Chapter 339: A Vision

"That’s not how my ability to see the future works. Listen, I don’t know exactly when it will happen, but whenever it does, I’ll receive a vision of something that has yet to occur. That’s all there is to it."

Ruvian gave a small shrug, looking completely unconcerned.

"So, no. I don’t know how I’m supposed to prove something I can’t simply summon whenever I please. Whether you choose to believe me or not is entirely up to you. I couldn’t care less."

Julian stared at him with a flat, utterly unimpressed expression.

Then, he clicked his tongue.

"Hah? So much for claiming you can see the future. What a charlatan."

Furthermore, the story had already deviated far beyond what he had originally expected. At this point, could he truly continue relying on what he remembered from the novel and pretend that he knew the future?

That was becoming increasingly uncertain.

’Well, for now, at least... the Vazrun Island Arc is finally over. Let’s just focus on what comes next, one step at a time. I still need to meet with the Duchess as well.’

Just as he was about to relax and close his eyes, Ruvian heard Marielle’s haunting voice echo faintly through the depths of his mind.

—"As a gift for helping me save my children... I shall lend you my aid with one of your upcoming plans after this island exam."

’Huh?’

Ruvian’s eyes snapped open at once. For a brief moment, he simply stared ahead in stunned silence, utterly confused by what her words were supposed to mean.

His expression slowly turned peculiar.

Was this woman seriously trying to earn a favor from him in advance, just so she could cash it in later?

What kind of preemptive bribery was this?

At that moment, Ruvian suddenly jolted upright from his bed, his eyes snapping wide open as every trace of color drained from his face.

The abrupt movement immediately caught Julian’s attention, causing him to turn toward him with a deep frown.

"What’s the matter?" Julian asked.

Morvayne, watching anxiously from within his soul, quickly asked him the very same thing.

However, Ruvian seemed to hear neither of them.

Something had forced its way into his mind.

Disjointed images flashed behind his eyes in a sudden rush, each one lasting barely an instant before being torn away by the next.

Places he had never been to appeared clearly in his mind, along with several familiar faces moving through scenes that felt far away, yet somehow frighteningly close.

His pupils trembled uncontrollably as another image ripped across his vision. This one struck him with such force that Ruvian’s entire body went rigid.

Then, an unbearable, biting cold began seeping through him, settling somewhere deep inside his body.

Snow covered the land as far as he could see beneath a pale, empty sky, while strong winds swept across the frozen ground and sent pieces of ice flying through the air.

Ruvian could almost feel them slicing against his skin. His breathing hitched as the infirmary around him seemed to vanish completely.

For a moment, he was standing there.

His eyes moved across the strange land until he noticed countless twisted figures wandering through the blizzard.

Some crawled across the snow on bent limbs, while others moved between huge walls of ice, their strange bodies appearing and disappearing whenever the storm grew thicker.

They were Voidspawns, and they were everywhere.

There were far more of them than Ruvian had ever seen in one place.

His vision suddenly shifted, and the frozen land changed around him. His attention was pulled toward a familiar figure kneeling several meters away in the snow.

It was Calyra Arcanis...

For several seconds, Ruvian could only stare at her in disbelief. The woman before him looked nothing like the Calyra he knew.

Her usual calm expression was gone as tears poured down her face. Her shoulders shook as she struggled to hold back emotions she could no longer control.

Her lips kept moving as if she were calling out to someone he could not see. The pain on her face was unlike anything Ruvian had ever seen from her before.

Something tightened painfully inside his chest.

He wanted to see what had caused her to break down like this, but another sharp pain struck his head and tore the scene away before he could understand anything more.

The next thing he saw was Rosalin Varion lying still on a pale altar, surrounded by strange markings covered in frost.

Ruvian’s breath caught at once.

A golden dagger had been stabbed straight into her chest, buried deep where her heart should have been.

His fingers tightened around the bedsheet beneath him until his knuckles turned white.

The image changed again before he could look away, showing Zian Herga pinned against a huge wall of ice by a frozen trident.

One of its sharp points had pierced straight through his body and buried itself deep into the wall behind him. He hung several feet above the ground as blood slowly ran down the ice beneath his feet.

His head rested weakly against his chest, but the small rise and fall of his body made one thing horribly clear.

He was still alive.

Ruvian’s breathing became more uneven as another wave of pain throbbed through his head.

He had no control over what he saw or how long he had to watch it. Every time he tried to resist, the visions only became worse.

Then, the land opened before him again.

Far beyond the storm stood a huge castle made entirely of white ice, its towers rising so high that they disappeared into the dark clouds.

Before he could react, his vision was pulled inside.

He passed through long frozen halls and wide corridors covered in thick frost, pulled deeper and deeper into the castle until everything around him slowly disappeared into endless white.

That was when he saw the man.

He was trapped inside a huge block of ice deep within the castle, his entire body sealed beneath the frozen surface as if he had been imprisoned there for many years.

Long silver hair floated around his face beneath the ice with a faint blue shade, while his eyes remained calmly closed.

’That guy...’

The thought had barely entered his mind when a terrible pressure suddenly burst behind Ruvian’s eyes.

Then, just as quickly as it came, the pressure faded away.

Ruvian was hurled back into the present with a ragged gasp.

Sweat coated his face and neck, while the clothes beneath his blanket had turned damp and clammy against his skin.

His breathing came out ragged and uneven, and his heart hammered so hard that every heavy beat seemed to reverberate inside his ears.

[Child? Child, can you hear me?!] Morvayne’s voice finally pierced through the relentless ringing inside his head, laden with panic. [What happened to you just now? Your mind suddenly became completely unreachable...]

Ruvian swallowed hard, closing his eyes for a moment as he tried to steady his breathing before answering inwardly.

’I’m fine... just give me a second.’

When he opened his eyes again, Julian was still staring at him from the other bed. His crimson eyes were wide, and his brows were pulled tightly together.

His gaze swept over Ruvian’s pale, sweat-covered face before dropping toward the trembling hand still gripping the bedsheet. "What the hell happened?" Julian asked slowly, leaning forward slightly when Ruvian failed to answer right away.

"Oi."

Taking several slow breaths, Ruvian gradually loosened his grip on the sheet, though the vision still lingered painfully in his mind.

After a few seconds, he wiped the sweat from his face and muttered wearily.

"Ugh, I think... I might’ve just seen—"

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[Chapter 339: A Vision]

Plot Points= 275,000