The early morning sun was already shining bright in the sky when, above a dense forest, the clouds were pierced by something that looked like a yellow bolt of lightning.
A winged female figure shot out, flying at high speed toward a building that stood tall in the center of it all.
Her expression showed urgency. As soon as she landed near the building, her wings vanished. She turned her head — and right then, a white-haired man came running toward her.
It was the same instructor who had guided the rookies to the test.
"Rhea, he still hasn't woken up," he said quickly as he stopped in front of her.
She shot back, "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes," he nodded, visibly shaken. "See for yourself. He'll be under your care, after all."
The man turned toward the building, and she followed with hurried steps.
They moved through a few hallways until they reached the celestial altar. As they stepped into the light-filled space, Rhea immediately raised her gaze, focusing on the portal that led everyone to the Divine Protection Universe.
She huffed, and her eyes lit up in a bright yellow glow.
Then she swallowed hard.
The view was as clear as looking through a window into someone's house.
Inside, the space looked like the bottom of a giant blue pool. Thousands of human bodies floated in deep sleep. The place was so vast that even with so many people, less than 1% of it was occupied.
But one thing stood out — overwhelmingly.
Far off in a corner of that blue world, a golden sun hundreds of meters wide was radiating a blinding light. It was so massive and bright that you could barely see anything inside it.
Yet, right in the center of that light, there was a human body resting.
"How is this even possible…" Rhea muttered, stunned.
"We calculated a total of 777 million Merit Points," the man next to her said. "An Abyssal Nest showed up at the worst possible time. Everyone had to enter and fight, but no one knows what happened at the end. Suddenly, they all blacked out and only now woke up, already back. From everyone's Merit Points, it's clear they won. As for him…"
"No one saw what happened to him?" Rhea asked quickly.
"Unfortunately, he was the only rookie from our empire who got accepted. Among the high-level ones, we had thirty people with three rings each. They've all woken up already, but none of them saw any rookie doing anything unusual. We'll have to wait for the people who recently went to that world to come back with more info," he answered, thoughtful.
"But based on the reports, several strange phenomena happened… though I doubt he had anything to do with it. Somehow, in some magical way, he must've helped take down the nest and a bunch of enemies. I can't even imagine how — maybe he just got insanely lucky…"
He suddenly stopped talking, glancing toward where all the bodies were resting. He felt something shift there.
A dense light began to pour out from within the structure. Then, a figure emerged, guided by the light, calmly floating down toward the ground.
It was a young man, only 21 years old. Not very tall, slimmer than average, and nothing particularly eye-catching — except for his deep dark green hair.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, his slightly reddish eyes opened.
Rhea and the man stared at him in silence. Until...
"Bleaarghh!"
Suddenly, the young man dropped to his knees and started vomiting uncontrollably. Rhea rushed to his side instantly.
He kept going, throwing up a thick black liquid as his whole body trembled. Every muscle felt like it was on fire. He started twisting in intense agony.
"Stay calm," Rhea said, placing a hand on his back and sending in some power to support him. "This is normal. Your body always held a regular soul… now you've returned for the first time, and this kind of reaction happens to everyone. You'll stabilize soon."
But ten minutes passed.
Rhea stayed by his side, murmuring calm words softly. Watching from a distance, the man looked genuinely surprised.
This was normal for rookies — it was the body's purification process. The power of the newly formed ring was digging into the human body and taking root. After some time, he'd officially become a High Human.
Some people just sweat out a lot of dirty liquid, others only feel really sick; in rare cases, they might vomit a bit.
But what he was witnessing now went way beyond that. The stench was overwhelming, and the kid just wouldn't stop puking.
Almost half an hour later, when it finally ended, Darian still felt like the world was spinning.
Rhea, who had stayed calm until then, suddenly tensed up.
Without hesitation, she reached out and touched his forehead gently. A yellowish energy flowed from her into him.
Seconds later, Darian started feeling a lot better. Rhea turned her attention to the man behind them.
He quickly said, "You can take him. In two days, everything will be ready for him to enter."
Rhea nodded.
"Come on, Darian." She helped him up.
He still felt out of it but went along.
As they walked down the hallway, his mind and memories slowly started to settle.
Then he stopped cold.
He finally realized he remembered everything that had happened.
"Wait? I remember everything?"
Rhea turned back to him, confused. "Hm? Why wouldn't you? That only happens when you die in that universe."
Darian heard that and got even more confused. Two seconds later, he let out a breath.
'Well, technically I failed right in the test, but I didn't die and ended up forming a contract after that,' he thought, just accepting the weird situation like always.
But...
He glanced at Rhea, who was staring at him from up close. Her eyes showed a deep sense of doubt and concern.
'Shit, looks like I either did something really bad… or really good. Either way, this might draw more attention than I'd like.'
Right as that thought crossed his mind, Rhea gave him a nod and kept walking ahead.
She led him to a door along the hallway and, not long after, they arrived in a spacious room.
Guiding him to the center of the place, she had him sit down.
"You need to stabilize your Merit Power first."
"Merit Power?" Darian repeated, confused.
"Yes. You probably read about it in the Divine Protection Universe. The Risen have something inside them that, when they're killed, turns into power for whoever defeated them. Sometimes, if you contribute a lot to that universe, you get a bit too," she explained calmly.
"That's Merit Power. It's invisible and can't be felt, but it builds up in your soul. When you come back home, you can finally absorb all the Merit Power you gathered. With it, you form new rings."
Darian nodded, thoughtful. He and Niara had killed some Risen… maybe… and he had helped destroy the nest, technically, right?
"Since it seemed like a large amount and you were struggling, I sealed the entry point so the Merit Power wouldn't try to form the rings all at once," she said seriously, locking eyes with him.
"Oh?" Darian frowned, still confused.
"We'll talk more later. I'll release it now. Focus on your forehead. The Merit Power always flows there naturally. If you guide it and let only a little in at a time, the process will go faster and smoother."
Darian took a deep breath and nodded.
Soon, he started feeling a strange dizziness.
He focused on following her instructions.
Quickly, he got the feeling that his whole body was drowning.
Two hours later...
Inside him, a glowing red ring kept getting brighter and brighter. On the outside, Darian looked like he was on fire, with that red aura growing larger and larger.
Rhea held her breath.
A rookie Spiritual Guardian should take three to ten years to form a second ring...
She was fully focused on him. Her eyes widened as she sensed a shadow forming around the first ring on his forehead.
Then, everything stopped.
She let out a deep breath, stunned.
The second ring hadn't fully formed. But clearly, he had already reached 90% of what was needed.