<h4>Chapter 312. Praying (15)</h4>


    *Roar*


    A heavy roar rang out far and wide.


    This was it. Prisci attempted to reverse causality with her remaining strength, but there was no course of action capable of stopping this imminent disaster. No matter what method she used, she could only see a future of doom.


    “For this kind of ending, everything I… It was all for nothing.”


    Prisci flopped down, giving up. The world that she wanted to save at the expense of countless sacrifices ended up being destroyed by the power she wanted to use to fix it. All she could do was fall into despair.


    Desir began to walk towards the power source of the Artemis system. “Ha… ”


    Prisci smiled dejectedly. Desir refusing to give up right until the end could be said to be the same. However, it was different nowpared to before.


    “It’s meaningless. It’s impossible.”


    Due to several fierce battles, Desir’s physical condition was far from perfect. His mana had been drained so thoroughly that he might not even be able to cast a Third-Circle spell.


    Even his magic, which reached the realm of mythology, was far from enough to offset such an obscene amount of mana. Even Desir’s specialty, inverting spells, would be useless; the immediate disaster was pure mana spiraling out of control.


    There was a reason why the Artemis system dered this situation was beyond salvage. A definitive ending that could not be prevented by any means they had at their disposal.


    *Crack*


    The power source of the Artemis system cracked and began to show signs of copse.


    *Bang*


    It was only a fine crack, but with a roar, a huge amount of mana shot into the sky. The surrounding distortion began to surge and churn, the world twisting and bending in impossible ways. The movement of the mana was enough to distort space itself.


    Soon this mana would devour the entirety of Dresden, and there after, the entire world. If this city fell to the erosion, then it would herald the beginning of the world’s destruction.


    That was the inescapable future Prisci foresaw, but Desir kept forcing his way against the unyielding current.


    “You wanted proof that you were wrong, Prisci.”


    As the sky brightened with the light of dawn, a ringing sensation began to emanate from Desir. The small amount of mana he held, not enough to cast a single spell, began to tremble in opposition to the veritable tsunami before him.


    “I’ll prove it to you now.”


    It was his moment to shine.


    The tidal wave of mana continued to surge forth, only to suddenly slow down and stop, as if a massive wall had arisen to block off the flow.


    No, it just looked like it had stopped. The mana was continuing to sprout forth from the power source, but it was dissipating at the same rate it was being released. By controlling the overflowing mana at the particle level, Desir was able to manipte their trajectories. Rather than gushing forth, he twisted and turned them such that they collided with one another, forcing them to disperse their violent energy into one another.


    “No, no, it’s impossible. How did you do that?”


    Prisci, who witnessed the scene, could only speak while looking at him nkly. Desir agreed inwardly. It was the first time he had tried such a thing, so he honestly expected it to fail.


    Unlike the mana used in magic, which was organized ording to a certain system, what was in front of him was just pure mana. A flow of mana that was irregrly made without any pattern or predetermined form. The additive number of its flows was finite but it could converge into an infinite number of patterns.


    In other words, to offset it, you had to calcte all of the possible flows; a number that was close to infinity. Even if Desir’sputational power was phenomenal, it was impossible for him to calcte something like that in a moment.


    But if it was something he had been preparing for in advance… If it was something that he had been calcting for many years… The story changed.


    ‘Our connection is uncanny at this point.’


    Desir smiled faintly as he looked at the red gem in front of his eyes.


    Other than Skull Mask, he was likely the only person in modern times who would be capable of recognizing the ‘jewel’ before him. It had been the crux of Skull Mask’s n, and the core of Prisci’s ideal. Most importantly, it was what had caused the copse of the world before his return.


    ‘A dragon heart.’


    The central node of a dragon, one of several creatures that destroyed humanity. Over the thousands upon thousands of years, the bones, flesh, and mana that constructed it had warped and fossilized, but the source of its mighty mana had been preserved.


    The actions of a dragon heart were outside the scope of the Artemis system. If it was capable of doing so, then the ancient civilization would not have disappeared.


    ‘I didn’t know we’d face each other like this again.’


    Desir continued to step into the turbulent mana. A small road was built as the mana calmed around him.


    *Step*


    *Step*


    Something shed before Desir’s eyes as he took thest step forward. It was his life; that is, his current life, the one he had lived since returning.


    Romantica Eru. In Desir’s previous life, Romantica reached the Third-Circle at the end of her first year and progressed no further. In this life, she reached the Fourth-Circle before graduating from the academy and learned how to invoke magic without a spell array.


    Pram Schneider. He barely reached the King-ss just before dying in the Shadow Labyrinth. This time, he had already reached King-ss at such a young age and without such soul crushing adversity.


    Adjest Kingscrown. She learned of the Center of Ice ten years sooner and was able to obtain it, giving her the perfect tool to realize her Imagery Magic in several new ways.


    And Zod Exarion. He reached the Eighth-Circle, a tier that mankind had never thought possible, and granted Desir the opportunity to build an entirely new magic system.


