I Reincarnated to Another World as a Woman-Chapter 241: Unquestioned Power

"Thea!" Arthur shouts, but Theo has already stepped out of the water sphere and into the chaos of the dungeon.

Arthur watches helplessly as white hair whips in the violent wind. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Fear claws at his chest.

Yet the storm behaves strangely around her.

The wind howls, but it blows gently around her.

Rain lashes sideways, yet her clothes remain dry.

Lightning splits the sky, but it never strikes her. It crashes around her, framing her in violent light without ever reaching her.

Even the waves raging across the flooded dungeon calm in her immediate presence.

It is as if the sea itself recognizes her.

As if it bows.

"Thea," Arthur whispers.

He slams his fist against the inner wall of the sphere, frustration burning through him. He should be out there with her. Fighting beside her. Facing the King together.

Instead, he is protected.

Contained.

A useless spectator.

He clenches his teeth.

There is a heavy pressure inside his chest he cannot name. Pride. Fear. Awe. Anxiety. All tangled together until he can barely breathe through it.

"I need to get stronger," he vows to himself.

"Arthur?"

The voice comes from behind him.

He whips around and sees Julian sitting up, one hand pressed to his head, expression disoriented and confused.

Arthur rushes to him. "Jules. You okay?"

Julian scrunches his face, blinking several times before nodding faintly. "Yeah. I think so."

His gaze drifts outward.

His eyes widen slowly, confusion deepening rather than clearing.

"Huh? What’s this? Where are we?"

He pushes himself to his feet, wobbling only slightly.

Then realization hits.

He turns sharply to Arthur.

"Are we..." He looks down. "Are we inside water?!"

Despite the tension coiling through him, Arthur lets out a short laugh.

"Something like that."

He quickly fills Julian in, keeping it brief but clear.

Julian turns back toward the white-haired figure outside the sphere.

"And that’s Thea?" he asks, pointing.

Arthur nods.

Julian steps closer to the wall cautiously, as if expecting it to collapse under his weight. He squints, trying to see past the distortion of moving water.

Arthur walks beside him and punches the wall lightly.

"Arthur!" Julian startles.

But the wall only ripples outward in soft waves before smoothing again, perfectly intact.

Julian reaches out and presses his palm against it.

"It feels like jelly," he mutters in disbelief. "I know it’s water, but my hand isn’t wet. My scientific brain cannot process this."

He shakes his head.

"Jules, it’s magic. We don’t need to understand how it works," Arthur says quietly.

His eyes return to Theo.

She stands alone against the storm and the flying spider.

"I’m worried about her," Arthur admits.

Julian watches too.

"Yeah," he says after a moment. "But I’m not."

Arthur glances at him.

Julian grins, a flash of his usual confidence returning.

"We should just be grateful we have a badass sister."

Arthur huffs a quiet laugh.

-------------------------------

A ball of thick green fog shoots forward as fast as a bullet, slicing through the storm toward Theo. Like a hawk diving to claim its prey.

Theo does not flinch.

He blinks once.

The fog bullet stops a few steps in front of him, suspended midair. It trembles, then dissolves, scattering harmlessly into the wind.

"It doesn’t matter how many times you try," Theo says calmly.

"Your attacks will never touch me."

He tilts his head slightly.

"Is that all you’ve got?"

The spider screeches, shrill and furious, as if it understands every word.

"Give me everything," Theo shouts.

The wind answers him.

It howls and compresses into invisible blades, slicing through the air toward the spider. The creature darts left and right, trying to evade the cutting gales, but the blades are too many, too precise.

All eight legs are severed cleanly.

The spider crashes into the water with a violent splash, shrieking in agony.

But the thick green fog surges immediately.

It wraps around the mutilated body, knitting flesh and chitin back together within seconds.

The legs regrow.

The creature rises again.

Theo watches without expression.

"Hm," he murmurs coldly. "Let’s see how many times you can do that."

The pattern repeats.

Theo attacks.

The spider is maimed.

The fog heals it.

Again.

And again.

And again.

--------------------------------

Inside the sphere, Arthur and Julian watch in tense silence.

"Art?" Julian calls quietly, not taking his eyes off Theo.

"Hm?" Arthur replies, equally focused.

"Why is she doing the same thing over and over?" Julian asks. "Hasn’t she noticed the fog needs to go first before killing the spider?"

Arthur smiles faintly.

"Don’t worry. She hasn’t lost her mind. Even if it looks like she has."

Julian snorts softly.

"She’s testing it," Arthur continues.

"Testing what?"

"The King’s limits. How much mana it has. How fast it regenerates. How strong the healing is."

Julian nods slowly.

"And I think," Arthur adds, "she’s testing something else too."

"What?"

"Its intelligence."

Julian finally glances at him.

"Intelligence?"

"Do you remember Mount Helene?" Arthur asks.

Julian’s expression shifts.

"The minotaur King," he says.

Arthur nods.

"That dungeon was mutated. The King could speak. It could strategize. This dungeon is mutated too. And it feels stronger than that one."

Julian frowns.

"So she’s trying to see if this King thinks."

"Yes," Arthur says quietly. "And how it thinks."

Julian considers that.

"Hm. That makes sense when you put it like that."

A small grin forms on his face.

"Wow. Teacher Theo really tells Thea everything."

Arthur turns slightly. "What do you mean?"

Julian shrugs.

"She wasn’t there at Mount Helene. It was Aldriana who turned out to be Teacher Theo, who was the one who fought that King."

He looks back outside.

"Did he brief her about this dungeon before? I’m curious how they even communicate. Everything Teacher Theo knows, Thea seems to know."

Arthur does not answer.

Julian keeps talking, thoughtful rather than suspicious.

"Sometimes I feel like I’m not even talking to Thea anymore. I feel like I’m talking to Teacher Theo. The way she explains things. The way she analyzes."

He glances at Arthur again.

"You don’t notice that?"

Something tightens in Arthur’s chest.

The faint alarm that has been whispering in the back of his mind begins ringing louder.

He looks back at Theo, floating in the storm, dismantling the spider again and again.

He swallows.

But his mind is no longer fully on the fight.