When night fell and pure moonlight shone on the crescent-shaped fruit, it began to release a silver mist.
It swayed with the moonlight, soft as gauze and dreamlike as a mirage.
The mist flowed down from the Crescent Moon Fruit, soon filling the entire room and making it as beautiful as a moonlit fairyland.
"Whoosh... whoosh..."
The sound of the tide arose at the same time. It was perfectly clear, yet neither noisy nor grating.
Like gauze brushing against the ears and mind, it brought peace to anyone who heard it. All stray thoughts and worries faded away, naturally making it easier to fall asleep.
At this hour, Kroya would ordinarily have long since gone to bed.
Now, however, he was brimming with energy. Holding an astral crystal bottle, he concentrated on using his own magic power to drive the silver mist inside.
He had tried capturing this mist before, but every attempt had ended in failure. Even exhausting his magic power to sustain it had not allowed him to make the silver mist last.
At most, it would remain until the Sun rose, when it would vanish completely.
That was why he suspected it was a higher-order power-the Mage Association taught that higher-order powers could only appear under specific conditions and could not persist for long.
"Are you really a higher-order power...?"
He watched his magic power drive the silver mist into the astral crystal bottle, which stood about ten centimeters tall.
Then he put the lid on.
The moment the lid was in place, it fused with the bottle automatically, forming a perfect seal. No flaws or gaps remained visible; it was now one seamless bottle.
"Will that do it? Then I'll wait a bit."
Kroya gave the bottle a shake, thinking he would have to wait until