When he closed his eyes, his consciousness slowly sank.
Even in that state, the glitter of mana was as vivid as if he were seeing it with his own eyes.
The inside of his body was a vast universe.
The circles were galaxies, the patterns were stars.
The only thing that roamed freely there was mana.
Mana swam through the universe, touching the stars one by one.
Light entered the stars that had been extinguished as if dead, and that light moved in the wake of the mana.
Starting with the first star, then the second, the third… until the one hundred and seventieth, it became a kind of enormous Milky Way, following wherever the mana led.
A vast band was formed.
An immense light that began from the stars.
The light pouring from one hundred and seventy stars moved in a circle along the mana.
Outside the fifth galaxy.
It circled around its exterior, shaping the framework of the sixth galaxy.
It was so wide that a single revolution took a great deal of time, but as it circled again and again, a sense of stability began to form.
If he could only continue repeating it like this, it seemed as though it might settle into place as a complete sixth.
Tremble— The movement began to quiver faintly.
The tremor, at first exceedingly slight, began to surge, and that surging soon became a powerful vibration that shook the entire universe.
Kwaaaang—!
An explosion erupted in the universe.
The Milky Way, now beyond control, was destroyed, stretching out in every direction and striking everything it touched.
It transmitted an impact as powerful as the speed at which it had been rotating.
Kwaang!
“Urgh….”
In the end, unable to withstand the shock, Hio withdrew all his mana and clutched his chest.
He had failed to create the sixth ring again.
The problem was that it was too far from the center.
Up to the fifth ring, it could rotate with stability, but the sixth ring lacked that stability, and the slightest misstep shattered it to pieces just like now.
The impact and pain caused by failure were an added bonus.
“Kkeh kkeh, it seems it hurts.”
As he clutched his chest and suffered, a voice suddenly reached him.
Without even looking, he knew it was Kreutzwald.
There was not the slightest hint of concern in his expression as he looked at Hio.
He merely chuckled, as if to say, failed again, did you?
Damn old man.
Of course, he couldn’t say that thought out loud, so he only shot him a sidelong glare.
“How nice would it be if I could just gain some enlightenment or whatever without all this suffering and reconstruct my body?”
“That would be the most ideal method.”
“Then give me a hint already.”
“There is no such thing. Only by realizing it yourself can you properly step into the realm of the superhuman.”
The most ideal way to ascend to the 6th Circle was to gain enlightenment and reconstruct the body.
Well, it wasn’t a reconstruction like Vitalianus shedding his old shell and returning to the body of his prime.
It was merely becoming a bit sturdier, a bit stronger, something like that; and once that happened, the sixth ring could be supported as well.
In other words, it would possess the same weighty stability as the fifth ring.
“I’d have to know what I’m supposed to realize before I can realize anything… honestly.”
But if someone simply told him to gain enlightenment out of nowhere, how was he supposed to know what to do?
He had no idea what the enlightenment was supposed to be about, or in what manner he ought to begin.
If he were a knight, he could at least swing a sword, but what was a mage supposed to do?
No wonder most mages were frustrated, unable to cross the wall of the 6th Circle.
“If you cannot realize it, then continue the repetitive work.”
“Yes, yes.”
Hio answered halfheartedly with an irreverent expression, adjusted his posture, and closed his eyes once more.
It was possible to reach the 6th Circle even without enlightenment.
What Hio was doing now was one of the representative methods.
Known commonly as “mindlessly ramming it in until it works.”
A mage’s circle could be thought of as a part of the body and one of its primary organs.
And the human body was meant to adapt and develop.
In other words, if one mindlessly and repeatedly wrapped the ring around, the flesh would adapt to it and evolve accordingly.
At a glance, it might seem like an absurd and foolish method, but surprisingly, it was a proven method with many successful cases.
Kreutzwald had guaranteed it, so it was unlikely to be false.
The problem was that there was no knowing when the body would adapt and when it would evolve.
The difference varied so greatly from person to person that no one could guarantee whether it would take ten years or thirty.
Of course, there was also the possibility of succeeding in a month.
And as he had just experienced, there was also the problem that each failure damaged the body and brought great pain, but neither Hio nor Kreutzwald seemed to regard that as much of a problem.
“Sigh… What choice do I have? If I’m too stupid, I have to make up for it with my body.”
“My disciple, you have said something correct for the first time in a while.”
“Yes, yes.”
He gave a careless answer, barely listening, and his mana began to move again.
Just as he was about to form the ring once more.
Growl— A sound rang out from his stomach.
A resounding alert that his stomach was completely empty.
…After one more attempt at rotating the circle, I’ll have to go hunting.
Because if he wanted to escape this damned world, where there was neither proper food nor proper humans, even a day sooner, he had no choice but to become stronger.
* * *
A month had already passed since the horrific 58th floor of the Abyss came to an end.
Winter had passed.
When winter passed, spring came.
The snow that had piled up softly began to melt little by little, and from the gaps, small sprouts peeked out their heads.
When spring came, one’s heart was bound to flutter.
When a body frozen solid thawed, the heart was bound to thaw with it.
The wind was still rather cold, but if a warm breeze mingled within it and blew past, one was bound to feel good for no reason.
But none of that applied to Claire.
Whether the snow melted, whether green life sprouted, whether spring was coming or not, Claire’s heart was still in winter.
