In the days that followed, Angel remained in the Vine House and went nowhere.
Though he did not leave himself, he had Toby leave the Lost Forest once to deliver a message to Lober and the others waiting outside, telling them to remain in the Azure Forest Region until his return.
When Toby came back, he also brought replies from Lober and the others.
Lober and the other wind-element creatures had no complaints at all. Even Qubige obediently waited outside. Dangros, on the other hand, clamored about entering the Lost Forest. Naturally, Angel ignored him, treating it as nothing more than the occasional willfulness of a bratty child—something to be overlooked and indulged.
Other than having Toby carry messages, Angel spent most of his time deep in thought.
He kept pondering whether there was any way to bypass the void storm and take a look at the treasure site.
Even if he could only view it from afar, he wanted to know whether the treasure site still existed.
If it was still there, at least it would settle his mind. If the treasure site had already been utterly destroyed by the void storm, he could give up sooner and leave.
Yet after racking his brains for a long while, he still could not think of any solution.
Forget entering the void storm—even sending his spiritual power into it was impossible.
Time slipped away amid his brooding contemplation.
Three days later, on a clear night.
Angel still sat before the oil painting like a statue, utterly motionless. All manner of thoughts wheeled through his mind, wild ideas circling endlessly. Yet no matter how novel or unrestrained those ideas were, before the void storm, steady as a mountain, they were like a gust of wind slapped apart before it could even rise—entirely