When someone's mentality shatters, their emotions take the wheel, often leading to irrational behavior and outbursts.
Take Rey at the beginning, for example. Of course, he was only acting then. But Reppel, who was currently smashing her vine staff against the invisible barrier in a frenzy, was genuinely losing it.
That brat had played her. Especially that smirk he flashed right before slipping through the barrier—it was unbearable.
Sometimes, life is like that. Even if you can't accept it, you can't change it. You just have to endure.
The deed was done. Reppel could only vent her fury by pounding on the invisible wall.
"Damn you! I will never let you go!"
After a futile session of smashing, Reppel, a king-tier evil spirit, let out a hysterical roar that echoed across the empty wasteland.
---
Rey entering the barrier wasn't entirely an act.
He was running for his life. Who has the energy to act while fleeing from a monster?
It was all out of necessity.
He figured out why he could unknowingly cross the boundary between the wasteland and the desert the first time. After crashing into the wall twice, it clicked.
He could enter the first time because the chubby dragon was sitting on his shoulder. The dragon was a pass, a key that allowed passage through the air wall into the other world.
But when he used the one-time teleportation stone, only Rey was transported. The chubby dragon was left behind.
So, when Rey reached the boundary alone, he didn't have the pass. Forced into a corner, he started his Oscar-worthy performance.
From the moment Reppel didn't grab him immediately but instead maintained distance to pressure him, Rey knew she wanted to torture him. So, he indulged her, letting her enjoy his "fear" and pathetic display to satisfy her twisted pleasure.
During this process, Rey looked back repeatedly in panic. On the surface, he was checking how close Reppel was. In reality, he was checking where the chubby dragon was and how long it would take to reach him.
From the moment Rey teleported away, the chubby dragon had been striving to catch up. For something with such short legs, it was surprisingly fast, though still slower than Rey and Reppel.
Rey finally stood up with his back to the wall because the dragon had arrived and leaped toward him.
As soon as the little guy landed in his arms, Rey felt the barrier behind him soften, becoming permeable like water.
Reppel had been enjoying the show too much, so right before slipping through, Rey decided to give her a parting gift of pure aggravation.
He figured that for such an arrogant, self-assured woman, being played like a fool would shatter her ego completely. It made all his acting worthwhile.
In those final moments, seeing Reppel's face turn black with rage and the murderous look in her eyes was incredibly satisfying.
No matter how cunning you are, big sister, I still slipped through your fingers. Rey felt a surge of smug satisfaction.
---
Stepping into the other world, the transition was seamless. Reppel couldn't enter, but he could. Rey barely had time to feel smug before a massive axe came spinning toward his face.
It was too fast. By the time Rey reacted and ducked, the spinning axe had already passed through his body.
He didn't dodge it, but he wasn't dead either. Rey broke out in a cold sweat from the shock.
The world had changed!
It wasn't the post-war ruins he saw the first time.
This was the beginning of the war.
The giant axe was just the start. The clash of weapons, flashes of magic, war cries of dragon riders, roars of dragons.
Demons, giants, hellish monsters, burning skeletons—an endless tide of dark creatures crawled from the depths of the earth to slaughter humans, elves, and dragons.
Lightning crackled in the sky, illuminating the chaos. Under the sheer scale of the battle, it looked like the apocalypse from the movie 2012.
Rey stared blankly, his eyes filled with disbelief. In his daze, numerous stray weapons and spells passed through his body.
Weapons pierced him, but Rey remained unharmed.
Everything happening before him seemed unrelated to him. Or rather, he was in a different dimension, somehow witnessing this brutal war as a spectator.
It was like standing inside a 3D holographic movie.
The battle was intense—earth-shattering wasn't an exaggeration. The atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs Rey had mentioned to Agnes back in the future seemed like child's play compared to this magical warfare.
The brutality reshaped Rey's understanding of war in the wizarding world.
Everything that has a beginning has an end. This projected war was no exception. There were no winners. Both sides perished together under a forbidden curse cast by human wizards.
A Forbidden Curse—magic Rey had only seen in movies or read about in fanfiction. Here, it looked like the end of days. Countless ice crystals fell from the sky like snow, freezing every creature and demon they touched instantly.
As time accelerated, the ice slowly melted, and the battlefield returned to the state Rey saw upon his first entry.
However, time didn't stop there.
It continued to flow. The ice melted, exposing the corpses. Even powerful demons and dragons decayed into nothingness before the relentless march of time.
---
Silence. The void of death. Not a trace of life remained.
Rey looked around the battlefield, walking through it with mixed emotions.
Suddenly, a faint thump-thump sound came from the spatial pouch Rowena Ravenclaw had given him.
It sounded like a heartbeat.
Rey reached into the pouch. The glass bead Godric Gryffindor had given him flew out and landed in his hand.
The thumb-sized glass bead with swirling purple-black mist inside was now pulsing like a living heart.
With each beat, the bead grew, expanding from thumb-sized to walnut-sized.
It was magical and unexpected. Rey had thought Godric gave him a trinket, but it turned out to be a treasure.
The chubby dragon on Rey's shoulder stared at the bead in Rey's hand, seemingly connected to it somehow.
The bead acted like a compass. As Rey walked through the silent ruins, if he moved in the right direction, the bead's pulsing would accelerate, and it would continue to grow.
If he moved in the wrong direction, the bead shrank, and the pulsing slowed.
"Where are you taking me?"
Curious, Rey followed the bead's guidance, walking through the quiet battlefield.
Before long, he reached the final resting place of the black dragon and the giant hell demon.
The dragon's skeleton still stood tall, supported by ice crystals. A massive double-headed spear pierced the dragon's body, pinning it to the demon lying on the ground.
The demon was shattered into pieces. It had no flesh or blood, only stone-like fragments forming its shape.
"Is this it?"
Rey wondered. The bead in his hand stopped pulsing once they arrived.
Suddenly, a plume of purple-black mist rose from the dragon's skeleton. Before Rey could react, it surged into the bead.
As the mist infused it, the bead expanded to the size of an adult's fist.
At this size, it stopped growing, but the pulsing inside quickened.
"A Specter Bead!"
Rey rejoiced. The sensation the bead gave off was incredibly similar to Mika's Specter Bead.
But in terms of size, quality, and the inexplicable resonance with his soul, Mika's bead couldn't compare.
Obtaining such a unique Specter Bead was exhilarating. His main goal was achieved.
However, the situation became awkward.
The fist-sized Specter Bead didn't enter his forehead. It just sat in his hand, pulsing rhythmically.
Confusing. Rey was certain it was a Specter Bead, but Specter Beads aren't supposed to be physical objects that you carry around; they merge with the soul.
His intuition clashed with theoretical knowledge. Scratching his head, Rey decided to take it back and study it later.
But... go back?
How?
Rey had walked through the battlefield for so long that he had completely lost his sense of direction.
Tragically, he realized he had no idea how to return to the wasteland.
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