Chapter 222
Chapter 222
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 222
>Chapter Title: Do You Know the Dragon That Became a Legend?
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‘First…….’
The situation itself was hopeless.
Once the core began to crumble, it collapsed rapidly, and the surging mana shook everything inside.
Senior Teheman’s mana was slowing the core’s breakdown, but only just barely.
‘Think. I have to think.’
In this life-or-death moment, Aster turned his mind sharper and cooler than ever to find an answer.
In truth, this wasn’t the first time he’d faced something like this.
Black-White Slums urchin.
From the moment he’d been abandoned by his parents before he could even grasp his own fate… all the way to those days as a Troubleshooter, flailing like a hunting dog for an unstoppable organization.
Every instant had been a chain of crises.
Missions where death was inevitable, positions where he had to die. To survive, he had no choice but to kill—and if he couldn’t, he died.
Failure meant death, but even success didn’t guarantee survival.
A life on the edge of a blade.
One misstep, and he was gone. Walking through impenetrable darkness, where life and death brushed past with every step.
That was the life he’d lived.
Even a thousand perfect steps couldn’t save him from death on the next.
But.
‘……I survived.’
How, exactly?
Looking back, it was utterly bizarre.
How had he clung to life on that path lined with thorns of death?
The reason was clear, in fact.
He’d simply… walked the right path.
No—more precisely, he’d believed it was right and never hesitated.
That realization left no room for doubt.
No questions like, “Where did it all go wrong?”
What he had to do now was crystal clear.
Calm the rampaging mana, seize its reins, and form a core. That was it.
Of course, even calming the mana was the problem……
‘Right. Let’s do this.’
Rampaging mana was like wild horses—the more you tried to suppress it, the more fiercely it bucked. And right now, it wasn’t just one or two, but thousands.
So, set it free.
With his resolve set, he acted swiftly.
First……
‘……Hoo.’
Aster exhaled softly and emptied his mind.
He let go of the urge to control.
Once his mind was clear, the rampaging mana no longer terrified him. Only the excruciating pain clouded his senses.
And next.
……Let it all go.
‘I don’t need a core.’
Crunch, crrrunch!
Aster twisted the collapsing core himself. Tearing it to shreds, splintering it, scattering it completely.
He wasn’t acting out of some calculated strategy.
It simply… felt like the natural flow.
And so—
Krrrrunch, crunch!
Rumble……!
The mana, now fully unleashed, began rampaging through his insides. No, it didn’t stop there.
Some of it leaked out of his body, and thanks to his mana body, even the mana dissolved in his blood joined the torrent, surging wildly.
Amid it all.
‘……Now, the final step.’
Even in the peak of agony, Aster followed the natural flow and acted.
What was that flow?
The New Heavenly Origin Art.
A half-formed secret art, its imagery still unset.
That was it.
* * *
“Urgh!”
Library Director Teheman hurriedly pulled back his hand as Aster’s mana invaded in reverse.
He pushed out the intruding mana while suppressing his own, which threatened to churn in response.
“Cough!”
A gush of blood.
Teheman calmed his mana and wiped the blood from his lips.
His eyes fixed on Aster.
“What in the world…….”
To Teheman, the situation was utterly incomprehensible.
Yes, releasing the rampaging mana made sense.
Aster might not have known it, but relinquishing control was one way to manage mana backlash.
But.
‘……Why?’
Aster had destroyed his own core.
In other words, he’d voluntarily forsaken a mage’s life.
There were many ways to handle mana backlash, but none involved handling it like this.
Had he given up?
‘No, that can’t be it.’
Frankly, before Aster shattered his core, the situation hadn’t been completely hopeless.
Merging the two split cores was one option, or sacrificing one to save the other.
Either way, it would come with irreversible damage……
But shattering the core?
Why had Aster made such a bold choice?
For some reason, Teheman felt like he understood.
“……You’re being chased.”
He didn’t know by what.
Even though Teheman knew more of Aster’s secrets than most, he didn’t know everything.
That thought stirred a faint ripple in Teheman’s eyes. It was a pity beyond words.
“What…… is driving you this hard?”
You’re already going fast enough.
You walk horizons ordinary people can’t even imagine.
At this rate, your name will echo through history, and any wealth or fame you desire will be yours.
So why?
Through Teheman’s eyes, blind to the world, Aster’s form flickered like text on a page.
What burden did those small shoulders carry…….
Teheman didn’t know.
