A few hours after the royal carriage bearing Prince Damien and Kael vanished past the horizon, a heavy, suffocating silence returned to the Sanctuarium. Saint Solenne sat quietly in her private chambers, trying to cleanse her mind of the prince's repulsive aura. She poured herself a cup of moon-lily tea, hoping to soothe the lingering irritation in her chest. But the moment the cup touched her lips, a sudden, violent tremor shook her very soul.
It wasn’t a physical earthquake. It was a cosmic, invisible wave of pressure that made the ambient mana in the room freeze dead.
A cold sweat broke out across Solenne's skin. Her vision blurred, and the world spun violently. Before she could even call out for her guards, her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the plush rug, her consciousness instantly plunging into total darkness.
When Solenne opened her eyes, she was no longer in her room.
She was floating within a boundless, ethereal void filled with swirling galaxies and rivers of stardust. In the center of this cosmic ocean stood a colossal, radiant figure woven from pure celestial light. Her hair flowed like nebulae, and her eyes held the warmth of a thousand suns.
It was Goddess Vale.
Solenne immediately fell to her knees, bowing her head in deep reverence. ‘Goddess Vale...’ she tried to speak, but no sound escaped her lips.
Usually, the Goddess's presence brought absolute peace and tranquility. But today, the divine atmosphere felt fractured, riddled with a subtle, unprecedented anxiety. The massive deity didn't speak in words; instead, she extended a radiant, trembling hand, pointing her finger toward a specific coordinate far to the northeast of the empire.
“Go,” an echo vibrated through Solenne's mind, urgent and demanding. “You must go there immediately.”
The Goddess did not name the location. She provided no titles, no towns, and no names. She only burned the exact geographic coordinates deep into Solenne's consciousness.
Gasp!
Solenne bolted upright, drawing a sharp, ragged breath into her lungs. She was back on her bedroom floor, the morning sun still casting shadows across the walls. Her heart battered against her ribs like a trapped bird.
"A dream...?" she whispered, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead.
She stood up, her legs still trembling. As a Saint, she had received divine signals before, but never anything so abrupt, so jarring. She felt deeply unsettled. Was it truly a command from her Goddess, or was it a trick played by her own exhaustion?
Unable to find peace, Solenne rushed toward her private altar. She knelt before the pristine marble statue of Goddess Vale, clasped her hands tightly together, and began to pray.
She prayed for guidance. She prayed for clarity. Hours bled into one another as the sun crossed the sky, turning from bright gold to a deep, bloody crimson as evening fell. Solenne did not move, did not eat, and did not stop whispering her sacred incantations. She demanded an answer from her faith.
Finally, as the moon reached its zenith, her unwavering devotion broke through the veil once more.
Her mind didn't plunge into a dream this time; instead, a violent flash of enlightenment exploded directly behind her eyes. The vague vision from before suddenly sharpened with terrifying, vivid detail.
In her mind's eye, she saw the northeastern location shrouded in a catastrophic, pitch-black shadow. A sudden, massive spike of foreign mana had materialized out of nowhere an energy so dense, so unimaginably vast, that it threatened to swallow the entire Valerian continent whole. It was a monstrosity. An existence that defied the natural laws of this world.
Along with the vision, a faint, chilling truth from the Goddess leaked into her mind: Even the Goddess herself could not predict its true form or foresee its fate. The future around that location was completely blank, wiped clean by the sheer weight of that mysterious mana.
Solenne’s eyes snapped open, her pupils dilated with pure horror.
A power so monstrous that even a god couldn't predict it? An anomaly capable of bringing ruin to the golden era?
She stood up abruptly, her previous doubts entirely gone, replaced by a grim, heavy resolve. She didn't care about the politics of the capital anymore, nor did she care about Prince Damien's whims. If this monstrosity was left unchecked, there wouldn't be an empire left to govern.
"Summon the Holy Guardians," Solenne commanded aloud to the empty room, her voice shaking slightly but filled with absolute, non-negotiable authority. "Prepare a stealth convoy. We ride for the northeast coordinates immediately."
