"Kuh!" Adam felt the impact of his fall throughout his body despite the superhuman-like strength that he had acquired through his training and by absorbing the neutral particles.


    But he didn''t even have time to scream in pain no matter how bad it hurt.


    "Such a shame. You still have a lot to learn," Themander said as he floated above Adam. Multiple ck spheres appeared around him, and as soon as they appeared, Adam was once again pulled violently by a mysterious force, but this time, he was dragged upward.


    "Damn- Kuh!"


    However, before Adam came closer to themander, he mmed onto the ground again, and the monsters that were around him also got the same treatment.


    Themander repeated this almost a dozen times and then gestured with his hand, and as he did, the stones, the monsters'' bodies, everything that wasn''t stuck on the ground was attracted by one of the ck spheres.


    These objects stuck together with the ck orb at the center and formed an enormous spherical mass.


    "The world is indeed cruel, and it takes more than just mere courage to reach your goal. But as long as you reach your goal, everything else doesn''t matter. Such a shame that you were in the Lord''s way." Themander continued his monologue.


    Adam couldn''t even hear themander''s monologue because he was being violently mmed to the ground repeatedly.


    "Guah!" He could hear his bones breaking and his interiors wailing in pain.


    However, Adam didn''t stop to think and forced himself to understand what was happening.


    He didn''t know about what a domain was and certainly not about the real ability of themander, but the only force that could pull things like that must be rted to gravitational force and this was the reason why he couldn''t nullify the effect of themander''s power, or so he concluded.


    Adam''s guess wasn''t off. Indeed, themander could manipte gravity and his power transformed his body into a gravity source, and inside of his domain, he could create ck spheres that could also create abnormal gravity force.


    And unless Adam''s power reached these ck spheres or themander himself, then he wouldn''t be able to nullify the effect of this power.


    This also showed the true nature of gifts, the ability to create. When someone managed to get powerful enough to create their domain, they could create an area where the true form of their power manifested, in other words, they could manipte thew of nature in that area to their benefit.


    Thus, high-level gift holders could manifest their power even if it didn''te from their body and they could feel that the area itself was connected to them.


    The size of their domain depended on every person and the amount of power that they needed to activate the domain.


    Adam was using a domain from the beginning but he wasn''t even aware of it. However, his understanding and his mastery of his power were stillcking.


    For example, people could observe the Crystallization of their power inside their domain. Their power manifested into ck spheres, portals, and lighting energy, but what about Adam?


    He couldn''t see anything and his power was invisible.


    Nevertheless, this also meant that he used a weaker version of his power all of this time, so weak that it didn''t even materialize and remained invisible.


    It was a fact that Adamcked the strength to use his full power, but if he wanted to survive themander''s next attack, he needed to think and act rapidly.


    *****


    Adam wasn''t the only one who was in a tricky situation.


    Rooooar!


    Zax and Cristal were facing a dragon that breathed ominous red mes, and unlike the wyverns, this monster was a lot bigger and stronger, and its scales were tougher than raw Sterium.


    "Did you think that you would beat me if you saw through my illusion?" Dastre said while riding on the dragon''s back. "Why did even kidse here in the first ce? Don''t tell me that you thought that you could save your friend just by yourselves." He continued.


    Dastre used the monsters to his advantage, and he was pretty skilled at controlling the dragon.


    This was a battle between a man riding a mythical creature out of a fantasy book and a little girl wearing a suit from a sci-fi movie.


    "Unfortunately, I won''t go easy on you just because you are a kid," Dastre added.


    The dragon rushed at Zax without giving her time to think about anything else.


    It breathed fire and tried to use its mouth to tear her apart.


    Roaaar!


    Fortunately, Cristal created a barrier using a force field to protect Zax from the hellfire. It was as effective as Adam''s power but it minimized the effect, and the suit which was made of Sterium would withstand the heat and avoid critical damage to the suit.


    Cristal and Zax''s biggest advantagey in their speed and ability to move more freely in midair.


