Angel was no stranger to this swelling sensation.
Whenever he had prepared to break through a barrier in the past, his magic source would produce this same swollen feeling. It was a sign that he was about to advance.
Its appearance now meant... he could begin preparing to advance?
He had already reached the peak of apprenticeship. According to his original plans, he had thought it would take a long while before his magic source began to swell. Yet today, having only just learned to construct a spell slot, he already had hope of advancing?
Angel could certainly attempt to break through the great barrier right now, but the conditions here were far from ideal. Moreover, the barrier he faced this time differed from those before—it was a breakthrough capable of changing the course of a wizard's life.
Once he failed to break through, trying again would be many times harder than before. Thus, Angel temporarily suppressed the impulse in his heart, intending to make the attempt only after he was fully prepared.
Angel opened his eyes.
He had originally planned to first test the effects of the "door," but the instant he opened his eyes, he suddenly sensed that something was wrong.
Strands of wind brushed across his skin.
Wind within the windless zone was already strange. What felt even stranger to Angel was the inexplicably heavy atmosphere around him.
He slowly raised his head. The instant he looked up, his movements froze.
He saw Black Cloud churning like a vortex in the sky. At the center of that vortex lay a deep, shadowy hollow, like an eye embedded within the clouds, silently watching him.
Even Angel himself did not know why he imagined the vortex's center as an eye. Yet that was how it felt within his heart,