Chapter 140: New world

The place we reached after descending the stairs was a wide hallway. Judging by its design, it had once been used to display various items—stone display cases lined the walls.

I glanced around and lightly tapped the backpack that kept wriggling. Nightmare, hiding inside, must’ve grown bored.

“Hm…”

Most of the items had long since lost their original forms to the passage of time. Only the occasional artifact had retained its shape.

“I’ve never seen a magic circle like this…”

“But it doesn’t seem difficult to use. As long as you can manipulate mana, anyone could use it.”

“They engraved the magic circle directly into the mana stone by carving it out…?”

The group split up again—some moved deeper in, while others began examining the surroundings more carefully.

I continued forward with Haven.

This part of the ruin had clearly once been submerged in seawater. The walls and floors were damp, and occasionally, droplets still fell from the ceiling.

I reached out and touched the clammy wall. The writing engraved along it was completely unfamiliar—letters I had never encountered while traveling the continent, nor during my time in Janghon.

“This… This should be impossible.”

Some of the mages were so shaken that they began denying the reality before them. But no amount of disbelief could make the ruins vanish.

As we proceeded deeper, we reached a large auditorium. Rows of seats descended downwards, centered around a raised platform. It was clearly a place built for presentations or lectures.

Everyone fell silent, their eyes drawn to a single point: a massive mural covering the back wall.

Despite the passage of time, its colors had barely faded—a sign that something magical had preserved it.

But the most astonishing thing wasn’t that. It was the content of the mural.

Dozens of dragons, rendered in astonishing detail, soared through the skies around a towering spire. Below them, humans, dwarves, and elves coexisted.

The spire pierced the clouds, rising so high its top couldn’t be imagined. Past the blue sky and another layer of clouds, whales swam gracefully—then came floating landmasses, large and small, suspended in the air.

“Those pointed ears… they must be elves.”

“Short, muscular bodies—that matches the old descriptions of dwarves.”

“This one… looks like a cat, but with three tails.”

“There’s also a massive deer-like creature, as big as a dragon. Strange that it’s drawn semi-transparent…”

“Then… is this mural depicting the time before all other races vanished?”

“Look beneath the sky… Can’t you all see the floating land above?”

The silence broke. A storm of speculation followed. I walked down the steps and stared up at the mural in the back of the hall.

Though drawn small, one of the floating landmasses unmistakably resembled our own continent.

“Are they saying there’s another world beneath us?”

“I saw it on Monster Island. Where the land ended, there was nothing but a vast blue sky…”

Su and Shu joined me, gazing blankly at the mural in awe.

We didn’t linger long. The excitement of discovering a new world had everyone eager to move forward.

Room after room lined the sprawling corridors. Though much of the facility had succumbed to erosion, the magical artifacts still retained their form. From that, we could guess the original function of the ruins.

“A place of learning, filled with visual aids and repetition. It’s like the training halls for young mages at the Tower.”

“The whole structure seems to have been built for education… perhaps a school for nobles?”

“A school to teach magic? The entire ruin?”

We left the mages to their theories and moved on. Descending a staircase at the end of a hallway, we eventually reached a dead end.

“The path ends here,” Su said.

Just as he said, the passage abruptly stopped. Judging from the architecture, something else had once existed below this staircase. But now, nothing remained. The ground beneath was rough natural stone, as though something had been torn away by force. Even the engravings on the walls ended unnaturally.

“This inconsistency… Of course! This continent must’ve risen from below!”

“Don’t be absurd. Below us is just open sky. There’s nothing there.”

“Then how do you explain the mural we just saw?”

“Why assume it’s real? The artist could’ve just imagined it…”

The mages’ voices grew louder. Haven raised a hand to silence them. To me, he was like a friendly grandfather—but clearly, to the others, he commanded far more authority.

“Everyone, calm yourselves.”

“Hm… yes, of course.”

“Right, sorry…”

Haven surveyed the surroundings and then spoke slowly.

“This is not something we can decide on our own. I believe we’ll need to summon more mages.”

“You mean…?”

While the others murmured behind me, I gently traced the wall where the inscription had been cut off. Just like in the Mage Tower, strange flows of mana pulsed through the ruin.

“That writing… does it bother you?” Haven asked.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe you’ve seen it on your travels? Think carefully.”

I shook my head. I had no memory of such writing. As I traced the letters with my fingertips—

Wooooong—

The glyphs reacted to my mana, as though awakening from a deep slumber.

“What… is this?”

The flow of mana intensified. It began spilling outward from the wall, unable to find its intended direction.

Wooooong—

Even after I withdrew my mana, the flow from the ruins did not stop.

“Seris. What are you—”

Before Haven could finish, the space around us began to tremble. The scenery warped. The very air distorted around my skin.

And then—I was flying through the sky.

“Gasp…!”

I looked around. Nothing. Just endless blue and white. The sky stretched infinitely in all directions.

Moments later, Su and Shu appeared beside me, engulfed in the same blue light. Their wide-open mouths finally gave way to screams as they realized what was happening.

“Eek! Aaaaahhh!”

“What is happeningggg!”

The roaring wind swallowed their voices. I clenched my teeth and fought to stabilize my body. My limbs flailed wildly as I spun through the air—but soon, I managed to right myself.

The kids weren’t far behind. Agile and physically gifted, they recovered their balance as their bags flipped open and spilled their contents mid-air.

We were falling. And falling. Dozens of seconds passed, yet the ground was nowhere in sight.

I tried to use Blink in a panic—but the moment my mana left my body, it scattered helplessly into the air.

My magic failed. For the first time ever.

A cold chill ran down my spine. I gathered my mana again—but the result was the same. It vanished before I could control it.

If this kept up, we’d crash into the ground and die.

With no other choice, I slammed a surge of mana into the wind spirit that always followed me.

FWOOOOSH—!

A massive blast of wind exploded outward, slowing our descent. I managed to climb back up to where Su and Shu were. But the spirit shrank quickly, drained by the effort.

Still—we continued falling. Past the blue sky and into a sea of white clouds.

And then—I locked eyes with a massive living creature.

It was only for an instant. The being, startled, quickly disappeared into the clouds.

FWOOM—!

The moment we passed through the clouds, the ground finally came into view.

There was no time to admire the scenery. I had to reduce our speed—fast.

My mana itself wasn’t malfunctioning. Physical reinforcement still worked. The problem was external mana control.

What should I do…?

Then I remembered the two swords strapped at my waist—rattling violently.

That’s it.

I drew the Fire Dragon Sword and stepped onto it. As soon as my mana flowed through it—an extension of my own body—the sword began to fly.

The fall slowed. I grabbed Su and Shu with both arms.

“Gasp…!”

“Eeeek…!”

The moment I realized we’d survived, a deep sigh of relief escaped me. I looked at my trembling hands and asked the kids:

“You two okay?”

“I’m… not sure yet…”

“Are we gonna die?”

“We’re not dying. Not today…”

But—we had a new problem.

Flying low on the sword, I scanned our surroundings. A vast, green meadow stretched beneath us, breathtaking in its beauty—but the massive creatures walking across it were anything but beautiful.

[NuoOoOoOng—]

One looked like a mix between a giraffe and a deer. Its translucent body shimmered as it let out a strange call to the sky and walked gracefully across the meadow.

“Where… are we?”

Just as Shu murmured this in a daze, a giant feline creature appeared from beyond the clouds. No—could that even be called a cat?

It had a horn on its head and six legs. It didn’t run on the ground, but instead bounded through the sky itself—disappearing into the clouds.