"Where... is this?"
Belinda's eyes were faintly dazed, the energy fluctuations in her body suppressed even below the Morning Star level, while Sophia, who had originally been the weakest among them, barely changed at all.
"Is this... the world you came from?" Agnes was no better off — she had nearly dropped out of the Morning Star rank entirely.
The more powerful an otherworldly existence was, the heavier the suppression it received in the Wizard World. Conversely, a life form like Sophia, who posed virtually no threat, suffered the least.
Leilin watched the scene with a thoughtful look in his eyes, then clapped his hands together.
"Ladies! Welcome to the Wizard World! This is the first subterranean layer! I hope you'll enjoy it here!"
Seeing all three women turn their gazes toward him, Leilin rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Now that you're here, you're free to go whenever you like! Of course, if you stay with me, I'll make sure you're well taken care of. Oh, and one more thing — I'm already married here, but I have more than one wife, and I certainly wouldn't mind having a few more..."
"Oh! Big Brother Leilin is already married! Can Sophia go meet the older sisters?"
Sophia was remarkably easygoing. Though her chronic illness had long been cured, her behavior still carried a distinctly childlike quality. Of course, Leilin could see the cunning glint in her eyes and knew exactly what she was thinking.
"You brute!" Belinda cursed, but didn't leave.
Agnes watched Belinda with an expressionless face, then followed behind her without a word.
"Good! None of you are planning to leave just yet, then? Then stay with me for now. I'll teach you the basics of the Wizard World and the language as quickly as possible. After that, we'll first visit the Lias family to get you settled..."
Leilin smiled and set off with the three snake women in tow.
As they departed, his eyes drifted eastward for a brief moment, carrying a hint of amusement.
"Hm?! The aura of another world?"
Far to the east of Leilin's laboratory, in the heart of a massive imperial capital.
Half-orcs, dwarves, gnomes, and subterranean humans all lived together in bustling prosperity.
This was the capital of the Arthur Empire. Within the imperial palace, deep inside a grand sealed chamber, a voice rang out and a beam of black light burst forth in an instant. It flickered several times in midair before howling away toward the heavens.
The numerous defensive arrays seemed to pay the black light no mind whatsoever, letting it pass through as though empty air.
"King Arthur!" "King Arthur!" powerful figures cried out in alarm.
Inside the palace, a middle-aged man wearing a crown stood frozen in shock. "An ancestor has awakened from slumber? What catastrophe has occurred?"
...
"There really are otherworldly intruders, and inside my empire, no less..."
Within the black radiance floated a fair-skinned man with golden curly hair and blue eyes, his face as sharp as if carved by blade and chisel, his entire bearing radiating vigor and iron resolve.
"And this faint sense of dread... what exactly is it?"
A flicker of worry crossed the man's eyes, but it was quickly swallowed by determination.
As a pinnacle Sun-rank sovereign, his speed was nothing short of lightning. In a remarkably short time, he arrived at the laboratory Leilin had previously occupied.
Though it had already been abandoned, the man still discovered a great deal.
"The construction style of the Central Continent... and an Astral Gate. An otherworldly being brought back by a wizard? If that's the case, then the strength of whoever did this..."
Just as unease began to take hold, a voice transmission drilled directly into his ear. The information it contained made the middle-aged man set off once more, racing after Leilin and his companions.
"Big Brother Leilin! Why did we suddenly stop?"
Sophia was brimming with curiosity about everything around them and had hardly paused the entire journey.
"Waiting for someone," Leilin replied with an indifferent shrug.
"Friend? Or enemy?" Belinda asked, ever the most direct.
"Neither! He doesn't qualify for either!" Leilin waved his hand dismissively.
Then, a streak of dark light pierced through the sky and shot toward them. Even before it arrived, the unrestrained soul force radiating from it made Agnes's expression shift repeatedly. "Sixth-rank! A sixth-rank powerhouse! No — peak sixth-rank!!!"
As a former fifth-rank powerhouse and defender of the Holy City, Agnes's eye for power was far sharper than the Belinda sisters'.
Though her expression had changed, Agnes glanced at the perfectly calm Leilin and let out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh. "Of course. To you, what does a sixth-rank even matter?"
Even though she had never witnessed Leilin's cataclysmic battle against several Supremes, Agnes had seen him devour numerous sixth-rank Devouring Beasts with her own eyes. The psychological shock that had left her with was beyond words.