Chapter 484: The Land within the Distant Sky, Ruby Mountain

On the Virtual World's Sea of Knowledge.

A lone little boat drifted across the surface of the sea. Inside, a veela wearing an off-shoulder knit sweater lay lazily, looking up at the sky shrouded in white mist. She seemed lost in thought, staring blankly into the distance. It was only when the little bat landed on her shoulder and urged her to move that she reluctantly began steering the boat away.

Soon, the boat stopped again. The owner had clearly lost all motivation to work. If not for the fact that one could not remain in the same location within the Sea of Knowledge for too long, she probably would have simply stayed there and slacked off until the end of her shift.

"Ugh~" Freya hugged the little bat tightly to her chest and complained resentfully. "Why hasn't any sorcerer found me yet...? Tsk, why does the Golden Fish require two sorcerers to fly into the sky together before they can find it?"

At this point, the veela became furious for the ninety-third time.

She had been angry the entire night after reading Chapter 119. It was only after she imagined herself taking on the role of the Swordswoman, using a Water Class Miracle with a long, dramatic incantation, that she finally managed to calm down.

She pursed her lips and hugged the little bat even tighter. "Why is that woman who appeared out of nowhere the one soaring together with Ashe? That should obviously have been me. He should have been mine... Thief! Bad woman! Shameless green tea! Sob! Sob! Sob! ┭┮﹏┭┮..."

The little bat struggled desperately to escape from her suffocating embrace and rolled its eyes. According to the timeline, aren't you technically the third party here? Even I appeared before you... If we really want to argue about seniority, forget eating meat or drinking soup; you'd barely be qualified to lick the leftover sauce.

A woman consumed by love, however, clearly had no regard for logic. Her anger came and dissipated just as quickly.

As Freya imagined the scene of the Silver Wings taking flight, her face gradually filled with longing. "That bad woman was still so stupid, though. If it were me, holding hands wouldn't be enough. At the very least, we should have been embracing each other.

"And the moment we broke through the white mist and saw the Golden Fish... it would have been as if the entire Virtual World was witnessing our love. Nothing could possibly suit that scene better than a romantic, passionate kiss..."

As the veela sank deeper into her imagination, her arms tightened around the little bat, and her legs began rubbing together slightly. Then she suddenly realized something. The little bat had become strangely quiet.

She lowered her head and discovered that the little bat had already fainted from being squeezed too tightly.

Freya hurriedly loosened her grip. "Sorry, sorry!"

The little bat lay motionless on the boat for a while before suddenly trembling and waking up. It immediately flew to the stern, staring at the veela with a frightened expression.

Freya gave an awkward smile, her expression a mix of embarrassment and aggrieved justification. Then, she lightly lifted the two "culprits" that had almost suffocated the little bat and sighed helplessly. "I don't know why, but they somehow got bigger again recently. My shoulders have been so sore during the day. I'm already twenty years old, so I should have passed puberty long ago..."

The little bat thought, So it's true that veelas undergo a second growth spurt when they fall in love. A veela's second development usually adapts to the preferences of the person they love, which means...[1]

Freya stretched lazily and complained, "When am I finally going to meet another sorcerer? I thought convincing another sorcerer would be the difficult part. I didn't expect even meeting another sorcerer would be this hard..."

Freya naturally never doubted the authenticity of the Golden Fish's secret. After fully forming her Silver Wing, she had spent every day thinking about running into another sorcerer and sneaking into the Continent of Time.

She was simply too lazy to search herself, however. In the endless ocean of white mist, actively looking for someone was practically no different from waiting for a rabbit to crash into a tree stump. Therefore, she simply lay in her boat and slacked off, waiting for someone else to stumble across her.

As for why she did not take the proper route and diligently cultivate her Mind Class to the Gold Rank...

Putting aside the fact that greed was a sorcerer's instinct, that utilizing resources was the professional ethics of Mind Class sorcerers, and that craving pleasure while avoiding hard work was one of the excellent qualities of a veela... the most important reason was that Freya wanted to get closer to Ashe.

Doing the same things, walking the same path, and admiring the same scenery... It was as if by recreating his past, she could make up for all those moments when she and he had missed each other.

Whenever Freya shared these thoughts with the little bat, the creature always felt that the veela was unbelievably childish. Still... to be able to remain this childish... how wonderful.

The little bat suddenly felt like teasing her. It flapped its wings and chirped twice.

