Space suddenly distorted the moment the Systems notification sounded. An unimaginable force dragged Roel away from this ephemeral space, but he wasnt ready to leave yet.

No! Stop!!!

Roel tried to stop the return, but there was nothing he could do.

Darkness instantaneously devoured him. The Mother Goddess had been right at his fingertip, but She suddenly became far out of reach. The entire world swiftly retreated from him as if he had been ejected.

He saw the Mother Goddess desperately shouting his name before darkness fully engulfed him. He began plummeting through space, and intense vertigo struck him. This was what knocked him out the last few times he returned from the Witness State, but he couldnt bring himself to close his eyes at all.

Wait! Go back! Cant you see that She has remembered me? Roel shouted as he plummeted through the endless void.

Despite his desperation to return to the Witness State, the System answered him with naught but silence. His return didnt slow in the least.

You must be kidding me. How can I leave like this, without even saying a proper farewell

Upon realizing that his bloodline and the Crown Origin Attribute werent reacting at all, Roel clenched his fist as he shouted hoarsely in indignation, but he couldnt change anything at all. His consciousness slowly grew heavier, lulling him into a deep sleep.

Roel fell through this silent void with a trembling body. The concept of time vanished from his consciousness, and he was too shaken up to process his physical discomfort. The only things on his mind were the silvery-white silhouette under the moonlight and Her lingering calls.

Mother.

This foreign term that Roel struggled to mouth out had surreptitiously been imprinted onto his heart. Like most people, it was only when he lost what he had that he realized his true feelings.

The Mother Goddess had once told him that his return was a miracle, and there was no greater bliss than that to Her. Roel realized that it was the same for him. She had filled up the void in his heart that he had been unaware of all this while.

Her motherly tenderness and care had long since breached his defenses and seeped into his heart. Only when he finally lost it all did he suddenly realize that he was not nearly as resilient and carefree as he thought he was.

All kinds of unbearable emotions stabbed his heart like sharp knives and mashed it all up, but it was already too late. As time slowly ticked by, Roels consciousness started to fade. Just as he was about to pass out, he suddenly felt a peculiar mana pulsation.

!

Roel widened his eyes in disbelief as the mana tightly wrapped around his body, completely sealing off his movements. This abrupt situation sent his vigilance soaring through the roof.

He was falling through a spatial crevice located between the Witness State and the real world. This was a place even he didnt know the location of. It should have been impossible to interfere in this space.

So, where did this surge of mana come from?

A silver-white silhouette first surfaced in his mind, but he quickly shook his head. As powerful as the Mother Goddess was, She didnt seem to be familiar with the Witness State. More importantly: there was something amiss with the direction.

He had been falling ever since leaving the Witness State, but this mana pulsation came not from above but from below. This meant that the mana pulsation couldnt have come from the Witness State the Mother Goddess was in.

After eliminating his most-desired answer, none of the other possibilities he could think of boded well. His face turned severe. A few seconds later, he finally found an answer to that question.

Wait a moment; I have felt this mana pulsation Its you!

The Collector!

Without any hesitation, Roel channeled all of his available mana to protect himself from the mana pulsation, but his ability to resist was limited due to his debilitated state. He soon noticed that the goal of the mana pulsation wasnt to hurt him but to guide him.

Hes trying to change my return location!

As the two surges of mana clashed, a vague scene flashed across Roels eyes.

In an enigmatic dark space, a man with indistinct facial features was doing everything he could to interfere with Roels landing point in the real world.

Roel jolted awake right away.

Under normal circumstances, he should have returned to the exact spot he was at prior to entering the Witness State. At first glance, that didnt bode well given how Shrouding Fog had been hot on his tail, but several hours should have passed in the real world with the time he had spent in the Witness State. With Shrouding Fogs limited intelligence and lack of knowledge about Roels bloodline ability, it was unlikely that it would still be waiting for him at the same location.

In other words, there was a good chance that his original landing point was safe.

However, if the Collector successfully tampered with his landing point, the situation would be completely different.

Where would he teleport me to? Right into the heart of the enemys encampment? Or treacherous environments such as the deep ocean?

Roel soon received his answer to that question, but it was the worst possible situation he could think of.

In the darkness he fell into, he sensed a familiar aura of insanity and depravity. The aura flowed up like a ravenous monster trying to drag him down into its depths. At the same time, all kinds of eerie phenomena began to appear.

