[!] A new task has been assigned.
[!] You stand at a crossroads of fate.
[!] Every choice you make, and every consequence that follows, will be reflected in your reward.
***
…
A scream rang out.
At first, Aion thought someone was playing a prank.
The dormitory corridors were always noisy, filled with the laughter and boisterous chatter peculiar to noble children.
…but this was different.
“Fire!”
“The lower floor—! The lower floor is gone!”
“The door is blocked! Someone locked the door…!”
The voices overlapped like waves, colliding and scattering.
The sound of someone running into another person and falling.
The sound of someone swallowing their sobs.
The sound of someone calling a name until their voice became hoarse.
A thin, yet unmistakable, heat licked at Aion’s skin.
I have to get out now.
Amid the chaos, the Ultimate Points’ voices rang out.
【Water: Get out of there! This is not a situation where you can do anything!】
【Earth: Child, surviving comes first. You have to… survive somehow.】
Urgent advice poured down on Aion. Fire’s Ultimate Point said nothing.
“…”
Aion nodded grimly.
“Got it. No matter what happened… I need to get out of here first.”
The moment he turned toward the door—
KRAAAAAASH—!!
The ceiling collapsed.
No, collapsed was not enough to describe it.
It was as though the entire room had been crushed from above, as something impossibly heavy pressed down over Aion’s entire vision.
“Kh…!”
Before Aion could even scream, he was buried beneath the rubble.
White light flashed before his eyes with the impact.
His ears rang, and his breath caught in his throat.
The sensation of his body slamming into the floor.
And then—
There was nothing.
When he opened his eyes, the world was strangely quiet.
The screams that had been tearing through his ears moments ago were gone. In their place, only the distant sounds of collapse echoed slowly and heavily.
The air had grown unbearably hot.
Blink. Blink.
For a long while, Aion could only blink.
Dust and ash drifted before his eyes, settling slowly like snowflakes.
“…Ugh.”
When he moved, a sharp pain throbbed through his head.
Aion touched his forehead.
Something warm clung to his fingertips.
…Blood.
Only then did his thoughts gradually begin to clear.
The ceiling had collapsed on him. Yet he was alive. Either his body had landed in a gap between the debris by sheer luck, or—
【Fire: This… really….】
The voice Aion had hoped would say something could not continue.
【Fire: How… again….】
It was not his usual voice—neither the eccentric irritation nor the threatening bluster.
The metallic voice that always mocked him with such ease was trembling now.
Swipe—
Aion wiped his lips. Blood and ash mixed together, leaving them rough and gritty.
“Surviving comes first… Help me, old man.”
【Fire: …All right.】
A short answer.
Aion wanted to make a joke and ask whether he was hiding something again, but this was not the time.
He looked around.
This was Hazel Hall of Lumenia Dormitory.
Even for students, it housed nobles, so the ceilings were abnormally high.
Aion’s room was on the third floor.
The outer wall was completely engulfed in flames.
Jumping through the window would be little different from suicide. At best, he might have escaped with shattered legs—but even that option was gone now.
“I need to find an escape route inside.”
【Fire: …Good.】
Aion staggered out into the corridor.
Even then, he could not believe it.
The voices that had made the place a living hell only moments ago had vanished completely.
Did everyone… get out?
And leave only me behind…?
He received his answer soon enough.
KRAAAACK—!
A pillar at the end of the corridor split and buckled.
The floor caved in.
It seemed the central hall was collapsing entirely. Dust rushed toward him like a storm, and scorching air swept over him in an instant.
“Kh…!”
Aion clutched his throat.
Hot smoke threatened to enter lungs that were already struggling to breathe.
Then Fire’s Ultimate Point, silent until now, spoke.
【Fire: Aion. Lower your body.】
Aion reflexively crouched.
【Fire: And use Celestial Motion Art.】
“Cough… Celestial Motion Art…?”
【Fire: Push the hot air and smoke away. It is the only thing you can do right now.】
Aion hesitated for a moment.
He knew his level was still far too low.
【Fire: …You can do it.】
Fire added quietly.
【Fire: It is no harder than grasping an object.】
Aion gritted his teeth.
“Hooo….”
He drew up his mana. Perhaps because he had so little of it, he could feel it all the more clearly.
Then he recalled the sensation of using Celestial Motion Art.
The feeling of gathering the mana inside him and expanding his body.
Push it away.
Push the smoke and heat away from before his face.
He had to push them away.
…He had to, if he wanted to live.
At first, nothing seemed to change.