He only felt sorrow.
“You can run a little slower.”
You’re already doing so well.
……Of course, his voice wouldn’t reach Aster.
Still, Teheman gazed at the boy struggling alone and murmured emptily, knowing it.
“It’s okay…… to take it easy.”
Because that small boy seemed to bear a load too heavy for him. Living like that, he’d eventually crumble.
Don’t break. Don’t fall.
That was all Teheman could do for Aster now.
Hoping he wouldn’t crumble…… believing and watching.
How long had Teheman waited with that earnest wish?
Crackle, sizzle—!
Suddenly, intense sparks bloomed in the air.
“……!”
Teheman’s face hardened at the abrupt mana flow, and he retreated.
“What is this……?”
The air rippled.
Mana churned, creating a vicious torrent.
Soon, suffocatingly dense mana sprayed in all directions from its center.
One person stood there.
……Aster.
Changes overtook the boy’s body.
Pop, drip—
With faint bursting sounds, his skin cracked like parched earth. Soon, it sloughed off like shed skin.
Teheman sensed it instinctively.
Something…… was changing.
Perhaps a monumental shift unlike anything in magic history.
* * *
How much time had passed?
Silence settled in the stone chamber, which had roiled with rippling mana and surging mana streams.
Teheman, standing far back, trembled around his eyes.
‘Is it…… over?’
Teheman hurriedly extended his senses to check Aster’s condition.
For starters, his breathing was stable. No—more than stable, it was deep and clear. Whether “clear” fit breathing, he wasn’t sure, but anyway.
But the mana’s state mattered more.
So Teheman sharpened his senses further to probe……
Zzzzing—!
“Ugh!”
Teheman winced at the sudden intense stimulus piercing his mind.
People often say looking at the sun stings the eyes.
This was exactly that.
In short, his senses had picked up a stimulus too vast to handle……
It was then that a change came over Aster’s steady, rhythmic breathing.
“…….”
Aster gently lifted his slightly closed eyelids.
The scene before him was no different.
The glowing stones illuminating the space. The stone chamber densely etched with geometric patterns. Ah, but there was one difference.
Senior Teheman, standing far back.
Aster gazed at him briefly, then glanced down. Teheman’s voice came right then.
“……Are you alright?”
Instead of answering, Aster slowly clenched and unclenched his fist.
He wasn’t even sure himself. Whether this state was good or not.
After fiddling with his palm a few times, Aster turned his focus inward to observe.
Silence returned.
“…….”
Teheman didn’t rush him.
He simply waited for Aster to finish observing and speak.
Meanwhile, anxiety crept in.
From the aura, it seemed he’d successfully tamed the backlash—but backlash didn’t end just by taming it.
Sometimes, side effects during the process left irreversible aftereffects.
How much longer did they wait?
Aster’s lips parted.
“I’m fine…… no.”
Mid-sentence, Aster rolled his eyes as if choosing words, then finished.
“Better than ever.”
“Better…… than ever?”
Aster nodded.
Yes, his condition was better than it had ever been.
First, this body.
Already sturdy from the mana body, but now it transcended mere sturdiness.
Like being reborn?
For a knight, it would be…… yeah.
Body Change.
As if he’d undergone physical restructuring.
Just breathing in and out filled him with inexpressible vitality from deep in his gut.
But what delighted Aster even more was something else.
Left chest, heart.
Surrounding the organ steadily contracting and relaxing with slow, powerful beats—a concentration of mana.
Not a core.
In place of the vanished core, nestled against his heart: a ring-shaped……
Circle.
But not just one.
……Three.
Observing the three circles that had taken the core’s place, Aster grinned.
“Sunbae, do you know the dragon that became a legend?”
“Dra……gon?”
Aster nodded at the puzzled Teheman.
“Yes, dragon.”
“Why dragons all of a sudden…….”
“Who knows.”
Aster chuckled softly and took in the space.
He raised a finger slightly. Mana gathered at its tip. Not channeled through mana……
Just by will alone.
The circles’ resonance had drawn the mana.
It was the same phenomenon as entering transcendence, but Aster hadn’t achieved transcendence now.
If anything……
The power of the circles.
With this new secret art, he’d emulated transcendence.
No, not emulated.
‘……A new path.’
Yes, he’d opened new horizons in magic.
Aster’s own transcendence was unique to him alone, but circles—once the method was established—anyone could learn them.
Magic Tower.
This was the moment its foundational secret art was born.