-Ding Dong!!!!
Both Ash and Eric simultaneously shifted their gazes toward the direction of the shop’s entrance, interrupting the heavy atmosphere that had settled inside the room just moments ago.
Their perception instantly expanded toward the entrance of the shop.
Eric’s expression became slightly confused upon seeing the unknown visitor entering the shop, because no matter how much he looked, he could not recognize the person standing there.
He was also confused, how he entered when the shop was closed.
But Ash’s expression changed completely.
The color drained from his face in an instant as though he had just seen a ghost standing
His pupils contracted slightly.
His body stiffened.
For a brief moment, he simply stood there frozen in place.
Eric instantly noticed Ash’s petrified expression, and seeing him react like that for the first time in a long while, warning signals immediately rang inside his mind.
Who was that person?
And more importantly, what kind of existence could make Ash react this way?
"HEY, SNAP OUT OF IT!!!!!!!!"
Eric immediately grabbed Ash by the shoulders and shook him out of his stupor.
Only then did Ash snapped out of that state.
However, the moment his perception captured the visage of the visitor once more, he saw a faint smile appear on the visitor’s face, and that sight caused Ash’s already pale expression to become even uglier.
Countless emotions rampaged within his heart all at once.
Then, without any warning, a voice suddenly rang directly inside his mind.
{Long time no see, Ash Burn. Although, only few days have passed but I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me.}
The unfamiliar voice echoed inside his mind like thunder, causing Ash’s mind to tremble violently.
Impossible...Why is he here...? How did he find me? Is my identity exposed..?
For a brief moment, even Ash’s thoughts fell into chaos.
However, his body had already moved before his mind could fully process the situation.
His hand instantly landed upon Eric’s shoulder, and before Eric could even react to what was happening, spatial fluctuations enveloped his body and sent him directly into the [Akashic Archive].
"Wait, what are y—"
Eric disappeared before he could even finish speaking.
Ash did not stop there.
His figure instantly rushed out of the room and appeared in the living area outside, where Saskia was quietly sitting on the couch while watching over the sleeping Snow, who was sleeping long before Ash arrived.
The moment Saskia saw Ash suddenly appear before her, confusion immediately surfaced on her face.
"Huh? What happene—"
Before she could finish her sentence, Ash had already reached out and touched both Saskia and Snow at the same time, causing spatial fluctuations to spread around them before both disappeared from the couch and entered the [Akashic Archive].
Without wasting any more time, Ash also attempt to leave.
He invoked his skill, but....
Nothing happened.
Ash tried again and again, but....
Still nothing happened.
Cold sweat slowly trickled down Ash’s back.
His expression gradually turned ugly.
FUCK!!!!!! Space has been sealed.
The realization struck him instantly, after all it was not the suppression of his skills.
His abilities were activating normally.
The problem was that space itself had been completely locked down, preventing any form of traversal.
-Step!!!
Just then, the sound of footsteps echoed from behind him.
Ash’s heart skipped a beat.
He had not sensed that person’s presence.
The person had approached him from behind without triggering even the slightest warning from his senses.
Ash slowly took a deep breath and forcibly calmed the storm raging inside his heart before gradually turning around, because panicking now would achieve nothing and losing control before an unknown existence was often the fastest path to death.
And then, he looked at the visage of that person one more time, while the memories stored by Eva surfaced within his mind one after another.
Although he had never personally seen him before, thanks to Eva, he had long since memorized the image of this person countless times over, to the point where even if he saw only a silhouette, he would still be able to recognize him.
Especially those eyes.
Those black hole-like eyes were simply too striking and too unique, carrying a mysterious depth that seemed capable of swallowing everything around them, making them impossible to forget after seeing them even once.
"Who are you...?"
Ash asked the question, his expression remaining calm and composed on the surface while even his voice carried not the slightest fluctuation, but inside his mind he was already screaming so loudly that it felt as though his thoughts themselves were about to explode.
Shit!! Shit!! Shit!! Shit!! Shit!! Shit!! Shit!! Shit!! Shit!! How did he find me? How?!
After all, standing before him was none other than was...
Henry.
The Visitor from Beyond.
