X
After a murmur of astonishment, voices echoed.
-What’s this? A new creation?
-No, it doesn’t look like us.
-Then a god?
-Not a god. Gods lack substance. That’s human-like.
-It’s not human. Only those with divinity can enter here.
-It is human. It has a physical form. Two legs, two arms.
-Yeah, it really has a body. Nice. I’m jealous.
-Can it hear us?
-It has ears, so probably.
-It’s listening to us. Amazing. First time seeing a human.
-I wanna touch it. So cute.
-I wanna get closer.
-I want a body too.
The voices ranged from young children, about five or six, to adults in their fifties or sixties. They weren’t speaking Korean—system auto-translation at work. There seemed to be at least six voices, all at least ten meters away, conversing in this empty white space. Despite their desire to approach or touch, an invisible barrier kept them distant.
My body won’t move… Are they in the same state?
Since entering, Ion couldn’t move a finger. His mouth wouldn’t open, his eyelids wouldn’t blink, and his eyes were drying out. But that wasn’t the worst.
His heart was slowing to a stop.
Good thing my mana… still works.
Ion channeled mana to his heart, forcing it to beat—a makeshift defibrillator.
-Whoa, it’s using mana to keep its heart going.
-Such a clever human.
-So cute.
-A human’s in the divine realm, and you’re just chatting?
A voice shouted, silencing the others briefly before they resumed in hushed tones.
-What do we do? We can’t kick it out.
-Report to the ‘Apostle.’
-No way. We’ll get scolded for not managing the divine realm properly.
-I don’t wanna get in trouble.
-Me neither.
-Kill it? Drain its mana, easy.
-No killing until the Apostle orders it.
-…Send it back.
The shouting voice spoke again.
-This human’s kid used a divinity-infused artifact, and the system glitched, bringing it here. Just send it back where it was going.
-Good idea.
-Clean solution.
-Decided? Hurry, or the kid’ll die.
A black circle formed at Ion’s feet in the white space.
-Wait, its memories? It heard us.
-It’s fine. It’ll lose them when it leaves.
-Hey, human, you’ll forget this place when you go.
-You have to forget.
-Bye. No idea how you got here, but safe travels.
-If we’re summoned someday, let’s meet again.
The voices bid farewell.
They’re sure I’ll lose my memories just from their words, without mental manipulation… Are they using spirit speech?
Ion felt a crisis but wanted to stay and gather more information.
However—
Shwoop—
A falling sensation pulled him to another space.
Not the empty divine realm, but one with a floor, ceiling, and walls.
Gasp, gasp.
Ion panted like he’d sprinted for thirty minutes. Collapsing, his knees hit a hard floor. His lungs, previously still, began working again, but the overwhelming mana in the air caused breathing difficulties. Used to mana-scarce environments, he’d always maximized mana absorption. Now, it flooded in, overwhelming his heart, lungs, and senses.
Ion regulated his breathing to adjust.
Even Earth’s densest forests didn’t have this much mana. He needed time to acclimate.
Minutes later—
Where am I?
Ion set Sanse down and pressed his hands to the floor. The air was thick with acrid stench and dust, and nearby noises—monster roars and human screams—rang out.
Blinking rapidly, he moistened his dry eyes.
His blurry vision cleared, revealing a shattered marble floor, as if an earthquake had struck. A once-domed ceiling was half-collapsed, exposing the night sky, and stained-glass windows were broken in places.
The Mage’s Tower? Why’s it look like a warzone? Wait…
Ion staggered to his feet, pressing his throbbing temples.
I didn’t lose my memories…!
The divine realm’s mysterious voices were crystal clear, as if it just happened—which it had.
Wasn’t spirit speech? What the…
[Divinity detected.] [Automatically redirecting to divine realm.]
That was the message. He understood why.
The Demonkin’s teleportation crystal was an artifact, not an item.
Items were system-made.
Artifacts were divine gifts to a race.
The Demonkin’s crystal was crafted from a gift bestowed by the Demon God during their sole audience, a fusion of mana technology and divine blessing.
Detecting the Demon God’s divinity made sense, but the divine realm and those voices? And the ‘Apostle’—Teacher had mentioned it before…
“Argh!”
Boom! Crash!
