Azelin and the like were not what I had to face right now.
No matter how the heavens split in two, the first priority was my growth.
Whether I boiled or became rice, I had to become stronger first.
I had to secure my own martial power before I could build my people and make them grow strong.
"First, making the Solar Ring comes first."
Click
After returning to my room, I locked the door first.
In case someone came in and broke my concentration.
I took the Flame Thistle from my pocket. It was a root imbued with the power of a fire spirit.
I had ordered a servant to obtain it in advance.
It was far from a refined elixir or a precious spirit medicine.
It had not even been processed; it was just a rough, tough wild herb.
That did not matter.
Weaving a Solar Ring was not about the efficacy of the medicinal ingredient.
It required the weaver's unbroken stubbornness and the determination to ignite a spark.
'Even a mental fortitude that does not waver before a Mental Demon.'
Solar grants trials to strengthen body and mind.
If you cannot endure, you either cook to death in the heat rising inside your body, or if you stoke the fire beyond your capacity, you are wrapped in Karma Fire and burn to death.
The trials are not limited to that kind of pain.
It also gives you hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, and a Mental Demon that manipulates your memories.
Only by overcoming all of that can you weave a single Solar Ring.
"Hoo-"
The saying that starting is half the battle is right.
Weaving a ring from a pile of firewood with no spark was something I would not attempt even with two lives.
Moreover, Luna was currently settled in my Core.
The sun and the moon cannot coexist. They push each other away.
That means I also had to withstand the conflicting repulsion.
"Rather, good."
They say pain that does not kill me makes me stronger.
If I die? That would be a shame in its own way.
I immediately sat cross-legged on the spot and closed my eyes.
Hoo....
I calmed my breathing. I listened not to outside sounds but to my heartbeat.
Crunch!
Keeping my composure, I put the root in my mouth, chewed, and swallowed. The bitter juice went down my esophagus.
How many minutes passed after that?
Fwoosh!
"Guhk-!"
Without warning, explosive heat began to seethe. What flowed through my veins felt not like blood but like boiling lava.
The moisture in my body evaporated, and my organs seemed to scorch and shrivel.
My skin flushed red, and every time I exhaled, an acrid hot wind burst out.
The Meridians through which qi and blood flowed began to convulse in response.
'It starts now.'
The process of weaving the ring was no different from throwing myself into the center of a furnace.
The flames that had heated my Dantian at some point scattered into the Meridians spread throughout my body.
I must not miss a single spark. I also must not let it be used carelessly.
Handling heat concentrated in one place is easy.
On the other hand, handling heat spread to every corner of the body and guiding its direction was on a different level of difficulty.
If even a spark escaped the Meridians and jumped out, my organs would melt.
What I had to do was control the flames so they circulated only along the Meridians. In the end, I had to drive them into the Core.
'Focus. If I miss even one, I die for nothing.'
Thump- thump-
My heart heaved violently.
The sparks scattered in hundreds, thousands of strands rampaged and tried to leave the Meridians.
I felt the illusion that my skin was swelling as if to tear and my bones were melting.
'Good. It is going well.'
This was a favorable sign that the impurities in my body were burning away. It was a bliss I had not felt in a long time.
Even through the pain twisting my insides, I calmly operated Solar. I forcibly twisted the straying flames and pushed them into the set path.
Fsssh-!
The fire qi circulating through the Meridians began to flow backward toward the Mana Circuit with fierce force.
The Mana Circuit I had built by taking countless spirit medicines since childhood. Luna's energy met the heat head-on. The more it did, the more I regulated my breathing and spurred the flames on.
Fwoosh-!
In an instant, flames surged from the Core.
Then they swallowed Luna and reduced her to ashes.
I swallowed the vague worry that my heart might melt away like this.
Psshh....
The heat cooled from the Meridians and Core inside my body.
When I opened my mouth, savory smoke rose between my teeth.
Every sensation in my body sharpened, and explosive vitality struck my whole body. My boiling body cooled rapidly.
I carefully placed my hand over my chest.
The flames had settled in my Heart Core and were circling like a ring.
