At the Crossroads of Life and Death
He acutely felt his own inadequacy.
All that Einzel Leonhardt had reaped from countless deaths were raw fear and agonizing pain, yet this latest mission had been different. Even after dying more times than he could count, he had learned that there existed terrors far eclipsing death itself. He had witnessed the clash of transcendent titans with his own eyes, and the sight had laid his helplessness bare. He felt desperately, pathetically weak.
He had seen Grandis. In a single day, she had brought down a fortified fortress city, and out of sheer whim and fleeting curiosity, she had pulverized another. When she appeared before him, her presence had crushed his spirit, instilling a dread far worse than the agony of dying.
He had seen the Lich King. An ancient conqueror who had reduced countless castles and kingdoms to ash, plunging any who dared disturb the rest of the dead into despair through sheer, unending legions. Looking upon that monstrosity, Einzel could do nothing but drop his jaw in hollow resignation.
And looming far above even them was the one he ultimately had to face: the Demon King.
The sovereign of all demons, the strongest entity in the world.
How many times had he been butchered by Genom, the weakest of the Demon King's Corps Commanders? And against Grandis, hailed as the strongest among them, what had he ever managed to accomplish? Nothing at all.
Just contemplating it made his vision swim with vertigo, a dizzying abyss opening beneath his feet. Yet that was the destination he walked toward; that was the trial he had to overcome. Einzel realized with brutal clarity that in his current state, challenging such a monster was an act of pure futility.
Driven by that desperation, he sought out his companions again and again, begging them for guidance. To be frank, the vast majority of what they tried to teach him was far too advanced for him to grasp easily. Yet he did not give up. He could not afford to give up.
And among all the comrades whose doors he knocked on, the one he visited most frequently was Peria.
"...Why does it feel like you only ever come bother me?"
Peria grumbled under her breath even as she slid a steaming cup of herbal tea toward him across the desk.
"Drink it while it's hot. Herbs help clear the mind."
"Thanks."
A faint blush rose to Peria's cheeks. Frowning in an attempt to hide it, she snapped back.
"I didn't give it to you to get a 'thank you'! I'm just trying to make that thick skull of yours work a tiny bit better!"
Perhaps realizing she had been a bit too harsh, she cleared her throat and hastily changed the subject.
"Hmph. So, why are you focusing so heavily on magic anyway?"
Einzel answered as if the reason were self-evident.
"Versatility."
Archery was useless against foes like the undead, and swordsmanship was powerless against massive fortifications in a siege. A mage, on the other hand, could pull their own weight on virtually any battlefield imaginable.
"I don't know what kind of enemies I'll be facing down the road. I want to be able to adapt to as much as possible."
"Hmm... Well, at least your mindset isn't terrible."
There was an old adage in the arcane world that a true mage only began at the Expert rank. Before reaching that threshold, those capable of casting only rudimentary spells were called mere magic users rather than true mages. In terms of raw realm, Einzel had reached the Expert rank, but his mindset and foundation did not match it. Blessed by the Holy Sword, he had been able to cast spells simply by memorizing formulas by rote. However, his fundamental comprehension of the spell matrices—something any genuine mage was expected to possess—was abysmal.
"Still... Sigh, never mind. If that's how it is, fine."
Nodding at his answer, Peria set about teaching Einzel the precise principles behind spell formulas. Unlike many modern practitioners, Peria was a staunch traditionalist within the magical world, firmly believing that one had to master every nuance of a formula before being able to wield true magic. Of course, her upbringing had everything to do with that philosophy.
"Rather than blindly memorizing formulas, you have to understand them down to the finest detail—and eventually learn to refine or even create them yourself. That's how I learned, how my master learned, and how my master's master learned before him. Merely reciting a memorized matrix isn't walking the true path of magic, and it certainly won't make you stronger."
She took immense pride in the way she had studied the craft. And she had every right to be proud: she was, after all, the direct disciple of the Magic Tower Master.
"Now, take Fireball. How many formulas are woven into it?"
"Fire, explosion, projection."
When Einzel answered, a satisfied smile spread across Peria's lips, and she reached out to ruffle his hair.
"Look at that. Seems you're not a total blockhead after all. What about Flame Storm, then?"
Flame Storm was a high-tier spell, well beyond what an Expert could typically cast. Einzel tilted his head, puzzled as to why she was quizzing him on a spell that even Peria herself couldn't yet cast.
