Chapter 1332: 90. Unfamiliar

It took Muen quite a while standing there before his consciousness completely recovered from the dizziness just now, but even when he got back to his feet, he still couldn't keep himself from staggering a few times.

"Did you learn anything from those few exchanges just now?"

Mela beckoned with one small hand, and the curtain vanished. The Sea of Flowers returned to normal as she took out a fresh strawberry lollipop and licked it with the tip of her little tongue.

Although she looked both adorable and utterly irresponsible, she was still somewhat capable of acting like a teacher. At times like this, she would at least offer him a little guidance along the way.

"Learn anything?"

Muen seriously thought for several seconds.

"Your feet are really white...... No, really soft...... That's not it either. The feeling of having your foot pressed against my face was really......"

"If you genuinely have that kind of perverted fetish, then as the teacher who loves you most, it's not as though I can't satisfy you."

Mela leaned backward, her body simply floating in midair. One little foot lifted and slowly turned in circles......

And just as Muen was about to study it more carefully, she suddenly said:

"How about Pink Bear's feet? I imagine you'd enjoy those bear paws quite a lot."

"Pink Bear? Pink Bear would be fine too...... Wait? Who? Ugh......"

In an instant, the image before him was inexplicably replaced by a huge foot hidden inside a pink costume.

Caught completely off guard, Muen didn't even have time to stop his own train of thought before a violent wave of nausea hit him, as though his brain had just been forcibly violated by something indescribable.

"Oh my, looks like you really do like it. Shall I knock him unconscious right now, tie him up nice and tight, and send him over so you can do whatever you want with him?"

Mela smiled brilliantly.

"No, no, no."

Muen hurriedly begged for mercy.

"I was wrong. I really was wrong. My dearest, most beloved Teacher Mela, I'll never run my mouth again."

Under normal circumstances, there was no way a single sentence could have produced such a vivid association in his mind.

His imagination wasn't nearly that rich, and he certainly didn't harbor any inappropriate suppressed fantasies about Pink Bear.

Which meant......

Muen hurriedly tore his gaze away from those pale little feet.

The mental influence immediately dispersed with it, and that damned Pink Bear was finally driven out of his head.

That was close.

He had almost ended up with psychological trauma for the rest of his life.

"Cough, cough. Anyway, let's get back to the actual subject."

Muen cleared his throat.

Before Mela, the ultimate lover of spectacle, could genuinely come up with the idea of dragging Pink Bear over and putting on some kind of performance, he hurriedly changed the subject and said seriously:

"About the question Teacher Mela asked just now...... If I had to say what I learned from those few exchanges, I think the biggest thing is that...... the embryonic Divine Kingdom doesn't seem nearly as invincible as I imagined."

In truth, from the moment Muen made his move, he had already known how it would end.

After all, his opponent was the only Origin-Rank Grand Mage alive in the current era, and this was her home ground besides.

If he had actually managed to successfully "rebel" against her, that would've been absurdity opening the door for absurdity itself—absurd beyond belief.

But even so, he hadn't expected to lose quite so effortlessly.

He hadn't even felt Mela use some particularly incredible technique or unleash some overwhelming burst of power.

She had merely waved her hand around a little......

And beaten him so thoroughly he couldn't even fight back.

——The sensory shock of being brutally beaten by a scummy white-haired, red-eyed loli was, in certain respects, even greater than being run over by a dragon.

Damn it.

Wasn't a god supposed to be invincible within their own Divine Kingdom?

How had things ended up like this......

"The god is invincible. You aren't."

Mela leisurely floated over beside Muen.

Before he could react, a slender finger suddenly extended toward his forehead.

Muen's pupils contracted.

That familiar sense of mortal danger appeared once again.

"Within the bounds of a Divine Kingdom, its god is the sovereign, nearly omnipotent. But you aren't a god. You're only human."

Mela continued:

"Your consciousness is fragile. Your mind is not unshakable either. The Divine Kingdom is controlled by you, which means you yourself are its weakness. In your current state, forget an embryonic Divine Kingdom—even if it were a genuine Divine Kingdom, I could still toy with you however I pleased...... Of course, the more likely outcome would be that your mental power gets completely drained in less than 0.1 seconds."

"......So in the end, I'm just too weak?"

"Hm. Looks like you haven't become so stupid that you're completely beyond saving yet."

Mela nodded with the expression of a teacher finally discovering that her hopeless disciple might still have a future.

"......"

Muen clutched his shattered little heart, feeling deeply wounded.

Fine, he was weak.

Did she really have to make it sound that painful?

Damn it.

He had improved so much this time that he'd actually thought he might receive some praise.

"I haven't even praised you yet and you're already about to fly into the sky. If I actually praised you a few times, wouldn't you literally climb onto my neck?"

Mela rolled her eyes.

"But speaking of which...... although right now you yourself are the greatest weakness, one day even that weakness will be completely remedied. There's no need to be too impatient."

"Oh?"

Muen's eyes lit up.

"How do I remedy it? By getting stronger?"

"Getting stronger is certainly one path, but that road can't reach the end."

"Not even if I become really, really strong?"

"No. The reason is simple. Humans can never reach the level of a god through cultivation alone."

Mela's expression suddenly became somewhat complicated......

There was even an almost imperceptible trace of inexplicable sadness.

