Yuri nodded to Alnea, before closing her eyes. Moments later, Mysteries of the Origin Sea manifested around her, spreading out with her as their centre, creating a ripple of sorts in the air. Of course, except for Alnea, no one else could see the ripples that the fluctuations of the Mysteries left behind. But that was soon about to change.
Unlike him, who still had to be wary of his Roots, Yuri had already begun digging deeper into her Roots, developing more varied ways of using its special nature. Once, she had to hold his hands in order to share her senses with him. After nearly two years of practice, not only had she learned how to reverse that connection, and share his senses with others, but she could also do it through just the ripples of the Mysteries spreading in the air.
“…Is this what a Domain feels like?”
“…Such clear perception of the surroundings…”
“…Are those the waves you were talking about?”
“…Even the Mysteries of the Origin Sea cannot escape detection…”
“…It is a prototype of a Domain, after all…”
“…Can we sense other things? Like—
“Stop wasting time,” Alnea said to the Star Seekers. “Don’t you know how much burden Yuri is taking by sharing my senses with you? If you still hesitate in reaching out to the Fortune Spring, then you can just forget about it.”
“…I am fine, Alnea. Although the burden of connecting everyone’s senses is heavy, I can bear it for a while.”
“Stop acting tough. There is no need to push yourself to your limit when it can be avoided,” Alnea said, before turning to everyone else. “What are you all waiting for? Hurry up to the Fortune Spring.”
Everyone nodded with a hint of guilt and shame on their faces, before quickly closing their eyes and concentrating on the waves coming from the centre of the dune. Moments later, their bodies began glowing in a silvery blue light, before releasing a burst of energy comparable to some Peak Stage Arcanas, vanishing from the desert altogether.
“…As you expected, they have all been sent to a different space.”
“Can you still feel their presence?”
“If it was you, it might work. With them…”
“I understand,” Alnea said, pausing for a moment before continuing. “It’s your turn next.”
“I know,” Yuri said, nodding with a solemn gaze. “Be careful.”
“…You too.”
Right in the next moment, even Yuri was gone, leaving Alnea to stand alone in the desert. Releasing a sigh, he glanced towards the dark horizon in the distance. Although they had been bombarding the dunes with their Arcanas and Martial Styles for an entire day, they had used their weakest means to keep the disturbance to a minimum. The Fortune Spring though…
And it was not just the Adult Stage Oren Beasts. It had been nearly a quarter of an hour since Alnea first discovered the waves coming from the dune. Counting the time Vestia had last dealt with an Oren Beast… If he was not wrong, then an Oren Beast should be coming over to attack him at any moment. He did not have to deal with the beast though. Or the Adult Stage Oren Beasts. At least not right away. At the moment, the only thing he had on his mind was the Fortune Spring.
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Taking deep breaths, Alnea turned back to focus on the waves coming from the dune, before reaching out to them with his Spirit once again. And just like last time, they latched on to his senses once again, pulling him into an empty, dark world. No, not just his senses. They pulled his entire being, body and Spirit, into the dark world. A strange world, with no concept of time and space.
He could see the giant silvery blue sphere in the distance, hovering in the endless darkness, releasing strange waves with each of its complete rotation, but that was because of the inherent nature of the sphere. The world itself was a void that could not tolerate the existence of anything other than the sphere. That was probably the reason why he had failed to notice his body the first time he had come to the strange world. Or the reason why he could not see any of his teammates.
As a world that held no concept of time and space, existing for the sole purpose of housing the strange sphere, it would have been a surprise if it would have let him sense the existence of his teammates. Maybe if his Spirit Power was at the Mystic Rank, and he comprehended some Mysteries from Yul’s lineage, the void would not have been able to stop him. As he was though, he was no match for the void. Of course, even the void was no match for the Rings of Fate.
“Are you alright?”
“I am fine. Don’t worry about me. Focus on the sphere in front of you.”
“…Alright,” Alnea said, before turning his focus back to the giant sphere. Although it was at least twenty times as large as him, it did not have any menacing air about it. On the contrary, its silvery blue glow, and the waves it was releasing, made it look a little pleasing to his eyes. Still, no matter how he looked, he could not figure out its Mystery. Unlike the Fortune Springs of the Night Canyons, the sphere did not give clues on how he should receive its Fortune. Or maybe it did…
All Fortune Springs had some tests attached to their Fortune. Sometimes, those tests were in the form of the Fortune itself. Like the first Fortune Spring Alnea had experienced in the Night Canyons. At other times, finding the Fortune Spring itself was a test. Like the statue they had found in the canyons, the one that could hide all the boulders around it. And as a Fortune Spring that could be found only with the help of a Domain type Arcana, the sphere had to be of the latter type. Or so he thought.
There were chances that he could be wrong. After all, Fortune Springs themselves were anomalies created by the intersection of the world with the Origin Sea. There was no set pattern to their formation, or the Mysteries they carried. Even with the same Mysteries, no two Fortune Springs could bestow the same Fortune. Generalising their behaviour was just to make it more convenient for Wanderers to understand Fortune Springs. In practise, there were bound to be differences between how they worked.
Still, with how difficult it was to find the sphere, there was a high chance for his thoughts to be true. And even if he was wrong, it did not hurt to try. Once he made up his mind, Alnea did not waste any time in getting closer to the sphere. Through his thoughts, of course. After all, the world did not have any concept of space. And even if it did, he could not just walk on the endless darkness around him.
Thankfully, it was not the first time he was facing such a situation. His Domain in the Origin Sea was also a void of sorts, a world of empty darkness, with no concept of time or space. Or so it used to be when he first began Wandering the Origin Sea. It was not until he finally comprehended some Mysteries and condensed their prototypes that his Domain began gaining some substance.
Of course, even with all the Mysteries, his Domain was still a void for the most part. Although it had gained some element of the concept of space, it did not have any concept of ground or skies. And the world he was in at the moment went a level beyond his Domain, doing away with even the concept of direction. On second thought, he should have expected as such from a world with no concept of space and time.
Regardless, the only way to move in such a world was through his thoughts. And as he had expected, the moment he thought about getting closer to the sphere, he found it getting larger in his eyes. Soon, the sphere was so close, that he felt as if he could reach out to it with his hands. And so, he did. With his non-existent hands, of course.
Without the concept of space, he could not exist in the world physically. Still, just the thought of touching the sphere was enough. Before he knew it, he could already feel the sphere’s smooth texture on his hands, rotating ever so slowly, releasing strange, intangible waves that went beyond the concept of time and space. And in that moment, he also understood what the sphere was. An eternal existence that came into being with the Origin Sea itself.
Or at least the source of the sphere did. The sphere itself was just one of the countless projections of the eternal existence, simplified to the level he could grasp its essence. If it had been the eternal existence itself that he was facing, just its mere presence would have been enough to assimilate his very being into its existence. Still, even the essence of the sphere was not something he could grasp so easily. After all, no matter how simplified it was, it was still an essence of Eternity.