Thousands of kilometers away.
At the bustling port of South Vantina, crowds surged like a woven tide.
"Goodness, which way is the meeting point?"
Sigrid retrieved her suitcase from the lost and found, feeling a faint sense of relief return.
Yet another dilemma immediately confronted her.
The moment she stepped through the doors of the lost and found, the sea breeze sweeping across the covered bridge tousled a few playful strands of pale hair from her side ponytail.
Her amethyst-clear eyes narrowed slightly, shimmering as she pondered where to go next.
The port was simply too colossal. The overlapping map between the upper and lower deck levels was on the verge of making her head spin.
"We agreed earlier that someone would meet me at the passenger rendezvous point in Port South Vantina."
Sigrid muttered to herself, looking slightly bewildered.
She had only just returned to the mortal world from the Shadow World's threshold space.
Accustomed to the settlement screens, she had barely glanced at them before skipping past.
In the end, she had simply grabbed the magic card from the orange orb of light and left.
She had long reached the peak of Tier 8, lacking only the power of faith to ascend into the ninth-tier divine realm. Her greatest haul from this Shadow World was this natural magic card of Orange Epic rarity—
[Tears of the Second Pope of Saint Polante]
[Category: Spell Card]
[Rarity: Orange Epic]
[Affinity: Healing / Enhancement]
[Tier: 8]
[Effect: Refines and consumes one's own mana and health to revert the target to a younger state for a set duration while restoring a massive amount of health. Cooldown: 135 seconds.]
[Remark: Divine power condensed from the Second Pope of Saint Polante's long-standing prayers to the Moon Goddess. If only she had mastered this spell sooner, perhaps she could have saved her sun.]
Though finding her way in the mortal world was a hassle, thinking about this card brightened her mood.
She now effectively possessed an instantaneous burst-healing spell.
However, it couldn't be used repeatedly in quick succession; otherwise, she might revert into a little child.
Its secondary rejuvenating effect might not work on long-lived species, but for humans, if used properly, it could practically keep one in their prime.
It could serve as either a boon or a bane.
"Wait, it could also turn me into a seventeen-year-old girl without needing disguise magic..."
Sigrid suddenly realized.
Disguise spells might not hold up well in Brillda; they could be dispelled or seen through by high-level experts.
She pondered this as she walked ahead.
At the center of the covered bridge stood a divine sculpture. The pedestal was engraved with "The God Presiding Over the Sea and Navigation." The deity wore a pained expression, as though lighting the way for vessels—or perhaps thoroughly helpless before a directionally challenged traveler who lacked any gift for navigation.
Sigrid leaned close to study the map etched into the bridge, fingertips lightly tracing the weathered stone in search of a clue toward her destination.
A chorus of gull cries caught Sigrid's attention.
Looking up, she saw several seagulls wheeling in the azure sky, their wings cutting across the open expanse and leaving streaks of white afterimages.
"Right, the Holy Son once said that whenever you're in an unfamiliar place and don't know which fork to take, just follow the crowd—you'll always end up at a prominent building."
Sigrid recalled what Lanqi had told her.
Perhaps there were gulls among them that didn't know the way either, yet as long as they followed the flock, they'd never fly astray.
Luggage in tow, Sigrid strode forward, taking whichever branch of the covered bridge had more people whenever a fork appeared.
Her pale hair was casually tied behind her head in a playful little bun, radiating the sharp, keen edge of a wolf tempered by the lively charm of a young woman.
Her autumn-winter outfit carried a distinct flair: a slightly oversized hooded jacket with loose cuffs and hem draping over rugged cargo pants, and a pair of low-top canvas sneakers tapping rhythmically against the stone paving.
Passing along the upper-deck corridor swept by the brisk ocean breeze, Sigrid gazed down. Beyond the taverns and inns lining the streets, the scenery gradually widened; towering palm trees cast dappled shadows, and the sound of waves crashing against the shoals drifted closer, growing ever clearer.
"So this is the Holy Son's hometown."
Her spirits lifted. Every transfer plaza she passed was packed with travelers chattering about the latest commissions and gossip.
Sigrid couldn't help listening in, sifting for any potentially valuable fragments of intelligence.
Then again, if she truly needed intelligence, she could simply purchase it from the Dimension Branch.
The Dimension Branch in the Southern Continent was said to pride itself on dedicated service—as long as you had the coin, anything was possible.
This time, she had brought plenty of Protos Empire currency from the Northern Continent. With war ravaging the Southern Continent, many wealthy citizens were fleeing to nations on the Northern Continent's southern coast, driving the exchange rates sky-high. The money in Sigrid's hands would fetch an even larger sum in local currencies.
After a bit of trekking, Sigrid finally found the passenger rendezvous point in Port South Vantina.
