After taking care of his own affairs and temporarily resolving the issue of the Heroic Spirits in Throne of Heroes.
Takatsuki's life entered a deceleration mode.
Although past experiences had given Takatsuki a relatively strong career ambition, that was all it was.
Now that he had a stable income and two wives, he already wanted to slack off.
Originally planning to rescue Wendy, Takatsuki told Theresa about it, and Theresa immediately agreed.
It went much smoother than he expected; he originally thought he would be questioned by Theresa for a long time.
Perhaps, without realizing it, Theresa's trust in Takatsuki had already surpassed that in her own grandfather.
And the rescue operation, which Takatsuki originally thought would be very troublesome, turned out to be unexpectedly easy.
When the time comes, all forces work together?
Perhaps this phrase isn't entirely appropriate, but at least, with the captain of the Immortal Blades being one of their own, rescuing Wendy was a completely easy task.
Before Wendy even realized what was happening, a passage opened beside her. It was a beacon Takatsuki had Durandal find a way to send in.
Wendy was abducted without any reaction from Schicksal.
At this time, Wendy was already paralyzed in her lower limbs due to the experiments. The Gem of Desire was stored within her body, and she had to cooperate with experiments every day, but those experiments only increased her pain. Wendy, who was in despair, was suddenly brought back to St. Freya Academy without any preparation.
Originally, Himeko refused to remove the Gem of Desire because St. Freya Academy did not have sufficient capabilities to store and properly place the gem. However, in a blink of an eye, she saw Takatsuki forcibly extracting the Gem of Desire from Wendy's body and stuffing it into the Gate of Babylon.
And Seele quickly treated Wendy on the side, thus solving this big problem directly.
Then the task of comforting Wendy was immediately snatched away by the girls, preventing Takatsuki from interfering further.
Holding a Herrscher Core is something only Takatsuki can do in the entire world, besides the Herrscher themselves. With the help of the Horse Talisman, the Honkai Energy erosion was quickly and completely expelled.
Thus, St. Freya Academy gained a new student, Wendy…
However, that was someone else's business, and Takatsuki couldn't get involved at all.
As for the Gem of Desire, Takatsuki once tried to devour the energy within it, but found that, like the Stellaron, although he could completely devour the Honkai Energy inside, he couldn't destroy it.
Because the essence of a Herrscher Core is a key to opening imaginary space, even if all the Honkai Energy within it disappears, it can continuously recover, but if it's devoured all at once, it takes a bit long to recover.
Three months after slacking off, and after Bronya's birthday and Seele's birthday, Takatsuki finally set off again. After strengthening himself again, Takatsuki entered the trial space, after all, this was ultimately unavoidable.
In this trial, the system would be completely sealed, so Takatsuki stored everything in the Gate of Babylon he had taken from Gilgamesh.
When Takatsuki returned, he tore off a portion of this the Gate of Babylon and secretly gave it to Mei, but even so, his Gate of Babylon was still terrifyingly large.
After storing a large amount of supplies inside and setting up a timed comic release function on his computer to make arrangements, Takatsuki entered the trial.
When he opened his eyes again, Takatsuki was certain that he could no longer perceive the existence of the system.
It was as if it had completely left him.
This made him feel a little panicked.
Who had been with him the longest in this world?
It wasn't his parents, nor his lovers, but this system that he had designed little by little before crossing over and that had given him the power to survive after crossing over.
"Phew…"
"Thinking about this now is useless. Let's complete the trial first."
Takatsuki did not forget the mission he had seen before: the Elixir of Life.
However…
"This place certainly looks like a place where something like the Elixir of Life would exist."
Takatsuki looked at the forest. Just standing outside the forest, he could feel the overwhelming life force. He also saw many familiar and unfamiliar flowers in the forest.
Leaving aside the unfamiliar ones, the familiar flowers alone couldn't bloom in a single season.
Behind him, the constantly rising and falling waves crashed against the beach, making urging sounds, as if rushing Takatsuki to quickly enter that problematic-looking forest.
"Something's wrong. This world is really wrong."
In the eyes of ordinary people, this forest was merely too vibrant with life, but in Takatsuki's eyes, with his Observation Haki, Everything here seemed alive. The flowers, plants, and trees all gave Takatsuki feedback like human beings.
"Observation Haki… can't be relied on."
Takatsuki tried projection magic. Fortunately, the Falna was not affected.
His aura perception instantly spread out, and he didn't get any feedback, or rather, the whole map was giving feedback.
"It seems these two abilities are temporarily useless."
Using the power of the Rooster Talisman to fly into the air, Takatsuki discovered that this was an island, and on this island, there were many strange things, such as monsters resembling Buddhist and Taoist deities, and in the very center of the island was a very magnificent building.
"Although it's obvious that's the main focus of this island, I'll still explore from the periphery."
Landing back on the ground, Takatsuki still maintained his Observation Haki and stepped into this forest. Unfortunately, Minegishi Toshiki's Stigmata was not with him; otherwise, with so many plants, the ability to talk to plants would have been a great help.
"It looks like there's no danger."
In this place, like a utopia blooming with flowers everywhere, Takatsuki's first reaction was whether these flower seas posed any danger.
But as he stepped into the forest, nothing happened; it looked like ordinary plants.
No, with such vigorous vitality, it couldn't be ordinary by any means.
He slightly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his entire vision instantly changed.
Eagle Eye!
A skill acquired very early on, but one that had been benched.
"Oh~ indeed, there are quite a few traces."
With Observation Haki and aura perception being interfered with, Takatsuki noticed it as soon as he activated Eagle Eye.
There were many traces in this forest.
It looked like someone had walked through here, and not long ago either.
He turned back to look at the path he came from; it seemed this person was an outsider, just like Takatsuki.
Because their traces came from the beach.
Although they were outsiders, they knew this place better than Takatsuki, who came from another world.
"I hope they can provide me with some help."