What followed was a grueling week of relentless, exhausting travel.
As the carriage rattled across the empire, Solenne found no peace. Every single night she closed her eyes, the same vivid, terrifying dream would repeat. Goddess Vale would appear in the cosmic void, her celestial hands pointing urgently toward the exact same northeastern coordinates, silently demanding her to hurry.
In every town they passed, Solenne stayed for no more than a single day. She kept her [Divine Eyes] active almost constantly, scanning every passing citizen, every dark alleyway, and every hidden shadow for the catastrophic mana her Goddess had warned her about. But town after town, city after city... she found absolutely nothing unusual.
Meanwhile, the rumors of her sudden, unannounced tour traveled much faster than her actual convoy. Before she could even reach her destinations, whispers had already reached the frontier town of Greenvale that the great Radiant Saint was visiting every single settlement in the northeast.
By the time they approached the final stretch of the journey, the physical and mental toll on Solenne was immense. Seeing their leader visibly wasting away, the Captain of the Holy Guardians finally broke his silence during a brief halt.
"My Lady," the guard asked with deep concern, his voice hesitant. "Are you absolutely certain that this journey is based on a true revelation? I mean... we have searched every province in this quadrant, and we haven't found a single trace of anything dangerous."
Solenne turned her head slowly, fixing him with a dangerously sharp, icy glare. For the first time in her life, she let her raw stress and anger overcome her gentle demeanor.
"Do not question the Goddess's command!" she hissed, her voice cutting through the air like a blade.
The Holy Guardian gasped, his face turning pale. Feeling the terrifying weight of her displeasure, he immediately dropped to one knee and bowed his head deeply. "I am deeply sorry, my Lady! Forgive my insolence!"
Solenne turned away, trying to calm her racing heart. She was taking this task with absolute, life-or-death seriousness. Throughout her entire life and the long history of the Valerian Empire, the Goddess had always protected the continent through these sacred revelations. Outbreaks of horrific monsters, devastating plagues, unyielding natural disasters all of them had been successfully handled and averted because previous Saints obeyed the divine warnings without question.
Every generation of past Saints had left strict, sacred testaments of advice to their successors: Never doubt the revelation, for a single moment of hesitation could cost millions of lives.
On the seventh day of their journey, the convoy finally arrived at Greenvale the very last frontier city situated on the northeastern border of the Valerian Empire.
Looking through the small window of her velvet-lined carriage, Solenne watched a long line of merchants and commoners waiting to enter the city gates in the distance. As the space between them closed, the Royal Guards at the front of her convoy raised their silver horns, blowing a loud, resonant trumpet blast to announce her arrival.
"The Saint has arrived! Make way for the Radiant Saint!"
Instantly, the local people lined up along the roads, cheering loudly and tossing flower petals into the air. It was a grand, joyous welcome. Yet, inside the carriage, Solenne remained completely still. She didn't open the curtains, nor did she wave back to the crowd. She was completely drained. Her body was thoroughly exhausted, and she simply didn't have the strength to force her usual warm, picture-perfect face to hide her current state of collapse.
But then, right at the exact moment her carriage crossed beneath the heavy stone archway of the main gate...
Thump.
For a fleeting, microscopic fraction of a second, Solenne’s heart beat violently against her chest. A cold shiver shot straight up her spine. It was a bizarre, heavy sensation as if she had just passed through a wall of invisible, ancient static that caused her soul core to shudder.
She froze, her eyes widening in the dim cabin. She instinctively looked back toward the gate they had just entered.
‘What was that...?’ she thought, her breath catching.
But as she stared at the bustling crowd of ordinary peasants and low-tier mercenaries milling about the entrance, logic quickly reasserted itself. ‘No... I must be overthinking things. I’m just completely exhausted from a week of travel with my Divine Eyes active.’
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Solenne closed her eyes, forcing her tensed muscles to relax as the carriage carried her deeper into the heart of Greenvale straight toward the Adventurers' Guild.