Layer upon layer of prayers echoed through the darkness, seeming to resonate into a mighty river. Gawain and Selena could not see that river, yet they could clearly feel something striking at the boundaries of this world, striking at the wall between reality and illusion.
Then, without warning, an incongruous disturbance appeared in the river, throwing all the prayers into chaos.
Gawain instinctively exchanged a glance with Selena. Then they heard a faint, blurred voice coming from somewhere unimaginably far away:
"Mind Storm!!!"
A powerful disruption erupted. The layered prayers were cut off in an instant, and every voice that had formed the river retreated into the depths of darkness.
"Sounded like Magnan..." Selena had barely murmured the words when glowing cracks suddenly spread before them.
Using the spider web in the darkness as its veins, countless crisscrossing streaks of white light abruptly appeared throughout the dark space. The entire place rapidly broke apart like a shattered mirror. Some attack from "within" seemed to have ruptured the veil, and the sight before Gawain and Selena instantly opened up—
Gawain immediately went on full alert, ready for battle. Selena moved to stand behind and slightly to his side, the lantern in her hand radiating warm, pure light.
A fresh, cold wind suddenly blew. Once the veil shattered, an endless grassland beneath starlight surged into Gawain's view. He saw gently rolling earth stretching away under the stars, countless unknown flowers and grasses swaying softly in the breeze, and a vaguely familiar hill standing ahead of him and Selena, facing the starlight.
At the foot of the hill lay the remains of a gigantic black spider. Its massive body had split apart, and a completely white spider, as though forged from light, crawled out from the shattered remains. It was climbing the slope