Voices reminiscent of the whispers of evil gods echoed in his ears, filling him with inexplicable fear. Bizarre colors began smudging the darkness as if he was in a psychedelic statea blue as cold as the oceans floor, a green that felt unbearably dirty, and a red as vibrant as blood.

These unnerving colors abruptly filled Roels sight, and they began wriggling and converging into different forms, from deformed humans to indescribable monsters. All kinds of scenes flashed across Roels eyes, swiftly burdening his mind.

The urge to let go and succumb to the madness was slowly growing.

It was an instantaneous assault on the eyes and the ears that infected ones mind with the aura of insanity as if a virus, guiding them toward depravity. These clues made it easy for Roel to figure out where the Collector had set his landing point to be.

It was the place where the Savior had dwelled for many years after falling into depravity, an abyss that consumed the minds of those who dared to enter its midst.

I need to leave right away!

Alertness rippled in Roels heavy mind, jolting a tinge of clarity back to him. He immediately channeled his mana toward the Crown Origin Attribute, but this power that had saved him from danger many times before had fallen into a deep sleep and wasnt reacting at all.

There was too big a disparity between their levels of strength.

Roels body and soul had sustained deep traumas in the Witness State, to the point that it was not an exaggeration to say that he was now as fragile as glass. The energy he had to expend to leave the Witness State further pushed him to his limit.

On the other hand, the Collector had been patiently waiting here to catch Roel.

I see. He has been waiting for me to enter the Witness State, Roel thought as his mind grew increasingly groggy.

He had no doubt that this was a scheme concocted by his cunning enemy. The Collectors plans were never just single-layered, but a chain of taut knots.

Regardless of whether the Wingman Sovereign or the depraved Spiriteer was able to kill him, the crisis would have spurred Roel to look for a way to turn the tables. The most direct way was to enter the Witness State.

As long as Roel could contract a new ancient god and undergo significant growth inside the Witness State, he would be able to overcome many of the threats standing in his way.

And that was what the Collector was counting on.

He was aiming to strike at the exact moment Roel left the Witness State, when he was most vulnerable.

This isnt good. At this rate

Roel continued plummeting through the void.

The aura of insanity grew increasingly suffocating, but there was nothing he could do against it. With time, his surroundings changed once more. The remaining blots of darkness around him turned viscous and started squirming.

It was the same as he remembered it. He had been dragged here once before through being exposed to the Treant High Priests divine artifact, except it was only his soul the previous time, whereas now his body was here too.

The deep growls reverberating from beneath alerted Roel that the cunning Savior had turned into a complete monster and that He was stronger than before. Irrepressible fear rippled in his heart, but he knew that an encounter was inevitable now.

He could only stare into the abyss with his glowing golden eyes while preparing himself for what was to come.

All he could do now was to struggle with everything he had. He would never choose death as long as a sliver of hope remained.

Mother

Unbearable recalcitrance flooded Roels heart as he thought about the silver-haired woman whom he had just been pulled away from. The Mother Goddess reaction earlier had left behind so many questions that he would never be able to rest in peace until he got to the bottom of it.

He tightly gritted his teeth in an attempt to stay conscious while preparing himself for battle.

Just then, two glowing balls reminiscent of candlelight lit up from the depth of the abyss where the Savior resided. An intense mana storm followed.

The violent storm rose from the abyss and swept everything away, forcing the wriggling manifestations of insanity and depravity to flee in fear. Even the squirming darkness stopped moving too.

In the depth of the darkness, the Collectors facial features remained indistinct, but his aura felt incredibly livid.

Its you again, a seething voice reverberated in the darkness.

A crack suddenly appeared in the abyss, revealing a glimmer of light.

That is

A powerful surge of mana suddenly gushed up from beneath, blasting away half of the spell that was binding Roel. At the same time, he broke free of the seal placed on his bloodline and his body began to glow.

Right before he was about to fall into the abyss, Roel pushed himself away with the strength he had gained from his returned bloodline, changing his trajectory to fall away from the abyss. He silently watched as the glimmer of light and the familiar abyss disappeared in the darkness.

He breathed a sigh of relief at having changed his landing point at the very last moment, but before he could speak a word, an intense feeling of distortion assaulted him. His consciousness finally succumbed.

Roel closed his eyes and passed out amidst the darkness.