Free Web NovelChapter 1789: A Long Time Coming
Although he was curious why Mystia let out a sigh after hearing Ataraxia’s words, Valyr set the thought aside now as he gave her a concise response to her question.
"The Shadow Plane."
"The Shadow Plane?" Mystia’s eyes slightly widened in surprise after hearing that.
For a moment, she thought about asking him what he planned to do while in the Shadow Plane.
After all, as the Saintess of the Mystic Plane, she felt like it was her duty to obtain information on one of the planes that pushed them to the brink of destruction back then, no matter how little it may be.
Though, after recalling how much Valyr had contributed to the Mystic Plane ever since he became a part of it, she eventually decided to keep those thoughts to herself.
Weighing the pros and cons of each choice, she did not take long to come to the conclusion that having the two young men stay with their Mystic Plane was still far better than obtaining bits and pieces of information about the Shadow Plane.
Then again, there wasn’t even a guarantee that the information Valyr would share with him would be useful to the Mystic Plane in any way.
’With the two manning the helm, and with Ataraxia’s latest discovery, it won’t be long until the Mystic Plane reaches a level far higher than it has ever reached before.’
"Alright." With her mind more or less made up, she gave Valyr a nod of understanding. "You’ll return before the tournament, right?"
"Don’t worry." The latter faintly chuckled in response. "Everything Ataraxia and I have been doing thus far, hasn’t it all been for the upcoming tournament?"
After exchanging a couple more words with each other after that, the trio eventually parted ways, with Mystia heading into the Meltierre Heavenly Court.
Remaining at the entrance for a bit longer, Valyr looked at his other self before asking through their connection, ’Are you gonna head to the Mystic Plane here or...?’
’I’ll be making a quick trip to Astella City before heading there,’ answered Ataraxia. ’As the leader of the Azure Coalition, it’s really been a long time since I’ve managed things and kept myself up to date with what’s going on with the guild.’
’I should at least fulfill some of my duties as a leader before the Nine Heavenly Pillars tournament starts.’ He gave his other self a slightly wry smile. ’Plus, you still wanted me to get that inheritance key from the Realm of New Horizons, no?’ frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
’Yeah.’ Valyr nodded in return. ’Shame that there’s not enough before the tournament. If there was, then you know I would’ve gone through it to increase our chances.’
’Increase our chances?’ Ataraxia felt like he had heard the greatest joke. ’With our current strength, we’re practically guaranteed to win the top two spots, no?’
At those words, the young man could only smile in response, prompting the latter to turn silent as the gears in his mind turned.
By the time Ataraxia looked at his other self once more, he gave him a nod, to which the latter responded by returning the nod back.
Then, continuing to let the silence linger, the two parted ways, with Ataraxia heading to Astella City, while Valyr headed to who knows where.
Nevertheless, once the day of the Nine Heavenly Pillars tournament arrived, the two of them knew that when they met each other once more...
They would have definitely gone through at least a few more world-shaking changes.
...
Whoosh!
Stepping into the mirrored world of the Shadow Plane once more, a faint sigh escaped Valyr’s lips as he took a brief look at his current surroundings.
"How long has it been since I’ve last paid a visit here?" he asked himself, thinking back to the last time he entered the Shadow Plane as he closed his eyes.
As far as he could recall, Greater Beyond hadn’t yet officially been released to the public back then. If anything, it was still in its supposed ’beta’ phase.
During that time, he was still at the peak of Rank 3, having recently just left the Four Pillars’ Inheritance.
Hearing that the war between the three races had finally gone into full swing that time, the young man sought to increase his strength even further in order to be better prepared for what might come.
Among the paths he decided to take during that time was returning to the Shadow Plane.
Being accompanied by both Noel and Sellifer, it went without saying that his stay at the Shadow Plane was more than fruitful.
After all, not only did he massively increase the amount of Shadow Energy he wielded, but he had also improved his Shadow Energy to the next tier, Void Energy.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, he had incorporated the existence of Void Energy into his Prime Azure Energy, which prompted the two biggest decision makers of the Shadow Plane to pay attention to him.
However, as he had recently obtained another reward from the Shadow Plane at the time, the Overseer and the Saintess of the Shadow Plane had decided to postpone the rewards they initially planned on giving him.
Thinking about how he’d be able to one of his rewards once he reached the peak of Rank 4, Valyr felt that coming now was a bit too late.
In fact, the reason why he had decided to come to the Shadow Plane just as they returned from their hunt was because the Saintess of the Shadow Plane had reminded him through a series of notifications.
If not for that, then he would’ve probably thrown the thought at the back of his head and forgot about it.
"With so many things going on in my life, it really doesn’t feel like it’s only been over a year since I last visited."
By the time Valyr opened his eyes once more, a light sigh could not help but escape his lips as a slightly wry smile appeared on his mouth.
Though, just as he was planning to explore the Shadow Plane for a bit while waiting for the other side to respond, the young man watched his surroundings turn pitch black all of a sudden.
Whoosh!
A second later, he noticed that he had appeared within the depths of a shrine.
Specifically, it was a shrine that he had already been to before.
However, at that moment, his attention was not on where he had appeared all of a sudden.
Instead, it was on the being that stood before him, looking back at him with an enigmatic smile.
"Long time no see."
