Bella Noll watched the three children, taller than her, walking ahead and smiled bitterly at their struggle.

  She was always prepared to protect them even before they could fall to the ground, but they kept moving forward at the same slow pace.

  She could guess that all three had long forgotten everything and were moving blindly, fueled by sheer determination without purpose. This had already surpassed the level she imagined they’d reach.

  She believed that if any great figure in the world saw them now, they’d be shocked and amazed by these mortals’ willpower and spirit.

  But this was where it ended.

  Bella Noll could see that all three of them had reached their peak of tolerance, and within a few more steps, they would all fall.

  She smiled and waited.

  She was very happy and satisfied with being able to train such individuals personally. This was a great honor, even if no one ever acknowledged her or even knew of her.

  But as Bella Noll waited and waited, she kept saying that it would be now, but none of them fell!

  Her expression completely changed while gazing at Eric, Lyria, and Livy’s backs.

  Stop! Bella Noll yelled in her heart, but none of them stopped and kept dragging themselves forward.

  She noticed that all three of them were bleeding from their mouths and noses, which absolutely shouldn’t have happened; after all, they weren’t physically attacked.

  Bella Noll grew conflicted in her heart.

  She could forcefully stop the three, but doing so would trample their spirit. Any path in the world was never a peaceful one. Today she could save them, but in the future, she wouldn’t be around, and they would need to face various situations by themselves. Whether they became Mana Wielders or remained Mortals, the hurdles would be there.

  The current state of all three was terrible beyond belief, and they might even leave behind permanent mental scars as a consequence of being tormented so much internally. But she was present, and her Element was just perfect to cure these kinds of issues. She just needed to spend a little more Mana, that was all.

  After considering it for a while, Bella Noll decided to let them be.

  As Eric, Lyria, and Livy proceeded, Bella Noll’s shock also kept increasing.

  Eric aside as she always knew he wouldn’t be a normal person and perhaps wouldn’t stop at just being another Legend—but what about Lyria and Livy?

  This made no sense!

  The current situation, being deeply affected by the Death Energy of Umbrixa, was completely different from what Eric, Lyria, or Livy experienced during training.

  The current situation not only required an extremely determined mind and willpower but also an individual spirit striving toward absolute peak.

  In a sense, it had almost nothing to do with willpower or the reasons behind one’s actions—it was a matter of pure spirit! It required a soul or spirit that could only be broken but never bent. This was a spirit that, once they decided on something, not even God or Devil could change the result.

  This was not something any usual person or Mana Wielders could do; in fact, Bella Noll had never met someone with such an unbreakable spirit in her entire life.

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  Watching Eric, Lyria, and Livy walking side by side at this moment was no different than watching three suns walking side by side.

  Bella Noll’s expression suddenly grew pale for a completely different reason.

  Everyone might think this was accidental or just very impressive, but at this moment, Bella Noll had a clear, intuitive feeling that the world was ending! Not just figuratively or metaphorically—but in the literal sense. Celestia was in real danger of complete eradication!

  This might not come from the three children in front of her, but Celestia was without a doubt about to be wiped out. Otherwise, these three shouldn’t have ended up together—by whatever means, they either would have been separated or killed.

  She didn’t, and couldn’t understand why she suddenly felt this way, but currently, she felt no doubt about it. It almost came like a revelation to her.

  Bella Noll’s face was ghastly pale. She didn’t care about the fact that she would die soon, but their mother planet was facing annihilation, and this was truly heartbreaking. Others might say she was exaggerating, but she could feel it at this moment—without a single shred of doubt—that Celestia was truly on her last legs.

  Bella Noll’s eyes trembled for a long time without being able to form any more coherent thoughts.

  In the end, she sighed deeply. She glanced back at the three children, whose eyes and ears were now also bleeding along with their mouths and noses, but they were still dragging themselves forward without any idea where they were going or when their journey would end.

  They were now all closing in on the graveyard’s gate.

  She would have gaped in astonishment at the fact that Eric, Lyria, and Livy had actually managed to truly reach the end all by themselves, but her current mood was very complicated.

  Maybe she wouldn’t be able to save Celestia personally as she was nothing but mere dust in the larger world—but perhaps these three might, and this could be counted as her contribution to their mother planet as thanks.

  She just hoped that all three of them didn’t die young, as they were currently shining too much and would undoubtedly attract too much attention.

