-2375- The wish

Now, there was only one thing Rozen had to do.

That was to inscribe the Cleansing ritual into a Magic Crest and brand it onto his own body.

In doing so, Rozen would be able to wield the power of Cleansing freely, as if it were a limb of his own body.

Of course, achieving that wouldn't be easy.

"Even inscribing a normal spell into a Magic Crest takes a significant amount of effort. How much more so for Cleansing, a forbidden spell that steps into the realm of true magic?"

Leaving aside the difficulty of crest inscription itself, just the act of creating a Magic Crest wasn't something that could be casually attempted.

The earliest Magic Crests were typically created by embedding fragments of extinct Phantasmal Species or Mystic Codes into the body.

Since this meant embedding foreign matter into one's flesh, it caused intense rejection reactions within the body.

Thus, the first Magic Crests had to be passed down and endured over several generations, with each magician imprinting their own magecraft into it, slowly completing the Magic Crest over time.

But in modern times, nearly no magus uses that method anymore.

That's because today's magi who walk the path of mystery almost always seek refuge with powerful families and obtain offshoots of their Magic Crests from them, securing stronger crests and magical heritage that way.

This method was far more convenient and effective than creating a Magic Crest from scratch. It required less time enduring the rejection, made it easier to guide the crest's development, and was an undeniably attractive approach.

However, transplanting a Magic Crest from someone else meant dividing the original crest's power. The mother crest would sustain damage.

Still, such damage could typically be repaired by a skilled Crest Engineer within several months to a year. Moreover, the receiving magus and their bloodline would usually offer deep loyalty in return. That's why most noble factions used this system of offshoots to create branch families, treating the mother Magic Crest as the source of multiple others, thereby expanding their influence.

That said, a Magic Crest was still fundamentally a foreign entity. Barring exceptional cases, it could only be inherited by blood relatives. Even then, rejection reactions would still occur to some extent. Thus, most magus families began transplantation during adolescence, using regular medication and expert Crest Engineering to slowly build resistance until the crest could be fully assimilated.

If inheritance was already that troublesome, how much harder would creation be?

Clearly, Rozen had no way to inherit a Magic Crest containing Cleansing.

Which meant he had to create it from scratch.

And it was obvious that inscribing something as vast and complex as Cleansing—a ritual formed by the fusion of the magical knowledge of countless worlds—into a crest would be no easier than spending decades constructing a great altar.

Fortunately…

"I still have the Holy Grail, the ultimate wish-granting device."

As he thought of that, Rozen flipped his palm, and a golden urn appeared in his hand.

—The Holy Grail.

This ultimate cauldron of the magical world was essentially a high-purity crystal of magical energy, a nearly inexhaustible mana source.

When one made a wish upon it, what the Holy Grail really did was reduce the time needed to fulfill that wish to zero, skipping all processes and conditions, and realizing the result directly on the spot.

In other words, it couldn't grant wishes that were outright impossible by human means—it could only use mana to instantly fulfill wishes that humans could theoretically achieve, no matter how long or arduous they might be.

Therefore, with the Holy Grail, helping Rozen complete the inscription of the Magic Crest wasn't beyond reach.

Even if the object to be inscribed was Cleansing, a true magic ritual, the inscription itself wasn't an impossible task—just one that normally required massive amounts of time and effort.

But with the Holy Grail, Rozen could skip straight to the finished product.

As for the materials needed to make the Magic Crest, Rozen had already made his decision.

"Fragments of Phantasmal Species and Mystic Codes aren't even remotely enough to bear the weight of a magic like Cleansing."

There was only one vessel in Rozen's possession capable of carrying Cleansing.

That was the wish-granting device in his hand—the Holy Grail.

In other words…

"I'll use the Holy Grail as the material for my Magic Crest and embed it into my body."

That was the only method with any chance of successfully crest-inscribing Cleansing.

And so, Rozen raised the golden urn in his hand and slammed it against his right arm.

"Vmm!"

The golden urn instantly turned into a stream of light and fused into Rozen's right arm.

In that instant, his entire arm blazed with radiant brilliance.

Rozen then made his wish to the Holy Grail.

"Become my Magic Crest, and transform the magic within my mind into fixed mystery!"

As that wish was declared, the blinding light on Rozen's right arm began to change.

It started to flow, then turned into streams of light that traced out patterns on his arm as though etching something into his flesh.

Those patterns were an exact match for the Cleansing ritual that was gradually taking shape in Rozen's mind.

The vast, intricate, convoluted, and lengthy ritual was slowly carved out like a miniaturized constellation. From afar, it looked dazzlingly beautiful.

Rozen focused all his attention on inscribing this Magic Crest that would belong to him alone, completely unaware that his situation was becoming dire.

"Vmmm…!"

Inside his body, the tremendous torrents of magical energy he once had were being devoured by Miracle like a whale swallowing water, consumed at an astonishing rate.

Even though Rozen had once compressed his vast magical reserves into High-Grade Mana that rivaled even dragon veins in scale, that volume had greatly diminished when converted into unstable Foreign Mana.

Now, as Miracle burned through that unstable Foreign Mana to keep the Gate to countless worlds open, Rozen's magic was depleting rapidly.

Eventually, his mana reserves began to approach total exhaustion.

If this continued, not only would Rozen fail to complete the crest inscription of Cleansing, even the spell itself would collapse due to insufficient mana. The Gate opened by Miracle would close, the flood of magical knowledge from myriad worlds would cease, and Cleansing would fall apart before it could be completed.

All of Rozen's efforts would go to waste.

And then—

"Senpai!"

With that panicked cry, a second golden urn appeared.

A girl carrying a shield appeared at Rozen's side. Without a word, she took out another golden urn and slammed it into Rozen's body.

"Vmm!"

The second golden urn merged into Rozen's body as well, becoming pure magical energy that flooded his circuits, condensing and compressing into replenishment for the nearly exhausted Foreign Mana.

With that infusion of power, Rozen finally stabilized.

The ritual known as Cleansing continued to progress, and its transformation into a Magic Crest proceeded smoothly.

Until at last, it was complete.