2267 - The Phenomenon
Inside a strange domain…
Althera was sitting completely naked.
Her body was not a physical one, that was clear, but rather something akin to a Law Embodiment or a Spiritual Embodiment—a radiant body that drew the eye and was filled with an aura difficult to describe in words.
Her face also emitted light, yet her original features could be clearly seen behind that glow.
Her eyes were open, and her lips were curved upward in a broad, satisfied smile as she watched what was happening around her with eyes full of curiosity and calm.
She was in a place that seemed like the Source of the World's Colors.
An infinite number of threads descended from the sky without tangling, each thread having its own independent color and a different shade from the others, no matter how similar the two colors appeared.
Even the color red alone contained hundreds of thousands of threads, with hundreds of thousands of different shades—some close, some distant—all at once!
Those enchanting threads moved gently, as if the air were caressing them, creating a scene of utmost creativity and beauty, to the point that merely looking at them gave a strange feeling of grandeur and awe.
Every few minutes, the lower end of one of the threads would move and touch Althera's glowing forehead, pumping something invisible into her. The thread itself would then become thicker and coarser, after which it would pull itself away and retreat, making way for the next one to step forward and take its turn.
At that moment, a thread advanced and gently pierced her forehead.
*Blip.*
Althera closed her eyes but maintained her satisfied smile.
After nearly a minute, the thread, which had become thicker, withdrew itself. Althera opened her eyes and murmured, "That was the Minor Compass Law... Hehe, I've progressed about 10%."
In truth, Althera had been to this place before, which is why she remembered the order and the nature of what happens here.
It was when she first broke through to the Law Dominator Realm.
Her initial soul was pulled into this strange region, and the threads began to appear one after another, each one representing her personal link to one of the Heavenly Laws. They then began to touch her forehead in the same manner and in nearly the same order.
The Laws preserved Althera in their memory through those threads as a medium, granting her a kind of protection and priority, as well as recognition of her existence and her right to walk this path.
At that time, when the last thread ended, the breakthrough ended with it, and she became a Low-level Monarch.
Now the same process is repeating, but this time there is already a connection with the laws, so the process is easier and smoother, and today this connection is only growing stronger. This strength in the bond between Althera and the Heavenly Laws is what will grant her the title of Mid-level Law Dominator.
Her body will not change, and the center of her energy concentration will not change, but her strikes will be more severe, her endurance greater, and her direction of the laws will become more precise and stable.
It will be like a person with five years of experience and another with ten years doing the same thing, with the same tools, and under nearly the same conditions... everything is identical, but the one with greater experience will ultimately win because he knows how to extract from the tools and conditions what the other does not.
And this bond represents experience, and it represents the universe's acknowledgment that she deserves to use greater power, deserves greater assistance, and deserves to have wider doors opened for her than before.
When her understanding rises again and she becomes a High-level Monarch, she will return here once more, and those threads will likewise touch her forehead and gradually thicken until each one becomes like the mooring rope of a massive ship.
But at that time, after completing the breakthrough to High-level Law Dominance, the ends of the threads would be tied and pulled upward, declaring the peak of possible power, and proclaiming that the laws could no longer support the person any further.
That knot represents the pinnacle of power in the universe.
And that knot has been seen by only a very few since the dawn of history.
Disturbance
"Hmm?" Althera was surprised, as the space around her suddenly trembled, and the thread that was extending toward her forehead paused for a moment, but then advanced again after a clear hesitation.
"Strange... I don't recall reading about anything like this."
A few hours later—
Disturbance
The space was struck violently once more, and this time the threads began to move wildly and fearfully, starting to withdraw upward slightly as if they wished to distance themselves from something they dared not face.
"No!!" Althera stood up and used her willpower and her existing connection with those threads to reassure them and keep them in place, but this time it took minutes before the next thread resumed moving toward her.
"What exactly is happening...?" Althera began to look around her suspiciously. "Is there an enemy attacking my body? No... the Heavenly Laws themselves are trembling, what could possibly affect the Heavenly Laws themselves?"
Disturbance
Disturbance
Silence—
"What the...?" Althera felt a surge of terror, standing up and slowly backing away.
The mesmerizing moving domain suddenly came to a halt—something like this had never been recorded in any account she had read or heard of.
Through her connection to them, she could sense the fear of the Threads of Laws, and she could feel that those threads wanted to withdraw as quickly as possible.
They wanted to flee!!
But something was hindering them...
The breakthrough.
Whoosh
Whoosh
Whoosh
Whoosh
Millions of threads surged toward Althera all at once.
"Ah!!"
Althera screamed at first from the shock of the scene, as it seemed the sky and earth were closing in on her, and she was powerless within that domain to defend herself. She tried to use her link to the laws to calm them, but it was futile.
"Aaaaaaah!!!!!!"
Then she screamed again, and this time it was a cry of genuine pain. The threads began piercing her small forehead simultaneously, and due to their immense numbers, they started tangling and clashing on top of each other. Many of the opposing threads of laws caused explosions, sparks, and tears inside Althera's forehead.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!"
Althera raised her voice in terrible agony, trying to pull her manifestation out of that domain and return to her body, but to no avail. She was utterly helpless, left only to wait and endure that lethal pain, which grew fiercer with every passing moment.
The threads no longer touched her, then thickened, then receded.
The threads were cramming into her head and disappearing.
They were fleeing the domain by attempting to hide within Althera's Soul Domain.
Or perhaps they were punishing Althera for being the reason they were brought here, by torturing her in this way?
Althera did not know what was happening, nor did she have time to think about it or analyze its causes.
No time to think of anything but survival!
"Ah... AAAAAHHH!!!" Althera furrowed her brows tightly as she received tens of thousands of threads entirely each moment, then clenched her teeth so hard they nearly shattered.
She would not die so easily...
She had finally rejoiced at raising her understanding of the Fundamental Repetition Law and becoming stronger, and rejoiced at taking a step closer to avenging Asr's killer and removing the shame from her chest.
It was not yet time to die here!
"AAAAAAHHH!!!" A new scream erupted—a scream of anger, refusal, and defiance more than a scream of pain.
But that was not enough.
Her head began to crack.
And then—
One of the largest threads in the area overtook the rest and did something strange. Instead of piercing Althera's forehead, it coiled around her head.
It was the main thread of the Fundamental Repetition Law.
"Ah, aah, aah!!!"
The thread couldn't stop the rest or reduce their momentum, but it at least kept Althera's spiritual domain from cracking and completely exploding.
That torment lasted for a full six seconds.
Then silence returned.
The vibrant, beautiful domain had turned into a completely empty white space, containing nothing but Althera's manifestation and the blue thread tightly wrapped around her head.
But slowly, even that thread slithered like a snake and entered Althera's forehead alongside its peers.