Diana streaked across the night sky like a falling star of destruction while Sebastian remained trapped within her grasp.

The air exploded repeatedly behind her as sonic booms shattered the clouds across the horizon. Sebastian could barely breathe. His neck was locked beneath Diana’s slender fingers, yet the pain around his throat felt insignificant compared to the terror consuming his mind.

Her aura no longer resembled human power.

It felt like standing before an ancient catastrophe wearing the skin of a woman. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Diana’s crimson eyes remained fixed ahead without emotion while violent dark elemental energy swirled around her body endlessly. The surrounding mana trembled chaotically wherever she passed as though the world itself feared her rage.

"You had thirty seconds," Diana said quietly.

Her voice carried terrifying calmness.

The moment those words fell, immense darkness erupted from her eyes and invaded Sebastian’s consciousness instantly. It entered his senses like countless claws tearing through his mental defenses without resistance.

Sebastian’s pupils contracted violently.

"N No...!"

Absolute horror flooded his face.

Soul searching.

A forbidden ability possessed only by Sages who had completely mastered their Mythical skills. Once the process began, every secret hidden within the soul would be exposed mercilessly.

Sebastian finally understood.

Diana had never intended to interrogate him normally.

She intended to rip the truth directly from his soul.

The dark energy pierced deeper into his consciousness while fragmented memories began surfacing uncontrollably. Sebastian trembled violently as unbearable pain spread through his mind.

Then suddenly—

Some restrictions activated in his soul.

Boom!

His head exploded instantly.

Blood and shattered bone scattered through the sky while his lifeless corpse fell downward toward the distant forests below.

Diana stopped midair.

The violent winds around her slowly calmed as she stared silently at the headless corpse falling into darkness. Her crimson eyes reflected neither surprise nor pity.

Only endless coldness remained.

An automatic soul destruction seal.

The organization had prepared for betrayal from the very beginning.

For several seconds, Diana remained motionless beneath the dark sky while her fingers slowly clenched tighter at her side.

Then Victor’s face appeared within her mind again.

His calm smile.

His awkward honesty.

The warmth of his embrace.

At that moment, something inside Diana shattered completely.

Her breathing became uneven while violent emotions surged endlessly through her chest like a collapsing ocean. Every time she imagined Victor lying dead inside the dungeon, her heart felt as though invisible blades were tearing it apart piece by piece.

She finally understood why.

Since childhood, every man who approached her carried disgusting scents within her senses. Lust. Greed. Desire. Ambition. Their very existence instinctively repulsed her primordial dao body.

That was why she never allowed anyone close.

Not even the empire’s greatest geniuses.

But Victor was different.

His scent was clean.

Warm.

Addictive.

Whenever he stood near her, her instincts did not reject him. Instead, they desired his presence endlessly. The feeling was so natural that she had unconsciously lowered every guard around him without realizing it.

Especially that day when Victor hugged her.

Her thoughts had completely stopped functioning.

Only now did Diana finally understand the truth she had been too confused to notice before.

Victor was the only man her soul had ever accepted.

Her destined partner.

The realization destroyed the final restraint holding back her emotions.

Boom!!

A horrifying shockwave erupted across the heavens.

The entire sky darkened instantly as monstrous dark elemental energy exploded outward from Diana’s body without limit. Space itself distorted violently around her while countless cracks spread across the air like shattered glass.

Several mountains beneath her collapsed instantly under the pressure alone.

Diana lowered her head while trembling uncontrollably.

"Victor..."

Her voice broke painfully.

For the first time in years, tears slowly flowed from her crimson eyes.

At that exact moment, six overwhelming auras descended around her simultaneously.

The Sages had arrived.

"Diana, stop immediately!" Elyndros roared.

However, Diana no longer heard them.

Some kind of unknown bloodline hidden within her body had awakened alongside her emotional collapse. Ancient black markings spread slowly across her pale skin while her aura multiplied at a terrifying speed.

Even the six Sages felt fear.

Lyria’s expression turned pale instantly.

"This pressure... impossible..."

.....

Inside the dungeon, Victor continued repeating the same brutal cycle without interruption. Time gradually lost its meaning inside the underground dungeon as his entire existence revolved around combat, recovery, and relentless self improvement.

Every three hours, he would sweep through the entire dungeon while deliberately leaving the boss monster alive. He completed the massacre within thirty minutes each time, collected every mana core scattered across the floors, and then returned to the huge rock to continue cultivating his body strengthening spell for the remaining hours.

That had become his routine.

At first, completing the spell required nearly one hundred exhausting minutes. His mana circulation had been unstable, his muscles had constantly torn apart under the pressure, and his bones had felt as though they would shatter from the overwhelming strain.

However, after dozens of repeated cycles, his control improved to an astonishing level. The spell that once consumed most of his strength could now be completed within a single hour.

The improvement was terrifying.

After every five cycles, Victor allowed himself a short period of rest that lasted roughly two hours. Even with his abnormal recovery speed, his body still needed time to stabilize. The constant reinforcement of flesh, blood, organs, and bones pushed his body beyond normal human limits repeatedly. If he ignored recovery entirely, even he understood there would eventually be consequences.

Like this, five entire days passed within the dungeon.

The silence of the underground halls became familiar to him. The scent of monster no longer bothered him. Even the endless pain from strengthening his body had gradually transformed into something distant and numb.

That day, Victor finally completed the seventy third cycle of his body strengthening spell.

A familiar notification echoed inside his mind.

[Ding! You have reached the absolute limit of the apprentice realm human. You cannot use this spell further before breaking through.]

Victor slowly opened his eyes.

For several seconds, he simply stared into the darkness ahead of him while processing the words. Then he immediately opened his status panel.

[Physique: 120]

His eyes widened slightly.

A strange laugh almost escaped his mouth as disbelief spread across his face. Warriors and assassins were famous for possessing the strongest physiques among awakened humans. Those who specialized in body cultivation spent years tempering their flesh just to barely reach one hundred physique points before advancing into the next realm.

Yet he, a mage, had surpassed them completely.

"Oh boy... even elite warriors and assassins can only reach one hundred points in this realm. Are you telling me that I, a mage, now possess a stronger physique than them?"

A smile slowly appeared on his face.

The absurdity of it all amused him deeply.

Victor stood up from the ground, but the moment he straightened his body, his expression shifted slightly. Something felt different. His eyes narrowed as he instinctively looked around.

The ground appeared lower than before.

At first, he thought it was merely exhaustion affecting his perception. However, once he activated his mana sense and scanned his own body carefully, realization struck him immediately.

During the past five days, his height had increased considerably.

Victor walked toward a broken reflective crystal embedded in the dungeon wall and examined himself carefully. The young man staring back at him looked far more mature than before. His once lean and youthful appearance had changed noticeably. His shoulders had broadened, his muscles had become denser beneath his clothes, and the childish traces remaining on his face had almost completely disappeared.

He was now approximately one hundred eighty five centimeters tall.

Victor nodded slowly in satisfaction.

"Not bad. I never liked that childlike body anyway. I am a twenty year old man in my soul after all."