But as time passed, his body gradually became accustomed to the sensation.
…And finally.
Fwoooooosh—
The smoke split apart before Aion’s face.
As though it had struck an invisible glass wall, the hot air bent at its boundary and flowed to either side.
Aion drew in a deep breath.
Air entered his lungs.
It was more hopeful than any success he had ever achieved.
“I did it… Hah….”
Aion’s eyes widened.
With the smoke cleared away, an escape route had appeared before him.
“The stairs! The stairs are over th—”
KRAAAACK—!!
Before he could finish, the stairs collapsed.
KRAAASH!
The railing tore away, and part of the staircase snapped off entirely as the floor gave way.
Below was a black hole.
Whoosh—!
Scorching flames surged upward through the opening.
Aion instinctively stepped back.
He had nearly fallen into it.
Clink—
“…What is this?”
Something glittered among the collapsed debris.
A shard of glass?
No. It was a thicker, harder plate.
And upon it was a burned-out pattern.
As Aion reached for it, Fire spoke first.
【Fire: That is….】
Aion picked up the fragment. A faint warmth, different from the surrounding heat, seeped into his hand.
【Fire: A low-grade rune… I see. No wonder.】
“…What do you mean?”
Fire drew a breath, as though swallowing an old memory.
【Fire: The core has burned out. It is a rune that has already completed its detonation.】
Aion’s eyes widened.
“Detonation? Then this is…?”
【Fire: This fire… was started deliberately.】
Arson.
The word lingered in his mind, but now was not the time to dwell on it.
Aion composed himself and slipped the rune fragment into his pocket.
“We can talk about this later. Surviving comes first.”
Whoooosh…!
The flames grew larger.
The red glow at the end of the corridor intensified. Hot air rushed toward him again.
Aion desperately maintained Celestial Motion Art, protecting his breathing.
“Kh….”
His mind was beginning to grow hazy.
If his concentration slipped even a little, the smoke and heat would burn straight through his throat and leave burn marks across his entire body.
“Still… there is one thing you were right about, old man.”
Aion let out a faint laugh.
“With my pathetic mana… I can keep using Celestial Motion Art like this.”
【Fire: …Aion.】
“Old man, I—”
Then—
Fsssh…
Through a broken crack, he could see the floor below. Squinting, Aion peered through it.
Someone stood down there.
He was shaking his head from side to side.
As though saying, No. I can’t. I can’t do it.
“I… I can’t….”
When Aion recognized the person muttering below, his eyes widened.
That guy is…?
It was Kael Pyron.
Naturally, Kael had not noticed Aion. More precisely, he seemed too distraught to look around, his gaze fixed on something.
“I… I can’t do it….”
That single sentence slipped through the crack.
Then Kael… ran.
Without looking back, he fled as though possessed.
“…Why?”
The instant Aion leaned toward the edge of the crack—
BANG!
Another collapse exploded above him.
The floor beneath Aion gave way.
“Ugh—!”
His body fell downward.
Thud.
Aion rolled across the floor.
His body felt as though it had been torn apart, but thankfully, nothing seemed broken. His breath had merely stopped for a moment.
“Khk…!”
Celestial Motion Art nearly broke. Aion seized his scattered mind and focused once more.
Then he understood.
Why Kael had reacted that way.
A massive iron door stood before him.
“Th-this is….”
The dormitory’s small auditorium.
A place seldom used.
Broken pillars and large stones were piled in front of the iron door.
The door had turned red from heat; it looked as though flesh would cook and stick to it the moment someone touched it.
And then…
…Voices reached him.
—…Please.
—Save… us.
—…Someone… cough… please help us….
It was not one voice.
Several voices overlapped.
Coughing and sobbing.
Someone desperately pounded against the door.
Fire’s Ultimate Point began to speak with difficulty, like a man struggling to breathe.
【Fire: Ah, no… This door… this door….】
—There was a large door. Rubble had blocked it, so it could never be opened from inside. And I could clearly hear voices coming from beyond it….
He had said that.
There had been a door.
Fire’s voice shook. The moment he saw this door, it was as though he had been dragged back into the past.
【Fire: This is a lie… It cannot be… Why is this door here again….】
He was in so much pain that he could not even form a proper sentence.
Then the other voices cut in for him.
【Water: Aion! Get out of there immediately! There is nothing you can do here!】
【Earth: Surviving comes first, child!】
“…”
Aion did not answer right away.
He looked at the debris in front of the door.
And he did not leave.
