One day before Aion headed to Arcanum Central Library.
Outwardly, he was calm. Inside his head, however, it was as noisy as a bustling marketplace.
【Waterflow: Come on, everyone, put your heads together. Anyone have a good idea? A third-floor Arcanum reading permit has fallen into our laps at the very start of the term.】
【Earth: The third floor. A place only second-years with outstanding grades can enter. …You went through a lot.】
Earth’s Ultimate Point paused for a moment.
【Earth: Put differently, though, it means they have only gathered magic at a student’s level.】
【Waterflow: Even so, there will be something useful. I know of several grimoires from this era whose true worth has yet to be discovered.】
【Earth: I have a few like that too! Spells that collapse the earth’s axis and bring down a hill-sized mountain in under a minute.】
【Arcana: Rejected.】
A voice that rarely spoke first rang out coldly, cutting off the excited Earth.
【Arcana: Grand magic is useless for now. Aion can barely use basic telekinesis at his current level.】
【Lightning: Heeheehee! What a pathetic state.】
【Waterflow: Forget collapsing the earth’s axis—he cannot even handle his own bed collapsing.】
【Earth: …That is true. Logical.】
【Life: Giving a jeweled sword to a child will not even make it an ornament. Aion’s mana has improved somewhat, but… you all know, do you not? The dreadful report card Yggdrasil showed us.】
Aion said nothing. He could not refute that horrific report card, covered in F grades.
【Waterflow: This is troublesome. Very troublesome. But we cannot waste this opportunity by choosing some spell for toddlers.】
Come to think of it, the person who would normally have joined first and led the conversation was quiet.
【Waterflow: …Say something, Fire. You are unusually quiet.】
There was no answer.
【Earth: Hey. …Fire?】
【Fire: …Ah, were you calling me?】
His voice was absentminded, as though he had just woken from sleep.
【Life: What is wrong? Is something the matter?】
【Fire: No. I was thinking about something for a moment… What were we discussing?】
Waterflow answered shortly.
【Waterflow: So? Do you have an opinion?】
【Fire: As it happens, there is one thing I had in mind….】
【Earth: It will be obvious. A spell with nothing but absurd firepower.】
Earth’s Ultimate Point snorted.
The others did not seem to expect anything different, either.
【Waterflow: Listen, Fire. We already discussed this. We concluded that high-level magic is impossible.】
【Fire: …Is that so? Then what are the conditions for the spell this brat needs?】
Earth’s Ultimate Point listed the requirements in clipped tones.
【Earth: First, it must be efficient enough to use immediately, even with his insect-like mana.】
【Fire: Hmm.】
【Earth: Second, since this was an achievement he earned through effort, it must remain useful for a considerable time so it does not lose its value….】
【Fire: Mm-hm.】
【Earth: Third, its structure cannot be so complex that he cannot learn it with his lacking knowledge.】
Even Earth seemed aware that the conditions were absurd once he had finished saying them.
【Fire: Is that all?】
After pausing to catch his breath, Earth added the final condition.
【Earth: Fourth, it cannot take too long before he can use it. It must be magic at a basic level, after all.】
Waterflow clicked his tongue.
【Waterflow: Those conditions are beyond ridiculous.】
【Arcana: That is why we have been discussing this for so long.】
【Earth: Well? Among the grimoires resting on Arcanum’s third floor, is there one that perfectly fits those impossible conditions?】
…However—
【Fire: If you had not interrupted me, I would have said it three times already.】
Silence fell for a moment.
【Fire: There is. Something that fits those conditions perfectly.】
***
And the next day, in the present.
Back in his dormitory room, Aion looked down at the old book he had placed on his desk.
“This is… the grimoire you decided on after reaching a consensus?”
The book was in an appalling state.
Its leather cover had frayed away, and half of even that looked as though it had been roughly torn off by some animal’s teeth.
Its title was not even visible.
…Can I even read it?
The paper itself was strange as well. It was unlike the smoothly processed parchment of the Lavatie Empire.
It was rough and crude, yet strangely durable—an unfamiliar material.
Had no one told him it was a grimoire, he never would have recognized it.
It was that terribly old.
【Fire: Yes. Seeing it again brings all the contents back to me.】
Suppressing a sigh, Aion carefully turned the pages.
Flip—
His eyes narrowed as he opened the book.
Could this really be called writing? It looked less like letters and more like incomprehensible pictures or symbols.
The unfamiliar characters resembled no language he had ever seen—not the common tongue of Lavatie, nor any widely known foreign language.
It almost felt as though he were looking at a child’s sketchbook or picture book.
Thud!
Without hesitation, Aion shut the book.
“I will ask again, just in case. …Is this really the right one? I think I may have brought back the wrong book.”
【Fire: It is the right one, you brat! You are far too suspicious.】
Fire clicked his tongue and continued.
【Fire: Hey, Arcana. There will be no problem if I directly give this brat an interpretation of the grimoire, correct?】
Aion grew tense for a moment.
Yggdrasil’s system was more particular than he had expected. Directly implanting the Ultimate Points’ memories or abilities was strictly forbidden; only tasks made it possible.
