The Arrival

"This is not a goodbye, Alice. I'm grateful for having you in my life and for giving me joy. I'm grateful for your love and for receiving my love in return. I'm thankful for the memories, which I will cherish forever. But most of all, thank you for showing me that there will come a time when I can eventually let you go."

Alice swallowed up her memories of the past. The last sentences that etched forever in her heart as the man she cherished the most perished amid dust, scattered across the air.

That was the moment in the showdown between the ruler of the Namor and them. They fight, struggle, and free those peoples from the ruthless demon that conquered them for countless centuries.

Alice can't think of any way to stop the spread of the curse that begins to annihilate inside his body. Against any suicide method that may sacrifice herself in return to revive him from those deadly curses placed by the dictator. Of course, her mother stops her.

Distinctively clear for her decision to return to Arcadia. Alice didn't hesitate to pay with her life to exchange for the secret of reviving a former royalty of Arcadia. The man she loved was one of the nobles of Arcadia, driven away due to his revolt against the current ruling in Arcadia. Although he might have lost his status as one of the royals, she still didn't give up as long as there was a slight chance for her to make a difference.

Relay. We are one minute away from our destination. Should I form multiple protective barriers to lessen the impact?

The voice inside her head awoke her. She was still half-awake while hearing the report from Janus, the Communicator. Yes, a consciousness accompanied her during the journey to this mysterious world, Arcadia.

"Yes. Please activate a multi-layer barrier with anti-magic on top of it. Can you do a calculation as well?"

In which manner did you want me to do the calculation, Princess?

"Can you please calculate does my current power can surpass my mother's previous power in this realm? Since it has been a thousand-year…."

Relay. Although a thousand-year passed in your realm, here are just slightly a few months after Queen left the kingdom. I'm afraid I can't simply put our Queen power to a level on par with Princess right now.

“Talk about inconviences. So, the time flow in here is far slower than in Namor?"

Relay. The answer might be yes, but it also can be no. Arcadia doesn't bind to the law of time as they are in between two galaxies. Thus, one was pulling away the time, while the other was pushing it the opposite way, which made our time in Arcadia completely standstill.

"Then please make sure you put up the last barrier…No. Please make the last two layers on top as an anti-magic barrier."

Relay. Understood. We are commencing multi-layer spells, initiating a sequence of placing an anti-magic layer at the end of the process—the countdown to the impact, forty seconds.

Alice gathered all her consciousness to witness the self embrace toward the impact mentioned by Janus. If she couldn't withstand the first few barriers at the border of Arcadia upon her landing, she wouldn't be able to survive after landing herself on this planet.

Forty seconds was a quick time for us to do the countdown. We witness a multi-layer barrier being created one by one by keeps generating the spell through Alice mana. Janus has to make sure everything is safe and won't threaten her life in the landing process. Draining all of her mana wasn't a choice when she had to make sure to survive the fall.

It was quick rather than a slow impact upon entering the atmosphere of Arcadia. Passing through the atmosphere zone layer, Alice quickly fell into the barren land that had no sight of life within her radius of fall.

Shaken by the first two barriers, the anti-magic barrier created earlier quickly dispersed right into thin air after it made contact with the wall itself.

She was not only shaken by the barrier that stopped her force from entering Arcadia's territory. Her incomplete physical body form also gets injured while slowly transforming herself into her original condition.

There were seven layers of barrier in a row. Created by the former Queen, Alice's mother. Total in twenty-one layers designed by Janus, Alice still fears the possibility of not being able to break through. When several punches pierce her body each time she breaks a single barrier, she still finds it difficult to bear the pain.

She caught everyone's attention while forcefully making herself break into the sacred land. Alice could not ask more for trouble knowing no one in this world might recognize her.

It took only a few minutes away for her to crash, landing on the far side of this kingdom. As she gained her physical body, she slowly lost consciousness after enduring countless pain punched by the retaliating mana of the barrier itself.

A single individual stationed at the kingdom's border, defending the realm against any assault, has noticed Alice's presence. Who was the one that made contact with her? What action would this individual take to confront the intruder from another world?