“Damn it, the monsters… Aargh!”
“Save me!”
Keeek!
Bang!
Intense battle sounds erupted nearby. The Somind Mage’s Tower was under attack.
Ion didn’t rush in. He unzipped his sluggish backpack, and Baba, wide-eyed, fluttered to his finger.
“Baba, you heard the white space talk too, right?”
“Yeah. Heard it. Scary.”
“…You remember it all?”
“Yeah. They said Dam Ion would forget. You didn’t?”
“You didn’t either.”
“They didn’t say I’d forget. Just you. Where’s this? Noisy. Smells like blood.”
Even Baba retained its memories.
What… Were those supposedly divine, transcendent beings that incompetent?
Crash!
A window shattered, and an armored soldier crashed onto the floor.
“Ugh… damn it…”
He was alive but gravely injured—his sword broken, left ankle twisted unnaturally.
Grrr…
A bull-headed monster appeared through the broken window, clearly the one that threw the soldier. Despair washed over the soldier’s face.
Dungeon overflow.
In Earth terms, “monsters overflowed from an uncleared dungeon.” In Idea terms, “the field’s seal broke from failure to clear it.”
No time to dwell on the divine realm.
Ion pulled his robe’s hood low.
“Guard Sanse.”
“Emergency. I obey. I’ll protect Sanse.”
Ion entrusted Sanse and the bag to Baba, the presumed S-rank chimera, and stood.
Approaching the soldier, who’d closed his eyes awaiting death, Ion cast a spell.
Rumble—
Vines erupted with a roar, ensnaring the monster.
Grrr!
It tore at the vines, but they grew faster.
Crack.
The monster’s muscles tore, bones snapped, and an eyeball rolled to the soldier’s feet.
“…?”
The soldier, cautiously opening his eyes, gasped.
“Vines…? A mage?”
Spotting Ion, he brightened, mistaking him for a Tower mage, as Ion’s robe resembled Idea’s mage attire.
“Mage! A surviving mage!”
Ion scanned the soldier. The crest on his chest was Somind’s royal emblem—likely a royal knight leading soldiers to aid the Tower, with little success.
“Hurry, go! To the library! The monsters are destroying it!”
“…”
“Don’t just stand there! No time! If you’re too scared, grab me a sword—I’ll go!”
He couldn’t walk but was yelling.
Listening and speaking were different. Fearing his accent might falter, Ion said nothing and ran toward the library.
Boom! Crash!
Explosions and screams filled the library’s front.
Roar!
A bull-headed monster charged, wielding a sword.
Weapon-using monsters appeared in Level 3. Though maddened, the ‘leader’ retained slight intelligence, suggesting recent madness infection.
Idea’s already Level 3.
Not unexpected.
Teacher had left hints of the Cataclysm in Idea before crossing to Earth. Unlike secretly raising orphans on Earth, she’d given grand hints in Idea as a renowned scholar. Idea likely prepared accordingly.
Clang!
The bull-headed monster’s sword clashed with an Idea soldier’s, shattering the soldier’s aura-wrapped blade.
“Urgh!”
The soldier fell back.
Dozens of monsters, one leader, versus two mages and five soldiers. The bull-headed monster was a B-rank Blender.
All beginner-level users. Too much for them.
Earth’s awakening system had seven ranks (S to F), while Idea had five ‘realms’:
Instead of skills, Idea’s people wielded ‘aura,’ with maximum usable aura set by realm. Unlike Earth, training could raise one’s realm.
Like Earth, Idea had inventories (called ‘subspaces’) and visible system windows.
“We can’t hold! Use the teleportation circle—”
“No! Fight to the death! No one flees until all relics are moved! Haa!”
A middle-aged knight, likely the commander, clashed with the leader. Clang!
“Damn it!”
A subordinate drew a sword, pulling something from his gear.
Behind, mages chanted, a circular barrier enveloping the library’s books and relics for teleportation.
Ion needed to stabilize the situation to ask questions.
Mana overflowed everywhere.
Time for a mage to shine.
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, Into the Halo is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : Into the Halo
If You Notice any translation issues or inconsistency in names, genders, or POV etc? Let us know here in the comments or on our Discord server, and we’ll fix it in current and future chapters. Thanks for helping us to improve! 🙂