Chapter 251: The Legend of Azalea Nag

Lily’s expression dimmed, the pride in her voice slowly giving way to something heavier.

“But… no path stays clear forever,” she said. “Even Azalea’s didn’t.”

I leaned forward slightly.

“She reached Level 283. That number haunted her. No matter how many Abominations she tore apart, no matter how many Phantoms she destroyed… she couldn’t push past it. Her progress bar stopped moving. Completely.”

Lily looked down at the floor as if watching the weight of time press into the wooden floor.

“At first, she thought it was just a temporary block. That she’d break through it if she kept going harder. She doubled her training. Took riskier fights. She pushed herself beyond exhaustion again and again.”

“But nothing worked?”

Lily shook her head. “Nothing. Her class, this incredible, powerful class she’d once been so proud of—had become her cage. But there was a requirement, one that had to be met for her to advance to the next rank. And it was something she simply couldn’t fulfill.

I frowned.

“She tried everything,” Lily replied.

“She sought relics, rituals, forbidden techniques. But by then, years had passed. She wasn’t young anymore. Her body, her Essence, even her will… they all began to crack.

You have to understand—Azalea didn’t know how to slow down. She only knew how to move forward. That’s what made her great… and what made her blind.”

Lily paused, then turned her head and looked me in the eyes.

“And the longer she stayed stuck, the more desperate she became. That desperation was the beginning of the end. Not just for her… but for this realm too.”

Lily’s voice lowered as she went on.

“After years of trying everything she could, Azalea closed off the realm completely. She cut off all visitors and locked the gates. She didn’t want anyone else coming in. She needed time and space for her experiments.”

I nodded, sensing how serious this was.

“She was alone in the whole realm after that. No friends, no students, nothing but herself and her work.”

Lily’s eyes shifted as if remembering the emptiness. “She started capturing phantoms and abominations, filling the whole realm with them. Not to fight, but to study and experiment on. She used them to learn how to push herself further, to break through that level wall she couldn’t cross.”

I could feel the weight of that silence—the realm turning into a cage.

“Years passed like this. She tried every possible method. But then she prepared for one last experiment—her final hope.”

I waited.

“She decided to fuse a part of a phantom with herself. A part she thought could give her the power to cross the rank limit.”

I swallowed hard.

And the only thought that crossed my mind was… Azalea was insane.

Who in their right mind would even touch a Phantom, let alone try to fuse with one?

Up until now, I’d assumed it was the Holts or maybe the Contractors behind the abominations and all these messed-up experiments. But this? This went beyond anything I had imagined.

Lily kept talking, her tone calm, almost distant.

“But she wasn’t crazy. Azalea planned everything down to the tiniest detail. She didn’t just rush in. She ran hundreds of simulations, fine-tuned her research, and brought the success rate of the fusion from ten percent… to sixty-five.”

Sixty-five. That was terrifyingly high for something that should never have been tried in the first place.

“She even went out of her way to capture a unique Phantom—one whose skills matched her class. It took her years and a lot of trouble, but she found it. She believed that was the key.”

Lily stopped talking after that.

For a full minute, the hall was silent. The kind of silence that presses down on your shoulders.

Then, she continued in a quiet voice.

“But her search didn’t go unnoticed. There were people who began to suspect what she was doing. And on the very day she started her final experiment, those people broke into the realm.”

My eyes widened as she said it.

“They didn’t strike right away. They waited patiently, like hunters. And when Azalea was at her weakest—midway through the fusion—they attacked.”

I could barely imagine what that must’ve felt like.

“She barely survived. The fusion failed. Something went wrong during the process. The Phantom’s power didn’t mix properly with her own.”

A weight settled on my chest. It wasn’t fair. She tried everything.

“Furious, she fought back. Her floating castle—this place—was destroyed in that battle. She was hurt, outnumbered, but too angry to fall quietly. So, she released the half-completed fusion. Whatever part of the Phantom she had inside… she unleashed it.”

I held my breath.

“There were nine attackers. She killed seven of them. Only two escaped, badly injured. But they managed to steal her research. Not all of it… just enough.”

Lily’s eyes slowly shifted and locked onto Ana’s.

“They used her stolen research to create a method that could give a second transformation to those who were never supposed to have one.”

I froze.

Even Steve mumbled, “What?”

Ana’s hand flew to her mouth in shock.

Lily didn’t flinch. She just went on, like this was something we needed to hear—whether we liked it or not.

“The nine attackers were all Ferans. They’re the ones who took Azalea’s stolen work and turned it into the method that’s now famous across the galaxy.”

I blinked, stunned.

The reason I came to this cursed realm… was to find the Ferans. To ask them for a transformation. And now I find out the method they offer—the same one I was chasing—was born here… stolen from a woman they tried to kill.

Lily finally looked away from Ana and continued, her voice steady.

“When the battle ended and the dust settled, Azalea realized her time was running out. The Phantom part inside her… it wasn’t stable. It was starting to consume her from within.”

She paused for a moment, then went on.

“So she made a choice. A desperate one.”

“She split her soul into four fragments and created four locks to keep herself sealed within this realm. It was her last hope—that someday, somehow, she might learn to control the Phantom inside her.”

Lily’s gaze drifted slightly as she said the next part.

“And to guard those locks, she created us: Lily, Dahlia, Iris, and Rose.”

Silence followed Lily’s words, thick and heavy.

I stared at her, struggling to process what she had just said.

“You… you’re one of the guards?” I asked, my voice low, uncertain.

Lily nodded gently. “Yes. A very small piece of Azalea’s soul resides in each of us. Our duty is to ensure no one interferes with her ongoing struggle against the Phantom.”

I looked at Ana and Steve.

Ana’s lips were slightly parted, her eyes wide in disbelief. “So you’re not just a puppet…you’re actually… part of her?”

Steve blinked rapidly, rubbing the back of his neck like he’d just been hit by something heavy.

“Wait—hold on. Azalea made four guards to lock herself up… and you’re one of them. Does that mean Dahlia is another?”

Lily confirmed with a soft hum. “Yes. Dahlia guards one of the locks.”

But something else kept nagging at the back of my mind, so I asked the question that wouldn’t leave me alone.

“If Azalea managed to lock away the Phantom parts… then why is there Deathmist on this floating island? And in the forest below?”

Lily’s head lowered slightly, her expression shadowed with sorrow.

“Because the two fragments of her soul that were guarded by Iris and Rose… lost their battles. The Phantom consumed them both—and then consumed Iris and Rose as well. And with that, it grew far stronger.

Dahlia went down below to stop the Deathmist and I stayed here confining a part of it on the island.”

15 privilege chapter mass release on 1st June.

Creation is hard, cheer me up!