to expand and explode in a short time, impacting the vortex at the center of the world and sending the vortex to take you home.

…Of course, you can’t kill Him with brute force, Talli. Don’t even think that after ten years, or a hundred, or a thousand years, until the world’s fortune runs out, you’ll be able to kill Him.

— “So, there must be another way, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t be telling me this.”

— “Yes. Talli, indeed. If you want Deritz to die, there is more than one way other than killing Him.”

“Conquer Him.”

The old woman’s voice became slightly agitated as she spoke. She reached out from behind the curtain and tightly grasped Talli’s hand, as if she were placing all her hope on her.

“Talli, conquer him! Make him fall in love with you, make him set aside his arrogance, set aside his pride, make him step down from the throne of the gods, willingly abandon the glory of the divine…”

As she spoke, her grip tightened more and more, almost trembling, and she squeezed Talli’s wrist so hard that it caused a sharp pain in her bones.

“…As long as you make him fall in love with you, in that moment, he will no longer be arrogant, but Deritz. The power will dissipate, and his strength will be released and stripped away… Talli, at that moment, you can return home.”

—

Home. Home. Home.

In the end, all that remained in Talli’s mind were these few words, lingering and impossible to shake off.

Having left the dream, she felt as though she had been pulled out from the warm water that had nearly drowned her. Her senses slowly returned, but it took a long time for them to fully recover. Her limbs felt as though they had just been pulled from the mud, weak and aching as she regained her awareness.

The glow of fire slowly began to fill her vision.

It was a small flame, just enough to light up a small portion in front of her.

She had returned to the collapsed temple.

Her back pressed against the rough, cold stone wall, and in the darkness, the sound of dripping water echoed.

Dull sensations made Talli curl up on the ground, hugging her knees. For a while, she couldn’t quite react. The images from the dream still lingered in her mind, and she still felt a dull sense of unreality toward the real world.

Just before she left, she had asked the old woman one last question:

“Who exactly are you?”

The voice of the woman, as Talli left the dream, seemed to come from another world, distant and ethereal.

“—You can call me the Crimson Witch.”

The Crimson Witch.

Talli silently repeated the strange-sounding name in her mind.

The flint sparking in front of her was given to her by the Crimson Witch. At the final moment, she had struck the flint, sending her out of the dream.

At first, she had thought the dream was just that — a dream. She assumed the collapse of the temple’s round platform had triggered some mechanism that pulled her into it.

But now, back in reality, the small, quietly flickering flame from the flint proved the reality of everything.

It wasn’t fake. The arrogant ruler, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the world vortex, the Crimson Witch…

Including the method that would take her home.

All of it was real.

Talli could feel that the Crimson Witch had her own motives in asking her to conquer the arrogant ruler. However, what she didn’t understand was why she had chosen her?

— A frail human girl who didn’t seem like she could conquer such a dangerous figure.

Talli thought to herself that if she were the Crimson Witch, she would definitely have chosen Theresa for this mission. After all, if this world has any concept of fate, Theresa would surely be the chosen one. In the books, so many male leads knelt at her feet, perhaps Deritz would be no exception.

He hadn’t been won over by Theresa’s charm, probably because he hadn’t seen her yet.

Just as she was thinking this, she heard light footsteps, more like the soft padding of small animal paws steadily stepping on the ground.

Talli looked up.

The little fox was elegantly walking against the wall, its red eyes fixed on her without blinking, showing no sign of the chaos and panic from the collapsed round platform.

“Dusk.”

Talli was slightly startled when she saw it, but then, realizing it was fine, she let out a small sigh of relief.

She didn’t approach. She just stood up and said from her place,

“I’m so glad you’re okay.”

The little creature slowly trotted over.

The girl looked a bit tired, her demeanor heavy with a sense of gloom, as though she had been thinking about something before it arrived. She lowered her long lashes, bent down, and tidied up her backpack, then began to feel along the wall, searching for a way out.

The little fox gently circled around her, walking ahead and elegantly flicking its fluffy tail, as if signaling her to follow.

Talli immediately understood.

“This looks like an underground maze,”

She couldn’t light the torch in her hand, but the flame from the flint would catch. She tucked the flint into her backpack, following closely behind Dusk as she spoke, “I’m not really good at finding paths. Dusk, I’ll have to rely on you.”

The little fox’s tail gave a slight pause for half a second, as if the brief halt was just an illusion.

Talli held the torch, comfortably following behind Dusk.

The two of them remained silent.

For a long time, the only sounds in the quiet underground maze were the steady patter of footsteps and the gentle drip of water.

After walking for a while, they reached the edge of the maze, where a tall set of stairs appeared in front of them, and at the top of the stairs, a faint natural light appeared.

Talli climbed a few steps and then extinguished the torch. At the same time, Dusk slowed down and fell behind, walking beside her.

“It seems like not much time has passed.”

Talli continued up the stairs, and at the opening, the view of rippling blue waves appeared before her, still the lush and verdant forest, with a breeze brushing through, bringing the fresh scent of sunlight and earth.

However, soon after, something strange happened.

The tips of the leaves began to point upwards, and the droplets of water on the veins and trunks of the trees slowly began to evaporate into the air, turning into small, gentle raindrops. They were clear and transparent, reflecting the soft light of the sun. The air quickly surged upward, and just before the temple behind her rumbled with a sound, Talli swiftly grabbed Dusk, took three steps in two, and leapt up the stairs, racing to a flat area.

However, she didn’t even manage to put her foot down on the last step. It felt as though her body weight had been lightened, and her blood circulation slowed, as if an invisible hand had lifted her. Her feet left the ground, and she began to slowly float in the air.

“If you’re scared, don’t look.”

The girl held the little fox close, pressing its fluffy head into her arms.

Her eyes never blinked as she observed the surroundings. She watched as the temple trembled violently, emitting a deep humming sound, and then dust was lifted all around, almost obscuring her vision. Following this, the area where the temple stood began to slowly sink, as if buried by quicksand. In just a few breaths, the place was filled with sand and stones.

Without a trace.

As Talli was slowly lifted by the air, floating in mid-air, an unusual force suddenly manifested in the atmosphere. It was so apparent that even Talli, a human with no magical power, could feel the overwhelming, twisting anomaly that filled the air.

Equally unusual were the birds and beasts scattering in panic, fleeing in all directions, everything pointed to a sense of unrest.

Yet, Talli remained remarkably calm.

In that dream, the Crimson Witch had told her that whenever a temple’s trial was unlocked and passed, the area around the temple would experience some common distortions, the most frequent being something like this—

Illusionary folding.