"Turns out he was actually right..."
Sigrid marveled as she entered the concourse entrance on the lower deck.
Following the crowds really did lead to the right place.
It was rare to be back indoors. The passenger rendezvous point resembled a designated corner of the station concourse where greeters and arriving travelers could meet.
Scanning the area, Sigrid quickly spotted a young man in the corner of a row of benches, dozing off while hugging a board emblazoned with a cartoon Silver Moon Crown.
He wore a black peaked cap, a black-and-white checkered shirt, and a black jacket over it, looking every bit like a typical courier or deliveryman.
His face looked slightly haggard, his lips tinged with exhaustion as though from chronic lack of sleep. Beneath the cap, messy medium-length black hair was casually tied back, with a few unruly bangs fluttering in the breeze and occasionally veiling his eyes.
He seemed to have waited here so long that he had nodded off.
"My apologies, my apologies. Poor employee of the Dimension Branch."
Sigrid's heart stirred. She realized this was the Dimension cleric she was looking for; their agreed-upon contact sign was indeed the cartoon Silver Moon Crown.
She had been somewhat worried that because she was suddenly swept away by a temporary Void Gate, the Dimension Branch might have given up on meeting her after she vanished for so long.
Who would have thought a Dimension cleric would be so relentless, practically living at the reception area just to wait for her?
Sigrid quickened her steps, her footsteps echoing crisp and pleasant against the marble floor.
"...?"
Noticing her approach, the young man lifted his head, bleary-eyed.
Sigrid stopped before him.
"Hello. I'm Side, the one who commissioned your Dimension Express Company. I'm very sorry for arriving so late."
Her voice rang clear and bright.
The young man paused upon hearing her, then grinned. His fatigue vanished in an instant, replaced by heartfelt delight.
"Don't worry about it! It's no trouble at all. As soon as I got word from the clerics that you'd been swept into a Void Gate, I rushed right over and waited here for you."
He spoke with extreme familiarity.
"I truly am sorry for keeping you waiting so long."
"Aw, what's a dozen days or so? Passed in the blink of an eye."
After exchanging a few pleasantries, the young man invited Sigrid to leave the port with him.
Before long, they arrived at the vehicle parking area.
"After you."
The young man walked over to the passenger side and politely held the door open for Sigrid.
Sigrid gave the young man a meaningful look.
She hadn't noticed when they first met.
Because he seemed so utterly down-to-earth.
Now, after spending a brief moment together, Sigrid was entirely certain: this guy was astonishingly strong. He was at least stronger than the weakened Caliera in the Shadow World—a level no mere cleric, Holy Son, or Holy Maiden could ever possess.
The wine-red leather seats exuded a faint scent of luxury leather. Sigrid settled in, feeling their softness and comfort.
Closing the door, the young man walked around to the driver's seat, got in, and with the pleasing roar of a mana engine, drove smoothly away from Port South Vantina.
The vehicle turned onto the winding coastal highway of the Bibo Coast. Along the way, the bustling port scenery gradually gave way to deserted outskirts.
On one side of the highway rose rolling mountains lush with green canopies; on the other stretched the azure sea, glistening under the sun, boundless to the horizon.
The young man held the steering wheel with one hand, eyes fixed on the road ahead, while resting his other hand casually on the window ledge.
"Speaking of which, if your Dimension Branch were to send me into the Creti Empire, what is the fastest itinerary to get me near Botswana Province, and how many days would it take?"
Leaning back against the seat and watching the shifting landscape outside, Sigrid felt a complex flutter of tension and anticipation.
She truly wanted to see the Holy Son as soon as possible—even a single moment earlier would be worth it.
They had both just emerged from the Shadow World; every day earlier she arrived, the Holy Son's pleasant surprise would be multiplied.
While chatting with the Holy Son back in the Shadow World school, she hadn't pried deeply, yet she had gleaned that he was currently in Brillda, the capital of the Creti Empire.
"I'll give you your answer right away. Just bear with me a moment longer."
The young man from the Dimension Branch replied without missing a beat.
After speeding down the highway for a dozen minutes, the young man pulled up beside a secluded bus stop platform.
Silence reigned all around, broken only by the rustling of wind through the treetops and the faint chirping of insects.
The shelter roof was overgrown with moss, its wooden structure rotted and seemingly on the brink of collapse.
Sigrid got out of the car and looked around. The area was utterly desolate; the dilapidated platform stood solitary amidst the wilderness, exuding a sense of profound isolation.
The lettering on the stop sign had faded and blurred, leaving only a few barely legible characters. A narrow asphalt road stretched past the platform, winding into the endless wild until it vanished on the horizon.