    Everything about their destinies had changed, and there were countless other things that Desir could not even begin to list. All this was possible because they fought for what was right, and continued trudging forward no matter the obstacle.


    No Shadow Labyrinth had appeared, and the world avoided extinction.


    This world had undeniably changed. This world was the proof Prisci desired so desperately. Desir’s steps stopped.


    *Boom*


    Desir grabbed the dragon heart in front of him. Even at this moment, a huge amount of mana was spouting out from it. Right now he was controlling and offsetting the flow of mana emitted, but it was only a stopgap measure.


    He would not be able to stay in that state forever.


    ‘I did so much to change the world. I fought enemies with powers I never thought possible and I went ces I had never been before. But in the end, I guess my final fight will be against you after all.’


    Desir had a bitter smile on his face. It was because a memory from just before his return came to mind.


    The end of the Shadow Labyrinth. He reached the end of it at the expense of countless heroes. ‘There was no way I could handle it at that time, but… ’


    A vast amount of mana had umted within the dragon heart over the countless period of time since its appearance. Even now, there was no way to physically offset enough mana capable of encasing the entire.


    To anyone else, stopping the destruction of the world might seem like an impossible task. It could not be inverted, and there was too much mana to use by repeatedly casting spells, so why not give up and ept death?


    ‘It’ll be hard, but it shouldn’t be impossible.’


    “Most schrs only have theories about how a dragon casts magic, but I know: a dragon’s heart is its engine, and it functions like our mana circles.”


    If dragon hearts are like mana circles, then the solution was simple. [Circle Synchronization]


    Desir assimted his mana circles with the dragon heart, utilizing the magic he developed to bring down the Beast of Revtion.


    Controlling and offsetting the mana released was a stopgap measure that would onlyst for a while. In the end, it would be necessary to control the dragon heart itself to solve the fundamental problem.


    A gruesome gurgling epassed the area as the dragon heart began to stretch and liquidate. It grewrger andrger, and gradually broke apart into smaller pieces within the air. Suddenly, they clicked into ce and transformed into over ten thousand magical spell arrays, which began to ovep with one another and dig into Desir’s body.


    Previously Desir had used an outside conduit to bear the brunt of spells, manipting his own mana circles to allow him to assimte an external source as his own. But in this case, he had to do the opposite; the dragon heart was too unstable: it was impossible to change his own circles to match it. In order to assimte it, he would have to transform the dragon heart and assimte it with his own mana circles.


    “Urgh… !”


    As the dragon heart slowly fused with his mana circles, his entire body was torn apart, only to be held together by the surging mana. Amongst the raging pain, he began to feel his consciousness slip away.


    He clenched his teeth and managed to grasp them. The suitable environment for them had finally been created. He could not afford to lose his mind now.


    *Whoong*


    The chords rang out. The particles of blue mana began to vibrate one by one. “Slowly.’


    He was patient but made haste.


    The frequency of Desir’s mana slowly changed. *Whoooooong*


    At one point, red mana also began to harmonize. The chords began to grow bigger and soon became a tremendous roar that shook the mountains.


    Resonance. The two sources of mana made each other cry.


    As the two different mana sources resonated with each other, Desir slowly rotated the mana. The dragon heart, which had been making unstable movements in his body, gradually began to find a steady flow.


    At that moment Desir could feel a rapid decrease in the outpour of mana. The tidal waves that pierced the sky above gradually died down.


    *Whoong*


    The dragon heart’s mana, spinning in the form of a mana circle, elerated at an ever-increasing rate, and had finally reached the necessary threshold. Even with Desir no longer in direct control of it, it had begun to move steadily.


    Now, the dragon heart should not explode. Now the fate that gued the end of the Shadow Labyrinth had been conquered.


    ‘It’s over.’


    Desir could feel that the dragon heart hadpletely assimted into his body. *Flop*


    The moment he recognized his sess, his legs gave out and his body copsed.


    He could see the sky. A dazzling sun was shining through the white clouds. The night hade to an end, and the morning had arrived.


    It was the morning he kept.


    He wished he could see this view again.


    He tried to get up, but not even his fingers moved properly. ‘I think… today will be myst day.’


    What he had endured so far had been nothing short of a miracle. By forcibly assimting the dragon heart with his mana circle, his whole body waspletely destroyed. His personal mana circles had been ravaged by the foreign mana, and no longer functioned properly. Even if he managed to survive, his days as a magician would be over.


    But a faint smile hung around Desir’s mouth. Strangely, there was no lingering attachment to his life itself.


    Maybe it was because he could see the ending he was not able to in his previous life. No, maybe it was because he was prepared for this all along. A happy ending for a world he would leave behind, dying to save everyone.


    Desir’s eyes slowly closed, and soon his vision waspletely ck. “… I… ve you, ev… it kills… … okay Desir?”


    A small voice could be heard.


    “This… enough… apologize… … need to promise me… please don’t…”


    He could not hear the voice well; his consciousness was too far gone.


    But one thing was certain: the voice was awfully sad.