After Glando returned to report, Mulan submitted an application to the Royal Palace the next day. He made no additional requests, merely stating when he would advance.
Strictly speaking, this first advancement should have been the most important. After all, it amounted to an evolution to a higher level of life. Yet Mulan was utterly confident.
At the Radiant Knight stage, existential force posed no problem whatsoever for Mulan. Altars, offerings, and assorted rituals might not even provide any added benefit.
Thus, on a night shortly before the new year, a secluded underground hall in the Black Castle became the site of Mulan's advancement. It required little additional preparation.
The underground hall covered several hundred square meters, with massive pillars spaced at intervals. Its walls, ceiling, and floor were all built from enormous stone blocks, their surfaces covered in runic formulas. A circular stone platform stood toward the rear of the central area.
This was a stable underground altar, but Mulan certainly needed no offerings today. He had merely chosen a suitable place where he could quietly stabilize his formative world and complete his advancement in one uninterrupted effort.
Nisheriel had very much wanted to watch Mulan advance, but advancement carried certain dangers, and her position as Queen made it inappropriate for her to attend. She could only send trusted aides in her place, Glando among them.
The Black Castle had also sent someone as a precaution: a figure entirely enveloped in a red robe. Mulan knew she was Sebastina. Their only previous encounters had been a few meetings in the professor's office.
The underground hall was partially sealed, though air still circulated between it and the outside. The red-robed woman huddled motionless in a corner, like a statue draped in red, her face hidden beneath her hood. The Queen's