It was not over yet.
Suddenly, an unbearable drowsiness poured over me.
Was it the recoil of forcibly burning away the impurities of my body? My eyelids grew heavy like lead, and my vision went dark.
Blink
When I opened my eyes again, what entered my sight was the ceiling of my room.
My upper body was wrapped in a soft blanket.
"Oh, Brother? You're awake?"
When I turned my head, the girl with platinum blonde hair in twin braids, Celine, was standing there.
Celine approached the bedside timidly like a frightened small animal.
Her fidgeting hands made her nervousness obvious.
"I suddenly heard a thump from inside the room.... When I forced the door open, you were collapsed on the floor. You have no idea how startled I was."
A tearful voice, worried eyes, and the warm body heat she cautiously extended.
Everything seemed like a perfectly crafted reality.
I silently raised my upper body.
"Celine."
"Yes, Brother. Are you uncomfortable anywhere...."
Before she could even finish speaking.
"-Gak!"
I wrapped both hands around Celine's neck. I pushed her onto the bed and pressed her down with my weight.
Celine's eyes widened in shock. Her thin limbs struggled desperately.
"Kuhk! Kuh... Bro... ther... why... why...?"
Her slender hands grabbed my sleeve and trembled. Blood vessels burst in her pupils, and thick saliva dripped from the corner of her mouth.
Even while seeing that, I did not allow even a handful of agitation.
Celine is the frailest existence I want to protect. The Mental Demon takes advantage of that feeling.
"-tin."
"-stin."
I had no mercy to show the fake digging into the gaps in my mind.
I put strength into my grip and twisted its neck hard.
"Kuhk! Bro... ther... please save me......"
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The thing imitating Celine's form urgently struck my hand.
Even the urge to distinguish whether this was truly a Mental Demon or reality was made to fall into the hallucination.
Only certainty.
I applied pressure as if to snap its neck.
"-Astin."
"......?"
My eyes flashed.
I blankly spaced out for a moment. Then I slowly looked around.
Tap!
I flinched at the sudden touch covering my shoulder.
When I turned my head reflexively, I saw a pouting expression.
"Astin? Are you listening to me?"
"......What?"
"This guy. You're looking away when I'm saying something important."
Many things with faded colors entered my vision.
Piles of building debris everywhere. Ash, bloodstains, and corpses whose forms could not be recognized.
"Ah, right."
I was in the final battle with the Black Ones, right. I had just cut off a Black Death's neck. We were about to die.
Right now, I was sitting side by side with Lucia, talking.
"Why are you sweating so much? What, are you scared after seeing those things? Did you see your life flash before your eyes because you think this is the end?"
"You could say that."
I let out a deep sigh and leaned back. I craned my neck and looked up at the desolate sky.
"...It's all over now."
My whole body was covered in wounds, and my internal circuits were heated to their limit from overload.
The Black Ones kept coming endlessly, while we could barely stand.
Acrid smoke brushed past my eyes.
Lucia was looking at me with the cigarette still removed from her mouth.
"Astin, have you ever heard of Deus Harben's legacy?"
I raised my eyes at the sudden question.
Deus. Deus Harben....
I thought it was a strangely familiar name, and it belonged to the 7th-rank great mage known only in legend.
"Why bring that up when we're all about to die?"
"The research Harben clung to until just before he died. You know he tried to complete Time Magic? And that it ended unfinished, leaving only the theory."
"I roughly know. So why do you keep bringing it up?"
"I think I completed it."
"What?"
As soon as I heard that, I bolted upright.
"Maybe, it might be possible to turn time back to the past."
I stared at her, dazed.
If she was the Lucia I knew, those words were close to the truth.
She was the protagonist who had received every miracle and blessing in the world in one body.
With Lucia's overwhelming talent, she might have completed a miracle even the great mage had failed at.
"This is it."
Lucia took something palm-sized from her bosom. It was an old silver Pocket Watch.
I could feel vast magic power condensed inside it.
"Ha, haha."
Laughter came out on its own.
It felt as if a tiny spark that had been overturned in muddy water was rising again.
