...
"Hm!?"
Elarielle, who had only just managed to steady herself after Lilith’s world-shaking awakening, suddenly frowned.
Her keen senses caught it instantly—the flow of mana and elemental power around her had turned impossibly dense in the blink of an eye!
By the time she pushed open the door and saw the world outside remade, the shock rattled her very soul.
She stared blankly at the colossal tree at the city’s heart—so vast it made her feel infinitesimal.
She felt the Composite Arcane Barrier layered over the entire city—so thick, so unyielding—that even she, an Eternal Magus, felt a stab of despair at the thought of breaking it.
She took in the city wrought entirely from mythic materials, the tide of power running through it beyond the age itself, the legendary plants rooted across every district...
Her lifelong understanding shattered again and again—ground down and reforged with almost brutal force.
"Is this... Lord Leo’s handiwork?"
"...Is he even human anymore?!"
Even a god... would be no more than this, would they?
"With a single thought... heaven and earth overturned..."
Elarielle murmured, awe saturating her flawless features.
Around her, the elements churned so vividly they were nearly boiling; the laws themselves felt close enough to touch.
The old injuries in her body—from millennia spent suppressing the rift on the ocean floor, from the corrosion of void energy—were, in this boundless sea of mana, madly mending and being purified.
The bottleneck of Eternal Magus—stagnant for thousands of years—under this unprecedented flood of mana and the shock to her very state of mind, finally—
Boom!
A mighty aura burst from within her with no warning.
Verdant radiance of nature shot into the sky. It was far less ostentatious than the starry phenomenon earlier, and yet the sovereign pressure belonging to a Grandmaster of Truth rang crystal clear.
Like a boulder hurled into a placid lake, a ring of energy ripples spread in an instant!
Vaguely, every plant in Dalton Town seemed to resonate; motes of light drifted from leaves and petals into Elarielle, perfecting her realm and gifts...
The natural force around her almost took on substance, forming a vibrant emerald halo of life.
A millennium’s accumulation—pent-up power, released in a single day!
This powerful aura of a Grandmaster of Truth fell upon a continent already boiling from "daytime stars," as if a ladle of water had been thrown into a pot of smoking oil!
Faranden Royal Capital.
The king, who had just dispatched the Shadow Ravens, nearly fell from his throne.
"Again... again?! A legendary mage of nature? No—no, this is an Eternal Magus!"
"By the heavens—is this real?!"
In today’s world, legendary mages were rarer than phoenix feathers; as for Eternal Magi, they existed only in tales passed mouth to mouth!
Almost no one had ever seen such a being walk the earth—let alone a presence that seemed even higher than that.
Across the great powers, the monitoring crystals in mage towers shattered anew.
"We consumed three thousand two hundred fifty-eight prime crystals—energy reaction confirmed!!"
"Nature-life system—at least Eternal-level life tier! Not the same source as the previous star-power!"
The great temples and hidden orders were struck speechless.
"After several millennia... has another Eternal Magus truly appeared in this world?!"
"It seems the balance of the world is about to shift again..."
"Investigate! Accelerate everything! Bring the finest gifts at the highest protocol! We must learn what is happening in the northern continent!"
Orders flew—faster, sharper, more urgent.
The earlier vision that stirred the star-rivers had already exceeded everyone’s understanding and senses.
No one knew what had happened, nor what level of power had been involved.
But this newly erupted aura lay within their range of perception—within what they could grasp.
And so, the world’s centers of power, jolted by two back-to-back miracles, went utterly mad!
Countless airships, magic carpets, goblin zeppelins, and transport circles flared to life—every path pointed north!
...
Elarielle felt the vast, surging, newborn strength within her—so far beyond what she’d had before.
Looking again at the sky-city that seemed a miracle of creation itself, a complicated expression crossed her face.
There was shock, there was confusion—but in the end, all melted into reverence... and a tremor of indescribable excitement.
Softly, filled with unprecedented admiration, she whispered, "Lord Leo... each time, your methods exceed the very limits of what Elarielle can imagine."
Lilith, meanwhile, was a lark set free.
After a brief spell of astonishment, she was already racing along the brand-new streets that shimmered with magical light.
She touched everything, curious and delighted; her sapphire eyes sparkled with pride and joy.
"So amazing! Father is so amazing!"
"Let’s see who dares call Dalton a backwater now! Who dares call us country bumpkins!"
"This place is prettier than the royal capital—no, ten thousand times prettier than the elven king-city in the stories!"
Her clear, musical laughter echoed through the skybridges and plazas, pouring boundless life into the newborn Dalton Town.
...
High above.
The new Dalton Town hung upon the sea of clouds like a jewel carefully carved by the gods.
Within, the citizens—after the initial extremes of shock and bewilderment—
a great joy, pent up for a lifetime, burst like a flood through a breached dam.
"Goddess above! These streets... they’re paved with god-stone! I swear on my granddad’s false teeth!"
An old miner stroked the warm, lustrous ground, tears streaming down his face.
"Look at that fountain! It’s spraying mana—liquefied mana! Oh heavens, if only I could soak in it..."
"This is perfect—we’re finally living in heaven!"
"Where is everyone else? I want to see if Old Smith made it here..."
"Right! Why is there no one else? So strange..."
"Dear gods, does this mean I’ll be sleeping in a bed a hundred meters long from now on? I love heaven!"
"..."
Cheers, sobs, and praises braided together.
Citizens ran their hands across every stone and brick, gazed up at the soaring spires and the World Tree’s canopy, as if they stood inside the most absurd—and most beautiful—dream.
At the peak of that joy, Leo Grey’s figure appeared silently above the central plaza.
He released no deliberate pressure, yet the instant he appeared, it was as if an invisible hand smoothed every ripple of sound.
The entire square fell quiet at once.
"L-Lord... Leo... Town Chief?"
A thousand gazes, laden with confusion and questions, fixed on him alone.
Leo looked exactly as they remembered—
and yet, seeing him floating in the air, no one could help but guess...