Whoosh.
No one noticed the faint streak of light that cut through the silent night sky, plunging straight down.
Merlin was still conscious, but that was all he could manage. He could not even control the speed of his fall. All he knew was that he had entered an entirely new plane.
No dimensional world would readily tolerate rule power wholly different from its own. Although Merlin's illusory world was now shattered, it had not collapsed completely, and a mere trace of rule power remained. Upon sensing Merlin's illusory world, this new dimensional world also began bearing down on it.
The immense pressure left Merlin anxious. He had to find a living being as quickly as possible and enter their body, taking temporary refuge as he had with Sterman, then slowly recover later.
The threat posed by this world's rule power was far too great for Merlin in his current state. He had no strength to resist it and could only plunge swiftly toward the ground.
A grand ball was being held in the magnificent Count's Manor in Stone City.
Young Master Leo, the only son of Stone City's lord, Count Stanwen, would become engaged to Miss Rhys that evening. Almost every noble in Stone City had therefore been invited to the Count's Manor.
The manor was brightly lit. Noble gentlemen and young ladies gathered in small groups, speaking softly. A master violinist played a delightful melody with practiced skill, filling the entire manor with a cheerful atmosphere.
Yet these young noblewomen were not discussing the stars of tonight's ball, but the war.
They were discussing war in such elegant surroundings because the situation at the front had become extremely tense. A rebellion had broken out in the southern Sacred Dragon Empire. A man calling himself General Black Bat