Then how would it judge an Ultimate Point giving me an interpretation of this spell?
【Arcana: As long as the original exists, there will be no issue.】
Aion relaxed.
【Arcana: Forcibly stuffing knowledge that does not exist into your mind is forbidden. Translating knowledge that exists before your eyes is assistance. However, directly teaching you the spell is another matter. Even I cannot predict how Yggdrasil would judge that.】
Fire grumbled.
【Fire: Damn it, you are a machine. Why are you so frustrating? You are as rigid as your master….】
Then, as if he had made up his mind, Fire spoke.
【Fire: Take out a pen. Write down every word I say. Do not miss a single character.】
Aion picked up his quill and pulled a blank sheet of parchment toward him. Soon, Fire’s voice began to echo in his mind.
【Fire: The first page. Listen carefully. First….】
Scratch, scratch.
Only the regular sound of the nib scraping across parchment echoed through the quiet room. The afternoon sunlight pouring in through the window gradually turned red.
Scratch, scratch, scratch.
Before he knew it, deep darkness had settled outside.
At last, Aion set down his quill and rotated his aching wrist.
Is… that all?
Sheets of parchment densely filled with writing lay piled on the desk.
It was an interpretation of just the first chapter of an ancient grimoire, completed in half a day. Even after spending so much time, it was only one chapter.
Aion picked up the first page, where the ink had not yet dried.
His eyes settled on the words at its top—the part corresponding to the grimoire’s title.
Moving his lips, he quietly read the weighty name aloud.
“…Celestial Motion Art?”
The spell’s name was written entirely in ancient Eastern characters.
“Is it magic from the Daeryeon Empire?”
【Fire: No. It is a legacy of an ancient dynasty from the far East that claimed divinity long before Daeryeon was even established. The Daeryeon bastards of today cannot even imitate the real thing.】
“…What does it mean?”
【Fire: It means the art of moving the heavens.】
“To that extent?”
【Fire: For someone like you, who has learned nothing but telekinesis, it is the best spell you could have right now.】
Aion once again looked down at the interpretation of the spell called Celestial Motion Art.
“Is it very different from telekinesis?”
【Fire: Telekinesis is like… a fork flying around.】
“…A fork?”
【Fire: Yes. You move the object around by poking it with a fork you are holding. To lift something heavy, the fork must grow larger, and your arm must exert that much more strength. Extremely inefficient.】
Aion flexed his fingers through the air. Certainly, the sensation taught in ordinary telekinesis classes was like forming threads or pincers of mana to grasp an object.
“Then what about this Celestial Motion Art?”
Fire’s Ultimate Point paused. A low silence followed, as though he were searching through memories of the past.
【Fire: Celestial Motion Art is… Well, the way he used it felt like… yes, calling it a hand would be better.】
“A hand…?”
【Fire: To put it simply, Celestial Motion Art could do far more than ordinary telekinesis. And it was much more powerful.】
Aion tilted his head.
A fork and a hand… Are they really that different?
【Fire: Before you came here, you have stood beside a ferocious beast before, have you not?】
“…You already know.”
Of course they did.
The Ultimate Points had experienced most of Aion’s life before he came to Exion in much the same way he had. They had passed through the time he had passed through.
【Fire: Then tell me. What did it feel like when you encountered that great bear in the northern snowfields?】
Swish—
Aion stopped idly rolling the quill in his hand. When he closed his eyes, the frozen northern snowfields unfolded in his mind.
White breath.
And beyond it, a massive white predator looking down at him.
Its hungry eyes.
It was not merely fear.
It was something far more primal.
“I felt… intimidated. Like I should not move carelessly….”
【Fire: Exactly. A ferocious beast dominates the space around it with killing intent.】
Fire’s voice lowered.
【Fire: He was exactly like that. The closer you got to him, the more overwhelmed you felt. As though the entire space had already been claimed by him.】
Aion silently turned those words over in his mind.
【Fire: Celestial Motion Art is like that. To be honest, even I do not know this spell particularly well. I only suggested it because, after considering the conditions for the magic you need, I thought it appropriate.】
“Even though it is an ancient spell from the distant East… from an age long forgotten?”
【Fire: Anyway, yes. I only learned the beginning of it myself, so I do not know the details. I merely saw someone use it.】
Aion put down his pen.
“You keep calling him ‘that one’ or ‘that bastard.’ Was he the owner of this spell?”
【Fire: Owner? Ah, yes. He was the one who had this interpretation. I found out where he had obtained the original only after killing him.】
Aion’s eyes narrowed.
“…You killed him?”
【Fire: Yes. I killed him.】
“…Why?”
【Fire: Because he deserved killing.】
A brief silence followed. There was something unfamiliar in Fire’s voice.
【Fire: Four hundred seventy-two, and thirty-six.】
Aion frowned.
“Do not tell me… those numbers…?”
A chilling shudder ran down his spine.
And his ominous premonition proved correct.
【Fire: The number of humans and mages he killed in a single night.】
Ding!
***
[!] A new task has been assigned.
***