Above the forest, the dimensional barrier between the two worlds cracked further—from within, the eyes stared menacingly beneath.

As the crack further widened, the corrupted-red mist spread more through the forest. The howls of beasts below resounded, their bloodlust filling the lands as their mind and sanity consumed from madness; reducing them to mere mindless demons.

Somewhere in the forest, a once, closed ancient eye opened—revealing its intimidating silver pupils. It blinked repeatedly until it eventually realized the situation.

It was another millennium of harvest.

—

Below the forest, a blonde-haired man flew through the air, his body crashing against a large tree.

Rio groaned in pain as his back ached from the impact. Why was it that his back was always the victim of pain in every fight? He put his hand to the ground, grasping the grass.

"..Haa."

Using all his strength, he tried to push himself back up, but his body didn't comply. His hand wouldn't move in sheer exhaustion. He looked deep inside his body, noticing the lack of dense magical energy swirling within. His magical reserves have once more exhausted.

But this time, the exhaustion was much more severe than last time. The skill had practically drained the entirety of his magical reserves, making his body weak and tired.

Additionally, the recoil was much stronger than before. Not only was his body unable to move, his mind was also in disarray.

..It seemed he had exerted much more power than usual, even beyond his current capabilities. If he were to guess why, it would most likely because of his surroundings. The skill relied on gathering power from nature—and the forest was more or less a representation of such.

"..Tsk," Rio clicked his tongue, annoyed. His eyes darted around his surroundings. Darkness shrouded the vicinity, the cluster of trees were tightly closed in together, shrouding him from seeing beyond his position.

Where was he...?

'I'l check the smartwatch later. The GPS should work, hopefully. Then again If it doesn't work, I'l just navigate through the entire forest...It might take me weeks though...well with you around it shouldn't be much of a problem...'

'..You are hearing my thoughts right? Weird..'

"..Hey," Rio muttered, calling out to someone. He waited for a reply. However, a minute passed. Then the second minute. There was still no reply. The silence stretched so long that he couldn't take it anymore.

"Hey! Faust!" He shouted loudly, his voice echoing within the silent forest.

The wind quietly blew, fluttering the trees as leaves slowly fell to the ground. Silence. There was still no reply. Now, what was happening this time? His face scrunched up to a frown. A flash of irritation passed through his eyes as impatience took over him.

A memory suddenly flashed through his mind. Wait. His previous tense face was now filled with worry and shock. Wait. Wait. Just wait.

"...Wait." Rio muttered, his eyes widening. Before he was blown away from his skill, Faust last thoughts were transmitted to his mind. He had originally thought it was just nothing, but..

In a hurry, he immediately looked inside his body again, staring at the two floating cubes beneath his heart. The first cube was larger than the second. The second cube was miniscule, barely radiating any magical energy compared to the first cube.

His eyes widened in shock, it was about to turn into dismay—until he felt a faint spiritual presence erupt within the second cube. The presence was faint, it was almost unidentifiable if not searched throughly. But it was there. He stared at it, looking at the appearance of the spirit.

It was the all-familiar tanned muscular man. It was his Master, Faust.

"..Thank god, or else.." Rio sighed. It would be bad if the man died. He would be in utter dismay if it happened. Not after what he had been through, "..The inheritance would have been wasted.

It would have been a cruel twist if the inheritance as a whole just vanished away, not after his painstaking efforts to get it. While he wasn't aiming for it specifically on his travels, it was still one of the things he planned for.

Any advantage or anything that could greatly enhance his potential fighting prowess would benefit him greatly. Except for short-term power ups of course.

In fact, before he proceeded with his plan—he debated on which demon dimension he should go to. From the knowledge he obtained on the novel, he already know of several other demon dimensions containing of different unique inheritances, in each of their own a powerful and useful advantage. But still, among those he still preferred Faust the most.

That aside, now that he had confirmed of his master being safe and sound, he should focus more on his current situation.

He moved his hands slightly. Great, he could move his body now—albeit heavily. He put his palm onto the ground, pushing his body upwards. Rio groaned as he felt pain assault his body.

