Chapter 82: Revealing The Truth

-----

Elisa’s eyes widened in pure disbelief at the impossible sight unfolding before her.

A gigantic dimensional portal had torn open right inside her own house, its swirling edges crackling with unstable energy that painted the living room walls in shifting hues of deep violet and silver.

The air itself seemed to thicken, heavy with the metallic tang of ozone and the faint, distant roar of something vast and hungry on the other side.

This was... without a single shred of doubt, something every hunter in the world would recognize the instant they laid eyes on it.

The lifeblood of their profession.

A Gate.

How many times? Just how many times had Elisa stepped through one of these rifts during her still-young life?

Ever since she was ten years old her family had pressured her into entering low-ranked gates, F Rank or even the unranked scraps that barely registered on the Association’s boards.

Inside those early dungeons waited only the weakest, most pitiful creatures: Potent Hamsters the size of house cats and Biting Rats whose teeth were more nuisance than threat.

The goal had never been glory. It had been survival training, a slow and deliberate forging of her body and mind from childhood onward.

It had not taken long for fate to notice her. An incredible Authority had chosen her, the Queen of all Ice Titans, Skadi herself, a High-Ranked Divine Being whose presence still lingered like frost in Elisa’s veins.

With that blessing came an extraordinary Class: Snow Princess.

The title evolved in time into Ice Queen, and later still into Winter Empress.

From that moment forward Elisa had burned with a motivation she had never known before. She pushed herself harder and harder, not for fame, but to make her mother, her father, and especially her big sister proud.

She had walked through hundreds of gates, explored wondrous and deadly landscapes, hunted beasts that could level city blocks, and gathered priceless artifacts alongside the high-society friends of her circle, always under her sister’s watchful, protective gaze.

She could still hear her sister’s voice as clearly as if the older girl stood beside her now.

"Never become too overconfident, Elisa. Study your opponents. If you have to spend a few days reading books about these monsters, do not hesitate. Your life and survival are more important than anything else."

Those words had become a quiet mantra she carried into every fight, every hunt, every step of her growth. She had been so close, agonizingly close, to her fourth Class Evolution, to the fabled L Rank that only a handful of hunters across the entire world ever possessed the potential to reach.

Then everything shattered.

She and her party of trusted friends, along with a few newly recruited high-ranked hunters, had descended into the Tenth and Final Floor of the SSS Rank Dungeon known as "The Starlight Termite Queen Hive."

Against the final boss in its second phase, when the Starlight Termite Queen shed its colossal insectoid form and took on a sleek, humanoid shape, its stats and agility had surged beyond anything the party had prepared for.

The creature caught Elisa completely off-guard. In that critical instant, not a single member of her party moved to cover her back or offer aid. She had been relying on that unspoken trust so she could pour everything into an all-out assault without fear.

Instead she felt the sharp, burning pierce of the Queen’s stinger driving into her spine, injecting a venom that felt like liquid fire racing through her nerves. She collapsed on the spot, consciousness slipping away even as she saw the others standing in silence for those few damning seconds before they finally feigned panic and rushed toward her.

"It’s really a gate..." she muttered now, her hands trembling lightly as she clenched her teeth against the memory.

The trauma of that day had dragged her into a deep, lingering depression. When she finally woke, paralyzed from the neck down, the Association doctors had given the condition a name: Gatephobia, an affliction that sometimes claimed hunters who survived encounters too horrific to fully process. Riven had known about it, of course.

Yet Elisa had grown up since then. Thanks to the Investment System she could move her hands again. She was more active, more present in her own life, and, most surprising of all, she had begun to reclaim a fragile confidence in herself.

"Riven..." She looked at him, genuine surprise softening the panic that once would have overwhelmed her at the mere sight of a Gate. That old terror had lessened so greatly it left even her astonished. "Is this your doing?"

Riven nodded. "I suppose Daniela already told Carlos. I awakened Four Authorities. One you already know about is the Gluttony Authority, I can grow my stats and gain skills by eating monsters."

"I... I know that," Elisa nodded, voice steadying. "You told me before, and... well, it was obvious once I started paying attention. It’s an amazing class by itself...! But you’re telling me you have more?"

"Yeah," Riven said quietly. "The Authority of Greed allows whatever I earn to be multiplied, so my growth is so vast because of that as well. Then there is... another Authority of... um, well, we can skip that one."

Elisa fell silent for a moment. She was not a fool. She was a sharp, observant woman who had already pieced together the truth. "Is it a power related... to the reason I am healing?"

Riven’s eyes widened. She had figured it out. All those Elixirs, potions, and healing pills he had fed her had never produced any real effect. yet somehow her hands had begun to move, and later her arms. The recovery was magical, not medicinal. The deep, inexplicable connection she felt with him had been the clue all along.

"Riven... you’ve been healing me, haven’t you?"

He lowered his head and nodded. "I’m sorry..." The apology came out rough. "I... I didn’t want to tell you because I wanted you to think it was all on your own. I bet you must hate me now, right? Because I am—"

"Riven...!" Elisa cried, rolling her wheelchair forward with sudden urgency. "Why would I get angry at you?! I... If that’s really true... you’ve been working so hard for me? All of it... for me?"

Riven stared at her, taken completely aback. He had assumed the prideful woman he knew would resent the idea that her progress was not purely her own hard-won strength. He had overthought everything. In the end it did not matter how the healing had begun. The simple fact that she could move again, even a little, was already a miracle.

"Yes..." he sighed at last. "And my fourth Authority is the power of a Lord. Pride. I can use it to... take the dungeons I conquer."

Elisa’s breath caught. The portal continued to pulse behind her, waiting.

-----