-2376- [ Magician ]

At some point, the radiant light atop the Keystone Gate dimmed and vanished.

Seated at the very top center of the Keystone Gate, the Miracle at Rozen's fingertips finally ceased absorbing mana and gradually calmed.

Rozen slowly opened his eyes.

And as he did, a wave of unprecedented exhaustion washed over him, causing him to collapse right where he sat.

"Huff... huff..."

Rozen panted heavily, his complexion turning deathly pale.

Feeling the emptiness within his magical circuits, Rozen let out a bitter smile.

"To think... even with my current level of mana, I could still run dry."

The mana that once surpassed even planetary levels had now been completely exhausted.

What did that mean?

It meant that just moments ago, Rozen had drained the mana equivalent of an entire planet.

To complete Cleansing, his Miracle had consumed the full power of a planet—and only then did he barely achieve this miraculous feat.

No—not only that—Rozen also consumed the power of a Holy Grail just to make it happen.

"Senpai! Are you okay?!"

Mash's panicked voice rang out from within Rozen's body.

The other girls followed soon after.

"How are you? Can you still move?"

Artoria [Alter] asked with seemingly calm tone but an anxious pace.

"You're completely insane, you know that?"

Jeanne [Alter] scolded outright.

"Rozen-sama!"

Even Serenity sounded deeply worried.

Hearing the voices of these girls, Rozen's smile only grew more helpless.

"Don't worry, I'm fine... Just drained every last drop of mana, that's all." Rozen sighed, resigned. "I should have expected this. The power of Miracle requires Foreign Mana to fully operate. I tried to substitute it with an incomplete version, so the consumption rate was bound to be brutal."

But even so, Rozen hadn't expected that his own mana—vast enough to rival that of a planet—could be drained completely dry.

Had Mash not realized the danger and sacrificed her own Holy Grail, Rozen wouldn't just have been drained—he would've failed, and all his effort today would have been in vain.

"It's all thanks to you, Mash," Rozen said, his voice tinged with gratitude. "But… it's a shame you had to sacrifice your own Holy Grail for me."

Yes.

Mash's Holy Grail was now gone.

Being a high-purity crystallization of mana, it had been wholly consumed by Miracle as it replenished Rozen's own magic.

Now, that Holy Grail was lost forever.

But—

"As long as I could help you, Senpai, that's all that matters." Mash, not even remotely upset, let out a sigh of relief. "To be honest, I didn't know how to use the power of the Holy Grail anyway… and since it was a gift from you, I'm just glad it could help you when you needed it most."

That girl—pure and kind as ever—filled Rozen's heart with warmth.

However—

"This time, you've used up two whole Holy Grails. That's a steep price to pay," Artoria [Alter] said bluntly, throwing cold water on the moment.

"Serves you right. Risking your life for power—are you suicidal?" Jeanne [Alter] added with clear displeasure.

"That's not even the worst part. The worst part is that Rozen-sama's own mana is completely depleted. It won't be easy to recover from that," Serenity said, worry in her voice.

They were all right.

Rozen hadn't just used up two Holy Grails—he'd exhausted all of his own mana too.

Recovering mana of that magnitude—on par with a planet—was a task so monumental, the difficulty was practically unfathomable.

Rozen, still pale and feeling the complete emptiness of his body, could only sigh.

Thankfully...

"For such a heavy price… the reward is just as great."

With effort, Rozen raised his right arm.

There, from his wrist to below the elbow, his arm was covered in intricate lines.

A set of carved magical patterns.

It looked like an impossibly complex labyrinth, yet also like a vast starry sky—beautiful and glowing.

At first glance, the luminous markings were mesmerizing. But if one stared too long, the patterns were so complex that they felt like they could burn your eyes and overwhelm your brain.

This was—

"Cleansing…"

Rozen and the girls within him all murmured the word together.

Their voices were filled with awe, with a sense of revelation, with a trance-like fascination.

The spell known as Cleansing had successfully been engraved into a Magic Crest, now etched into Rozen's body.

Rozen had succeeded.

Not only had he acquired the magical knowledge capable of reshaping the world—he had realized it, made it usable.

Rozen could feel it: he was now like a god standing above all.

When he used this spell—this profound truth of the cosmos—he could accomplish anything.

—Omnipotence.

That was the sensation Rozen felt.

He truly felt that, with this power, he could create a world with a single thought—or destroy one just as easily.

And it wasn't a delusion.

This forbidden spell, a culmination of the power of countless worlds, truly had that potential.

That is—if Rozen could sustain the cost of wielding it.

Through the knowledge of Cleansing now in his mind, Rozen understood:

"To unleash the full power of this forbidden spell, Foreign Mana is absolutely required."

Realizing this, Rozen couldn't help but sigh.

"Foreign Mana again?"

Why did every one of his truly powerful abilities rely on Foreign Mana?

But thinking about it, it made sense.

This was a forbidden spell forged from the collective knowledge of innumerable worlds, a symbol of omniscience and omnipotence. How could it function at full capacity without mana from beyond the world?

"Still, it can be activated with regular mana—though its power will be limited."

If used with standard mana, it would likely only be as powerful as the Cleansing native to this world.

If used with compressed mana, its power could increase.

With High-Grade Mana, the spell's power would rise even further.

But to truly unleash the spell's limitless might, Foreign Mana was necessary.

"I guess I'm the only one who could meet that requirement," Rozen muttered.

This forbidden spell was something that only Rozen could use.

Not just use—even the Magic Crest itself was so complex that no one else could transplant it.

It likely couldn't even be split into offshoots.

Which meant this magic, and this Magic Crest, truly belonged to Rozen alone.

Even all of the magical knowledge within Rozen's mind had been fused into the spell. It no longer existed as separate techniques or theories.

After all, knowledge is always evolving—replacing the old, validating the new. Rozen, who had absorbed knowledge from countless worlds, now found his own vast magical theories riddled with contradictions and gaps. The structures no longer stood alone—they had been entirely absorbed into Cleansing.

But that was fine. Rozen's Cleansing could reproduce any technique. The theories no longer mattered.

Which meant from this moment forward, Rozen no longer possessed any miscellaneous spells or magical abilities.

Now, Rozen possessed only a single spell.

And that was—Cleansing.

And possessing that magic meant Rozen was no longer a mere Magus.

Rozen now had only one title.

And that title was—Magician.