Flying over an endless sea of ash filled with cracks and lava rivers, Idan suddenly felt a strange change in the fire element surrounding him. He stopped. Ned, who was following him, also stopped, followed by his two clones, attractive young men with long red hair. One of them had webbed dragon wings, and the other had wings made of red fiery feathers.

"It's a feeling… It's familiar to me..."

Idan, who had previously encountered the law only once, and then with the element of lightning, did not immediately understand what he was facing this time.

Doom!

The world seemed to sigh painfully, there was a deafening roar, and the ground shook underfoot. A shockwave swept through the surroundings, and Idan and Ned felt their internal organs tremble.

"Ah!" The four of them groaned painfully, but the abundant fire element quickly healed their wounds.

"Fluctuations of the Earth element… There is no... law of the earth!"

It wasn't until he was injured that Idan remembered that familiar feeling.

"Besides the law of earth, there is also the law of fire!"

Idan closed his eyes and began to focus on the element of fire, trying to grasp the law. However, he soon realized that it was useless.

It seemed like the law was everywhere, but at the same time, it wasn't there.

Screech, screech.

Suddenly, a bird chirped behind Idan and Ned, which caught their attention.

Turning around, they saw a small bird, slightly larger than a sparrow. It struggled to stay in the air, flapping its wings.

The bird did not have bright plumage — its body was covered with coarse gray down, which constantly crumbled like gray ashes. At first glance, it seemed burned. Its eyes were disproportionately large and sad, golden in color, and its paws were thin, almost transparent.

Not noticing any threat, Idan activated the {Eye of Identification}.

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

**Identification:**

Name: ___

Race: The Ashen Swift

Rank: Rank 3 (Golden)

Mood: Desperate.

Random information: Cowardly, but brave and desperate.

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

"Only the Golden rank?" Idan raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"How has it not burned down yet?"

But then something unexpected happened. The bird stopped randomly flapping its wings to steady itself, and its flapping became confident and calm.

Noticing the stares of Idan and Ned, she turned around and stormed away, leaving an ashen trail behind her, as if she were disappearing into it.

Idan turned to Ned, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

It was strange to see a Gold-ranked creature alive, and it didn't look like the bird was suffering from environmental hazards.

Glancing once more in the direction where the bird had disappeared, Idan turned around and continued on his way.

Some time after they left, an ashen trail swept over them.

After a while, there was another rumble, and this time Idan, Ned, and his clones were ready for it.

The shock wave did not cause any serious damage to them, and they quickly recovered due to the energy of the fire.

But suddenly, they heard the chirping of a bird coming from behind.

Screech, screech.

Turning around, they saw in the distance the same bird that was frantically flapping its wings.

"Is it following us?" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Idan couldn't help but think about it. The bird's appearance twice could not have been an accident, especially considering that both times it happened at the time of the shock wave.

Once again, the bird quickly stopped flapping its wings chaotically.

"That's how it is."

Idan began to understand what was happening to this bird.

"It suffered damage from the shock wave, but, like us, it is recovering quickly due to the element of fire around its."

Wanting to grab and examine the bird closely, Idan used his Soul Force, but to his surprise, the bird easily evaded his grip, as if it had seen or felt him.

Bending down with fear in it eyes, the bird flew away and disappeared again among the sea of ashes.

"Hmm..." Idan turned back to Ned, who smiled back at him knowingly.

"What's wrong with this bird?"

With that, Idan and Ned continued on their way.

But what really surprised them was the lack of animals in this part of the Anomaly.

Initially, Idan assumed that the Central Layer would simply be teeming with Platinum-ranked beasts.

"Perhaps all the beasts have gathered at the places where the Seeds of Law appear."

That was the only conclusion he came to.

The third time, when there was a crash and a shock wave passed, Idan and Ned did not hear or see the bird.

Idan was even slightly upset. He was curious about this amazing creature that dared to enter the Central Layer, being only a Gold-ranked creature.

"What a pity..." thought Idan.

He and Ned continued on their way.

And soon they were followed by another ashen trail.

***

In the Kingdom, thanks to Prina, it was possible to collect a lot of information about Anomalies.

"The laws? In the Central Anomaly Layer?"

Arabel, who had not yet personally encountered the laws and had no idea what they were like.

"This is already amazing. Your world has just entered the middle stage of development, and there are already areas with laws, even the weakest ones."

Sierra was even more interested in the uniqueness of the Earth, and she was eager to reveal all its secrets.

"The most important thing is that the law seems to react with hostility towards creatures from other worlds and greatly suppresses their power."

This news pleased Arabel the most.

"Yes, that's right. Even the Creatures of Fire faced the strong suppression of the law of fire and eventually decided to ambush Idan, believing that it would be easier than trying to find a way to remove the restrictions and enter the Central Layer."

"But why doesn't it completely suppress and forbid creatures from other worlds to enter there?" asked Arabel.

"Who knows," Sierra shrugged.

As it turned out, the Platinum rank was the limit for the Central Layers of Anomalies.

If one tried to remove the restrictions, the pressure of the law increased proportionally, suppressing the force even more.

This was one of the main reasons why the Creatures of Darkness and Fire decided to ambush Idan and the Kingdom's expedition group in the middle layer of the Fire Anomaly.

"At least this gives us some advantage, because the World Will, in a sense, does not perceive Lucinda, Esma and Lina as strangers and considers them part of this place, and the suppression has almost no effect on them."