Ascension Ritual
Liberi, Cedes, Valtora.
Except for Ordo, which had been the first stop, every major city had demanded time—at the shortest, a few days; at the longest, a full week.
Of course, none of that time had been wasted for nothing.
If anything, it had been time that absolutely had to be spent.
Still, it was true that waiting around like that got boring.
...Maybe this is doable.
So the moment I heard Daeun’s suggestion, I went straight to Yustina.
Fortunately—or maybe just conveniently—Yustina was still in her office, working.
I did wonder what kind of work she was doing for a second, but before I could ask, Yustina got to the real question first: why had I come back?
After Daeun and I took turns explaining everything, Yustina, who had been listening in silence, finally spoke.
“If this body has understood you correctly, you mean to gather the Magi of the demonkind and secure the amount needed for the Ascension Ritual?”
“Exactly.”
“I have much to say about this.”
Yustina pressed two fingers firmly against her brow.
She looked more tired than she had during the day.
With dark circles like that, she could almost have been mistaken for Atisha.
“Do you truly think such a thing is possible?”
“...Isn’t it?”
“It is not.”
“Why not? It sounds pretty realistic to me.”
“Haaah.”
With a short sigh, Yustina said, “Yes, the idea is a good one. But do you think gathering that much Magi is easy? To do that, we would have to draw together every last bit of Magi possessed by everyone in this place, and even then we would only barely manage it.”
“Then we just do that.”
“Listen until I am done. These are people who can scarcely manage their own bodies, and you think they could remain unharmed in the midst of that much Magi being released all at once?”
“If we absorb it fast enough, maybe it’d be fine.”
“It would be entirely not fine.”
She was ruthless about it.
There wasn’t even room to argue.
“Even if, as you say, it were fine, there would still be another problem. For us, Magi is a necessary evil. It is Magi that drives us toward death, yes—but it is also Magi that allows us to continue living. In other words, to pull out and use all the Magi means to drag out and use our very life force as well.”
“Oh. I didn’t think of that.”
“...Pull out our life force?”
“If you want it in simple terms, it’s no different from draining all the blood from your body.”
“Gasp.”
“No. It’s not that extreme.”
If Magi exhaustion was no different from mana exhaustion except in name, then yes, it was dangerous.
In severe cases, it could threaten your life or leave permanent damage behind.
However, it was rare for someone to reach the point of endangering their life by choice alone.
“Can you hold your breath until you die?”
“W-What did I do wrong? Why are you suddenly saying something so ominous...?”
“...I’m trying to explain because it seems like you don’t get it.”
“...Ah?”
When I gave her a pitying look, Daeun laughed awkwardly.
“Without using your hands or any tools?”
“Yeah. Can you just stop breathing and die purely from that?”
“Hmm... I don’t think so. If it goes that far, wouldn’t you unconsciously breathe again? There’s such a thing as a survival instinct.”
“Exactly.”
No matter how strong-willed a person was, it would be impossible.
“Mana is the same. It’s one of the fundamental things that make up life, so even if you try to push it to its limit, doing that isn’t easy at all.”
That was why ordinary mana exhaustion was something you might see now and then, but seeing one that severe was extremely rare.
Unless someone had a will strong enough to defy death itself—or someone else’s will had interfered.
“Though it’s bad for your body either way.”
“Since it seems you understand, there is no need for me to explain further.”
Thud.
Yustina closed the thick book in front of her and, with that, issued us our eviction notice.
“If you have nothing more to say, then go. It is about time this body went to sleep.”
“Wait. We’re not done yet.”
“...What is it now?”
Yustina’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“You don’t have to draw out all the Magi, do you? If you only used about half, then the Magi exhaustion you’re worried about wouldn’t happen.”
“Did you not hear a single word I said? I told you it would barely be possible only if we drew together every last bit of Magi from everyone here. Even that cannot be guaranteed, and you ask me this? Or what is it—do you not understand what the word all means?”
“The missing Magi can be made up somewhere else.”
“...Made up with what?”
And where, exactly?
As Yustina asked that, I quietly lifted a hand and pointed out the window.
The sun had already sunk, and night had fallen.
Moonlight, dimly filtering through the Magi, illuminated the black barrier beyond.
“There’s a perfect source right there.”
“You do not mean the barrier, surely?”
“If you mean that jet-black wall, then yes.”
“Absolutely not!”
