"Kyaaaaa!!!" Ume screamed, flustered from the sudden touch. "What are you doing, jerk!?"

She instantly jumped forward, reaching the ground while I remained in a complete daze. My mind was still processing the most erotic and blissful touch my face had ever felt.

"So soft… so squishy…" I murmured unconsciously, my nose already bleeding.

Ume, who was observing me from the floor, snapped, squinting her eyes. "Jerk, shut your mouth!"

It was only then that I returned to reality and found Ume throwing daggers at me with a crimson face from embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry, Ume," I blurted. "I didn't do it intentionally."

"Boo!" She pouted, not believing me at all.

I jumped inside and pleaded, "Really, it was just an accident."

"Say that after wiping your nose!"

I immediately wiped the blood from my nose and blurted without thinking it through, "Your erotic butt was making my mind crazy, so I closed my eyes, and then you suddenly stopped, which led to the circumstances."

"You really don't know when to shut your mouth!" She snapped, fuming with blush.

"Ume, take a look at the crystal," I said, pointing at the lotus crystal to change the topic.

"Hmph! I won't let it slide this… time…"

As she was complaining, her focus turned to the lotus crystal being ignited by the Eternal Flame.

"I have seen it somewhere," Ume murmured, her eyes locked ahead.

"You have seen that crystal before?"

"Not that, dummy. I'm talking about the flame below it. I have surely seen it before. I-it's name is Eternal Flame."

"You even know its name. Where have you seen it?" I asked, curious.

"I can't remember. The seal on my memory is blocking me from remembering anything about it," she said, holding her head from dizziness. "However, from the pressure it's erupting toward us, I'm sure it belongs to someone as strong as me, or even stronger, when I was at the zenith of my power."

She stepped forward to take a closer look at the flame, but the moment she did, the flame roared, intensifying severalfold.

"It doesn't welcome my presence," Ume sighed, stepping back.

"But why would it oppose you when even Nyx and her group extracted some of the flame and used it in the furnace?"

"It's opposing me because it feels threatened by my divinity," Ume declared. "The flame also contains divine energy, so it's afraid I might engulf it."

"Oh, is that why it doesn't oppose me—because I don't have divine Soulforce?" I thought inwardly as I stepped forward, taking out the three broken shards from my inventory.

The moment I took out the broken shards, they vibrated violently, leapt from my hands, and slammed into the last part that was lying dormant inside the lotus.

Slowly, the four shards levitated in the air just below the lotus crystal. The Eternal Flame below intensified severalfold, engulfing the entire lotus crystal.

Before I could blink, Ume pulled me backward, and we reached the very corner of the compact room.

The small colorful veins inside the broken shards slowly crawled out and began merging with the veins of the central shard.

The flame turned more and more violent, slowly spreading across the entire room.

Ume waved her hand and created a wall of flowers to protect us, but the flame burned the petals without even the slightest resistance.

As the heat from the flames reached closer to us, I grabbed Ume, pushed her into the corner, and hugged her tightly, covering her from all sides.

"Raj, don't do it. The flames will burn you," Ume pleaded, trying to pull away from me—but then the flame slightly touched her hand, instantly leaving a burn.

"Ahh!" She groaned in pain.

"MOVE BACK, BASTARD! DON'T YOU DARE HURT HER," I commanded, golden lightning subconsciously surging from my body as raw fury shattered the ground beneath my feet.

Surprisingly, the flames stopped and slowly moved backward, leaving the two of us alone.

"R-Raj, h-how do you know that language?" Ume asked, utterly baffled.

I had never seen such an expression of sheer shock on her face.

"What language? I didn't use any different language," I replied before turning my focus to her burned hand.

"It must be stinging," I murmured, carefully holding her hand. "I'm sorry. You got injured because I brought you inside."

She shook her head and said, flicking my forehead, "Dummy, don't blame yourself for things that aren't in your hands. Besides, I'm not that soft."

