A week had passed since Garner last observed the teleportation frog.
The creature had vanished before he could learn anything more, but the sight of those blue strings refused to leave his mind.
Unlike the white strings of law he could see everywhere, the blue ones behaved differently.
They folded.
They twisted.
They connected two distant points as if distance itself had no meaning.
Garner hovered quietly above the Razorback territory, adjusting the balance between gravity law and wind law to keep his body suspended in the air.
Even now, he still finds the sensation strange.
Most high-rank takers did not truly fly.
Instead, they materialized their power and rode on it through the sky.
Garner was different.
He did not ride power.
He manipulated the laws themselves.
A ripple of pressure suddenly spread across the sky.
Garner turned immediately.
Two figures approached from a distance.
The first was Leo, the Razorback Alpha. Beneath his feet formed a solid platform of condensed golden aura shaped like a massive claw, carrying his tall frame effortlessly through the air.
Beside him drifted a smaller figure.
King.
The childlike leader of the Twelve Circles stood atop a swirling cloud of dark miasma, the thick energy coiling beneath him like living smoke.
The two powers glided silently through the sky until they stopped in front of Garner.
King looked at him calmly.
"You've been thinking about the blue strings."
It wasn't a question.
Garner nodded.
"They belong to space."
Leo crossed his arms.
"And you're the first person to notice them."
Garner frowned slightly.
"What are they connected to?"
King turned toward the distant mountains.
"A place that has remained sealed for many years."
Leo added quietly,
"And it reacted when you studied that teleportation frog."
Garner felt his chest tighten.
"You're saying there's a connection."
King nodded once.
"Follow us."
Without another word, the two Kings turned toward the mountain range far beyond the Razorback territory.
Their powers carried them across the sky like silent meteors.
Garner followed, pushing wind beneath his feet while reducing gravity's pull around his body.
The three figures disappeared into the horizon.
Hours later, they arrived at a remote mountain valley.
The moment Garner descended, he felt it.
Something was wrong with the air.
The white strings of law trembled violently.
But the blue strings were everywhere.
They filled the valley like an invisible web.
At the far end of the valley stood a massive stone wall embedded into the mountain.
Ancient runes glowed faintly across its surface.
The blue strings wrapped around the entire structure like chains.
Garner slowly approached.
"This place…"
Leo landed heavily beside him.
"A forbidden gate."
King remained hovering slightly above the ground on his miasma.
"For years we tried to open it," he said quietly.
Garner studied the runes.
"They're made from space law."
Leo nodded.
"And one King is not enough to break it."
Garner finally understood.
"You're going to force it open."
King descended slowly to the ground.
"Yes."
Leo stepped beside him.
The atmosphere instantly changed.
Both Kings began releasing their power.
Leo's aura surged outward like a roaring beast, golden energy shaking the ground beneath his feet.
King's miasma expanded into a swirling storm of dark death energy, thick and suffocating.
Garner quickly lifted himself into the air to avoid the shockwaves.
"Stand back," Leo warned.
Then both Kings struck the seal.
BOOOOOOM!
The valley exploded with power.
The runes blazed with light as countless blue strings tightened violently across the gate.
Space itself resisted.
King pressed his palm against the seal while Leo unleashed another burst of power.
CRACK.
A fracture appeared.
But the gate remained closed.
Leo growled.
"Again."
King nodded.
The two gathered even more power.
The pressure became unbearable.
Mountains trembled.
The sky darkened.
Then—
Both Kings released everything at once.
CRAAAAACK!
The blue strings snapped apart one after another like breaking lightning.
The ancient gate split open.
A dark entrance revealed itself within the mountain.
Silence fell across the valley.
Then Leo staggered backward.
He dropped to one knee, breathing heavily.
King also withdrew his hand, the miasma beneath him weakening as exhaustion spread across his face.
Even two peak King-rank experts had been drained just from opening the seal.
Garner stared in disbelief.
"That seal…"
King exhaled slowly.
"…was meant to remain closed."
Leo wiped blood from his mouth and gestured toward the entrance.
"Go."
Garner stepped deeper into the cavern.
The moment his foot touched the stone floor, his breath caught.
The entire cave was filled with blue strings.
Not just a few.
Millions.
Billions.
They stretched across the cavern in every direction, weaving through the air like an invisible ocean of threads.
Garner slowly raised his hand.
One of the strings brushed past his fingers.
Cold.
Silent.
Alive.
These were not emanating from any single source.
They simply existed.
Just like the white strings of wind, earth, fire, and gravity that filled the world.
The strings were the laws themselves.
Leo and King finally entered the cavern behind him.
Even they paused.
The underground chamber stretched hundreds of meters in every direction.
Jagged blue crystals grew from the ground, walls, and ceiling like a forest of frozen lightning.
Some were as small as pebbles.
Others towered like pillars.
The entire cavern shimmered with faint distortions as space bent subtly around the crystals.
Garner slowly turned.
"This isn't a single stone…"
King nodded.
"No."
Leo finished the thought.
"This is an ancient Space Stone vein."
Garner's eyes widened.
A mine.
An entire deposit.
King spoke quietly.
"Space Stones are among the rarest materials left from the first descent of the orbs."
"But what lies here is far older."
Garner stared at the countless crystals embedded in the cavern.
"Then the strings…"
"They were already here," King said.
"The stones merely condensed where space law is strongest."
Leo crossed his arms.
"This place has existed long before the kingdom… before the Twelve Circles… perhaps even before the war."
Garner slowly walked forward.
Every step made the space strings ripple slightly around him.
The cave responded to his presence.
Not because the strings came from him.
But because he could see them.
And for the first time in centuries…
Someone had entered this place who understood what they truly were.
King watched him quietly.
"Now you understand why we brought you."
Leo added,
"If anyone can learn from this place…"
"…it's you."
Garner stood in the center of the cavern, surrounded by the silent forest of blue crystals.
And the endless strings of space.