Chapter 6

How much time had passed?

Yujin felt his mind growing hazy. He was hearing auditory hallucinations in his ears and seeing illusions before his eyes.

While trying to move mana and maintain a massive magic circle, his limbs began to spasm.

Though he was drawing mana from Tiamat’s heart, so he wasn’t experiencing mana exhaustion, both his body and mind were starting to tire beyond measure.

『Are you alright?』

“…It’s a bit tough.”

Normally he might have hidden his true feelings and kept calm, but he didn’t even have the energy for that now.

If Tiamat hadn’t kept talking to him or supporting his spirit through their soul bond, he probably would have collapsed long ago.

Still, for now, he was holding up.

Not even a third of the bones visible before him had been covered yet. Considering all the bones buried in the joint space/tomb, he still had a long way to go.

Fortunately, Yujin was one of the Awakened Ones – no ordinary person who would die after three days without water.

Plus, Tiamat occasionally forced his consciousness to separate while maintaining the magic circle, allowing him to cast other spells. This let him drink magically-created water and keep going.

That’s how he spent ages creating magic circles.

……

More time seemed to have passed.

The bones visible in the vast joint space were now densely covered with magic circles.

“Haa… haa…”

Yujin was on the verge of collapsing.

How much time had passed? Losing all sense of time, Yujin didn’t know, but Tiamat said it had been several weeks.

He hadn’t eaten in weeks. Luckily, Tiamat’s mana replenished his needed energy and water magic kept him hydrated.

Waste in his body was broken down by mana and his fading spirit forcibly revived by Tiamat. There was no choice – falling asleep while creating the magic circle would undo everything. Even worse, all the mana invested could go berserk and cause a disaster.

Weeks passed without sleep. Yujin continued creating magic circles with an unfocused gaze.

His exhausted mind begged for rest. Please stop already. Just rest. There was no real reason to push himself this hard. Closing his eyes like this could let him rest forever.

As Yujin absentmindedly created magic circles, he almost succumbed to that voice.

However…

『Yujin!』

A voice woke him from his daze.

The familiar voice of someone he’d been conversing with for weeks brought his consciousness back.

“…Haha, thank you, Lady Tiamat.”

『…Tough, huh?』

“…Yeah, it’s tough. But…”

Responding to Tiamat, Yujin’s thoughts drifted back.

He remembered losing his parents.

Back then, as a 12-year-old boy, he thought he was the unluckiest person in the world. After all, what else could he do?

To a child, parents were everything. The day Yujin lost his parents was the day everything fell apart.

But living alone in the world teaches you something.

You’re not special.

Everyone has their own pain. Some lose parents, some lose children, some lose love.

You’re not special.

People carry their own sufferings and struggles as they live on.

That’s life. It’s both the greatest blessing and responsibility of those who live.

To abandon that responsibility just for yourself is arrogance and escapism.

Then…

“Since we’ve already made the contract, what else can be done?”

He should fall, right?

Yujin chuckled bitterly with a cracked voice.

He had already made a contract and soul bond with Tiamat.

If he died, Tiamat would die too. His life was no longer his alone.

Besides, what would happen if he broke the contract? Whatever it was, it might be worse than all this hardship he was enduring now.

It’s not like he didn’t know it would be difficult. Didn’t he roughly expect this?

So, responsibilities must be borne.

Yujin continued creating magic circles. Red circuits carved into the bones buried in the ground.

『There’s not much left. Just a bit more effort.』

“Haha, of course.”

Regaining his composure, Yujin spoke. The completion of the magic circles was near.

Whoosh…!

Soon, mana flowed like red circuits into all the bones. Tiamat spoke.

『Now the final step. Carve a magic circle into your own body.』

“Hmm…”

Following her words, Yujin used Tiamat’s mana to carve circuit-like magic circles into his own body. Streams of dark red mana spread throughout his body.

Before long, what looked like a network of nerves or a circuit-based magic circle was engraved on his body.

『Next, activate the magic according to the knowledge I’ll impart to you.』

“Yes.”

Around Yujin, countless dark red mana magic circles overlapped to form a hemispherical 3D magic circle.

Beautiful galaxy-like magic circles composed of letters and circuits expanded, covering the surroundings.

Whoosh…!

A Great Magic Yujin could never have performed before. However, the inspiration gained from creating magic circles and the awakening of his spirit by Tiamat, along with the mana contained in Tiamat’s heart, made it possible.

Magic circles piled up around Yujin’s feet and formed shapes. Then…

『Alright!』

Gurgle…!

The magic activated.

Whirrrr…!

The enormous magic circles engraved on the bones glowed. Soon, they began to decompose into dark red mana.