"But...."
Grip
Lucia clenched the Pocket Watch. Blood smeared out.
"Even if I turn time back to the past, I do not know if I can do it well. No, honestly, I do not have the confidence to protect the world."
"What kind of weak talk is that?"
"I will waver just the same. Even if I go straight, I do not think I can save the world. What can I do with this kind of mindset? I guess I cannot become as strong a person as you."
Lucia shook her head bitterly.
"I want to die here. With you."
She was exhausted, just like me.
"I do not intend to pass this heavy burden to you. If you go back, you will resent me. You will face the same result as now. I do not want you to go through a living hell twice. I also do not know if you can do well."
I was at a loss for words.
Even after a moment's thought, her words were right.
We had felt through our skin for years what the Black Ones were.
Even if we went back to the past, I had no confidence in saving the world from them. If there was hope, it was at best about ten percent.
I gave up and lowered my sword.
Destruction was already certain, so there was no reason to go back.
Lucia came to my side and pressed her shoulder against mine.
I thought it was fortunate that she was here, at least.
Even at the moment of death, could I not feel a person's warmth?
She was decent-looking too, so it could be called a luxury in its own way.
Rumble-!
The ground shook. Beyond the blood-red horizon, the Black Ones were swarming.
"Astin."
Lucia called me lowly.
When I turned my head, Lucia's face was right in front of me.
She brought her face closer and closer.
The distance was close enough for eyelashes to touch. Her breath mixed with the smell of blood touched my cheek.
As if bewitched, I closed my eyes and offered my lips.
"...No."
In an instant, I jerked my head back. At the same time, I snatched the Pocket Watch from Lucia's hand.
The heavy, cold sensation felt in my grip.
Lucia's eyes, which held me, widened roundly.
"I have to go back."
"Why?"
"Why ask? You already know, do you not?"
We looked at each other without a word.
The Black Ones that had been surging in like a tide stopped as if it were a lie.
The drifting ash did not fall and stopped in midair.
Even the smoke rising from the end of the cigarette no longer swayed.
The whole world except for the two of us was stopped.
Lucia's lips, also stopped, twitched.
A warm smile spread across her face.
"That is the correct answer, Astin."
"......!"
I opened my eyes, gasping roughly.
The familiar scenery of my room was in view.
My whole body was soaked in sweat, and my throat was parched, crying out for water.
While I was spacing out, my brows furrowed suddenly.
Because the past memories were injected into my brain belatedly like a panorama.
"...Ha."
A dry laugh burst out.
Right, that was what happened.
I brought the hand that had been touching the floor to my Heart Core.
Only then did I let out a sigh of relief.
I succeeded. I wove one Solar Ring.
The ring that had been spinning fiercely until just now had calmed a little.
Knock knock.
It was then that I heard a knock.
I flinched for no reason and stared at the door.
I was worried that there might be aftereffects of the Mental Demon.
-Brother. Are you inside?
"Celine?"
-Yes. So you were there. It's me.
Come to think of it, I remembered that the Mental Demon had almost no aftereffects.
I got up with difficulty, grabbed the door handle, and opened it.
I had only moved a few steps, but both legs were shaking.
If there were aftereffects, it was my body and mind.
Creak
Celine appeared between the open door.
She trembled slightly and looked up at me hesitantly.
"Um, it's nothing much, but I came because I have something to give you, Brother."
"To me?"
"Yes. Actually, I have been wanting to give it to you for a while, but I kept hesitating.... But in three hours, Brother's birthday will pass, right? I thought I should at least give you a present now-"
Bang!
After closing the door, my mind felt much more at ease.
-Oh, Brother!?
"The Mental Demon has not fully cleared."
It was like that with Celine, and with Lucia too.
When I wove the ring, I had the feeling that I wanted Celine to nurse me.
Sometimes I also wanted to throw off this heavy burden and be at ease.
There was no way I did not want Celine to give me a birthday present like now.
-It’s a present I’ve been trying to track down for you since last year!
I locked the door and shut my ears tightly.
I must not leave this room for the rest of today.