Bang!
“The barrier exists to prevent the Magi in the central area from leaking out, and it is also an essential measure to protect us from outside threats! If we were to remove it and fail, a great disaster would surely come upon us...! Such a thing is absolutely unacceptable.”
Yustina, who was far more heated than usual, slammed her hand against the desk and launched into a fervent speech.
I listened quietly, and once she had finished and her breathing began to settle, I spoke.
“Then what? Every time Magi builds up from now on, are you going to throw one person after another into it? Even knowing they’ll die?”
“...!”
“Well. From where I’m standing, it doesn’t exactly look like you’re treating lives as precious. Your words and your actions are way too different.”
“...They volunteered of their own accord.”
“That’s a very elegant way to say you stood by and let it happen.”
“You came here because you wished to undergo the Ascension Ritual as well, did you not? By your own logic, this body should also be stopping you from doing it—do you want that?”
“Of course not.”
“Then there is no more to discuss. I am offended, yes, but given that your point has merit, I will overlook this rudeness—for now. However, next time—”
“The premise is wrong from the start.”
“....”
Cutting Yustina off mid-sentence made her brows knit faintly together.
“You can’t put them and me on the same level.”
Even if they failed, they had been willing to offer their souls and contribute to the world.
I wasn’t.
“I’m going to succeed.”
If I’d been planning to fail, I wouldn’t even be here.
I still had things I wanted to do while I was alive.
“Your confidence is overflowing to an excessive degree. But do you know? Excessive confidence is a shortcut to ruin.”
“I appreciate the concern, but that’s genuinely useless concern.”
I had never been the kind of person who had excessive confidence.
I did things because I could do them, and because I had to do them.
From childhood to now, I had always lived that way.
And that hadn’t changed.
“I understand being uneasy. But we can’t live trapped inside this barrier forever like animals in a cage. If you want to, I won’t stop you—but that’s not what you want, is it?”
People say that once you get older, your thinking hardens....
Maybe that was why convincing Yustina, who had clearly lived for at least several centuries, was no easy task.
Watching her remain unmoved, I clicked my tongue in frustration.
“Edel said it herself. If you undergo the Ascension Ritual, you won’t have to keep worrying about the duty that’s been holding you down. You can live however you want.”
“...!”
Yustina’s eyes widened like a lantern lit in the dark.
“You mean to say Lady Edel said that...?”
“I don’t lie about things like this.”
“She said we wouldn’t need to worry about the duty.... You are certain she said that?”
“Yeah. She also said she was sorry for making you all go through so much until now.”
“Truly, truly she said such a thing?”
“How many times do you want me to say it? Yes.”
Yustina asked me the same question over and over again.
Honestly, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t annoyed by having to give the same answer every time.
But I understood why she was reacting like that, so I didn’t get tired of it and kept giving her the same answer each time she asked.
Yeah. I was kind.
Still standing, Yustina finally leaned back in her chair.
“I never once thought Lady Edel’s command was something I disliked. However... there were quite a few times I felt it was too heavy to bear.”
When she felt the power of purification weaken.
When she realized her body was changing in order to adapt to the Magi.
When the Ascension Ritual became the last resort.
Even beyond that, Yustina said, there had been countless moments when the burden pressed down on her shoulders.
“So. Does it make you feel lighter?”
“Do you not think it a bit too early to ask that? We have not even succeeded at the Ascension Ritual yet, let alone prepared for it.”
And to ask that so bluntly, too....
Atisha grumbled at me.
“You are truly a creature with not even a speck of sensitivity....”
“I grew up in that kind of environment.”
“There it is...! Canaria’s killing intent...!”
“...What killing intent?”
I had wondered why Daeun was being so quiet, but as soon as the mood loosened even a little, she started spouting nonsense.
After administering a swift strike to Daeun’s side to keep her quiet, I waited for Yustina’s answer.
It didn’t take long for her to shake her head and say, “A life without duty.... Perhaps it still does not feel real to me.”
At this point, I almost wondered if Edel had hypnotized her or something.
Just as I was thinking that, Yustina spoke again.
“But I will accept your proposal. As you said, we cannot live forever trapped by the barrier.”
“Excellent choice.”
The Yustina who had seemed absolutely immovable had fallen the instant Edel was brought up.
If I’d known that, I should’ve started with Edel in the first place.
I’d wasted time babbling about everything else for nothing.