"Who... are you?"

She asked, her voice now laced with caution as she withdrew her pressure.

"And how exactly do you know so much about me and the world beyond the First Ring of the Great Sea?"

"That’s irrelevant, isn’t it? Especially when I am the one doing you a favor by going there voluntarily."

I replied with a smirk.

The people of the three continents revered her as the noble guardian carrying their future on her shoulders. In truth, it wasn’t selflessness, it was punishment.

The Ancient Kings had entrusted this ancient Leviathan with one entrance to their inheritance, forcing her to guide talented youths into its deadly ruins. To fulfill that duty, she established an academy on her back under the guise of a benevolent guardian.

In reality, she was sending them to their deaths.

Every hundred years, she had to sacrifice a certain number of people or suffer the consequences and I had been one of those sacrifices in my last life.

The only reason I had survived back then was because my trial from back then wasn’t strength based.

"Tch!"

She clicked her tongue, her cheeks puffing out slightly as the small blue fins protruding from either side of her head drooped ever so slightly. She had a habit of doing that whenever things didn’t go her way.

Before she could say anything else, I interrupted her.

"How about you send me in and we can have a nice little chat when I come back, Nyx?"

I said softly.

As petty and childish as this woman was, she was also one of the very few people who had genuinely cared for me in my previous life when I was at my lowest.

...even going as far as sacrificing her own existence by defying her restrictions just to help me escape the First Ring of the Great Sea.

Without her, I would never have reached the other continents, never met my master, never discovered the truth about my physique...

...and never grown strong enough.

So, in some ways, I did want to save her from her cage.

Though I wasn’t the same fragile man who had needed her protection and whom she had fallen in love with in my previous life.

So I doubted she would fall for me again.

Or rather...

I hoped she wouldn’t.

"Who are you calling Nyx, you brat? I have lived for thousands of years longer than you, show some respect." She muttered. "And fine. Since you are in such a rush to greet your own death, I won’t stop you."

With those words, she snapped her fingers, and a bright blue portal appeared out of thin air. The portal shimmered with arcs of electricity, looking strangely ominous.

"This portal will lead you to the Treasury of the Ancient Kings. But be warned... those consumed by greed will suffer, while those who lack enough hunger will be devoured."

She paused.

"So tread carefully upon the path you choose."

"Thanks for the warning."

I nodded before walking toward the portal but just before stepping inside, I looked back at her one last time.

"Also..."

"You have done well enduring for so long."

"The days of your suffering too shall come to an end soon."

I repeated her own words to me from my last life back to her and then stepped into the portal without waiting for a response, leaving her standing there with her mouth slightly open.

***

[Nyxara’s POV]

Who... is he?

Even after the boy had already left, she couldn’t help but ask herself. Just a few moments ago, when he had reached her core and asked her to send him into the forbidden ruins, she had merely been shocked.

Now...

She was disturbed.

Disturbed enough to have tried peering into his soul and yet somehow, his soul had proven stronger than hers despite her having lived for thousands of years.

Not only had he resisted her mind-dulling spell to an absurd degree, he had also broken free from her illusion within mere minutes... with his mind which seemed like an impenetrable fortress.

Something even those at the Transcendent Rank would struggle to accomplish and then there was his knowledge of the Ancient Sun Kingdom and the Ancient Kings.

And more importantly...

Even her true name. No one within this part of the Great Sea should have known it.

To everyone, she was simply Arcanum and no one in the present era or even in ages past, knew that her real name was Nyxara. Nor did anyone know that she possessed a human form.

To the world, she was merely a slightly more intelligent beast who could talk and had benevolently offered her body for the sake of peace.

No one knew that the colossal body drifting across the sea was nothing more than the shell surrounding her true core.

And yet...

That boy, who barely looked older than a teenager, knew all of it.

The more she thought about him, the more alien he felt compared to the oblivious fools trapped within the First Ring of the Great Sea.

She recalled the name the boy had given her.

"Zenith Von Ruinbringer, was it?" She muttered, a faint smile appearing on her lips. "I hope you don’t die in those forsaken ruins... after all, I still have far too many questions to ask you."

With those words, her gaze shifted toward the shimmering portal.

With a snap of her fingers, the portal vanished and her eyes then drifted upward toward the ceiling of her own shell.

Beyond it, she could sense countless talented youths arriving at the academy city, each carrying their own hopes and dreams...

While others arrived filled with nothing but pride in their bloodlines, never realizing how vast the world truly was...

...or just how small the pond they lived in really was.

She slowly shook her head and with another snap of her fingers, she disappeared from her spot and reappeared upon her throne as she waited for the boy to return...

If his confidence truly reflected the person hiding beneath that frail body.