Sigrid understood that he had brought her here to evade the scrutiny of the Hutton Kingdom's city defense forces.
Once a shielding barrier was erected here, they could converse without worries.
"Cardinal of Dimensions, Lord Toliado?"
Sigrid cut straight to the chase.
She had never expected the Dimension Branch to go to such lengths—to have the Cardinal of Dimensions come to receive her in person.
A man this formidable in the Dimension Branch could only be the Cardinal of Dimensions himself.
Earlier, she hadn't bothered to expose him, but now she had no desire to keep playing along.
Beneath the morning sun.
"Present!"
Toliado snapped a salute with a textbook military posture, as if answering roll call.
"..."
A long silence fell between them.
Sigrid had heard that the Cardinal of Dimensions was far from a normal person.
Yet she had never imagined he would show her this kind of respect.
What an eccentric clown.
"Cardinal of Dimensions, why have you sought me out?"
Sigrid crossed her arms and asked Toliado.
She remained guarded toward this Southern Continent cardinal whom she was meeting for the first time. She certainly didn't mistake him for someone easy to deal with just because he seemed in bizarrely high spirits; this madman dared to provoke even the Cardinal of Destruction, possessing a mind steeped in sheer chaos.
Moreover, this cardinal was a little too "down with the grassroots"—he had genuinely spent over ten days waiting in the station concourse, looking like he blended into South Vantina seamlessly.
If the Cardinal of Dimensions had come to see her on his own initiative, he must have some business proposal in mind to make such a grand move and venture in person into the battlelines under the United Council of Kingdoms.
"First, to answer your question from earlier about how soon you can reach your desired destination."
The Cardinal of Dimensions, Toliado, straightened his expression slightly.
"I can transport you directly to Brillda, the Creti capital. But in return, you'll need to do a favor for our Dimension Branch."
His tone carried confidence and certainty.
"Oh?"
The wind brushed past with drifting leaves, catching the tips of Sigrid's hair, yet did nothing to alter the surprise on her face.
She hadn't expected that the Cardinal of Dimensions could actually send her straight to Brillda.
Under ordinary circumstances, had she not been in a rush, she might not have cared about such a teleportation; but right now, she was exceedingly eager to take the deal.
"I'm listening," Sigrid told Toliado.
"From this moment on, you are a great prelate of our Dimension Branch. Play the part well, then step through the space gate, and you will arrive at the second floor of the Brierda Opera House, where the Holy Maiden of Dimensions resides."
As Toliado spoke, he gathered a spatial spell with a solemn expression.
As if entirely certain she would not refuse, he had locked onto the coordinates in advance. He then traced a circle sparkling with silver fire beside the road, connecting it to a spatial barrier established by the Dimension Branch.
"I haven't agreed to this deal yet."
Looking toward the other side of the space gate, Sigrid frowned slightly on the surface, but inwardly she was convinced Toliado wasn't joking—he genuinely had a major matter for her.
If she wasn't mistaken, this was the Dimension Branch's stronghold in the city of Brillda.
Within the stronghold were intricate architectural structures and screening wards; even if connected by maximum-scale spatial magic, it would not trigger alerts among the Creti Empire's powerhouses.
Conversely, had he chosen another teleportation site, Toliado's overwhelming Tier 8 mana would have been pinpointed in no time.
Through the half-open drapery visible across the space gate, an exceptionally distinct mansion terrace came into view—unmistakably atop the Brierda Opera House.
The interior floor area roughly matched that of the entire opera house's auditorium, a space blending the aesthetic of an ancient divine hall with that of a modern library.
From there, one could clearly overlook Brillda's landmark architecture and the downtown district of Manhott, as well as the sprawling Broadway Central Square. In the plaza before the opera house's main entrance stood two symmetrical circular fountain pools lined with brown granite, their plumes of water rising and falling to the rhythm of melodic music.
"Your identification documents and dossier for this new persona are all prepared—you are officially registered as one of our Dimension Branch personnel. We even cleared customs and security checks for you, so you can transition straight into life in Brillda. At Dimension Express, our motto is: delivered right after you place the order."
Toliado continued explaining their service policies.
Professional and dripping with sincerity.
"What specifically do you need me to do?"
After a moment's consideration, Sigrid found it acceptable and asked.
The Dimension Branch's operations were indeed remarkably accommodating, well worth cooperating with.
It wasn't as if she had never posed as a cleric from another branch before; she harbored no aversion to the idea.
Besides, with the personal authorization of the Cardinal of Dimensions, she could use the Dimension Branch's banner to flawlessly infiltrate the Resurrection Church on the Southern Continent. She was more than happy to play along with the roleplay.
