North of the Fiore Kingdom, in a vast, boundless Desert, Achill sat quietly cross-legged in midair above its center!
Before him, a beautiful, unsheathed, moon-white longsword hovered in the Hollow with its tip pointed downward! Beneath the scorching sun, its crystalline blade, so keen it was almost transparent, reflected streaks of clear, icy light—
A soft, milky-white glow gently enveloped the entire sword. At the end of its hilt, two long, silver, hexagonal Wind Chimes with hollow frames collided in the breeze, releasing clear, piercing notes as faint waves of white light slowly spilled from the blade. Meanwhile, terrifyingly powerful ripples of magic radiated from Achill, whose eyes were tightly shut. His deeply furrowed brow made it clear that he had run into some serious trouble—
The scene shifted to Achill's Mindscape, an endless expanse of pure white in which countless enormous white cubes floated!
"Whew... just as I thought—" Standing on a huge cube more than twenty meters across, Achill looked up at the vast space. Endless white filled his vision as he murmured to himself, "I really could enter my Mindscape this time..."
Ever since he had successfully entered his Mindscape once after the events at the Tower of Paradise, Achill had never managed to return. No matter how hard he tried or what methods he devised, even though this Mindscape belonged to him alone, he still could not enter it—
As for why, he had never figured that out himself. He had only vaguely sensed that there must have been some special reason, but even with his intelligence, he could not work out what that reason was! He had absolutely no idea...
Then, not long ago, after returning from Edolas, he had noticed a change! The mysterious moon-white longsword, which had never stirred before, had not only