Two days later, just as the first light of dawn crept over the horizon, Albedo stood before the rune-etched door of Professor Luna Evervale’s office.

The Academy was still mostly silent at this hour, as most students hadn’t arrived as of yet. The Beastarium Spire only had the distant hum of magical incubators and the occasional mewl of various beasts that lingered around.

As for Albedo, he had transformed the Ethereal Silk Armor into a flexible skin tight combat outfit. It would allow him to move flawlessly while providing all the necessary protection.

~KNOCK~KNOCK!~

He knocked twice on the door, and its rune immediately lit up, the panel hissing open and revealing the silver glow of Luna’s office.

Luna was already waiting, standing behind her desk, faint lines of fatigue beneath her eyes showing signs she hadn’t slept much as of recent.

Resting on top of her desk was the orb. Roughly the size of a big sports ball, it was shimmering with a soft oceanic glow. Unlike before, the orb was now translucent, its shell rippling faintly.

Inside the orb Albedo could clearly see the curled, sleeping form of the baby leviathan.

It was… breathtaking.

Even in its weakened, slumbering state, the creature radiated ancient majesty. It was unlike anything Albedo had ever seen.

Its serpentine body coiled like a ribbon of silver and midnight-blue, with soft bio-luminescent patterns flowing across its sleek scales. Deep blue water swirled around its body, and its fins sparkled.

Luna glanced up at him, “You’re on time. Good.”

Albedo stepped inside and quietly approached the desk, eyes locked on the orb as he sensed its aura.

“…She’s weaker,” he said, noticing a change.

Luna nodded. “Her life force is waning. I stabilized her temporarily, but the crystal can only suppress the degradation, not reverse it.”

Her fingers traced the edge of the orb as she continued, “Her body is rejecting the ambient mana around her. I suspect she was born during a dimensional breach, possibly during a rare Abyssal-Tide convergence. Her physiology is… anomalous.”

“The Black Thunder Pool really is the last lifeline left,” Albedo muttered.

“Exactly.”

Luna waved her hand, and a flicker of green-gold magic coalesced beside the desk, forming a small spatial satchel inscribed with layered elven runes. She held it out to him.

“This was designed specifically for the orb. Reinforced with spatial anchoring, elemental cushioning, and anti-vibration enchantments. It will keep her stable for at least five days. No longer.”

Albedo took the satchel with a nod, carefully opening it and lifting the glowing orb with both hands. The moment it left the desk, he could feel the faint thrum of heartbeat-like mana pulsing from it. It was… alive. Fragile, but still fighting.

He placed it into the satchel gently, letting the enchantments seal themselves.

“She’s surprisingly calm,” Albedo noted. For such a mythological beast as a Leviathan, he knew this orb couldn’t dull her senses. Normally, it might’ve been trashing around after being given away by Luna.

“She’s instinctively recognizing you,” Luna said, her tone softening just slightly. “It’s rare, but some beasts, even at this age, can sense potential. It means you must’ve made an impression,”

Albedo blinked. That… could be very important, especially with his Voice of Beasts ability.

Luna stepped back and lifted her staff, a long obsidian rod topped with a crescent of silver and bound beast fangs.

She traced a slow arc in the air, and runes began to light up in a circle beneath her feet. The floor glowed with a faint indigo-gold hue, and the office trembled slightly.

Then, a portal began to bloom into existence. It swirled with black clouds and silver lightning, shaped like an oval mirror of stormy skies, crackling and violent, yet stable under Luna’s control.

“This will take you just outside the border of the Thunderspike Expanse,” Luna said, her voice edged with warning. “From there, you’ll have to cross the edge of the stormfront and descend into the Mirage Zone. The Black Thunder Pool lies once you break through all the Mirages. You’ll know it when you see it.”

“I assume I won’t be greeted with a welcome mat?” Albedo joked.

Luna’s lips twitched, “No. The area’s littered with corrupted beasts, rogue spirits, unstable mana pockets, and violent weather. You’ll have to move fast, navigate carefully, and avoid making enemies you don’t have to.”

Albedo nodded slowly, adjusting the satchel at his side.

“I’ll manage.”

Luna didn’t respond immediately. Her eyes lingered on him for a moment longer before she spoke again.

“Albedo.”

He paused.

“…Thank you,” she said, and though her tone remained composed, there was sincerity in it, “You might be the only one who can do this. And… I hope one day, you’ll understand why this matters.”

He didn’t pry further. He simply gave a small nod. Then without hesitation, he stepped through the storm-colored portal.

And vanished.

***

~CLAP~BOOM!~

Albedo emerged into a world of storms and chaos. The sky above him was an unending field of rolling black clouds that almost entirely blocked out the sun.

White-violet lightning occasionally streaked across the sky, usually followed by boisterous claps of thunder that shook Albedo’s eardrums.