"Help me deliver a package. Head to the Saint Creti Monastery, knock on that door, and ask for Professor Landry. Tell him you're from the Dimension Branch, and he'll let you in. After that, you two can talk it over."
Toliado answered enthusiastically, as if unwilling to waste even a single second.
"That simple?"
Sigrid was stunned, unable to keep from suspecting a trap.
She had assumed Toliado would ask her to help eliminate some Tier 8 powerhouse.
Yet such an easy condition made her hesitant to step through the portal. After all, the other side lay in the very heartland of the Creti Empire; if an ambush awaited her there, even she would find it difficult to escape.
"It's not simple in the slightest! Only you can help me fulfill the promise between Professor Landry and me," Toliado declared with conviction, clenching his fist.
This was precisely the unpredictable stage of destiny he longed to see!
"And what about the intelligence on the person I'm looking for? Do you have any follow-up leads?"
Sigrid pressed him further.
She had no intention of wasting too much time on delivery work.
"Once this job is done, I'll toss in all the intelligence we currently possess on him as a free gift."
Seeing that Sigrid remained skeptical, Toliado tossed an emblem glowing with silver radiance directly to her.
Sigrid caught it steadily with one hand.
Framed in pale gray and silvery-white metal, a polyhedral crystal hovered at its center. It looked simultaneously like a physical gemstone and a holographic projection of ethereal light, cast in a dreamy azure blue with nebulas seemingly drifting inside.
The geometric holographic silhouettes floating above the sigil seemed to outline the fundamental fabric of spacetime.
It was Sigrid's first time seeing a cardinal's holy sigil whose very structure existed in an unstable state.
[Proof of Cardinal - Dimensions]
[Category: Equipment Card]
[Rarity: Orange Epic]
[Affinity: Link / Space]
[Tier: 0]
[Effect: Proof of identity for the Cardinal of Dimensions. Can craft Proofs of Resurrection of various tiers for the Dimension Branch; grants effective damage against and deterrence over holders of lower-tier Proofs of Resurrection; can pinpoint the approximate locations of clerics within the same branch; can verify the authenticity of Proofs of Resurrection displayed by other branches. Can open the Cardinal's Council Chamber, the Deadly Arena, and the Bishop Election Ritual.]
[Remark: Bearer: Toliado Arundale.]
Sigrid looked at the sigil in confusion, then looked up at Toliado.
The Cardinal of Dimensions had offered this to her as collateral.
With this in her grasp, Sigrid could forcibly initiate the Deadly Arena.
"Aren't you afraid I'll kill you, loot your slate, and seize your cardinal authority?"
Sigrid couldn't fathom whether all cardinals in the Southern Continent possessed such eccentric personalities.
For the Cardinal of Dimensions, once the Deadly Arena was opened by another cardinal, there would truly be nowhere to run, and killing him would be child's play for her.
Moreover, in a one-on-one duel, the Cardinal of Dimensions ranked either dead last or second-to-last among the ten cardinals.
Perhaps only the research-oriented cardinal who had been granted exceptional admission by the Pope could compete with Toliado for the title of weakest direct combatant.
"You wouldn't do that. I have faith in your character, Cardinal of Tyranny, Sigrid."
Toliado casually spread his hands, answering with absolute trust.
His flippant demeanor made it seem as though his life were worthless anyway—if she truly wanted to kill him, he might as well just die.
"...What kind of promise is it that makes you go to such lengths just to fulfill it for this Professor Landry?"
Sigrid couldn't help feeling a tinge of admiration for Toliado.
Even if the Cardinal of Dimensions might not be formidable in direct combat, his mind had genuinely transcended the barrier of life and death.
"Even if I die, it'll be well worth the price of admission."
Toliado's face radiated uncontainable anticipation, his fist clenched tight with an unmistakable sense of mission in his eyes.
"..."
Sigrid gave a hesitant nod.
Did he mean taking a bullet for a friend?
In this world, what she possessed most was courage and integrity, so she could deeply appreciate Toliado's sense of conviction.
"Very well. I'll have it delivered before noon. Our Tyrant Branch prides itself on efficiency, too."
With a jaunty wave of her hand, Sigrid stepped through the space gate.
In the next instant, she felt spacetime shift across her vision; seconds later, she was standing within a grand hall.
The domed ceiling vaulted some fifty meters high, painted in a style reminiscent of an opera auditorium. Yet the surrounding walls were lined with dark brown solid-wood bookshelves stretching all the way to the ceiling, each laden with precious musical and dramatic literature.
"Saint Creti Monastery..."
Sigrid silently repeated the key delivery address Toliado had given her.
Though she had no idea what package the Dimension Branch needed her to deliver, it had to be something extraordinarily important—something that only someone with her skill could reliably deliver.
Chapter 807