"Unless......"

"Hm?"

"Forget it."

"Huh?"

"Let's talk about the second method. The only one actually viable for you."

"What?"

Muen felt like he was beginning to lose track of Mela's train of thought, but he still instinctively asked:

"What method?"

"Isn't it simple?"

Mela shrugged and said in an ordinary tone:

"If being human doesn't work...... then just stop being human."

"???"

Muen stared at her blankly.

What did she mean by......

Stop being human?

Was he supposed to put on some strange mask and turn into some kind of perverted blond vampire?

Or......

For some inexplicable reason, Muen once again thought of that Black Sun.

And of......

"Himself" seated upon that divine throne.

"Relax. I'm not telling you to deliberately abandon your own consciousness like before. How would that be any different from suicide? It would also contradict the principle I taught you from the very beginning—that only power you can control is truly your power."

Mela continued:

"What I'm saying is that since that path doesn't work, you might as well use a more sophisticated method and become a 'nonhuman' existence on another level."

"Nonhuman?"

"Mm. Nonhuman."

Mela didn't explain much further.

She merely lowered her eyes and murmured so quietly it was almost impossible to notice:

"So not becoming a Crowned One was the right decision. That road has its limits too. Stepping onto it would only place shackles on you. ▋ said that as well......"

"▋? What did ▋ say?"

Muen blinked.

Her voice had been faint, but he had still heard it clearly.

Only the pronunciation of those few syllables had sounded strange.

Was it a name?

"Do you enjoy eavesdropping on other people's conversations that much?"

Mela's expression suddenly turned cold.

"Eh? Aren't we talking to each other face-to-face?"

Muen was completely baffled.

Why had she suddenly gotten angry?

"Lie down."

"Wait...... I only asked one question. You don't have to punish me for that, do you? And I only just......"

"I said lie down."

Suddenly, the entire world roared.

Every flower withered in the blink of an eye, revealing dry, shriveled earth beneath.

Then even that soil vanished an instant later.

In its place, mechanisms of gears vast as stars appeared throughout Muen's vision, meshing with one another and releasing cold metallic crashes.

Mela floated at the very center of those countless mechanisms.

She looked so tiny.

And yet so impossibly grand.

The aura she emitted at that moment wasn't frightening.

In fact, within Muen's perception, she seemed exactly like an ordinary person without even the slightest trace of magic or battle aura.

And yet with every movement she made, she had unmistakably become the sovereign of everything around her.

Her words became law.

All things changed at her command.

It was almost as though......

She stood within her own Divine Kingdom!

Teacher Mela had a Divine Kingdom too?

Had she stolen the power of some deity as well?

No!

This place......

Compared with the Divine Kingdom Muen understood, something about it felt different.

Muen was shocked, but he no longer had the time to carefully examine it.

Before that absolute overwhelming force, his body, which had only recently managed to stand upright again, was forced back down onto the ground.

"Understand now? Whether it's you yourself or this so-called Divine Kingdom, you still have a very long way to go."

Mela looked down at him from above and lazily floated over.

Despite carrying an aura that seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth, she suddenly smiled and gently rubbed Muen's hair, turning it into a complete bird's nest.

"What exactly do you want from me?"

Muen wanted to cry.

What was wrong with this old loli?

Why had she suddenly become so temperamental?

Was it that time of the month?

With a body that looked only ten years old, could she actually......

"Stay down."

Mela lightly patted him, interrupting Muen's wandering thoughts.

Her fingertips moved.

His shirt turned to ash.

The perfectly defined muscles of his back were exposed before Mela.

Mela didn't react much to the sight.

She had seen her own disciple's body openly and secretly more times than she could possibly remember.

There was nothing unusual about it.

But her attention was quickly drawn to Muen's back.

To the intricate, exquisite magical patterns that she herself had personally drawn there.

"Almost......"

Her palm gently brushed across them.

She felt the warmth left behind by the flowing magic.

At what seemed to be the center of those lines, several cores resembling miniature suns reduced countless times over had, after years of gradual fusion and extension, seemingly developed lives of their own.

They pulsed continuously in rhythm with Muen's breathing.

The magical patterns she had originally drawn and inscribed were like a seed.

As Muen grew, they too had continuously taken root and sprouted, eventually growing into an almost perfect......

Towering tree.

There was only one flaw......

Mela slowly moved her hand upward, toward the upper-left side of Muen's back, the position corresponding to his heart.

There was another core there.

And it remained dim.

......Only one.

"Almost. Almost."

Mela murmured softly once again.

A strange light flashed through her amber eyes.

This was the final step.

And also the most important step—the one that would decide everything.

Once they crossed this final step, she would finally be able to complete......

An entire thousand years of watching and perseverance.

A thousand years......

It really had been so long......

"Teacher Mela?"

Being pinned down and toyed with so casually again was extremely uncomfortable for Muen.

But he was completely suppressed and unable to move, so he could only barely turn his head to the side.

Muen strained to glance backward from the corner of his eye.

Pale strands of hair fluttered through the air.

That youthful, pale face looked cold and distant, as though gazing upon this world from a thousand years in the past.

And within those eyes, which had always remained deep and composed no matter what they faced, there now burned some indescribable mixture of obsession and determination.

Muen froze slightly.

Teacher Mela right now......

Felt a little unfamiliar.