Anticipating his reaction, Peria let out a soft, smug huff through her nose.
"Flame Storm consists of fire, wind, rotation, acceleration, trajectory, and amplification. What do you think when you hear that?"
"Uh... it doesn't sound as drastically different as I thought?"
"Exactly! That's the point. The gap between low-tier and high-tier magic isn't as wide as people think. To someone who doesn't understand the formulas, the divide seems insurmountable. But once you grasp the underlying principles, the difference between them is just three additional components. Granted, bridging that gap is tough, but it's far from impossible. Do you see what I'm getting at now?"
"Ah..."
"There was a time when the Empire was known as the Empire of Mages. Back then, the imperial crest was the phoenix, but regardless, mages were the driving force behind its golden age. Nowadays, the place is crawling with fools who can do nothing but regurgitate formulas by rote. But the real mages who built the Empire's might and founded the Magic Tower all truly understood the craft. I want you to become a mage worthy of that legacy."
An era when the imperial banner bore a phoenix rather than a dragon. She was holding him to the standard of that radiant golden age of magic.
"All right. Now, give this formula a try. Good... just like that..."
When Einzel painstakingly stacked each component formula one by one and finally unleashed a brilliant flare of magic, Peria broke into a radiant smile. She threw her arms around him in a tight hug, tears welling in her eyes.
"Yes, exactly like that! You did it!"
Einzel smiled back at her.
Realizing what she had just done, Peria recoiled, pulling back sharply and clearing her throat in embarrassment.
"Ahem! K-Khmm... Well, with this, you've surpassed at least seven out of ten fools in the Magic Tower."
"Wait, really? Does that make any sense?"
Peria, who had grown up studying magic in the tower since childhood, was an exception; most mages affiliated with the Magic Tower were prominent scholars of considerable renown. Claiming he was already better than the majority of them naturally invited skepticism.
"I'm serious! The so-called mages here have zero creativity—they just blindly copy what came before them. They praise the past without the slightest clue of where magic ought to go next. They worship ancient legacies without understanding the spirit that created them!"
She huffed and gave Einzel an encouraging slap on the back.
"You're doing great. ...Though you're still slow enough to drive me up a wall sometimes."
Flustered by her own praise, she tacked on the insult at the end.
Einzel only smiled.
And so, their training continued.
It wasn't just magic that Einzel threw himself into. Magic had simply taken top priority because he sought versatility, but coping with unpredictable battles ultimately required swordsmanship, archery, and miracles as well. When he faced Genom, even though he was captured in the end, hadn't he bought a considerable amount of time by blending those disciplines together?
"Yes, right. Just like that... Good."
Sayne instructed Einzel with remarkable gentleness. The reason was simple: she had recently broken through to the realm of High Expert, and with her father having departed for their family estate, the suffocating pressure to marry had lifted, granting her newfound peace of mind.
Watching her, Einzel felt a strange, complicated sensation. Everything about the woman before him seemed entirely different from the past.
He looked at her as she beamed, genuinely delighted by the progress she had achieved. Seeing her smile was wonderful, but deep down, a pang of bitterness lingered all the same.
He fought to dispel those lingering thoughts through grueling practice. As he immersed himself completely in his blade work, Sayne spoke up.
"Why don't you try weaving in magic or miracles, too?"
Einzel cocked his head. He had cast spells after setting them up in advance, but casting in the midst of an active clash of blades? Could it work? Doubt rippled through his mind.
Even so, right in the middle of exchanging blows with Sayne, he unleashed a Fireball.
The spell came at an utterly unexpected angle and rhythm, breaking Sayne's breathing. For the very first time in their sparring matches, Einzel seized the initiative and pushed her onto the defensive.
"Yes! This is great!"
Rather than answering her praise, Einzel kept his mouth firmly shut and prepared another invocation. This time, it was a miracle.
Manifesting a protective barrier of divine light around his body, he abandoned all defensive parrying and lunged forward into an aggressive thrust.
When her counterstrike bounced cleanly off his barrier, Sayne didn't even attempt to block; instead, she threw herself to the ground, rolling away to dodge the descending sword.
"...That's far more impressive than I expected."
Einzel gave a silent nod. For the first time, he felt as though he had caught a glimpse of the path ahead.
