The Walking Magic Tower (2)

Now, this is the only thing left to trust.

I hurried back to where the Ark was, with Baek Seo-ha and Karin helping me along.

The Ark exuded an unsettling aura, magic power seething backward through the crack running down its surface.

I swallowed dryly and stood before it.

"What the hell is even going on? Why won't Diana wake up, and why are you suddenly looking for the Ark?"

"At this rate, Diana will die."

"…Huh?"

I answered honestly, sharing everything I knew with the two of them.

Starting with the fact that the Cardinal's 'Sunlight' attack was wielded by burning up his own soul.

And that anyone struck by it suffered damage to their soul along with their body.

Come to think of it, that was strange.

Going out of his way to consume his own soul for attack and recovery when he had plenty of other means available.

It was to deliver a sword strike that carved out the soul itself.

Power that killed its wielder even as it killed the enemy.

The kind of power that played perfectly into a sacrificial gambit.

The annihilation of the soul….

Quite the exquisite coincidence, as coincidences went.

It was the exact opposite of my 'Salvation,' which resurrected souls as spirit bodies.

If another Cardinal possesses the same power… I need to find a way to repair souls in advance.

The Cardinals hadn't taken part in the Iron Blood Legion before my regression.

I didn't know the exact reason, but in this life, my interference must have weakened the Legion's forces even further than before.

There was a high chance the Cardinals would join this war.

If only to be ready for that moment.

I had no choice but to see this long project through.

Wiz, are you ready?

Checking the confident messages floating before my eyes, I placed my hand against the fissure in the Ark.

Whoooooooosh!

And then the universe inside the crystal sphere began seeping into me.

No — to be precise…

the other soul within me, 'Wiz,' was rapidly scanning the information and storing it inside herself.

"…Ghk."

A sharp ache shot through my skull.

No matter how much Wiz handled the actual storage, the Ark itself was still flooding into me.

There was no way my body could come away unscathed.

Good for you.

The magic and knowledge that Earth's mages had been steadily accumulating ever since the age of Gates dawned.

The distilled essence of all of it was being passed down to me.

Not that I understand magic all that well yet.

If anyone tried to cram that much information into their head all at once, their brain would burst and they'd die.

Only something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like Wiz — the legacy of the sages — could manage it.

Looking at it now, I'd thought the inside of the crystal sphere was a spreading galaxy.

But on closer inspection, every single one of those densely packed stars was a magic formula.

Good grief — just how many spells were stored in there?

Whoooooooosh!

The landscape within the crystal sphere churned like liquid.

In the end, not a single drop was left behind — the entire Ark was drawn into me.

The instant I finished absorbing the entire Ark, a flood of new functions popped up before me.

Oddly enough, though, I didn't feel all that different myself.

"Y-you just absorbed the entire Ark…?!"

Baek Seo-ha staggered back a step in disbelief.

"Wait a second… Diana clearly said the Ark was the very source of the Magic Tower…."

Karin's eyes went wide, as if something had just clicked.

"Then from now on, doesn't that make you the Magic Tower, Tae-hyun?"

"…I'm sorry, what?"

"A walking Magic Tower… that's incredible!"

What does that even mean.

Not a Tower Master, not a Grand Magus — a walking Magic Tower.

'The least you could do is treat me like a person.'

After successfully storing the Ark within Wiz, we returned to where Diana lay collapsed.

Please.

Let this work.

Downing one more Ki-Cheong Pill, I wrung out the last of my strength and activated Dragon Slayer Transformation.

And at the same time—

I created magic.

Zirarararak!

Lines of magic spread out, drawing themselves in beautifully woven arcs.

Perhaps it was thanks to the function being updated to '2.0'.

The amount of information I was operating had changed.

It felt as if the galaxy inside the Ark had been brought to life around me.

On top of that, the magic power draining out of my body had shrunk to less than half of what it used to be.

At this level…

I could use it mid-battle without any trouble.

About an hour had passed since I focused my mind.

At last, the magic I'd been waiting for was finished.

And in that instant—

Along with an intense surge of magic, the power within began to shift and mutate little by little.

Crackle-buzz-zzt!

Another 'artificial soul,' modeled after Wiz.

In size and presence it was infinitesimally small compared to the original, but—

This, too, was another Wiz — one that had split off from Wiz herself.

A sublime soul brimming with boundless potential.

Steadily harmonizing the two souls, I recited the command phrase Wiz had taught me.

"By lawful right of succession to the very end of the Sorcery Path, I command."

Swaaaaaah!

A blue aura bloomed across my palm.

I laid it against Diana's chest.

"The content of my command: find the method to perfectly restore her soul. Until that task is fulfilled, dwell within this body and serve my will."

Fwah!

The blue aura radiated light and sank into her.

"Did that… do it…?"

Every last scrap of my stamina and willpower was spent now.

Barely holding my teetering consciousness upright, I checked on Diana's condition.

And a short while later—

"…Mnn."

Her eyelids fluttered.

Diana glanced around in a daze, her gaze hazy.

"Ah… thank god…."

Thud!

I remember nothing after that.

