Floor Fifty-One, inside the labyrinth.
"Rio, come quickly."
Rio: "Alright, Yui… we'll talk later, System."
System: "As you wish."
Yui (impatiently): "Come on, Rio, we'll leave you if you don't come."
Rio (walking quickly toward them): "Wait!"
Zalarosa: "Alright, alright. Are you ready, Rio? The journey will begin in that stupid labyrinth."
One week passed inside that labyrinth.
Rio, Yui, and Zalarosa were fighting against many monsters, and Rio removed the skill he had placed on them that slowed time around them.
Yui (in shock): "Wait, what!!!! Was a whole century around us like simple moments?!! Are you kidding me?!!!"
Zalarosa: "I understand now… so how many years have passed outside?"
Rio: "Actually… I don't know how to say this to you, but… nearly ten years have passed."
Zalarosa (screaming): "Ten years were wasted from my life????!!!!!"
Rio (nervously): "Don't worry, I removed the skill now. You can feel time normally again."
Yui (sighed): "Ahh… I can't believe that a whole decade around us passed like simple moments. What a joke… my mother… she must think I died already."
Rio: "I don't blame her. After all, ten years passed."
Yui (looked at him angrily and punched him in the face): "All of this is because of you!!!!"
Rio: "Why does everyone hit me?? When will I return to my adult form?"
System: "You can return to your adult form in the first place."
Rio (looked at the system screen suspiciously and went toward a corner): "Wait, are you sure? If you're lying, I'll rip your eye out of its place."
System: "I don't have eyes in the first place… and yes, you can. But it's not a form change; your body will become an adult, meaning your entire appearance stays the same, you'll just grow."
Rio: "You're my best friend from today onward, believe me."
Rio finished speaking and his small body began to grow. He became the body of a seventeen-year-old adult. His blond hair began to grow longer behind him, his light brown eyes became sharp like a wolf's, his skin white and clear, and his height nearly 180 cm.
Yui (opened her mouth in shock, froze in place, and looked from afar): "What is happening here?"
Zalarosa (her eyes showed hearts, love clearly visible in them): "Oh my God, who is that handsome young man?… I want to marry him!"
Yui: "Wait, Zalarosa, what's wrong with you? It's true that he's handsome, but—"
Zalarosa (smiled): "But what?? Look at your embarrassed face."
Yui (felt embarrassed and shouted): "Shut up!!!"
Rio (confused): "What happened to me? Did I grow?"
System: "Yes."
Rio (started jumping happily): "Finally, I can use all my power."
Rio (smiled and clenched his fist): "Alright then, let's try."
Rio closed his eyes and calmness became clear on him, but suddenly…
Time stopped for four seconds, and after it moved again, Yui and Zalarosa fell to the ground, exhaustion clear on them as if they had been climbing a mountain. "What is happening here?"
Suddenly, the place became dark, and the immense pressure emanating from Rio was so intense that the labyrinth began to shake, and its very soul screamed violently.
Rio focused more and released a wave greater than his power, but time itself could not comprehend what had happened, as it stopped for a full minute across the entire world, and then—boom.
A massive explosion came from Rio as if 500 trillion stars had just exploded.
Yui and Zalarosa were sent flying far away by the overwhelming aura. That was not the end, as the entire world shook and was on the verge of destruction, as if it were screaming in unimaginable pain.
The enormous pressure that came out of Rio made everything in the world bend, as if a resident of the upper dimension had descended upon that world.
In the Ice Kingdom.
Rin: "What is that pressure? I can barely breathe!!"
The Ice Queen, Eliria, could barely even move her eyes.
In the Fire Kingdom.
Aniferons (fell to the ground suddenly, his eyes almost popping out): "My God, what is happening??"
In the labyrinth.
Rio absorbed all the energy he had released, but the effects were clear—forty floors of the labyrinth were destroyed as if they had never existed one day.
Inside Rio's consciousness.
Rio: "What? Is that inside me? Himiko, did you summon me?"
Himiko: "Yes. I want to warn you—never release your energy in such a massive form again. You almost destroyed the entire world!!"
Rio: "And what about that? The world is just a small thing."
Himiko (angrily): "Do you know the size of just one world???!! A world in the lower dimension may equal an infinite universe in size!"
Rio (shocked): "Are you kidding me?? That's impossible."
Himiko: "Shut up… The creatures of the upper dimension must have felt the pressure you released… From today on, you'll have unbelievable enemies, you idiot!"
Rio: "I really don't understand anything."
System: "Let me explain in a simple way. The universe is actually composed of dimensions from zero to… an infinite number. Many dimensions, infinite and complex, with timelines and countless intertwined paths, extremely complex—too difficult for any mind to comprehend, analyze, or even understand.
Therefore, worlds were created. There are worlds that contain only one dimension, which is space, and there are worlds that contain three dimensions, like the world of humans and demons.
Those worlds that contain one dimension—their size may be close to the size of the universe."
Rio: "I understand now… hmm?... wait, whaaaaat????!!!!! Are you kidding me?"
Himiko: "Do you understand now how dangerous what you did was???"
Rio: "Yes."
Himiko (sighed and calmed down): "Ahhh… now we must find a solution to the problem of the creatures of the upper dimension."
Rio: "The upper dimension??"
Himiko: "Yes… wait, don't tell me you don't even know what it is."
Himiko: "System, didn't you explain anything about that reality to him or what??"
System: "I explained it to him before, but why should I explain the upper dimension? I only explained parts of it, not everything about the upper dimension. What matters is the one he lives in; the rest is of no use."
Himiko (sighed in resignation): "The entities of the upper dimension are entities that live in a higher dimension where the concepts of life and death do not exist for them. The present, future, and past are one and the same—there is no difference between them.
Their birth means their death, and the opposite is also true.
They are entities that organize the lower dimension and everything within it and rule it.
Time flows for them in a completely different way than it does for us.
They live in one place, but in reality, each one of them has their own different method of ruling and control.
And also, the only thing that connects us to them is the Tree of Life."
System:
"And also, according to my information about the upper dimension and the Tree of Life, legends say that one day the Tree of Life was destroyed, and that caused the destruction of both the lower and upper dimensions.
But the upper entities were not harmed and nothing happened to them."
Rio: "Oh, I understand now… so one of the creatures of that place will probably try to destroy me?"
System: "Probably?? No—definitely!"
Himiko (sighed): "Ahh, he really is stupid. Don't mind it. Now we must prepare, because there are creatures with insane power coming to kill you."
To be continued…