[A Week Later...]

Jace opened his eyes and the world around him was an endless expanse of scorching desert.

The sun’s brutal heat cascaded down onto his exposed skin like molten magma being poured directly onto him in wave after wave of suffocating warmth that would have killed a normal person within hours.

He gripped the Holy Blade Caliburn tightly in his right hand, feeling its divine weight and the faint pulse of sacred energy running through the legendary weapon. Usually, environmental extremes like this didn’t have any effect on him at all.

Why?

Because people blessed by the gods possessed abilities referred to as Divine Authorities which were supernatural powers granted upon them directly by divine beings themselves and as for Jace specifically, he had been blessed with the Divine Authority of Hero.

The Hero authority was supposed to grant one complete invulnerability and invincibility in battle, along with the ability to wield all kinds of other Divine Authorities simultaneously and even request and receive new Divine Authorities directly from the world itself when needed.

However, for some frustrating reason that nobody had been able to explain to him, Jace hadn’t received the full power of the Hero authority all at once.

His Divine Authority of Hero had been fragmented... split apart into pieces that he’d have to unlock gradually as he grew stronger and ranked up his class.

So he wasn’t able to request Divine Authorities from the world yet, and he couldn’t wield the truly overpowered aspects of his Hero authority that made the previous Hero literally unkillable.

But at least he had managed to unlock the 『 Divine Authority of Status』and other ones.

Jace focused his will, and a translucent blue screen materialized in the air before his eyes, displaying information that only he could see:

『 Name: Jace 』

『 Age: 18 』

『 Race: Human / ??? / Dragon / Elf / Dwarf 』

『 Class: Hero (Rank 2) 』

『 Titles: First Star of the Empire, The World’s Favorite, Blessed By The Heavens, Beloved By The Goddess, Second Hero (Click to see more titles) 』

『 MAGIC AFFINITIES 』

『 Holy: SSS 』

『 Fire: S 』

『 Water: S 』

『 Lightning: S 』

『 Earth: S 』

『 Current Divine Authorities: 』

『 • Divine Authority of Hero (Fragmented - Rank 2/10) 』

『 • Divine Authority of Status 』

『 • Divine Authority of Great Luck 』

『 • Divine Authority of Iron Stomach 』

『 • Divine Authority of Poison Immunity 』

『 • Divine Authority of Taste Discernment 』

『 • Divine Authority of Minor Regeneration 』

『 • Divine Authority of Enhanced Stamina 』

『 • Divine Authority of Revelation 』

『 • Divine Authority of Perfect Balance 』

『 • Divine Authority of Minor Strength 』

Jace dismissed the status screen with a thought and clenched his fist around Caliburn’s handle.

’And despite having all of this power...’ he thought bitterly, gritting his teeth as unwanted memories flooded back. ’I still lost to him.’

The humiliation of that day in the field still burned in his mind like a fresh wound.

Ren had played him like a fiddle... no, worse than that. Ren had toyed with him like a cat playing with a mouse it had already caught, making Jace look like an absolute fool in front of millions of viewers.

Jace had even gone to the Crowhurst mansion several times during the past week, fully intending to challenge Ren to a proper rematch and restore his damaged reputation but it seemed that Ren had simply left the capital entirely, disappearing to god-knows-where without a trace.

So Jace had done the only thing he could do: train.

He’d pushed himself harder than ever before, completely abandoning his reliance on magic and holy power. Instead, he’d focused purely on physical conditioning and swordsmanship, determined to become strong enough that no amount of trickery or psychological warfare could defeat him.

And he’d done all of this training right here in the Kingdom’s Transparent World... a special dimensional space where time flowed much slower than in the real world, allowing for extended training sessions.

The Transparent World was also home to countless powerful monsters, all of them tainted with demonic energy and the former Hero... the First Hero who’d saved the world during the great war had trained extensively in this very place during his journey.

Jace was determined to follow in those legendary footsteps.

’But I feel like my training is barely reaping any benefits...’ Jace thought with growing frustration.

When he’d trained before... back before his humiliating defeat, he could physically feel his power increasing with each session. His strength would grow noticeably, his speed would improve measurably and his techniques would sharpen visibly.

But now?

Now it felt like he was running on a treadmill. He could train for hours and hours, push himself to complete exhaustion, and yet the gains felt minimal like he was pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom.

It took significantly more effort than it used to just to maintain his current level, let alone improve.

ROARRRR!

A deafening roar echoed across the desert wasteland, snapping Jace out of his frustrated thoughts.

In the distance, a massive horde of monsters had appeared and was now charging directly toward him... dozens of them, maybe even a hundred, creating a cloud of dust that rose high into the air.

Jace smirked and stood up from where he’d been sitting on the corpse of an oversized T-Rex that he’d wrestled into submission with his bare hands just an hour ago.

’Nice...’

The approaching horde was led by an even bigger tyrannosaurus... it was easily three times the size of the one he’d killed while being surrounded by smaller dinosaur-like creatures that served as its pack.

This was perfect...

Jace gripped Caliburn tightly and ran forward.

BOOM!

