Chapter 114 — Dandelion [4] - Opportunity

Liora carefully inspected her own body. Though her progress as a Knight was rapid, it didn’t bring her any new abilities apart from the increase in strength.

Thus, it didn’t take her long to become familiar with the changes.

After confirming that there was nothing wrong with her, she didn’t leave. Instead, she took out the now-recovered golden orb, which she had named Space Orb not long ago.

Alpha’s abrupt arrival had previously interrupted her plans to further investigate its functions while putting her ideas to the test. But just like the popular saying goes, better late than never.

Now that she had dealt with the aftermath of the battle, she could finally shift her attention to it.

With that in mind, Liora sat down on the ground and carefully stared at the Space Orb within her palm.

Its texture had remained the same, and its brilliance was still there, but it had become far more subtle and less pronounced.

If before, the Space Orb looked like a holy item bestowed by the Gods, then now, it had fully revealed its extraordinary nature.

However, Liora didn’t linger at its appearance for long.

After admiring it for a couple of seconds, she focused on the connection between them and began controlling it.

Instantly, a white light shot out of the Space Orb.

The light seemed to be out of control. In the blink of an eye, it passed beside Liora and arrived in front of the metal fence, looking ready to strike it.

Surprisingly, though, it didn’t land on the fence but instead stopped abruptly before fading away.

At the point where it vanished, space itself seemed to have been broken.

As if an invisible hand was opening up an imaginary zip, a small fracture appeared in the space, which quickly grew bigger and bigger.

Only a few seconds later, the fracture had turned into a door-shaped gap, just big enough for a single person to pass through. At the same time, the Space Orb that Liora was holding had disappeared without her even noticing.

Seeing this and sensing a clear lack of danger within the gap, Liora pondered for a brief second before stepping right into it.

--

When she opened her eyes again, Liora found herself in a somewhat familiar white expanse.

It was familiar because it was similar to the Holy Domain constructed by the Blasphemer, but it was also foreign because it was now many times smaller.

"I already knew that the space had gotten smaller. But I didn’t expect the difference to be this big.", Liora couldn’t help but mutter.

With a quick sweep of her consciousness, she instantly realized that the nearly endless expanse had now become only tens of square meters in size.

Though that amount of space seemed more than enough, it was, in fact, not.

Yes, such a space could indeed be used to store things and stay for a short period of time, but it was impossible to make use of it in battle.

After all, a fight between two Young Devils usually spanned several miles, and this held even more true for beings at the level of Lesser Devils.

Therefore, how could such a tiny space possibly contain their power?

Thinking of this, Liora shook her head, faint disappointment flashing in her eyes.

But she forced herself to suppress this disappointment.

"Fortunately, I wasn’t planning to use the Space Orb while in battle. For me, its other uses are way more valuable.", she thought as she found a random place and took her seat.

Then, she fell into thought.

All this time, Liora had been troubled by a certain thing. That was, there was a treasure of unimaginable value in her possession, yet she had no way of using it.

Or rather, she had a way to make use of the treasure, but that method was accompanied by several negative consequences and hidden dangers.

The thing that Liora was talking about was obviously the mysterious blood that she had obtained from Elder Embers—the blood of two creatures who were suspected to have surpassed the True Devil stage.

When she first obtained it, she had been happy and had spent countless hours conducting research on it.

She had managed to obtain a large amount of information through that research, knowledge that had been vital to the progress she had made so far.

After all, it was by digesting this knowledge that she had been able to create her first self-developed ability—Tongue of the Abyss, and—perhaps more importantly—had been able to leave the Demon World and descend into this world of Knights.

Otherwise, a mere Lesser Devil like her would never be able to invade other worlds, no matter how weak those worlds may be.

"Unfortunately, this mysterious blood seems to retain some of its instincts. Not only will it react and devour the blood of other rare creatures, but it will also try to influence me."

"Otherwise, with my cautiousness, I would have never let down my guard around it.", Liora thought.

She originally believed that she could get rid of that subconscious influence by becoming a Lesser Devil, but by conducting a quick experiment during her brief stay in the Demon World, she had discovered that she was wrong.

Though her advancement had indeed made it more difficult for the blood to influence her, its influence was still there, though less apparent.

This influence may be nothing for a short period of time, but if it persisted for weeks, months, or even years, Liora’s personality was bound to be affected sooner or later.

"All this time, I’ve been trying to think of a way to get rid of this drawback. Arriving in this world is my opportunity, and acquiring the Space Orb is even more of a reason to try and take a gamble.", Liora whispered.

With a move of her hand, she took out a wooden chest. Reaching out, she carefully removed the chest’s lid, revealing the mysterious blood hidden beneath it.

The blood was still the same.

With a pinkish hue running across its surface, it floated silently, as if it were not a supreme treasure that countless beings would fight over, but an ordinary drop of blood.