For the next twenty years, Beth remained held within her cocoon of Dreams and Desires. Despite all their efforts, Jonathan and Lyra found themselves unable to bring her out of her suspended state. A cruel side effect of the severed bond had begun to manifest with Anna's constant evolution and disregard for the inevitable backlash, Beth's own dormant power evolved in a sympathetic response. The vines encasing her, once a fragile construct, grew stronger with each surge of Anna's power, becoming impenetrable. And with Beth's ever-growing power, her Dreams and Desires grew more vivid and all-consuming, eventually transforming her room into a permanent Domain that completely isolated her from the world.
But in the ninth month of the year, Beth awoke from her dreams, drenched in fear, pain, and sweat. The date was the 3rd of Nayo, 725 of the 12th cycle. Nayo, a month dedicated to love and merrymaking, offered a cruel irony to her awakening. She was not roused by the sweetness of her dreams, but by a powerful torrent of dread, pain, and death that Anna had transmitted through their near non-existent bond. The very emotions that had broken her heart were now, paradoxically, the force that strengthened their thin thread of a connection.
Arrogance had become second nature to Selene, Rowan, Ashen, and Anna over their two-decade search, with Anna's pride eclipsing the rest. Yet, their goal of finding Luke Timothy John remained their sole focus. For fourteen years, their search across the continents was a total failure, despite compelling even the four holy continents to aid. Changing course, they spent the following four years diving into pocket dimensions, spatial rifts, and dungeons where mana beasts forms. On the 3rd of Noya, they entered what they dismissed as a mundane pocket dimension, but this time, their confidence was misplaced. They had entered not a pocket dimension, but a Dominion—a permanent, complete plane of existence ruled by a single, terrifying will. As they stood there, oblivious to their grand mistake, they felt the air grow heavy with a power they couldn't comprehend. This was the home of one of the 182 primordials, a being born from the Dragon God's own essence. This was a Veracious Dragon, Aurevails, the primordial who embodied pride, honor, and power. But this was his negative aspect, and his mood was foul beyond measure. Their hubris was about to be shattered by a force infinitely greater than their own.
Aurevails was in a rage unlike any he had ever known. He had been going from planet to planet, terrorizing the residents, until he came face to face with a Cosmic Bounty Hunter. To make matters worse, she was a rookie with little to no experience hunting cosmic threats—only her third target since her journey began. Aurevails, a Veracious Dragon and one of the seven primordials of his race, considered a child of the Dragon God and a being above all other primordials, had become a target for the Cosmic Bounty Hunter Association. Not only had they placed a prize on his head, but they had sent a rookie to do the job. It was an insult so profound it was almost amusing. But all his delusions of superiority were about to be shattered.
Within just ten moves, a flurry he was utterly powerless to stop, he was beaten completely blue, black, and white. He was saved only by the rookie's momentary lapse in focus, a flaw born of her inexperience. As she saw victory in her grasp, her guard slipped just enough for him to open a dimensional gate to his dominion and dive through. But as the gate was closing, he heard her master's voice, laced with amusement, comment on how it would've taken just a flick of the rookie's finger to end that entire ordeal if she knew how to control her immense power. From a primordial's point of view, her evolution realm was that of a five-year-old. This final insult completely ticked off Aurevails. With his anger and frustration boiling over, the dominion became violently unstable, opening countless dimensional gates from planet to planet—one of which the McKellen siblings had just stepped through. Now, with his personal plane invaded by these arrogant children, they were the perfect outlet for his bottled-up rage.
"Hey Anna, let's hurry, for this place is more plain than any other pocket dimension we've visited so far," Ashen said, his voice laced with disdain. "It's even ridiculous to call this a pocket dimension."
Selene, pinching her nose, continued, "Who'd even create something so disgusting? I can't stand the stench of it."
"I understand what you mean, sister. This place is more disgusting than a goblin nest; it's not even worth owning," Anna declared. "Let's destroy it immediately, as it's the least gratitude it could show us for stepping in."
Rowan stepped in to de-escalate, though his disgust was just as palpable. "We all know this place is worse than a dump pit, but every clue is necessary to find Master. Let's explore here first, to see if we can find anything—I doubt we will—but exploration first. Then complete annihilation. That's the only gift we could possibly give it."