Maybe it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠because I'd squeezed out every remaining ounce of strength, or maybe it was the serious injuries on top of that — but this blackout was deep and heavy.

You could say my body had gone on an all-out strike.

"Ughh…."

So when I finally opened my eyes, I felt surprisingly refreshed.

Granted, an excruciating wave of pain crashed in right after.

"Ghk—?!"

The agony made curses well up unbidden.

Checking myself over, I found I was in a hospital gown, bandages wound around ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my entire body.

"What in the world…."

"Tae-hyun!"

"Tae-hyun-nim!"

"H-hey, he's awake!"

"Guild Master!"

"You're alive?! You're not dead?!"

"Tae-hyun!"

As I sat up, a whole crowd of people flooded into my field of vision.

Baek Seo-ha, Karin, Shin Min-woo, Shin Yeon-hee, Ah Seo-ah — and even Ji Yeon-ha.

"What the…."

Am I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠back in Korea?

While I was still reeling, Baek Seo-ha started explaining.

"…You were in a coma for three days."

"Three days?"

Huh, less than I'd expected.

The moment my expression turned carefree, veins bulged across Baek Seo-ha's pale forehead.

"That's not the same as sleeping for three days! You were knocking on death's door!"

"…Huh?"

"The doctors looked at your condition and said there was no hope… I really…."

In that moment—

Her eyes flushed red and glistened with tears.

And it wasn't just Baek Seo-ha; everyone else's reactions were much the same.

I must have been pretty badly hurt, huh.

Well, bones and muscle had all been laid bare.

My consciousness had flatlined from mana exhaustion.

If my body hadn't been 'slightly sturdier' than most… I don't even want to imagine how that would have ended.

"I'm sorry. I won't throw my body around like this again."

"…Really?"

Honestly? I couldn't promise that.

The enemies I'd be fighting from here on out weren't the kind I could face carefully, nursing my own body along.

But as much as possible—

"Yeah, really."

—I'd try not to worry my people.

"Sniff…."

Baek Seo-ha, who had been fighting back tears, turned her head away.

"…We're not in Korea — we're in England. There was no way we could airlift a patient in your state, so we decided to treat you here first."

"So everyone flew all the way to England for me?"

"You got hurt, hyung — how was I supposed to stay in Korea?! Of course I came straight here!"

"It was no small feat, let me tell you. Especially since the moment I started moving, the media came swarming like vultures…."

Ji Yeon-ha ground her teeth and dropped into a chair.

Summing up the three days while I'd been out, here's what had happened:

The British Magic Tower had suffered an attack from an unknown assailant, leaving it devastated — all but annihilated.

Every mage belonging to the Tower was dead, save for the handful who had been out on assignment.

The whereabouts of the 'Ark' — the source and root of the Tower — remained officially undisclosed.

"There's less out in the open than I expected?"

"We agreed to hold the rest back and release it once you woke up. Your contribution this time was too great."

"Who decided that?"

"…Who do you think."

The silver-haired woman walking in through the hospital room door.

"Me, of course."

Diana.

She flashed a grin as she looked at me.

Is she… completely recovered?

I was a little skeptical.

Her collapsing soul should have been barely held together by Wiz's power, after all.

On the surface, though, she looked no different from her usual self.

"You did most of the work this time. If I ran things my own way, it'd be hard to steer everything exactly the way you like it, wouldn't it?"

"Well… that's true."

"So I deliberately released only the bare minimum of information. Not that even that alone gave the vultures plenty to chew on, but we've managed to hold out until now…."

Diana sidled closer as she spoke.

"And now, it's about time we make one big splash."

Then she glanced at the others with a knowing smile.

"Sorry, but could the two of us talk alone? This touches on a rather sensitive subject."

"………"

"Something… something about this feels really off…."

Baek Seo-ha and Karin shot us meaningful looks, but eventually everyone filed out.

"Well then, now it's just the two of us?"

"It would seem so. Then, let's get down to business about this incident…."

How should I shape this whole affair?

The moment I turned the thought over and opened my mouth to begin—

"Tae-hyun-niiim!"

Fwump!

Diana suddenly threw herself into my arms.

"Gwack—?!"

The sudden hug was startling enough, but the pain came first.

I'm a patient! A patient, I say!

"Ngh…."

"Kyaa?! I-I'm so sorry! I was just so happy to see you that I…!"

Diana hung her head like a puppy caught misbehaving.

"N-no, it's… fine. More importantly, what on earth is going on…."

"Hm? You couldn't have forgotten already, could you?! It's me — me!"

She looked up at me with an aegyo-laden expression she would never have worn in her usual life.

That tone. That face.

That look that made the emoticon ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ ) spring to mind unbidden….

"…Wiz?"

"Yes! It's me, Wiz!"

Diana — no, the 'Wiz' dwelling within Diana's body — beamed at me.

"Allow me to introduce myself once more!"

Her eyes sparkled as she gazed at me.

As if she wanted to etch every last detail of me into those eyes.

"I am the legacy of the sages, the very end of the Sorcery Path — and Tae-hyun-nim's eternal helper, Wiz! It is an honor to meet my rightful master, Tae-hyun-nim!"

The strongest soul had finally obtained the strongest body.