The Final Volume: A Little World in the Dust - Border Battlefield

I could hear so many voices.

Screams, wails, gasps, shouts... Where were these sounds coming from? Other worlds?

I wondered how the other fragments of the human realm were doing. What about Earth?

"The various fragments of the human realm are connecting through the World Crossing Gates..."

Yusuo Zai said softly. His single eye stared unblinkingly into the distance, as if he could see what was happening in other worlds far, far away.

"Gravity is like a rope, pulling the worlds closer together. The moment it stops, the endless passageways will have been opened. But... there's something else we should be paying attention to."

Yusuo Zai pointed... upward.

The World Crossing Gate suddenly shuddered, and a fluctuation a hundred times stronger than before shot upward—not upward in space, but toward a realm of even higher dimensions! A rift slowly appeared in the very center of the ring's light screen, growing wider and wider like melting ice. The patterns on the screen faded, but the scenery within the rift became increasingly clear!

"—!?"

My whole body shuddered. A completely unfamiliar energy surged from the rift. Though it was only a trickle, being caught in it felt like being swept by a tsunami! This energy was incredibly powerful, on a whole different level from so-called spirit power. Yet it was also extremely impure, seeming to contain a great deal of dross. I could hardly adapt to it!

"This... This is—"

"This is the form of energy in the higher-dimensional world—what you named the 'Demon Realm.' It's more advanced than the energy of every human realm, but also far more dangerous."

"...So this is what they call 'magic power'?"

"Among the 666 fragments of the human realm, there are already worlds related to magic. More than one, in fact. The energy there is