Somewhere in the north, Evana City.

In the dark shadows under the humongous trees of Evana’s forest, two figures walked down the path leading down the hills.

The path was literally dense.

They needed to cut down branches and remove boulders on their way.

"Hey, what are we doing here again?"

Irene, curiously walking beside Leon, asked him.

Leon glanced at the Prism in his hand, which he had borrowed from Ethan.

It showed a map to this unknown region.

There was no marking on the map, not even a path described, but somehow Leon held it and walked as if he had known this path since birth.

Swaaat—!!

Irene cut down another branch with her bare hand.

She had grown a lot, a lot stronger.

After reliving eight whole decades with her future memories, one was bound to raise their level this high.

Her stats were practically hitting all the limits.

Leon glanced back at her.

[Mana Core: White]

[Core Level: ★★★☆☆]

[Intelligence: S+]

[Stamina: S+]

[Strength: S+]

[Speed: S-]

[Defence: S-]

[Charm: S+]

[Mana Capacity: A+]

No wonder she had these insanely high stats.

In the first timeline, her stats were not that high.

’So she has been raising her levels all these decades of loops...’

’Quite impressive.’

It was not like Leon was jealous of her or anything. If more so, he was quite proud.

"You have been training all those years?"

Irene blinked at him while tearing another branch.

"You mean when I got my memories? Kind of."

Her movements slowed for a bit.

"When I first woke up with all those memories, I seriously cried out loud."

Her voice grew softer.

"My head had been hurting a lot ever since, for several hundred loops, it did not stop. I would press my forehead against the cold floor of my room and just stay there until the throbbing dulled. I did not know what was real anymore."

She let out a quite breath.

"But then I remembered everyone’s faces. And what we had been through. And it... it was not that hard. I did everything to make things structured and easier for you. And when I saw things unfolding in front of my eyes exactly how I wanted them to be... hope finally returned."

She glanced at him.

"B-but... even with all of that, I was scared. Haaha... I am not going to lie."

Leon had put all the burden on her alone.

She was the anchor here. If she failed, then they would receive the same fate again.

"...Irene... I didn’t mean to—"

"Do not blame yourself alright? It needed to be done and you knew it. That was the only way we could have saved ourselves from a literal Calamity."

"And besides, look. We won, and I even grew stronger too!"

She made a pose showing off her biceps wearing a bright smile.

"Pfttt."

Her pose made Leon snicker.

They chatted their whole way, where Irene shared her journey. What she did. And how she fixed a few of the things.

"So... is this the place?"

Irene sneaked a peek inside the cave with the small entrance leading down into darkness.

Leon glanced at the map in his hand, and then at the surroundings.

’This seems the same as in the game.’

He nodded.

"Yep. Let us get down."

"Hmmm... is it some treasure?"

Irene examined, she was the first to enter.

She squatted down and had to crawl her way in.

Leon followed.

"Keep looking around. It might be slippery."

As soon as Leon squatted down, a translucent screen flashed in front of his face.

[Hidden Quest: The City Beyond Reach]

[Reward: Souvenir of Astral Spectrum]

[Accept Quest?]

[Yes] [No]

Leon grinned at the interface.

[Quest Accepted]

"W-Woooaaaaaa!! There is a fall!"

Irene screamed as she felt her body getting sucked in as soon as she crawled forward.

Leon, who was behind her, received the same experience.

Both slid down.

Irene braced for the impact.

She landed first, but she was able to attain her center of gravity during the fall, so she landed swiftly.

Next to her, Leon did the same.

Irene looked around.

It was a much darker space, but the walls were faintly illuminating with small white sparkles scattered across them, which was enough to slowly lit up the space.

"What... is this place? This was in Evana, and even I didn’t know."

Irene wondered, looking all around.

Irene glanced at Leon, who was zooming in on the map projected from the prism.

"Leon, how did you find this place?"

Leon simply waved the Time Device at her.

"The Time Device can do much more than we know of. I found this place on a whim when I was poking around the map in it. There was a faint yet strange flickering I was getting from this region."

Irene too walked up close to Leon and glanced at the map.

There was now a whole map like a maze displayed on the Time Device.

"Hm, this is new..."

"Anyways," Leon turned off the map. "I think there is something here, and I wanted to look it out."

"So there is a chance we can get a hidden treasure or hurdle of monsters?"

Leon giggled.

"Lets hope for treasure."

Actually, there was really treasure here.

But it was not what Leon was after.

"Irene, stay close to me and look around. There might be some traps."

"Understood."

As she said this, she locked her arm with his.

"...."

’Just get used to it.’ Rumi said.

Leon walked the path.

From here on out, he did not need to look at the map, as he very much knew which path to take in this maze.

After walking for one hour, they stopped in front of a huge metallic door which had no lock on it.

"This is strange." Irene commented. "How can this place stay hidden from our detection system all this time?"

Evana had the most advanced technology in their assets.

There was no way an underground facility such as this was right under their noses.