Around Yujin, a mana-made blast furnace appeared, enclosing his body.

Preparations were complete.

Now it was up to him.

The decomposed bone mana began flowing into the blast furnace, starting to burn Yujin’s body with great flames.

Simultaneously, dark red bone powder reconstructed and regenerated his body.

Pain, pain, and more pain.

He felt the endless pain of his body being burned and regenerated.

Was this what it felt like to temper oneself like steel?

Yujin’s vision flickered white from the immense pain.

Yet, he smiled.

Hiding emotions was as natural to him as hiding pain.

Rather, now that his long suffering was finally ending, he felt relief and closed his eyes…

***

…A strange sensation.

A feeling of floating endlessly. In the hazy consciousness, I saw a scene.

I saw my father’s face.

I saw my mother’s face.

They were smiling at me while holding tableware and eating.

I also found myself smiling naturally and continuing to eat. As we ate,

“So, son, when are you getting up?”

“Yeah, son, it’s time to wake up.”

“…Huh?”

Suddenly, my parents’ voices reached me.

No, their voices had always been there, hadn’t they?

No, I just heard them for the first time now?

Come to think of it, this was the first time I spoke.

“Yujin, wake up.”

At that moment, a voice came from beside me.

An infinitely sweet and beautiful voice. A voice that felt familiar yet strange.

When I turned to look at the sound that seemed to melt my eardrums and brain, a woman with flowing black hair and red eyes was looking at me.

Her beauty was equal to… no, surpassed the beauty of her voice, and I momentarily lost myself staring at her before she spoke.

“Hurry up, wake up.”

“…What?”

Thud.

With those words, the woman pushed me.

Sitting on the chair, I fell backward.

And, falling.

Endlessly, endlessly falling down.

Down to the depths of the abyss.

And then my consciousness went dark.

***

“…Ah.”

And I opened my eyes.

『Yujin! Are you awake?』

“…Lady Tiamat?”

In front of me was Tiamat in her spiritual form, visible only to me.

Seeing her face, I realized that everything that just happened was a dream.

“…Ugh… What was all that…”

『You lost consciousness while your body was being reconstructed. For quite a while.』

As I mumbled while getting up, Tiamat spoke. Quite a while…

“How much time has passed?”

『About a month.』

“…Hmm, not as long as I thought.”

Considering that a long time for Tiamat would be around a hundred years.

『I said it in terms of your time, so it makes sense.』

“Haha, I didn’t expect such consideration. Still, losing consciousness for a month is quite surprising. My body and mind feel refreshingly clear despite being unconscious for a month.”

Indeed, my mind was clearer than ever. My body was filled with vitality beyond normal.

I asked.

“So, how’s the progress?”

『The reconstruction of your body was successfully completed. Try moving.』

“Hmm… Alright.”

At her words, I stood up.

Bang!

“…”

The problem was that the floor resonated strongly as if it would break just from such a light movement. No, the joint space actually resonated greatly.

“…Hmm, seems like I’ve gotten much stronger.”

『Just strength? With your current physical capabilities, you’re far beyond human comparison even without fully transforming into a dragon since you don’t have a dragon’s core yet.』

“…Hmm, controlling my strength will be difficult.”

Just carefully moving my hand caused a “bang!” sound and a sonic boom. Seeing this, Tiamat said:

『Don’t worry. Once you become a dragon, you’ll perfectly adapt to your physical abilities instantly.』

“It sounds like I’m not a dragon yet.”

『Of course. You need a dragon’s core fundamentally, and besides, your current body vessel itself will only be perfect once you obtain the heart. Your current physical abilities… at best are equivalent to a pseudo-dragon? Like wyverns or drakes.』

“Hmm…”

Those are monsters that cause natural disasters on Earth.

Moreover, the drakes and wyverns from Maze Academy are set to be extremely powerful monsters. Yet, from a dragon’s perspective, they’re described as “at best.”

『The previous process was just the first reconstruction. Once you get the heart, the second reconstruction will begin. While the first reconstruction simply incorporated my bones into your body, the second will restructure the vessel to be more efficient and correct based on the heart. That way, you’ll gain physical abilities and senses incomparable to now. That’s how the magic circle was designed.』

“Wow…”

Then…

Yujin looked down at Tiamat’s heart in his hand.

“So, what do I do?”

『Simple. Just swallow my heart.』

“…Is that all?”

『Yep.』

It was anticlimactic compared to expectations. Thinking this, I looked at her heart.

Surprisingly small for belonging to the owner of such massive bones. The heart, about the size of my fist, was brought to my mouth.

And…

“Gulp.”

I put it in my mouth…

Glug.

And swallowed it whole.

Boom!

“Urgh!”

The restructuring of my body began.

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