"I should have work out more before doing any of these..." Rio muttered, his body uncomfortably leaning on the wooden trunk behind.

He was originally confident of his physique due to how well defined it was, but bleed him dry to realize it was nothing to this world's standards. It was good enough for menial daily task, sure. But swords and magic fighting? Far from it.

"Nevermind that, where am I anyway...?" Rio muttered, bringing his right hand to his face. He looked at the device attached to his wrist. He commanded softly, "Open."

The smartwatch remained static. It's screen an unmoving black image.

'That's strange...is it bugging?'

Rio frowned. That...wasn't good. No, far from good. It was down right horrendous. The GPS tracker system from the smartwatch was his last hope of navigating through the forest. Now without his master Faust, and the GPS tracker—he wasn't going to able to escape here anytime soon.

And God knew how much he wanted to escape this place badly right now. He didn't want to partake in an unnecessary battle royale.

Then again, it wasn't entirely hopeless. Rio mused. If he remembered correctly, Ciel called out reinforcements from TAOJ. He could just remove his disguise and prove his identity to them, and he might get a free ride outside this forest.

Even if he was a low rank, standard professor of Volund Academy—the job and title itself still held some bit of prestige. If he proved his identity to the TAOJ, they would most likely escort him back to the kingdom.

Now that he had thought of it, it was not that bad. His only problem of it was proving his identity. The problem was self-explanatory; the plan needed him to expose himself. That was bad. Not for the reason of preference of being low key, but rather the consequences that came with it.

He couldn't use his current identity "John" to avoid that either. They weren't called Truth Agency of Justice for nothing. If he strolled right to them with his "John" identity, he would just be met with baseless suspicion—and extensively, they might pick up on his disguise. After that, it was more or less over for him.

To make it simple to understand, think of this. The place he was currently standing on had a threat of Territorial Invasion, a cultist group, and a mini battle royale bloodbath of Miracle Invokers all together that happened within a single day.

And miraculously, a lone Rank C Miracle Invoker survived all of that without a scratch. Not even a wound. If that wasn't suspicious, then he didn't know what.

Even if he could prove to them that he had no part of anything, he was still going to be barraged with questions and worst-case scenario, the TAOJ's eyes will never leave him be.

That would be a nightmare to his plans and actions. He would never be able to proceed with his plans without the threat of being discovered. But that was easily solvable. He has another identity, or another persona of disguise, so to speak "John."historical

Thus, even if "Rio Salem" was under the threat of supervision, his other identity "John" was not.

Overall, it was not that bad. While it would certainly be annoying for the TAOJ to bind his freedom to act more, he preferred it over being stuck in this hellhole.

"Oh, it seems the recoil is gone now..." Rio said, wriggling his body. His body wearily tried to stand up from the ground.

Rio groaned, his body trembling. He held onto the wooden trunk beside him, preventing himself from falling. Now, after the recoil, another problem came to him. His body was strained from all the fights.

But it wasn't so bad as the recoil. It didn't make him down right unable to act. It just made his body harder to move. "Better than not being able to move atleast," Rio muttered, his head shaking.

Just as he stood up from the ground, a deathly silence suddenly descended to the forest. The wind froze as the forest stilled. His body uncomfortably twitched, feeling an ominous sensation. He looked at his left.

In that moment, the ground beneath trembled. The wind raged as the forest shook. From the left, a regal and mythical pressure descended. Rio could feel his body almost get crushed from the pressure. Beside him, the trees and bushes were ravaged, broken apart as the pressure took them apart.

And then, it stopped. Vanishing as fast as it appeared. Yet to him, the pressure felt like an eternity.

"What..." Rio whispered, his hand tightly grasping to the wooden tree beside him. "..—What was that?!"

As if an answer to his questions, an ancient bestial wail echoed. The wail had an alluring ancient tone within it complimenting with the majestic bestial echo that it brought forth. It's voice was...mythical, or in a sense—above mere beasts.