I was not that interested in the story itself. What truly intrigued me was something else.
"How did he enter the realm?" I asked.
Defender Aurora remained silent for a few seconds before shaking her head lightly.
"I do not know."
That answer honestly surprised me more than the story itself.
A Saint powerful enough to survive inside the Null Realm for three entire months should have left behind some kind of method, some clue, some trace explaining how he had crossed over into a realm that supposedly had no stable entrance at all.
But apparently even that knowledge had disappeared or either they just did not want to share that information with me.
Amun sighed softly from the side while leaning back against the wall again.
"That is the annoying thing about the Null Realm," he said casually. "Half the information connected to it either gets erased, sealed, or kills the person trying to speak about it. Makes research very inconvenient honestly."
I frowned slightly while looking at the floating black projection above the table. The place felt less like a realm and more like some forbidden crack in existence itself.
Defender Aurora’s voice pulled me away from my thoughts.
"Come with me."
I looked toward her.
"Now?"
"Yes."
There was not even the slightest hesitation in her voice, as though the decision had already been made long before I spoke.
I glanced briefly toward the others before waving my hand lightly. Crimson summoning lines spread beneath my summons one after another, and soon their bodies dissolved back into streams of essence before returning to the Generator Core.
Ragnar laughed loudly while Lyrate simply gave me one last look before vanishing as well.
Soon only North, Steve, Amun, Defender Aurora, and I remained inside the hall.
Defender Aurora slowly raised her hand.
Golden lightning spread soundlessly through the room. Then space folded inward.
The surroundings blurred instantly.
For a brief moment I felt the strange sensation of falling without motion before the world stabilized again beneath my feet.
Silence greeted me first and it was not ordinary silence either.
A hollow kind.
The type that felt wrong the longer you stood within it.
I found myself standing upon an endless gray plain stretching beyond the horizon in every direction while pale mist drifted slowly across cracked ground beneath a colorless sky devoid of clouds, stars, or even a visible sun. The realm itself felt empty in a way that normal worlds never did, as though existence here had been abandoned long ago and never properly recovered afterward.
Even the Essence in the air felt thin and weak.
I instinctively spread my perception outward only to feel resistance almost immediately, not from barriers or suppression but from the realm itself, as though my senses simply struggled to anchor properly here.
"This place..." I muttered quietly.
Defender Aurora walked ahead calmly while faint golden soul force drifted naturally around her body. The gray mist parted gently wherever she stepped.
"This realm exists very close to the boundary separating ordinary existence from the Null Realm," she explained without turning toward me. "Conceptually close."
I narrowed my eyes slightly while observing the surroundings again. The further I looked, the more uncomfortable the realm felt. There were no sounds of wind, no movement beyond the drifting mist, no feeling of life anywhere.
Only stillness.
Defender Aurora finally stopped walking before turning toward me.
"This is where you will train."
I crossed my arms slightly.
"And what exactly am I supposed to learn here?"
"How to use your soul properly."
I almost sighed hearing that vague answer again.
"Manifest your soul," she said calmly.
I blinked once.
"That’s it?"
"Yes."
Honestly, it sounded simple enough.
I closed my eyes slowly afterward and focused inward toward my soul space. Instantly the massive silver-violet world inside revealed itself to me once more, the gigantic projection of my soul standing silently above the expanding inner world with the crown resting upon its head, the Executor’s Staff in one hand and Prarambh in the other while endless streams of soul force drifted around it like rivers of light.
Then I attempted to draw it outward.
Nothing happened.
I frowned slightly before trying again with more force.
The soul inside my inner world reacted faintly this time outside however nothing manifested.
I opened my eyes again.
Defender Aurora remained completely calm.
"Again," she said.
I exhaled slowly before changing methods entirely.
Instead of trying to manifest the soul directly, I attempted to wrap my body in soul force itself. Silver-violet energy rose from within me immediately, gathering around my arm for a brief second before destabilizing violently and dispersing into the air like shattered mist.
The backlash spread across the gray plains around us in distorted ripples.
I clicked my tongue slightly.
I tried again.
This time I pulled more soul force upward aggressively, forcing it through my existence the same way I would ordinary Essence.
The result became worse.
Silver-violet energy exploded outward around my body before collapsing uncontrollably and vanishing completely.
Defender Aurora sighed softly.
"You are forcing it."
"That is because it refuses to respond properly," I replied.
Without answering, she simply raised one hand. Golden soul force flowed outward effortlessly.
The energy spread smoothly across her body like liquid sunlight before forming a thin golden layer covering her completely. The surrounding gray mist retreated instinctively from her presence while even the realm itself seemed to acknowledge her soul naturally.
Then the soul force disappeared again without resistance.
I stared at her for a moment.
"That looked unfairly easy."
"It is easy," she replied calmly.
She stepped closer afterward before lightly pressing two fingers against the center of my chest directly above my soul.
"The problem," she said quietly, "is that you still think of your soul as power."
Her golden eyes remained fixed on mine.
"It is not power."
Then she tapped lightly against my chest once more.
"It is you."
The words lingered strangely in my mind afterward.
Defender Aurora stepped back slowly.
"You are attempting to control your soul externally like a weapon," she continued. "That is why it resists you." Golden soul force drifted quietly around her fingertips. "A manifested soul is not something you force outward. It is the natural extension of your existence. From saint onwards you move toward the truth. A truth that you will represent and impose on reality. So ask yourself who are you? What you represent and that emotion will help you manifest your soul force."
I remained silent for a few seconds while thinking about that. Then I closed my eyes again.
This time I stopped trying to command the soul.