Creeeak—
The ceiling groaned. One pillar twisted, cracks spreading through it. The floor trembled faintly.
If he did not get out immediately, it felt as though the entire building would bury him.
【Water: Aion! Move, now!】
【Earth: Child, please! You cannot do this now!】
Aion realized something.
Even great mages who had reached the ends of reason, people with fifty more years of life than he had, might have things they could not overcome.
Perhaps the Fire of fifty years ago was still standing here.
【Fire: I… I can’t… I….】
Perhaps, even after all that time, he was still trapped in this place.
【Arcana: Aion, be rational. You cannot do this with your abilities.】
【Life: Aion! Stop! This is reckless!】
【Lightning: Hee hee hee hee! You will die! You are definitely going to die!】
Aion did not answer.
Instead, he reached toward the rubble.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
A stone that would not budge through sheer strength alone.
With Celestial Motion Art, he forcibly moved it.
He guided its direction, broke its balance, and made it slide.
Clunk…
It began to move, bit by bit.
Clunk—
It moved again.
And from the recoil, something warm and metallic flowed from Aion’s nose.
A nosebleed.
“Kh….”
Maintaining the Celestial Motion Art that protected his breathing while clearing the rubble meant doing two things at once.
There was no way Aion could avoid straining his body.
【Arcana: …Reckless fool.】
【Earth: Child, stop! This place is about to collapse!】
【Life: Aion…!】
The Ultimate Points’ pleas merged with the sounds of the building collapsing.
Then—
【Fire: …Aion.】
Fire called to him in a trembling voice.
【Fire: You do not have to carry my regrets too.】
Aion did not respond this time either.
He simply continued clearing away the rubble.
【Fire: So….】
“Old man.”
He was probably…
“Old man, you are still here, aren’t you?”
Here, in this place.
【Fire: …….】
Fire could not answer.
Claaaaang—
Aion pushed away the last piece of debris.
“…Wait.”
He could not tell how much time had passed.
Creak—
“I will get you out of here. Right now.”
Aion reached for the iron door.
Sssssss—
When Celestial Motion Art activated, the iron door that had not moved for any reason began to tremble.
Rumble, rumble, rumble…
But as expected, his output was not enough.
Trickle…
Thicker blood ran from his nose and down to his lips.
【Fire: Aion!】
“Ughhh….”
More. More.
Honestly, he thought it might be impossible.
Even so, he did not stop.
Not because he could do it.
But because he had to.
He had always lived that way.
***
[!] A new trait has been unlocked: At the End of Despair
***
Flash!
Aion’s eyes flew open.
He gritted his teeth and drew up his mana as though pulling down a lever that did not exist.
Rattle, rattle…
“Uooooooh…!”
Screeeech—
The iron door warped ever so slightly.
Creak…
The doorframe groaned.
The balance on both sides of the door began to twist.
It is not enough…!
At last, Aion withdrew even the Celestial Motion Art that had shielded his face, pouring all of his concentration into the iron door.
“UAAAAAAARGH!”
He gave everything he had left.
Screeeeeech—!
The sound of iron tearing apart.
The door crumpled and was forcibly pried open on both sides.
***
[!] Celestial Motion Art proficiency has increased.
[!] Celestial Motion Art Lv. 2 → Celestial Motion Art Lv. 3 ▲
***
The iron door could endure no longer and flew wide open.
KRAAAAAASH—!
At last, he had done it.
He had opened the door that had seemed impossible to open.
“Hah… hah….”
Thud…
Aion fell to his knees.
Drip…
Blood fell from his nose, his mouth, and his chin. His fingertips had grown numb.
As his consciousness slowly drifted away, he thought he could hear voices.
They were not the Ultimate Points’ voices.
They must have been the people beyond the door.
Unable to bear the weight of his eyelids any longer, Aion slowly closed his eyes.
【Fire: For so many years… I wanted to know.】
The sound of a breath being swallowed.
【Fire: …What lay beyond this door.】
The voices he had turned away from.
…And the what if that had left a stain called regret upon an old mage, more terrible than any burn.
If he could return to that moment, if such a thing were truly possible… he would have opened that door.
If someone other than him—another hero—had been there, they would have saved them.
But the hero he had waited for all those years…
Was right here.
【Fire: …You really did it, you damned brat.】
Ding!
***
[!] You have completed the task.
[!] You have left the crossroads of fate.
[!] Your rewards will be determined based on all choices and consequences.
[!] The rewards include a spell from Fire’s Ultimate Point.