Universe Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

  Laboratory Building.

  Second Basement Level.

  In the cold silence, deep within the uninhabited corridor, in the innermost testing room, icy mist spread across the floor. The incandescent lights brightly illuminated the space, yet strangely, not a single figure was in sight.

  It was quiet and cool, carrying the chill of a morgue.

  Crk's thin, bluish-white skin clung to his bones. His eyes were sunken, resembling a mummified corpse, sealed under a sterile vacuum gss cover—like a museum exhibit.

  Suddenly, a bck dot twisted into existence within the cold testing room.

  At first, it was the size of a sesame seed, but it quickly began to distort abnormally, rippling through the air and forming a vortex.

  The writhing mist on the ground was lightly stirred by the vortex. Wisps of visible cold air, as the vortex distorted the space, began to rise and were pulled into its swirling motion. Along the edge of the vortex, the cold mist stretched into fine strands, as the surrounding air twisted.

  In an instant, the bck dot expanded into a vortex nearly half the size of a human, warping the surrounding airflow.

  Unexpectedly, the other side of the vortex wasn't dark—it showed a sky-blue hue, forest-green fields, and tiny particles carrying a salty, fishy scent. The breeze flowed through into the testing room, painting a vivid image—blue sea and sky, white clouds and green pins, coexisting in harmony.

  "The lines of the future appear before the eyes I seek."

  "The road ahead is revealed in my calm thoughts."

  "The alternation of night and day is restored within the future I foresee."

  "Kryptonian relics representing light, hope, and the future—"

  "Bring this world back to the right path!"

  From the other side of the vortex, a woman suddenly appeared.

  Her face was fair and delicate, exuding a cssical elegance. Her bck hair was swept up, with a few curled strands draping her temples. She looked zy yet alluring, with a seductive air. Her green eyes held an ancient depth, as though they had witnessed the rise and fall of ages, carrying compassion for the world's suffering.

  She was striking—wearing a bck fmenco-style skirt. It wasn't a rge, fred skirt, but a modified, tight-fitting one—like an evening dress—elegant and mysterious. The front of the dress was open, with vibrant fme-red trims lining the edges in yered folds, highlighting the dark bck fabric. The red and bck created a contrast—warm and mysterious, exuding a cold, enchanting aura.

  Her long, slender legs occasionally peeked through the flowing skirt, between shadows of mystery and fme.

  She radiated mystery and cssical charm, with the nguid grace of nobility, and an ever-present seductive allure. The bck-and-red ensemble made her seem both cold and passionate.

  Her green eyes fell on Crk's skeletal corpse, dispyed like a trophy. She stared for a moment, then slowly extended her slender hand. A faint gust of air followed her movement, reaching through the vortex into the testing room.

  A white, slender hand suddenly emerged from the air inside the testing room. It appeared from thin air—strange and eerie.

  Her slender fingers bore bright red polish. At her fingertips, a spiral of wind condensed into a sharp vortex of airflow, which she gently tapped against the sterile vacuum gss.

  Pong…

  The surface of the gss cover quickly cracked. Under the sharp pressure of the vortex at her fingertip, a hole was punctured. Instantly, there was a sudden change in air pressure.

  Gss shards burst outward, shattering to pieces, crashing into the walls, and scattering across the floor.

  The cold mist on the floor was also disturbed by the airflow, pressed down and then sent rippling outward.

  Crk's small skeletal corpse rattled under the impact. Clearly, most of his bones had been broken by the shock. The entire corpse appeared limp, with only the spine and skin still holding it together, like a lifeless doll.

  Her green eyes lit up slightly. She extended her hand, slender fingers reaching toward Crk's body. She grasped it by the neck, ready to pull it through the vortex.

  Just then.

  Raven descended from the sky, her hand pressed against Bardi's shoulder.

  Raven had used phase magic to pass through the material of the ground, taking Bardi with her, falling swiftly from the fifteenth floor straight to this location.

  In an instant, their arrival smmed into the ground. The magical impact compressed the soft flooring below, creating a deep depression.

  Bardi's eyes immediately caught sight of the vortex—and the seductive woman wearing a tight, fmenco-style evening dress.

  A strange enemy.

  "Who are you?"

  Bardi's eyes narrowed sharply. He shouted, stepped forward, and began transforming into his magic true form. His clothes tore and exploded instantly.

  His body swelled rapidly. Beginning with his head, his facial features became sharply defined, chiseled like stone. A dark mist emerged as his eyes darkened from deep within. Shadows spread from the depths of his pupils, and in a fsh, engulfed his entire eyes.

  His eyeballs turned completely bck.

  Before the transformation was complete, Bardi's dark pupils released two beams of shadow energy, which bsted through the air toward the vortex with a peng.

  At that moment, the mysterious woman had already retrieved Crk's body into the vortex.

  Seeing the dark beams, her green eyes narrowed. She extended another slender hand, now covered with powerful magic energy. It transformed into a massive, earthen-colored stone hand, covering the vortex—concealing the blue sky, white clouds, green fields, and ocean beyond.

  Bardi's dark beams struck the giant stone hand, sending dark sparks flying.

  The stone surface immediately began to change. The atomic structure inside was forcibly distorted by the beams, turning toward a chocote-like texture. In just a moment, the transformation spread across half the palm, turning it bck—like melted chocote.

  "Ah…!"

  A sharp cry echoed from within the vortex. Immediately after, the vortex began to spin, shrinking rapidly before vanishing entirely.

  The dark beam then bang, smmed into the testing room wall, spshing a chocote-like substance across it.

  Bardi retracted the beams. His body had grown to nearly three meters tall, brushing against the ceiling—but under control, it quickly shrank back to its original size.

  Under the lights, his chiseled face was ice-cold, his eyes sharp like torches, fixed on the spot where the vortex had disappeared.

  "We've located it. It's a small isnd about 500 kilometers out in the Azores—the one where Zatara once set up a full-isnd magic formation. Should we head there now?"

  Raven spoke quickly. She had been teleported by Bardi in an instant and used reconnaissance magic to pinpoint the vortex's location.

  Bardi's face was like a stone sculpture. His gaze was cold. "No need. It's impossible to track someone from here to Zatara's isnd."

  Moreover, with the strength that woman dispyed, there's no way she could withstand tachyon tearing.

  If she could, she wouldn't have needed to sneak in to steal Crk's body.

  In short, she's done for.

  "Ask Zatara—who is this woman?"

  (To be continued.)

  ***

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