A shockwave exploded outward from his first step, sending the T-Rex corpse he’d been sitting on flying backward like it had been hit by an artillery shell.

Jace charged across the desert sand at superhuman speed with his feet barely touching the ground as he built momentum and a notification appeared in his peripheral vision as he ran.

『 To awaken the Holy Sword Caliburn to the First Stage, you must purify the tainted so you must kill those corrupted by demonic energy 』

『 Kills: 300 / 1000 』

This was exactly why the Transparent World was such a perfect training ground.

Every single creature that existed in this dimensional space was tainted with demonic corruption. That meant that as long as Jace killed them here, each death would count toward awakening Caliburn’s First stage and once he reached 1,000 kills and fully awakened the Holy Sword, he’d gain access to techniques and abilities that would put him on a completely different level than he was now.

Jace tore forward with his body leaving a trail of displaced air as he accelerated to his maximum speed.

He held Caliburn at his side, letting the blade’s innate holiness shine through as the sword began to glow with brilliant white light, responding to his will and determination.

The distance between him and the monster horde closed rapidly.

Fifty meters...Thirty meters...Ten meters...

Just as Jace and the massive lead T-Rex were about to collide head-on in a catastrophic impact—

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Reality itself suddenly shattered around him like broken glass. The desert, the monsters, the heat, the sky... everything fragmented into thousands of glowing shards that dissolved into nothingness.

Jace let out a heavy sigh as he found himself back in the real world, standing in the lowest floor of the Royal Kingdom’s castle.

The chamber around him was filled with complex magical machinery built into the walls, all of it releasing steady streams of steam and glowing with runic patterns that powered the dimensional gate to the Transparent World.

"This is the only real problem with the Transparent World..." Jace muttered to himself, carefully placing Caliburn back into his storage ring.

The Transparent World was absolutely a real place which was an actual dimensional space that physically existed. However, projecting one’s consciousness and body into that space required an enormous amount of mana to maintain the connection.

Even with the Kingdom’s considerable magical reserves, he could only stay in the Transparent World for limited periods before being forcibly ejected when the mana ran too low.

Additionally, one needed to have at least a Rank 2 class just to access the Transparent World in the first place, which was why he’d been unable to train there when he was still Rank 1.

’If I could stay in there indefinitely,’ Jace thought as he approached the heavy steel door, ’I would have awakened Caliburn already and reached 1,000 kills within a few days.’

He reached for the door handle, then paused. Before opening it, Jace reached into his pocket and pulled out his personal Mirror.

With a flick of his finger, the Mirror activated, and a blue holographic screen formed in the air above the reflective surface.

Jace’s expression fell slightly as he checked the tab.

He hadn’t received any calls from Lumi, nor any text messages from her, since... since that incident.

’How am I going to make Lumi forgive me?’ Jace thought with genuine distress.

He scrolled through his message inbox to see if anyone else had tried to contact him during his training session.

As the Hero, Jace had willingly given his Mirror contact information to a lot of people... probably too many people, if he was being honest. While only a select few had permission to actually call him directly, pretty much anyone could send him text messages.

His inbox was constantly flooded with requests for help, expressions of admiration, marriage proposals from noble ladies he’d never met, and occasionally genuine emergency reports.

Just as Jace was about to tap on a message that his mother had sent him earlier, something else caught his eye.

A message near the top of his inbox with an unusual label:

[Topic: ...]

[Sender: Unknown]

Jace’s brow furrowed in confusion... That was strange.

According to everything he knew about how Mirrors worked, one person could only contact another person’s Mirror if their devices had physically touched at least once. When that happened, the Mirror would automatically register the other person’s preset name and contact information.

So why was this message coming from an "Unknown" sender? Maybe it was some kind of system glitch? Or perhaps a new security feature he hadn’t heard about?

Curiosity pricked in his chest and Jace tapped on the mysterious message.

There was a voice recording attached which was a voice note that had been sent yesterday afternoon according to the timestamp.

Jace immediately pressed play on the voice note.

CRASH! BOOM! CRASH!

The sounds of chaos erupted from the Mirror’s speakers, filling the training chamber with noise from heavy impacts, buildings collapsing and screams of terror too.

Underneath all of that, a woman’s voice that was obviously terrified and crying spoke.

"H-Hero! It’s bad, the demons—"

ROOOAR1

A massive inhuman growl cut through the recording, so loud and deep that it made the Mirror’s speakers crackle.

"The demons have arrived at our town!" the woman’s voice continued, now openly sobbing. "Everyone’s dying! The guards can’t stop them! There’s too many!"

CRASH! BOOM!

More sounds of destruction.

"It’s Kakune Town, my Hero!" the woman screamed desperately. "Please, you have to come save us! The Demon King is her—"

The voice cut off abruptly with a sickening crunch, followed by the distinct sound of the Mirror device hitting the ground then there was a loud, piercing screech before the voice note ended completely.

Silence filled the training chamber and Jace’s eyes had darkened during the recording with his expression becoming deadly serious.

He looked at the timestamp again: the message had been sent yesterday... Yesterday... That meant the attack had already been happening for over 24 hours...

