As Sean said, the Temple of Water ...... Or many other temples, all built at the point where the forces converged, and these places usually left some ruins—more ancient temples, broken statues, or even ancient altars, as in the case of this one.

It existed long before the city of Tonbutch was built, but nothing has been recorded. Sean discovered it after the temple broke ground, and by then, he had already seen the altar beneath the Pomegranate Hall...... and dried blood on the altar. Even though he didn't know who the blood belonged to at the time, it was enough for him to develop an instinctive disgust. At the moment of digging out this altar, his only thought was to destroy it.

"It's as evil as the altar beneath Fort Locke. ”

He told Felicity this, but Felicity could tell with just one glance, although they looked almost identical on the outside, and even the runes were repeated many times, they were in fact not the same.

"Sean may not have felt it, but Scottez's disappearance has obviously affected him much more than he has shown...... I guess he had some guess about the blood on that altar in Lockburg, but we couldn't find any evidence...... We couldn't find a single bit of Scott's associated breath. That dried bloodstain, no matter how much I tried, I couldn't find any connection to the world, as if it were just a meaningless stain...... But it's not. There is something power, a power much stronger than mine, that is covering something. It leaves such a striking mark that it almost looks like a deliberate mockery of our incompetence...... It's a terrible feeling. And I can't tell Sean my guess...... I wish I could still be as bold and crisp as I was when I was younger, and make choices recklessly, as long as I think it was the right ...... Well, I have to seal this booklet, when has it become so difficult to even say a few words of truth......"

Felicity's notes were mostly written very casually, and she would write down everything that came to mind, and it seemed as if she was chatting with her face to face. Ed flipped through the pages, almost forgetting that Filly was still with him.

“...... Labaia says that this altar is extremely old, and I agree, but I feel that it has been modified...... Any altar is a place to offer sacrifices to the gods, but this one, I don't think so...... It's kind of weird. ”

"There are more than two altars in the city, most of which were built when the city of Stunbuch was built. I know what they're for—maybe it's better to destroy them? I have to figure out if it will affect the city...... But I don't know what this one is for......"

"I traced down a few of the runes and sent them to Inglis, but the guy didn't hear me back, so most likely he didn't know him...... If only Kerman were still alive. I always feel that I haven't lived long, why am I so old that my old acquaintances die one by one, and I am almost the only one left...... Have I already talked to anyone about this before?"

"I did a couple of little experiments. Now I can be sure that this 'altar' has been affected by another force that has changed its actual effect, and that its own power has not been weakened in the slightest...... The person who can do this kind of thing is really a genius, and I should not be too far from a 'genius' to be able to discover this. Reward yourself with a piece of candy!"

She jotted down a few of the experiments. Ed calmed down and looked at it for a while, and the more he looked, the more frightened he became.

Occasionally, he felt that he might be a genius as well—he could easily create new spells, that it took him only a few nights to learn necromancy, and that no one had taught him how to fuse different powers, but he did it...... But when you think about it, his "genius" is almost instinctive, and every flash of inspiration in his mind seems to be based on countless successes and failures that he has never experienced at all...... It was as if he had been immersed in magic for thousands of years, and had become so familiar with everything that he could easily come to it without thinking.

The hidden "possibility" made him creepy.

Felicity is also a man with great talent, not to mention Rabea...... But she clearly understands the power she has. She seems to be very aggressive, but she acts cautiously and carefully. All her attempts are based on careful calculations, with a clear purpose and a completely foreseeable outcome under her control. She wields two different powers at once, like a warrior with a sword in one hand and a whip in the other, so that the two very different weapons work together perfectly.

This is something he simply can't do.

But even such a Felicity suffered an unexpected defeat.

She speculated that the altar was in fact a door—or more than a door.

"It leads to countless worlds that we have said goodbye to for a long time...... Not fragments intercepted like the Otherworldly Ring, but real, innumerable worlds that exist like ours...... Different symbols point to different worlds, and theoretically, as long as you find the corresponding symbol, you can go anywhere from it without worrying about upsetting the balance of this world......"

"Thanks to the Otherworldly Ring, I should be able to recover some symbols......"

"It's been used......"

"There are people who have left their mark on many worlds and made them connect to this world in some way. But why? If it's just to come and go freely, you don't need to do it......"

"My steps have left their mark on other worlds, but I don't know what to do...... Maybe Labeja is right, my damn curiosity is going to get us in big trouble. ”

"Should I cut these connections? I don't think ...... right."

"Maybe I'm getting something wrong. It's a door, but it's still essentially an altar—what did I sacrifice?"

"If you live for almost 200 years, you will fall into such a trap...... No, I'm not stupid, it's the enemy who is too cunning! I think I know who that guy is...... I should have known. ”

After a period of exasperated and frustrated self-blame, the note abruptly broke off at "I thought of a way...... I'll have to give it a try." There was still a small half-blank space left in the booklet. Ed knew what was going on - Felicity was trapped in a world somewhere and it took years to get out. And when she returned, she had no energy left to continue studying this "altar".

Scott is reborn from the flames and is no longer the knight of Nior, and Iss finds his true self and disappears into the cold Northlands.

And she's drained so much power that she's running out of time. She put her hope in Ed's, and he ...... He wasted so much time in self-pity, on doubt and hesitation.

He closed the pamphlet and looked over to the altar...... and Filly, who was half-crouched by the altar.