The flame behind us kept burning for several minutes while the broken shards slowly merged together, taking the shape of a transparent heart-shaped crystal filled with uncountable colorful veins. The blue flame from the whole room slowly gathered into one place and engulfed the heart-shaped crystal within it.

The cracks on the crystal caused by the merging slowly vanished as some of the flame was absorbed into it.

The moment the heart-shaped artifact was completely fixed, it began vibrating—and in the next moment—

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

The artifact began reverberating like a real heart, its beating sending shivers down my spine with every rhythm.

My Bloodline Resonance intensified exponentially as soon as the artifact began vibrating, almost making me faint.

The whole land beneath us started trembling, and even though I couldn't see it, I could feel the clouds gathering in the sky above.

"R-Raj, do something… about that thing," Ume pleaded, barely conscious. "I don't know what it is, but it's making me uncomfortable, and I'm sure its reverberating sound is echoing through the whole Vyoman. If you don't stop it, all the High-Tier Awakeners of Vyoman will gather here."

---

In the Hundred Sky Mountains of the Main Land…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

"What's happening? Even the sky and land are dancing to this strange rhythm. And why am I having a familiar feeling from this?" I mumbled, staring into the sky as the strange rhythm echoed through the surroundings.

"Father, do you know what could be causing this strange phenomenon?"

"I can't say for sure Nymeria, but it seems like some ancient power has just awakened," Father replied.

"Ancient power? Then why does his face appear in my mind with these rhythms?" I murmured inwardly.

---

Somewhere in another part of the Main Land…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

"Has the world come to its end?" a knight wearing shining golden armor murmured, standing outside a dark underground prison cell.

After a moment, the heavy iron door slid upward, and a figure with a white beard and eyes as sharp as a flaming sun walked in.

"What is causing this phenomenon?" the old fiery man demanded, staring at the chained figure inside the cage that barely seemed alive.

The imprisoned figure raised his head, his blue oceanic eyes glowing with a deeply suppressive power.

He slowly rose to his feet, dragging the thousands-of-kilograms-heavy iron sphere attached to the chain on his arms.

The knight guarding the cell instantly unsheathed his sword and took a fighting stance.

"Stay put," the old fiery man ordered, and the knight, with a slight bow, sheathed his sword again.

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

"I'm the one caged in this prison, so how would I know?" the shackled man replied in a low, cracking voice.

"Don't lie to me, Voltrex," the old fiery man said. "That annoying smile on your face clearly tells me that you know something."

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" A wild, uncontrollable laugh broke through the prison, pushing the knight to his knees in an instant.

"There is no one in the whole Vyoman except him who is capable of shaking the very roots of this world!" the caged man shouted, his face twisted with delighted madness.

"Whom are you talking about?" the old fiery man demanded, still keeping a straight face.

The caged man spread his arms and announced with a wide smirk on his face,

"Who else! I'm talking about my boy! My son has returned—hahahahaha!!!!!!!!"

The old fiery man, who had maintained a straight face, suddenly flinched at the declaration.

"That's not possible!" he firmly denied. "I think you've truly gone mad from starving all these years."

The old man turned to leave, but as he did, the caged man asked with an arrogant laugh,

"If you think I'm lying, then why is your forehead covered in sweat? Are you perhaps afraid of my son?"

The old fiery man suddenly erupted with suppressive pressure, slamming the caged man into the ground as blood poured from his mouth.

"I'm afraid of no one," he muttered and left the underground cell with clenched teeth.

---

Somewhere in the Upper Realm…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

"Have you still not located where this rhythm is reverberating from?" a young-faced man with long black hair, sitting on a majestic throne, demanded.

"L-Lord Ancestor, the vibration is coming from the lower world, but as for its exact location… please punish us, as we can't identify it," a servant replied, bowing in fear.

"Tsk… all of you are useless!" the young-faced man barked.

"Why… why after all these years!" he muttered through clenched teeth.

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

Dan… da… dhun…

"Why is your heart still beating so loudly even when I crushed it into pieces with my own hands?!"

---

[End of the second arc: Secrets of the Abandoned Land]

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