"The demons..." Jace whispered, his hand trembling slightly as he gripped the Mirror. "They’re attacking... Kakune Town in the Eleites Empire?"

Kakune Town was in a completely different nation... the Eleites Empire, which bordered the demon territories to the north.

That was thousands of miles away from where Jace currently was. Jace burst into motion, yanking open the steel door with enough force that it slammed against the wall.

Standing just outside the door was a maid who’d been waiting for him, holding out a clean towel in her hands.

"My Hero, would you like a—"

Jace rushed past her without even registering her presence, moving so fast that he was nothing but a blur of wind.

WHOOSH!

The wake of displaced air from his passage was so strong that it sent the maid’s uniform and hair whipping wildly.

Further up the winding staircase, another maid was carefully descending while carrying a tray loaded with different foods... a welcome-back meal she’d prepared for the Hero after his training session.

WHOOSH!

The sudden burst of wind from Jace’s superhuman sprint caught her completely off-guard. Her foot slipped on the step, and she began to fall backward with a startled cry with the tray of food flying from her hands.

Before she could hit the stairs—

A blur caught her around the waist with one arm while simultaneously grabbing the falling tray with the other hand, preventing both the maid and the food from crashing.

"You should be more careful on the stairs..." Jace said quickly, his voice kind despite his obvious hurry.

He gently set her back on her feet and handed her the tray, then immediately resumed his sprint up the stairs before she could even thank him.

WHOOSH!

The maid stood there in shock with her uniform still blowing in the lingering wind as her cheeks flushed bright red.

"H-Handsome..." she whispered to herself, clutching the tray to her chest. Jace tore out of the royal castle entirely, bursting through the main entrance and down the cobblestone roads of the capital city.

He ran at his maximum speed, leaving nothing but displaced air and startled citizens in his wake as he became a streak of motion heading for the city gates.

’But if I continue like this,’ Jace thought as he ran, ’how long will it take me to reach another Empire entirely? Kakune Town is at least three thousand miles from here!’

At his current maximum running speed, even with his enhanced stamina and superhuman endurance, it would take him days to reach the Eleites Empire...Days and the attack had already been going on for over a full day...

How many people had already died? How many were still desperately fighting for their lives, waiting for a Hero who was thousands of miles away?

Jace’s jaw clenched with frustration.

’My Goddess...’ Jace prayed internally, reaching out to the divine being who had blessed him. ’May I ask for a Divine Authority fitting of this situation? People are dying. I need to reach them faster.’

The Hero was beloved by the world itself, which meant that when he reached higher ranks, he’d supposedly be able to request Divine Authorities directly from the world without needing divine intervention.

But for now, at Rank 2, he could only ask for Temporary Divine Authorities from the Goddess who had chosen him.

A notification appeared in his vision.

『 The Goddess laughs at your adorable desperation 』

Jace’s eye twitched slightly at the ’adorable’ comment, but he kept running.

『 You have been granted: Temporary Divine Authority - Greater Speed 』

『 Duration: 10 minutes 』

『 You are now free to move at speeds approaching that of Herma, the Lesser God of Speed, without causing environmental disasters in your wake 』

’Thank you, Goddess,’ Jace thought with genuine gratitude.

He took a single step forward...

BOOM!

Jace became a blur... Not the kind of blur he’d been moving at before rather something faster than the human eye could track and faster than sound itself.

The world around him seemed to slow down as his perception accelerated to match his new speed. Buildings became streaks of color... People became frozen statues and the very air parted before him like water...

’Don’t worry,’ Jace thought as he rocketed toward the northern border at impossible velocity. ’I’m on my way. As long as you can stay alive just a little longer, I will come rescue you. I swear it on my title as Hero!’

The capital city disappeared behind him in seconds as he crossed the entire kingdom in minutes.

Jace ran across the landscape like a living missile, his body creating a continuous sonic boom that rolled across the countryside like distant thunder.

’Just hold on,’ Jace prayed silently as he pushed his new Divine Authority to its absolute limit. ’I’m coming!’

...

Meanwhile, in a completely different location thousands of miles to the west, Mandy felt several different emotions bubbling up in his chest simultaneously.

He felt misused...

He felt maltreated...

He felt violated in ways he couldn’t even properly say...

He felt like his entire manhood... his very identity as a man was being made fun of constantly as some kind of cruel cosmic joke.

And all of these feelings were completely justified, because Mandy was currently being forced to cosplay as a woman. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Though "cosplay" really wasn’t the right word at all for what had been done to him. Rather, he had quite literally become a woman... or at least a very convincing approximation of one.

A voice modulation rune had been placed on his throat, magically transforming his natural masculine voice into something feminine and breathy.

Fake breasts that bounced disturbingly realistically had been attached to his chest with some kind of adhesive magic that he didn’t want to think too hard about. Professional-quality makeup covered his face, completely transforming his features and worst of all, a long, flowing wig of auburn hair sat on his head, completing the disguise.

The outfit he’d been forced into was a form-fitting dress that showed far more skin than Mandy had ever shown in his entire life.

He looked and he genuinely hated to admit this, actually quite attractive as a woman.