Leon's mind raced through possibilities. He was desperately curious about what had happened here, about the connection between the statues and the abyssal corruption, about this woman who could evade his spatial awareness and who recognized his power without testing it. The palace was a mystery wrapped in danger, a puzzle that part of him wanted to solve.

But the more substantial part—the pragmatic survivor who had brought him this far—recognized the wisdom in withdrawal. He was surrounded by hundreds of statues that reeked of abyssal corruption, any or all of which might be activated under the right circumstances. The woman before them was an unknown entity – powerful enough to hide from his senses, confident enough to dismiss them despite recognizing his strength. And most importantly, this wasn't why he had come here.

More than anything, the smell of an abyssal monster would kill before anything, if a real one appeared before me... As the memory of his previous enouncer was still clear in his mind.

The treasury they had intended to raid seemed almost trivial now compared to the danger the palace represented. Some treasures weren't worth the risk of claiming them, and Leon had learned long ago when to cut his losses.

"Very well," Leon said finally, taking a small step backward. "We'll leave."

The woman inclined her head graciously, as if they had concluded a pleasant social visit rather than a tense confrontation. "How refreshingly sensible. Do close the doors on your way out, won't you? The drafts can be terrible."

Seraphine followed Leon's lead as they backed toward the throne room doors, neither of them willing to fully turn their backs on the mysterious woman. She watched them go with those dark eyes, still seated on the throne like a queen of shadows and stone.

Only when they had passed through the doors and pulled them closed did they allow themselves to move more quickly. Their footsteps echoed through the palace corridors as they retraced their path, passing the frozen servants and guards who would never complete their eternal tasks. The weight of unseen eyes seemed to follow them. However, whether it was the woman's attention or something else entirely, Leon couldn't determine.

They emerged into the afternoon sunlight, and both of them drew deep breaths of clean air. The statue garden stretched before them, those perfectly preserved figures still maintaining their ceremonial poses. In the daylight, they seemed almost peaceful. However, Leon could still detect that underlying wrongness, that abyssal taint that marked them as something that shouldn't exist.

"That was..." Seraphine began, then paused, searching for words. "Unexpected."

"Intelligent," Leon corrected, leading them quickly through the prescribed pathways between the statues. "She recognized a fight wouldn't benefit anyone. Sometimes the wisest victory is the battle not fought."

They passed through the palace gates, and Leon felt a subtle relief as they put distance between themselves and that place of frozen souls and dark mysteries. Perhaps someday he would return to unravel the secrets of the Palace of Miles, but today was not that day.

"So much for the treasury," Seraphine said with a slight smile, her natural humor reasserting itself now that they were away from immediate danger. "Although I suspect whatever wealth that palace holds would come with a price we wouldn't want to pay."

Leon nodded in agreement. Some treasures were cursed in ways that went beyond simple traps or guardians. The palace reeked of the kind of corruption that could contaminate anything it touched.

Once they had put sufficient distance between themselves and the palace walls, Leon stopped and turned to Seraphine. "We continue to our original destination. The Forbidden Mist still awaits."

Without waiting for a response, he swept her up into his arms again, returning to the princess carry that had brought them this far. Seraphine settled against his chest more readily this time, her arms finding their position around his neck with practiced ease.

"Eight hundred kilometers remaining," she said, having maintained her sense of direction and distance despite their detour. "No more stops for mysterious treasures?"

"No more stops," Leon confirmed, and then his figure blurred from existence.

The earth exploded beneath his feet as he launched himself forward with explosive force. Once again, three distinct auras wrapped around Seraphine – lightning crackling in protective patterns, wind buffering against the acceleration, ice forming the final barrier against harm. The mana flowed purely for her protection while Leon's physical might propelled them across the landscape at impossible speeds.

The failed treasury raid faded behind them, just another strange encounter in a journey that seemed destined for the extraordinary. Miles Kingdom blurred past, its borders meaningless at the velocity they traveled. Fields became green streams of color, forests dark smudges against the horizon, rivers silver threads glimpsed and gone in heartbeats.

Leon's mind turned from what lay behind to what awaited ahead. The Forbidden Mist, that barrier between domains, that wall between the limited Lower Domain and the possibilities of the Middle Domain. Eight hundred kilometers that would take regular travelers weeks, but would pass in minutes under his superhuman speed.

The Palace of Miles, with its stone sentinels and mysterious woman, had been a distraction, albeit an intriguing one. But Leon's true purpose remained unchanged – to scout the barrier, to test what lay beyond, to prepare for the eventual migration of his people to realms where real power and genuine opportunities existed.

Seraphine held tightly as the world blurred around them, her purple hair whipping in the wind despite the protective barriers. She could feel Leon's heartbeat, steady now that they were away from the palace, strong and rhythmic like a war drum. Whatever they found at the Forbidden Mist, whatever challenges awaited them at the boundary between worlds, she knew they would face it together.

The afternoon sun traced their path across the sky, a blazing arc heading toward the edge of everything they knew. Eight hundred kilometers to the unknown, to the mist that separated the weak from the strong, the limited from the limitless.

Behind them, the Palace of Miles stood in silent testimony to the dangers of dabbling with powers beyond comprehension. Its statues maintained their eternal watch, its mysterious inhabitant sat upon a throne she had not been born to, and its secrets remained unspoken.

But Leon and Seraphine raced onward, toward a different danger, a different mystery, carrying with them only the memory of stone faces and black eyes, and the wisdom to know when walking away was the most significant victory of all.

The journey to the Forbidden Mist continued, each explosive step bringing them closer to the edge of their world and the beginning of something far greater.

Then suddenly out of nowhere.

The world shattered like glass.

One moment, Leon was racing across the familiar landscape of the Lower Domain, the ground exploding beneath his feet with each superhuman stride. The next reality itself seemed to fracture and fall away, revealing something underneath that made his entire body freeze mid-step.

It happened without warning – no magical surge, no sense of crossing a barrier, no indication that anything was amiss. The illusion... ended. As if someone had pulled away a painted curtain Leon never knew existed, showing him a truth he was never meant to see.

The sight before him defied comprehension. Where moments ago there had been ordinary terrain stretching toward the horizon, now there was—

Leon's mind reeled, unable to process what his eyes were showing him. His heart hammered against his ribs with shocking intensity. Every instinct screamed that this was wrong, that reality wasn't supposed to look like this, that he had stumbled upon something magnificent and terrible that should have remained hidden.

In his arms, Seraphine remained calm, her breathing steady. She didn't speak, didn't react – this was familiar territory for her, a sight she had witnessed before. They had entered the zone from where the Forbidden Mist could finally be seen, and she knew this moment well.

But for Leon, the revelation was absolute. He stood frozen, a figure of immense power reduced to stunned silence by the magnificent impossibility stretching before him.

Is this even real?

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