The air warped behind him, and a pair of silky white legs stepped out.

Their surface was so smooth, so flawless, that Max could not help but feel his blood boil for a moment. A raw instinct rose in him, one that made him want to pounce on this perfect woman and taste her, to see if the rest of her was truly as impossible as his eyes kept telling him. But he held himself back.

He knew nothing about her yet.

They had barely just met, and most importantly, he did not even know if she had a bloodline.

Max quietly used Bloodline Search, but no matter how long he waited, the system did not respond to him in this place. That alone worried him somewhat. The silence of the system felt strange, almost unnatural, as if this spirit realm existed outside the rules he had slowly grown used to. But now was not the time to drown himself in uncertainty.

He had to understand what benefits this place could offer him.

And this woman, Saelunith, he had to understand what exactly she meant to him.

He had a feeling she was the same woman from the song, the one the Daerfaen had whispered about through the wind. The way she treated him, the way she looked at him, the way her touch carried longing instead of simple desire, all of it pointed toward something far older than his arrival in this world.

Only Max did not understand why it had to be him.

Nor how he could possibly be related to the sorrow buried inside her eyes.

"Have you ever dreamed of ruling the world?" she asked suddenly as she walked before him, her hands resting behind her back, her spine slightly arched in a playful way that may or may not have been intentional.

The movement revealed her almost naked bottom to him, round, full, and so perfectly shaped that Max’s breathing grew heavier without his permission. Her skin was smooth and pale like moonlight made into flesh, and with every slow step, her hips swayed gently beneath the thin layer of white cloth and forest vines barely holding her outfit together. She walked as if she did not even understand how dangerous her own body was, occasionally glancing back at him from the corner of her eye, those blue eyes carrying mystery, sorrow, and something unmistakably seductive beneath the surface.

"You could say that," Max answered as he followed her. "My heart is not pure. That much I can admit. A saint would perhaps say they have no such thoughts, or if they ever did, they had long shaken them off. A conqueror would say yes proudly, without hiding it at all. And a king would say no, only to hide the greed buried in his heart."

His eyes could not pull away from her perfection. The way her hips moved with every step, the soft bounce of her bare curves, the thin white cloth covering only what it absolutely had to, and the vines holding everything in place as if the forest itself had dressed her just enough to tempt him, all of it made it difficult for Max to remember that this woman was not simply a beauty walking before him, but a mystery tied to this realm, this pond, and perhaps even to someone who looked just like him.

"And which one are you exactly?" she asked curiously.

Saelunith turned around to face him as she continued walking backward, her long blue hair flowing around her shoulders like water moving through the air. With each slow step, her breasts bounced softly beneath the leaves and vines barely covering them, the delicate forest-made outfit shifting against her body in a way that made Max’s gaze sharpen. The playful smile on her lips made it hard to tell whether she was teasing him on purpose or if this was simply the natural charm of a woman who had never needed to try.

Max’s throat moved slightly.

He had seen many seductive women before, but Saelunith’s beauty felt unfair, almost cruel, because every part of her seemed made to tempt him while her eyes still carried a sorrow deep enough to make him hesitate.

"I’m all of them. Sometimes, even I’m not sure which one I am," Max said honestly.

"Aren’t you tired of such conflict? Why not choose only one?" she asked, stopping right before the door to the citadel.

Max did not know how to answer that.

"You do not need to force yourself," Saelunith said softly. "Life is mysterious. It makes us make decisions we are not ready for, or perhaps even mistakes in judgment."

She turned around as she spoke, but Max caught the slight tremble in her eyes when she said those words, as if they were not meant only for him.

"I can grant you what you cannot make your mind about," she continued. "After all, you have returned me to the physical world. Back to my home. Therefore, I want to offer you this."

The door opened.

Far into the distance, at the end of the vast citadel hall, stood a throne made from vines and ancient wood. It was magnificent, stretching at least five meters high, its back rising like the branches of a sacred tree, yet strangely, the seat itself was not made for a giant. It was shaped for someone human-sized, waiting there in silence as if it had been untouched for countless ages.

"What is that?" Max asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"A throne awaiting its ruler," Saelunith said grandly, her voice carrying a strange reverence, as if she was describing something sacred that even she could never touch. "The one who sits on it shall become the ruler of spirits, gaining unimaginable power and an army of immortal beings. Isn’t that what you are looking for, Max?"

His eyes widened.

He had never told her his name.

Yet she spoke it so naturally, as if she had known him for years, as if she could read him like an open book. Those blue eyes looked into his, shimmering like pure ocean water beneath sunlight, gentle and sorrowful, yet carrying a depth that made Max feel as if she had been waiting not only for him, but for this exact moment.