Frozen solid, it remained there, on that day.
“…….”
Her empty eyes stared into the air.
Until a month ago, a black, wavering gate had stood there.
Until a month ago, this place had been swarming with the expedition force and the troops sent to support them.
But what about now?
It was far too peaceful.
Far too quiet.
Wasn’t this wrong?
How could it become so peaceful in just a month?
How could everyone be so carefree, as if what happened that day had never happened at all?
Did they even know upon whose sacrifice today’s peace had been built?
“Hio.”
She did not think he was dead.
As if agreeing with Claire’s thoughts, the Imperial Family had not announced the death of Hio Pavlenko either.
Until just a few days ago, they had continued the search for Hio Pavlenko here together with her.
“Come back soon.”
Claire’s memories recalled what had happened here just a few days earlier.
At the time, part of the expedition force had still remained here, continuing the search.
Even knowing there was no hope, they had been searching around the places where the gate had been, clinging to the thought of just in case.
—So the trash was gathered here.
Suddenly, a tremendous amount of killing intent swept over them.
At that overwhelming aura, in which scarlet and ash-gray were mixed together, everyone nearby turned their gaze in one direction.
—Why are you still alive and breathing?
And the moment their gazes turned, they froze in that very posture.
It was no metaphor.
They had truly turned to stone exactly as they stood.
Only then did Claire’s gaze turn there, and she was able to see.
Long, flowing black hair.
Behind it, an immense scarlet aura surged.
It was Airaitz.
—Airaitz.
—Yes. Claire, you were there too.
However, it was an expression Claire had never once seen before.
Not the face that was always overflowing with composure, but an expression that seemed utterly drained of all emotion.
With every step she took in that state, the number of people turned into stone statues increased rapidly.
—I should never have trusted the likes of you and sent Hio there.
In Airaitz’s eyes, dyed bright red, countless emotions were mingled together.
Rage and hatred. Regret, despair, and distrust.
Rage toward herself, and hatred toward those who had failed to protect him and had instead only been protected by him.
Regret that she had not been by his side.
Because it was not greatly different from what Claire herself felt, it was easy to understand.
That feeling struck her painfully deep.
—What exactly were you doing? Why did Hio sacrifice his life for trash like this?
The closer she came, the colder the air became.
It was because of the killing intent, so immense that it was hard to believe it had come from that slender body.
The area was swallowed by silence.
There were many people present—knights, soldiers, Imperial officials—but the only one speaking was Airaitz.
Those who saw her with their eyes turned to stone where they stood, and those who heard her voice were wrapped in scarlet energy and drove their heads into the ground.
As if apologizing, as if begging for atonement, they struck their heads against the ground again and again.
Step— The distance between Airaitz and Claire narrowed.
Claire felt that unprecedented aura reach her as well, hardening her body from the tips of her feet.
If she poured her will into unleashing flames, she felt she might be able to resist it.
But she did not.
—…Don’t.
She merely said that to Airaitz.
With empty eyes, as though nothing mattered anymore, she was nevertheless trying to stop Airaitz.
At that, Airaitz did not snort or scoff.
It must have been because, ever since hearing the news, she had been unable to make any expression at all.
—Do you want to live? Do you want to save this trash who barely escaped with Hio’s life?
Eyes filled with hatred and scarlet light met empty red eyes.
Airaitz had no intention of stopping.
With each step she took, the petrification progressed even faster, and the sound of heads striking the ground—thud, thud—grew quicker along with it.
—Why?
Airaitz was genuinely curious.
Why these people had to live.
What value they had. Why Hio had to die for garbage like this.
To that, Claire answered without the slightest movement.
To her, it was an all too obvious answer.
—Hio will hate it when he comes back.
Because Hio was not dead.
Because he would definitely return.
At that answer, Airaitz’s footsteps stopped abruptly.
The sound of heads slamming down—bang, bang—also ceased, and so did the rapidly progressing petrification, leaving the space engulfed in silence once more.
After a long time like that, Airaitz’s voice barely squeezed through her lips.
Unbelievably, it sounded as though—
—…Those words.
—as though she was desperately holding back tears.
—They had better come true.
Airaitz turned around and went back the way she had come.
She withdrew every last bit of that immeasurable aura.
After locking away all the hatred, rage, sorrow, and regret contained within it inside that slender body, Airaitz disappeared just like that.
That had happened only a few days ago.
At the time, there had still been quite a number of people, but they had all vanished, and now only Claire remained.
It was not because they had grown exhausted and left, nor because they had abandoned the search and left.
Of course, there may have been some people like that, but it was certain that another reason was far greater.
After all, a new gate to the Demon Realm had appeared.
The 59th floor of the Abyss.
The entrance to hell that had swallowed Hio and disappeared along with him had revealed itself once more.
“Now… I have to go.”
Naturally, Claire had to go as well.
The clues would be inside the Demon Realm.
If she entered that place, she might be able to find traces of Hio.
No, she absolutely had to.
If…
If truly, by one chance in a thousand, one in ten thousand, she could not find any traces of Hio even on the 59th floor, then what would happen?
“…What else? I’ll find him on the 60th floor.”
If she could not find him on the 60th floor, then the 61st.
If she could not find him on the 61st floor, then the 62nd.
She only had to keep searching.
As Claire moved her feet, hope still remained in her eyes.
A very faint hope, one that no one knew how long would last.