Rosacer's heart felt as though it would burst under the pressure.
Without delay, he drew upon the death-infested mana of the doll, forcing its aura into himself. His own blight-tainted mana resisted violently, surging against his veins as if trying to escape his body. The pain was excruciating.
Yet he endured.
The moment his limit was reached, he expelled the excess mana outward.
Darkness swallowed his vision. Before him, storms of light expanded and collapsed at once. Some converged, others diverged from a single point. Then, suddenly, he stood within absolute darkness, watching everything unfold.
The pain vanished in that very moment.
He squinted his eyes, light forming an array of patterns before his vision, the invisible creature appearing to him through eyes that stayed wide open.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that the lights were worlds.
His eyes widened in astonishment. His lips trembled as the words escaped him.
"God's Perspective."
As the words left his mouth, his vision shifted again. This time, the worlds drew closer. He could see time flowing like threads, space folding into itself, dimensions bending within one another, and the void being slowly devoured by light.
To him, the worlds farthest from the center appeared darker, yet younger. Those nearest seemed ancient, and yet the truth contradicted itself. The farthest were also the oldest. It was as if the center of existence guided them all, governing every world.
Rosacer could not fully grasp its meaning, but one thought settled in his mind.
They were the suns of their worlds.
He exhaled slowly as he watched from the darkness of Oblivion, which was being reduced into smaller and smaller fragments.
Turning around, he faced the endless void stretching beyond him.
"No matter what, this darkness cannot disappear," he murmured.
Yet he sensed a difference between Oblivion and Ananta.
Oblivion was darkness and eternal emptiness, but it was still part of existence. Ananta, however, was beyond imagination itself. It existed outside thought, beyond realization.
When he used Ananta, he felt as though he had been cast far away from the world and its laws of governance. The sensation of Oblivion was different. There, he still existed. He was lucid, anchored.
Because of that, he could now pinpoint his teleportation with precision.
Though he was no longer within the special layer Ananta provided, and his teleportation should, in theory, be weakened, he did not know by how much.
He focused on a location, searching across the world.
Flames that scorched nature itself.
He tried to recall the same sensation he had felt when Josan burned him.
Suddenly, he saw it.
A man in a black suit, standing inside a building shrouded in fog.
"Found you…"
Inside Opelia's mansion, a bloodhound lunged at a woman.
Brown hair. Blue eyes. A striking, youthful beauty.
"Fea!" she roared, using a shard of mirror to cleave the wretch's mouth open.
Fea raised tree-root tentacles before her, forming a shield. But before she could fully cover herself, a shrieking sound pierced through them. The scream burst her eardrums.
She collapsed to the ground, clutching her ears as blood poured from them.
The dripping blood suddenly levitated, twisting in the air before shaping into a sharp spear that shot toward the blue-eyed woman.
"It won't work on her!" Fea cried, still writhing in pain.
Suddenly, Katrina felt her strength drain away. Her body collapsed as her energy was sucked out by some unseen entity.
The blood spear halted midair, then withered before reaching the woman.
Opelia roared in fury, "How many of you are there?!"
A sword clanged, smashing the mirror in her hand into fragments. The wielder dashed back instantly.
"Opelia! Your reign is over. All your soldiers are dead. Give up!" Elizabeth cried.
In her hand was the Sword of Drudgery.
The shard repaired itself in an instant, reforming into a flawless mirror.
Opelia's face twisted with rage. With a sharp gesture, she summoned mirrors from thin air. Within seconds, they cracked, and grotesque creatures began to crawl out.
Each bore Opelia's likeness, yet every one of them was warped. Their faces were distorted, twisted into disgraceful parodies of beauty. They lunged toward the fallen Katrina and Elizabeth.
One of the creatures, its face mangled beyond recognition, leapt forward, its twisted mouth widening as it tried to engulf Katrina.
Katrina reacted at once. She conjured blood poison, slitting her own wrist and spraying the crimson mist toward the charging monster.
Tiny specks of warm red vapor scattered through the air. The moment they touched the creature's skin, it recoiled, unable to fully evade the poison.
It turned its head toward the other mirror-born forms. They stood motionless, awaiting Opelia's command.
Slowly, it faced Katrina again.
Already exhausted from the battle, her eyes barely stayed open. Yet she still met the creature's gaze.
Elizabeth raised a shield around them and pointed her sword forward. She, too, was weakening. The barrier trembled, barely holding after all the fights it had taken just to reach the mansion.
"I can't go on… When will Josan come?" she murmured.
Beside her, Katrina struggled to remain conscious. Severe blood loss had left her anemic, her body too weak to carry enough oxygen to her brain.
"Let me drink your blood, Eliza…" she whispered, her voice fading into the air.
Elizabeth held her shield high, forcing it to remain steady as the ring drained her mana at a terrifying rate.
Then she noticed it.
The creatures were no longer moving.
Even the mangled one stood frozen. Though rage still burned in its eyes, its body remained utterly still.
It was as if time itself had been paused.
A flicker of purple flame suddenly caught her attention.
Her gaze snapped toward Opelia.
A hand was emerging from Opelia's chest.
Her body had gone completely rigid, locked in absolute stillness.
Elizabeth dismissed her shield at once and staggered back, exhaling in exhaustion.
"You finally came…"
Her voice trembled as she struggled for breath.
"Glad… you made it… in time."
Fea released the branches and roots she had summoned. They collapsed to the ground as she fell back onto herself, staring at the unmoving mirror creatures, suspended in total stasis.
Slowly, her eyes shifted to Opelia.
Her chest had been torn open, and from within it, a hand clenched her heart.