The air felt thick, charged with static mana and the scent of ozone. A heavy wind pressed against him, whipping his hair around as he adjusted his footing.

He stood at the edge of a sprawling ravine, its jagged cliffs overlooking what looked like an endless series of mist-covered ridges and valleys below.

In the distance, thunder cracked, loud enough to shake the ground. A fork of black lightning split the sky, striking a spire of stone far off and sending chunks of rock exploding into the air.

“Welcome to the Thunderspike Expanse,” Albedo muttered under his breath, cracking his knuckles as he prepared for a battle.

“Ember,” Albedo muttered.

A moment later, the white-blue flame horse materialized beside him with a burst of heat and light, her mane crackling as she took in the electrified landscape. Her nostrils flared, eyes sharp.

“This is going to be a long trip,” Albedo said, beginning to move forward alongside Ember.

However, he didn’t get to even take more than two steps before the ground ahead began to shift.

~HISSSSS!~

A sharp, ear-splitting hiss tore through the air, so shrill it split through the thunder like a dagger through silk.

The mist along the ridgeline parted with unnatural speed, revealing figures, dozens of them, emerging from the rocks like shadows peeling off the landscape.

“Gorgons,” Albedo muttered, immediately recognizing them as one of the rarer monsters from the Novel.

They were roughly humanoid, but hideously twisted, with scaly grey skin, elongated limbs, and faces half-covered in stone-like masks fused to their flesh. Their spines arched unnaturally, and their clawed hands twitched like marionettes.

Some had snake-like lower bodies; others stood on two crooked legs with reversed joints. All of them radiated a disgusting mix of corrupted earth and petrification mana, tinged with an underlying Abyssal residue.

Albedo’s eyes narrowed, “That didn’t take long.”

~SCREEEEECH!~

The Gorgons screeched again, this time in unison, and surged forward, twenty or maybe thirty, moving like a coordinated swarm. The aura of the Leviathan, even slight, its blood was like a magnet to monsters, especially as a weak baby.

‘I can’t risk locking eyes with them.’ Albedo closed his eyes, focusing inward as he thought.

The Eyes of the Gorgon were one of the core rules of this world. Unless you were multiple ranks above them, gazing into their eyes was a certified death sentence.

He had to rely on his mana sense, and he expanded it outward, mapping the battlefield around him in as vivid of detail as he could.

Once he calmed down, he vanished, leaping to the side with practiced movement and unleashing a volley of Infernal shots from Havoc.

~BOOM!~

The blast lit up the cliffside, streaking through the mist and colliding with the first group of Gorgons, instantly vaporizing three in a burst of crimson flame and searing pressure.

The others shrieked, their petrified eyes locking in his direction, only for a second wave of Graviton Mode slugs to hammer the rocky ledge beneath their feet.

A controlled implosion followed, a concussive thump that tore stone and bodies inward like a black hole chewing the earth.

“Ember, scatter them.” Albedo asked, using his ‘Voice of Beasts’ to communicate it and Ember answered with a sharp whinny.

The white-blue flame horse charged like a meteor, galloping headlong into the horde. Her hooves left trails of burning air and blue plasma, every stomp igniting corrosive flames that devoured the mist and anything caught within it.

One Gorgon lunged at her, only for Ember to rear up and slam both hooves down, crushing it beneath a pulse of celestial fire.

Another lashed out with a stone-tipped whip of mana, which Ember caught mid-air in her mouth, yanked forward, and spewed a breath of concentrated blue fire directly into its skull.

The flames clung to the Gorgon, and immediately began to corrode it viciously, eventually burning it inside out

The Gorgons faltered. Their ranks broke as the temperature surged.

Ember continuously spewed out flames, dancing through their lines as she corroded them.

“Perfect,” Albedo muttered as he saw this, switching Ruin to Mana Drain Mode, and blasting through the air like lightning. Each shot drained the Gorgons while Havoc’s Infernal shots turned them to ash.

One Gorgon tried to petrify the very ground under his feet. Albedo responded by vaulting over it mid-air, landing behind it and blowing its head clean off with a point-blank shot.

Then, he shot a Graviton Slug, the space around the remaining Gorgons distorting and pulling them in, setting Ember up for a corrosive blast of her flames that quickly corroded all the remaining Gorgons to death.

The scorched earth hissed, steam rising from the blackened craters. The smell of burnt scales and ozone mingled with the electric tang of the air. Ember stood beside him, untouched, her mane crackling like a wildfire just barely kept in check.

Albedo opened his eyes as he finally finally killed them all. He quickly opened his own spatial storage and stored their bodies, since they could be sold for money later.

He also had glanced at the satchel at his side, felt the weak but steady pulse of the Leviathan’s presence, and exhaled.

“That was the welcoming committee?” he muttered, “Let’s see what the rest of this place has to offer.”

He holstered his Pistols and immediately headed off with Ember, the wind howling around them, towards the heart of the storm.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep