By the time the carriage came to a stop, the sky was already beginning to darken.
"We’re here," the coachman called.
Virgil opened his eyes.
For a few seconds, he didn’t move.
His body felt stiff from the long journey.
The journey had taken far longer than he’d expected.
He rubbed his eyes before opening the door.
The cold air immediately hit his face.
He stepped down from the carriage and looked around.
Forest Verde.
The trees stretched high above him, their branches disappearing into the darkness.
"Here."
He tossed the pouch with the gold coins to the coachman.
The old man counted the coins before pocketing them. His attitude changed completely.
"Thank you, sir."
Virgil gave him a brief nod.
"Don’t spend everything in one place... Never mind, it’s your money. You worked for it. Use it however you like."
The carriage soon left.
He watched until the carriage disappeared from view.
Then silence returned.
He looked into the forest.
’Now I just have to find somewhere suitable to start the ritual.’
He began the walk.
Snow crunched beneath his boots with every step, sounding strangely loud in the quiet forest.
He kept walking.
He didn’t want to go too deep.
That was the important part.
Forest Verde wasn’t dangerous everywhere, but the deeper regions were another matter entirely.
Magical beasts lived there, some of which could easily kill a new awakened.
Virgil wasn’t worried about those.
Not particularly, anyway.
His main concern was something else.
A dimensional rift...
A tear in space that could appear anywhere. They occurred naturally, though nobody really understood why.
Once a rift appeared, hordes of monsters poured out into the living world.
The one in Forest Verde was different.
Not only was it fundamentally different from all other rifts, but it also led to another civilization.
A human civilization that had been hidden from the rest of the world.
Virgil only knew because he read the novel.
’And I don’t want to get anywhere close to it.’
The protagonist had discovered the rift much later in the story after venturing too deep while trying to escape from the church.
After crossing through, he managed to befriend one of the princesses, which prevented the others from killing him.
Unfortunately, things only got worse from there.
A terrible curse was cast on the civilization, killing most of the children there. The protagonist was blamed for this tragedy.
Eventually, he found the person responsible and killed him, lifting the curse.
The incident only brought him closer to the princess he had befriended, who would later follow him out of the rift.
He definitely didn’t want to go too far.
"That’s far enough."
He glanced around.
The trees were still dense, but the ground ahead opened slightly.
A clearing.
’Good.’
As soon as he found it, he began preparing.
The ritual wasn’t complicated.
At least, not in theory.
He needed to draw the formation first.
He knelt in the snow and began drawing symbols in the ground, connecting them to one large circle.
He carefully drew a smaller circle, adding symbols around its edge before moving to the next one.
Several circles overlapped across the snow, each connected by thin lines and strange symbols. Some were nested inside others, while smaller formations sat between them.
He made sure to check each symbol twice.
A single mistake could ruin the entire process.
Just as the last sunlight disappeared, he finished.
’Perfect.’
He exhaled.
There was nothing left to prepare.
Except the sacrifice.
Virgil looked down at his hand.
His expression immediately soured.
The ritual needed a part of the user’s physical body to bind him to it.
"Right."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a small knife.
Thankfully, he had prepared himself for this in the carriage.
’It’s not like I needed five fingers anyway.’
He stepped toward the center of the formation and placed his hands over the designated point.
His fingers trembled slightly.
He raised the blade.
Then he brought it down.
Pain shot through his hand.
His body jerked. He dropped the knife.
His severed pinky fell into the snow.
"Ouch."
He let the blood drip out for a moment before reaching for the healing potion and uncorking it with his teeth.
He drank it in one go.
Warmth immediately spread through his body.
After some time, the pain subsided, and the bleeding stopped.
’There’s no going back now.’
He stepped into the center of the formation, the chain resting on his chest.
He pulled the crystal into his hand.
Before activating it, however, there was one final thing he needed to do.
Pray.
Pray to the goddess worshiped by the Visconti family.
Goddess Minervia.
Virgil closed his eyes.
He took a deep breath and then began to speak.
"O Goddess Minervia, Lady Eternal, Dreamer between the stars, Keeper of knowledge and protector of dawn. Hear the voice of thy descendant. By blood, I call thee. By flesh, I honor thee. By sacrifice, I beseech thee."
The crystal began to tremble slightly in his hand.
"I offer a soul to you... In exchange, I ask that you remove the bindings placed on my affinities."
He stopped, taking a deep breath.
He’d thought about it for a while, weighing if sacrificing his own soul was even possible.
Of course it wasn’t.
Instead, he came to another realization.
He had transmigrated into the original Virgil’s body and inherited his memories.
Didn’t that mean their souls had either merged together, or that the original Virgil’s soul had simply become dormant?
So couldn’t he just sacrifice the original Virgil’s soul instead of his?
He didn’t know if it would work, but that was the only chance he had.
And it seemed to be working.
The crystal suddenly became warm, and the strange sensation he had the first time he picked it up came back.
The formation beneath him glowed with a sparkling red light.
"And if such a blessing lies beyond thy will... Then let this sacrifice be the price."
The light from the formation engulfed him.
"All I ask is that you take a single soul."
The moment the final word left his mouth—
—BOOM!
Lightning struck.
There was no warning.
The entire clearing was consumed by the flash.
Snow blasted into the air as trees were torn apart. The ritual formation was obliterated in an instant.
The force of the strike spread outward, destroying everything around Virgil.
He didn’t even have time to react.
His body was swallowed by the lightning.
All that remained was the chain’s crystal.
Around it lay a massive crater, surrounded by shattered trees and scorched earth.
[You have angered Minervia, the goddess of knowledge]