The person who had appeared when he used Deus Ex Machina.
The same person whose mere appearance had frozen an entire battlefield and shattered everything Ash thought he understood about power.
Seeing him standing here in person was far more terrifying than watching him through memories.
"Calm down, will ya. I have no intention of killing you, and it’s not like you could be killed. I am just here to discuss some things, so let’s have a deep conversation, Ash Burn."
Henry spoke in a relaxed tone as though he were meeting an old acquaintance rather than the person who had caused half the Realm to descend into chaos.
Hearing those words, Ash did not lower his guard in the slightest.
But he did calm down.
Or rather, he forced himself to calm down.
His heart, which had been beating with such insane intensity moments ago that any ordinary person’s heart would have burst apart long ago, gradually settled down.
His heartbeat returned to normal.
Or more accurately.
His heart stopped beating.
After all, his body had long since surpassed the need for such biological functions.
The person standing before him was an existence far beyond his current understanding, and if he truly wished to harm him, then panicking would not change the outcome in the slightest.
Clarity gradually returned to Ash’s mind.
Without any hesitation, he walked toward the couch and sat down, his body relaxing slightly as his thoughts rapidly sorted themselves out.
It was not a lie that he had panicked.
And honestly, such a reaction was only natural.
No matter how many abilities one possessed or how powerful one became, there would always exist beings whose mere presence could make others feel insignificant.
Anyone with his power level standing in his place would have been scared shitless after seeing the person before them.
Ash raised his gaze and looked directly into those black hole-like eyes.
"I asked a question earlier."
Ash repeated himself.
Henry simply nodded with a faint smile before sitting down opposite Ash as though he had all the time in the world.
"My name is Henry. I am a Dimensional Traveller."
Ash merely gave Henry a neutral stare, his expression remaining unchanged as he silently processed the unfamiliar term.
Henry gazed back for a moment before understanding.
"Ahh!! I guess you don’t know, let me tell you. A Dimensional Traveller is a person who can travel into different Dimensions. Every Dimension is unique and every Dimension has different ways where people can grow in myriad of ways."
"Imagine a Dimension like a sheet of paper floating in space. There exist countless such Dimensions, and all those Dimensions are interconnected into an intricate structure so vast that no one truly knows what the complete structure of the infinite Dimensions looks like, because no one has ever been able to observe the whole of it from beyond."
Henry spoke slowly as though describing something he himself had witnessed countless times before.
"Every Dimension contains countless realities, Cosmos, Universes, Galaxies, and worlds. Just like how people of the Stone Age could never see how their own Planet looked from afar, no one within the infinite Dimensions has been able to escape the grasp of the Infinite Dimensions themselves to witness its true and ultimate form."
His tone was casual, as though speaking of something completely ordinary.
"I was also travelling towards another dimension, but midway a Space-Time Storm suddenly appeared before me and transported me directly above you."
Ash nodded his head lightly as his mind ran at insane speeds, analyzing every word spoken by Henry while trying to separate useful information from unnecessary details.
A Dimensional Traveller.
Infinite Dimensions.
And a Space-Time Storm.
Any one of those things was enough to shake his understanding of the world.
"Honestly, I was surprised. There are very few beings who could cause Space-Time Storms, and all of those are even more powerful than me. I don’t know how you did it, but those abilities affect reality itself, so it’s better not to use them too much lest reality itself acts against you."
Henry spoke in the same laid-back manner as before, but the warning hidden within his words was impossible to ignore.
"At least not until you are powerful enough."
Ash’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he did not let his guard down.
"I understand, I will be careful."
Ash replied with a serious expression.
Whether Henry was speaking the truth or not, there was no harm in listening to the warning of an existence capable of travelling through Dimensions.
Meanwhile, throughout the entire conversation, Henry carried a laid-back attitude, sitting comfortably on the couch as though he had merely come to visit an acquaintance rather than suddenly appearing before someone whose space he had completely sealed.
But then he asked a question that made a bomb go off inside Ash’s mind, because out of all the things Henry could have possibly asked, this was perhaps the one question Ash least wanted to hear.
"By the way, how many Runes have you collected so far....?"
The calm atmosphere inside the room instantly froze.
****