It was another sleepless night in Novigel's underground laboratories.
Magic lamps glowed softly. Footsteps echoed constantly through the corridors as magic researchers and apprentices hurried about, each busy at their post.
These researchers were the reason the city had held out under siege for so long. They had given Novigel magical weapons advanced enough to stand against a Demon army dozens of times its size.
In Cecilia's laboratory, Ansu was busy too.
Books and manuscripts lay scattered across the tables and floor, leaving scarcely anywhere to step.
He had combed through almost every text concerning [planes] and the [Astral Realm], trying to find any way to contact Cecilia.
But there was none.
His fingertips turned the final page. Ansu slowly closed the book and rubbed his aching brow.
Cecilia and the others might have been the first mortals in recorded history who had truly dared to enter the domain of the gods.
The Astral Realm was the most abstract of all realms.
Unlike the spiritual plane, the [Ether Realm], this plane could not be explained in a few simple words.
Physically, it lay outside the Material Plane, the vast starry sky one saw overhead; philosophically, it encompassed every thought and authority in the universe.
And so Ansu began studying the spell beyond the ninth circle that she had created herself-[Astral Banishment].
He picked up the manuscripts she had left behind again, gently brushing his fingers over the lines of delicate handwriting.
For a moment, he almost saw her sitting at this very desk again, looking up at him with a sly, proud smile.
Ansu froze for a moment.
Then, with a bitter pang, he collected himself and returned his attention to the complex runes.
In one corner of the laboratory, space warped and tore again and again.
Ansu tried repeatedly