MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

As the darkness faded away, Alex was greeted by a vast, stretching expanse of darkness, a place that was home to the Realm Ruler. However, he quickly realized that he was not in the same place he had previously visited multiple times.

What he saw was the dark void of space expanding for as far as his eyes could see. There were no stars, only a massive disk of light that revolved in a circle at an unimaginable speed, illuminating the surroundings.

At the center of this luminous disk was a peculiar anomaly, an ominous hole in space that defied all reason, a swirling vortex, an abyss of infinite darkness, which Alex instantly recognized unmistakably as a massive black hole.

The space giant loomed far in the distance, yet its immense size made it feel impossibly close. Its presence was overwhelming as if one could sense both the searing heat and biting cold it radiated and feel the force of its gravitational pull.

Alex felt panic grip his heart, not because he felt threatened but because the supermassive blackhole looked eerily familiar. The memories of the dream flooded into his mind as he remembered his first and only memory of the Entity named Dark.

In this moment of surreal awe and terror, a whirlwind of emotions surged through him as he grappled with the shock of finding himself back on the location of his dream.

A place that he thought was just an imagination of his mind, but in recent years, he had begun to believe it was more than just a mere imagination.

However, it didn't matter what he thought of the strange dream. The real question was, why was the place different than the simple experience of darkness? Was the Ruler toying with him, playing some elaborate joke, or trying to make a statement? Or was this simply a coincidence, an unsettling twist of fate?

Whatever the reason, the uncertainty gnawed at him, leaving him uneasy in a place that seemed both familiar and alien.

"I saw you working on your black hole replica, so I figured I would offer a bit of inspiration," The familiar, hypnotic voice echoed, a subtle force behind its tone that made it impossible to ignore.

Alex turned to his side, his eyes landing on the smiling beauty beside him. Her words, light and pleasant, did nothing to calm his anxiety or ease the unsettling idea that she was reading through his memories.

"Fear really doesn't suit you," The entity said, her voice laced with amusement.

Alex did his best to shake off his fear and mask his emotions, but before an entity of her power, he was as good as an open book.

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"To answer your question, I can not read through your memories, at least not without making physical contact," she said, chuckling as if to prove Alex's point.

"While you are a very interesting and entertaining individual, It is not a reason enough for me to see what life has to offer you until now,"

"Because knowing all about you would ruin the element of surprise, and without surprise, there is no entertainment," She said, leaning in closer to whisper the last words into his ear.

'She is a problem, but it's not like I can do anything about her,' Alex thought, taking a few deep breaths to calm his rolled-up emotions.

While it was unclear whether she was telling the truth or not, even if she had seen all his memories, it was not like Alex could do anything about it, and he was quick to make peace with that reality.

"You wanted to meet the Grand Arcanum Elara, but before that, let me tell you why you needed a Platinum-grade wish to make contact with her," She said, drawing Alex's full attention.

Alex had felt like he was being scammed when he found out that he needed a Platinum grade wish, one that was the second highest grade one could earn from the champions games, but he knew better than to question the Ruler.

So now that she was willing to share, he was eager to learn why he had to spend months getting the wish when his request was very simple.

"Arcanum Elara is currently inside a sealed space pocket, accessible only to a selected few, and if you wish to visit it just once, then I can send you there at the expense of a Gold grade wish,"

"But if you go there, you will be in deep trouble because the master of that place will sense your presence, and when he does, he will be sure to find the little mark your lover left on you,"

"However, I will remove it and send you to your destination, and unless you get unlucky and do something that you should not, you should be fine," She said with a casual smile, though the weight of her words was anything but light.

'Mark? Lover? What is she talking about,' Alex thought, suppressing the urge to say his thoughts aloud, but as seconds slipped by, Alex realized what she might be referring to.

"So you figured it out," She said, knowing that Alex understood she was referring to Zahra and that her final words came to his mind at random, with him having no control over them.

It had been more than a year since his last eventful meeting with Zahra, and from that day till now, every so often, Alex heard her departing words, "Only if we had met a bit sooner."

Alex knew for certain that for him to continuously remember her words and his desire to find the reason behind her intentions, which had only grown stronger by the day, was far from normal.

The only reason he was not using a wish to find out about the reason behind it was because he had more pressing matters of his own to deal with at the moment.

Alex did pick the keywords and knew what they could potentially mean but did not put much thought into them and decided to deal with the matter at hand.

"So, do you want to use the wish as you previously intended or use it to gain intel on another valuable weapon that is easier to acquire in the time you have left," She asked, giving Alex time to consider his options.

"No, I wish to meet with Grand Arcanum Elara, and thanks for your help," Alex said, making his decision without a moment's delay, knowing he got a lot more from this than just a great weapon.

Alex was not just getting a quality weapon but also a connection with one of the strongest individuals of one of the greatest powers, and if things panned out as he wanted, he could use her to get more benefits and some well-needed help.

Alex had yet to find any real intel on the abilities of Zarach, with whom he had a battle to the death, to be specific, with his and only his life on the line, and the last time they fought, it was his defeat, and he did not even know how it even happened.

Alex knew the two of them fought, and while he had some memory of a great battle where he almost won, he could tell that it was a fake, a fabrication implanted into his mind.

A single wish had already confirmed that his thinking was correct, but the worst thing about this situation was that he could not even get his memory back, as it was erased in its entirety, so no item worked.

Not even a Ruler's wish could bring it back because that bastard used a diamond-grade wish, the highest one could even earn through Champions games, using it to make sure that Ruler would not help him unless he got his hands on a wish of the same grade.

While Alex was killing it in both the Champion games and the Epochial trial, he had yet to get his hands on a wish of the highest grade, and it was all because he did not participate in games that could give him such rewards.

Alex did not participate because he had a death clock of three years, and improving his strength during this period was a safer bet than trying his luck with the gamble of the few opportunities he got, with each one requiring months of effort to bear any fruit.

Alex could not get any intel on Zarach's abilities from the Ruler because that was against the rules, while any outside power either did not have anything on him or the one that possibly knew about his abilities refused to sell or trade for it.

Alex had done a lot in the past two years, from hiring elite information hubs to paying large sums of resources to private investigators and fellow adventurers, all in an effort to gather any intel on Zarach, but that bastard was like a ghost, always making sure he got nothing on him.

Maybe with the help of Arcanum Elara, he could finally know more about that hateful bastard, but at this point, it would have little effect on his decision.

"You made your choice, so good luck," She said, and in the next instant, darkness engulfed his senses as Alex was teleported away.