    They continued to avoid Dastre and his Dragon while retaliating by aiming at Dastre himself rather than the dragon.


    Cristal''s cannon was not strong enough to pierce the dragon''s skin since she was not at her full power. In the first ce, she wasn''t built for battle, but she was just equipped with extra abilities.


    "Let''s target the wings," Cristal suggested. "The chance of winning is low, but since that''s not our goal, we should distract him and gain master some time."


    Cristal''s gun might not be able to directly pierce the dragon''s skin but if they could damage its wings as they did with the wyverns, it might spare some trouble.


    "But will he be alright? Things don''t look good for him…" Zax said, a little bit worried about the situation.


    "He will surely die. He is already past his limit." Cristal said, and her words took Zax by surprise. "Unless he uses his head."


    "W-what do you mean by that?" Zax asked. Unlike Adam, she wasn''t used to Cristal who didn''t mince her words.


    "From the beginning, our survival depended on Master. If he dies now, everything will be other."


    "I can see that! So shouldn''t we give him a hand?" Zax replied, almost as if she couldn''t believe Cristal''s attitude.


    However, Cristal carried another meaning that Zax wasn''t aware of.


    "We can''t do that. We will be caught in that gravitational field too," Cristal said.


    "What? So the enemy can create gravity?"


    "Yes, my sensor detected anomalies and this was the only exnation for master''s current crisis," Cristal continued.


    Still, it was not the time for such a discussion. It was Cristal who controlled the suit most of the time, so Zax was more of a copilot, but it was still her body and she couldn''t be distracted.


    "You are good at evading, aren''t you? But you can''t keep running forever," Dastre said. It looked like he was having fun chasing after Cristal and Zax on top of the dragon.


    Roaarr!


    Moreover, the dragons and the other monsters didn''t want to miss the chance to snack on them.


    *****


    Just a little bit away from Adam and Zax, there was a castle that looked like it was in ruin for millennia, and inside of the castle, there was a room.


    While Adam and Zax were fighting the Lord''s subordinates, Liu was in front of the Lord himself.


    Thirty minutes passed and Liu didn''t say anything but just stared at the Lord, and the Lord also stared back at her.


    The Lord asked Liu to hand over Verte so she could go back to the Empire, but Liu didn''t want to hand Verte to him.


    Therefore, she expected the Lord to force or even kill her, but instead, he didn''t move from his throne. He looked like he had too much time on his hands.


    Liu didn''t know what to do because she knew that she couldn''t run, and she just stood there.


    "Gu…"


    Verte was shaken by the Lord''s presence, but her hair glowed for a while now. Liu wasn''t sure about the reason why Verte was like that, but when she came to her sense, she felt like her interior was about to explode, and when Verte''s hair glowed, she felt better.


    After seeing this, Liu once again pondered Verte''s true identity.


    She remembered the request of the woman who entrusted Verte to her. She asked her to go to the where Adam lived, and then she realized that all of this might not be a mere coincidence.


    Her father sent her on this mission because it was important, but also because he didn''t trust the source of the information. Otherwise, he would have gone there himself.


    He used his daughter as his substitute, even though, the probability of the whole situation being a trap wasn''t that low. Liu knew that this was the kind of man her father was.


    Liu wasn''t aware of what her father was scheming in the dark, nor the people that had rtions with, but it was clear that it was not something simple.


    In the first ce, her father only told her to look for a woman and do everything necessary to extract a piece of information from her; information about the Tree of life and its fragments.


    However, when the woman that Liu found only entrusted Verte to her and asked her to leave as fast as possible, then go to the under the jurisdiction of Lord Kepalta.


    Lupic and Louis destroyed the woman''s house and killed her when Liu left, but she couldn''t save her as she was already far away from the ce.


    She thought that all of this was rted to the mission so she decided to hear the woman''s request. She didn''t expect things to go this way.


    After a long silence, the Lord finally said something. "Don''t test my patience."


    Liu came back to reality after she heard the Lord''s overbearing voice.


    "…"