  Bella Noll sighed. She pulled out a pouch from her inner pocket and then retrieved three clean white towels from that Space Pouch.

  Bella Noll originally had one Apprentice Rank Space Ring, but she had long thrown it away to remove all her attachments to her past. She also planned to destroy everything she was currently using before she died, though that was for the future.

  They all arrived at the Graveyard. The Death Energy was at its highest and could no longer increase further, so there was no longer any point in Eric, Lyria, or Livy walking forward.

  Bella Noll used a significant amount of her Mana to send three beams of pure white light into all three’s bodies.

  Normally, it wouldn’t have been necessary for her to send such a large amount, but the three were well beyond the point of remaining conscious after receiving her help.

  Since they had worked so hard to get to this point, Bella Noll felt that she should let them see her best attack, otherwise, it would be an injustice to them if they all remained unconscious.

  Eric, Lyria, and Livy came back to their senses as if they had been suddenly pulled out from drowning for an unknown length of time.

  Before they could recall who they were or what they were doing, one white towel fell over each of their heads, and they heard a familiar old woman’s voice:

  "Clean the blood off your faces."

  Eric, Lyria, and Livy’s eyes widened—all their memories came flooding back. They didn’t know how to make sense of this logically, but what they had just gone through was strangely vivid in their experience.

  Throughout the journey, they had refused to lose consciousness or be defeated by the madness that had constantly haunted them—they had just kept going and going… somewhere.

  Even Eric felt this was definitely a Nightmare+++ difficulty, and amazingly, he had somehow survived and come back with his sanity intact.

  He had always known that he wouldn’t easily lose his mental balance, as he didn’t really depend on his 'mind' for stability, but this event had challenged him beyond his wildest imagination and expectations.

  Currently, he was strangely feeling that something inside him was warming up, as if someone had provided him with a warm blanket and fire during a freezing winter.

  "Eric, how are you?" Riya hurriedly asked with a teary voice. "I see you’re recovering rapidly, but I don’t understand how—perhaps Grandma did something." She had literally wept the entire duration of the journey, worrying for Eric.

  Eric came to his senses, lost in a daze over what he had just gone through—something that felt like eons.

  He shook his head and started cleaning his face, only then noticing that it was wet with blood. He seemed to be bleeding from everywhere, though he didn’t mind much. They had all bled quite a number of times during past training, and he also had plenty of his own past-life experience as guidance on how to bleed more.

  "I’m fine. Do you know what happened?" Eric asked while wiping his face.

  Riya shook her head. "I’ve removed all connection with you except your physical eyes, but there was nothing noticeable other than the empty night road in front of you."

  Eric nodded.

  During the special torture session, he had barely been looking at anything or even depending on his five senses—everything had long evaporated from his mind and senses.

  Town Mayor Jarvis Laroche noticed Bella Noll’s arrival as he stood near the gate and quickly rushed toward her, secretly releasing a deep sigh of relief in his heart.

  He had been deeply worried that Bella Noll wouldn’t arrive, as midnight had long passed.

  He had no idea how to deal with the current situation or what was even happening, but over the last few days, the situation around the graveyard had gotten worse and worse.

  At first, Jarvis and the other Mana Wielders of the town tried to do whatever they could, but the atmosphere had grown grimmer with each passing night. They no longer knew what else to do. So, all the Nobles had requested Jarvis to seek Bella Noll’s help, as only she might know.

  And indeed, Bella Noll hadn’t disappointed—she had quickly caught on to what was happening, and now only she knew how to deal with this permanently.

  "Thank you for coming, Madam Bella Noll!" Jarvis bowed deeply. "For now, we don’t need your support—we can handle these lowly creatures ourselves." He hoped Bella Noll would take action soon but couldn’t outright request it.

  Bella Noll nodded—she could see that.

  Jarvis was then speechless, glancing at the three giant Mortals who had arrived with Bella Noll.

  He wondered how the hell Mortals could get this far without killing each other or tearing themselves apart, as even he would lose his mind without protection.

  He guessed they had received help from Bella Noll and paid them no further attention. He was currently too preoccupied with worries for the whole town.

  Eric, Lyria, and Livy also glanced at Jarvis once before their eyes turned toward what was happening inside the graveyard.

  Both Lyria and Livy, like Eric, had gone through a lot that they themselves didn’t understand. Beyond that, something within them had changed—something they couldn’t quite pinpoint at the moment.