Freya immediately understood and shook her head. "Of course not! I don't want to hold hands with other male sorcerers!"

She paused. "Hmm, that's right. As long as it's a female sorcerer, there won't be a problem. The ratio of male and female sorcerers is roughly equal. I'll definitely meet one eventually."

The veela raised her head and pointed toward the sky, encouraging herself. "Ashe, just you wait. I'll catch up to you very soon!"

The little bat flew back onto her shoulder, a trace of hesitation flashing through its eyes.

***

The moment Ashe opened his eyes, he immediately collapsed to the ground, convulsing in agony.

It felt as if his entire body had been violently forced into a tight rubber hose. He could not even scream. I'm... suffocating!

The overwhelming sensation of suffocation had stolen away all his ability to express himself, turning even breathing into an unbearably difficult task. The faint, low growl escaping from him was already the loudest cry his soul could produce from its deepest folds.

The Swordswoman and the Witch were no better off.

Driven to despair, the two of them instinctively grabbed one of Ashe's arms each and bit down. The Witch almost tore a chunk of flesh away before the dirty hue of her hair slowly faded. The Swordswoman stopped halfway through her bite, yet the nails gripping his arm had already dug deep into his flesh.

Strangely enough, Ashe now wished he could feel the pain they were causing. At least then, he could use the physical pain to distract himself, escaping the suffocating torment assaulting his mind.

Souls had no nerves, however. No matter how badly they were injured, they could not feel pain. Gritting his teeth until they shattered would do nothing to help.

He had no idea how much time had passed when he finally exhaled a deep breath. It was as if someone had flipped a switch, finally releasing the three of them from their seemingly eternal torture.

The Swordswoman and the Witch no longer cared about their dignity. They lay sprawled on the ground, greedily gasping for air. Their limbs had gone completely limp, their will to fight entirely extinguished. At this moment, even if a Fish-Slaying Dragon appeared and attacked them, they would not possess the slightest desire to resist.

After several dozen breaths, Ashe managed to force himself upright like a student dragging themselves out of bed on a winter morning. He struggled to sit up, leaning against the corner of the wall. "T-The Rainbow Tail..."

Sonya lay on the ground, her chest still heaving violently. She could barely maintain enough clarity to think. "It's not the Rainbow Tail. That was... spatial teleportation.

Ashe looked behind them. An ordinary wooden doorframe stood there. They had likely just stepped out from within it. Only then did he realize that they had appeared in a small alley. Both ends of the alley connected to main roads, and the bustling streets filled with voices and activity made him feel as if he had returned to reality. Ashe looked at them excitedly. "Where are we? Were we teleported back to reality!?"

Sonya had not even recovered her breath when Dia suddenly lifted her head toward the sky. "No. We're still in the Virtual World. Look."

Ashe raised his head, peering through the narrow gap between the buildings. Soon, he noticed a streak of dazzling crimson appearing at the distant edge of his vision. Curious, he asked, "What is that red dot?"

Dia did not answer. She simply pointed toward another part of the sky. "Look over there."

Ashe followed her finger, and another streak of crimson soon appeared in the center of his vision. He froze. "Why did it appear again?"

Dia gave a weak smile. "No matter which direction you look toward the horizon, you'll see it. The fairy tale book The Dream That Can Never Be Reached was a story about the Distant Sky Domain. The protagonist could determine whether they were still within it simply by observing the sky. Who would have thought that it would actually be useful."

Sonya went on, "The crimson you see is the fourth layer of the Virtual World. That is also the greatest characteristic of the Distant Sky Domain. No matter where a sorcerer stands, as long as they look toward the horizon, they can see their ultimate destination, the Ruby Mountain."

Ashe was stunned. "The fourth layer exists inside the third layer?"

"That's one way to describe it. Just like no one can find the Golden Fish or the Rainbow Tail, though, no one can locate Ruby Mountain even after entering the Distant Sky Domain," Sonya grabbed Ashe's hand, slowly forcing herself into a sitting position. "I never expected I would become a Sacred Realm sorcerer this quickly, so I haven't had much chance to read about it... My professor once told me that Ruby Mountain is a kind of torture for Sacred Realm sorcerers. You can see it forever, but you can never reach it."

She gripped Ashe's sleeve tightly. "The 'Distant Sky' in the Distant Sky Domain refers precisely to that... the land within the distant sky, Ruby Mountain."

1. Big boobs Ashe. ☜