The Final Sacrifice

"Climbing alone is not the only important thing. If you've aged, there should be corresponding reflection. But, Master, you are no different from a boy still chasing sweet ambitions."

"Kekekek! Foolish Alpheas! What is there to fear? Step back and look. There is no such thing as a truth that must be followed in this world!"

The power in Arcane's body exploded.

Alpheas, realizing again that his memory had been erased, opened his eyes wide.

The first Abyss Memory could be withstood by the brain, but the second one would almost certainly result in brain death.

"Foolish old man! Are you trying to die?"

Arcane retorted with a sneer and expanded his shadow to cover the entire basin.

From the ground, countless hands rose up, lifting all the memory-lost students into the air.

For the first time, Alpheas was terrified.

"Stop! This is pointless killing! What do you gain from this?!"

"The satisfaction of victory remains."

"You foolish idiot! At your age, you still want to win? How long will you remain a boy?!"

"Listen carefully, Alpheas."

At the last moment of his life, Arcane smiled with conviction and raised both hands.

"A wizard is an eternal boy."

The 400 people trapped by the dark power flew out of the cliff as if scooped up by a large scoop.

"Save the students!"

As soon as Alpheas's command was given, Sadh turned into a flash of light and flew.

Shirone followed closely, with Nade and Iruki also teleporting to the cliff.

There were 400 of them.

Though saving them all was impossible, the situation was so urgent that even thinking about it seemed like a luxury.

Sadh, midway up the cliff, used an Air-based magic to form a net of air.

However, since at least 50 square meters needed to be covered, some students had to be filtered out.

"Damn it!"

While Iruki and Nade, below Sadh, were also working hard, the difficulty level was still too high for students to manage.

Tears welled up as students from young children to graduating seniors fell helplessly.

"Goddamn it! Damn, damn!"

Clenching his teeth, Iruki, in a prone position, faced the sky when a single flash of light struck vertically down.

"Shirone!"

Passing between Iruki and Nade, Shirone shot toward the ground at incredible speed.

In his accelerated view, a girl with red hair appeared.

"Amy!"

At Shirone's voice, Amy's eyes shifted.

In the state of Abyss Nova, it was impossible for her to react, but Shirone shouted again, filled with a glimmer of hope.

"Amy! Wake up!"

'Wake up? What does that mean?'

Humans are thinking beings. It's harder not to think than to think.

The terrifying aspect of Abyss Nova was its ability to block these thoughts entirely…

"Amy! Amy!"

Amy could think.

The reason was simple; she was from the Carmis family.

"Amy! Wake up!"

'How bothersome. Please stop this.'

"It's me! Shirone!"

'Shirone?'

What did that mean? It was a word she didn't know.

But she couldn't ignore the three syllables that constantly tickled her mind.

'What is it? What was it? I'm really curious.'

Endless meaningless patterns of electrical signals passed through her cerebral cortex, and information sources began to be unearthed.

And finally, a clear signal burst like thunder and lightning.

'That's right! Shirone! It was Shirone!'

The frustration that had been blocked by instinct finally opened up, and her mind felt completely free.

Exhaling with relief, her eyes flared with a fiery red glow.

The veil of Abyss Nova burned away in an instant, and all memories flooded in like a tide.

'You idiot! What am I doing right now?'

Red Eyes. Academically, it's called Self-Image Memory.

When the red eyes manifest in the Carmis family's bloodline, they can return to a specific moment and reverse their state—like remembering the movement of drawing a sword and repeating the same motion without any error.

Like a schema, corrections are instant, and through this trait, the Carmis family excelled in any field.

"One mistake is the foundation of growth, two mistakes are the family's shame," their family motto shows just how their nature is.

'What is this? What's happening?'

Amy analyzed the error in her neural level, based on her self-image memory.

Currently, she was under the influence of gravitational acceleration, her body tilted at an angle of 87.6 degrees. Her heartbeat was 1.6 times faster than usual.

'I'm falling.'

She wasn't particularly dissatisfied with that.

But Shirone, descending along the flash of light, came into view. All the things she had done to him resurfaced.

How… How could she forget Shirone?

'You fool...'

She was the one who had approached him first, handed him coffee, and yet had coldly rejected him.

Trying to block out the memory she didn't want to recall, Amy tightly closed her eyes. And with all her might, she screamed.

"Shirone!"

Endlessly (3)

"Amy."

Shirone, now certain that Amy had regained her memory, smiled sadly.

At least in his final moments, he was glad to have remained in her memories.

"Thank you, Amy."

Seeing Shirone's tears, Amy was filled with anxiety.

'Why is Shirone crying?'

She had the feeling something was wrong.

When she saw the will to live fading from Shirone's eyes, she instinctively sensed what was about to happen.

"Shirone! No!"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't keep my promise."

Shirone, holding Amy tightly, fully opened the Immortal Function.

His consciousness spread infinitely, and everything that made him began to fade.

'Goodbye, everyone…'

His father, mother, the Ozent family, his school friends.

Having received the love of many, Shirone was able to leave with a smile.

A great light filled the bottom of the cliff, and soon the falling students, Iruki, Nade, and Sadh, were all engulfed by brilliant white light, disappearing from sight.

The next moment, a massive flash shot up.

It was a Mass Teleportation, moving over 400 people simultaneously.

"…"

Lying on the ground, Arcane watched.

The flash of light that rose from the cliff split into hundreds of beams and curved back toward the ground in a beautiful spectacle.

'So that's it.'

One sacrifice, ten thousand lives saved.

In the contradiction Shirone had shown, Arcane finally understood.

What kind of world he had been in, and how wonderful a villain's life he had lived.

'Even if I play my whole life, it will still be a playground. Isn't that right… Alpheas?'

His eyes slowly closed.

This was the moment when the legendary Grand Wizard, who had dominated an era, passed away.

"Master?"

Before Arcane's corpse, Canis stood in a daze.

Wasn't he supposed to be a disciple? Without even leaving a will, Arcane had left, doing only what he wanted.

"Really… Was it all for nothing? Were we just tools?"

Crawling along the floor, Canis grabbed Arcane's collar.

"Get up! How could you do this?! I should have been the one to die! Why leave me behind?"

Arin watched with sad eyes.

The form of Canis reflected in the moonlight was like a figure made of muddy liquid.

That form kept shifting, flowing like liquid, then rising back into human shape over and over again.

"No, Canis. He didn't die because of you. That person used us. He was the world's greatest villain."

Harvest intervened.

"No, Canis. Everyone died because of you. Arcane, me, and one day, Arin too."

Arin glared sharply, but Canis seemed too tired to be angry.

"Why? What did I do? Because I survived in Radum? Because I was unlucky?"

"Because you're weak."

The conclusion Harvest came to was simple.

"When will you stop living just to have others recognize you? There's no such thing as 'this is how you should live' or 'this is how you should die.' Arcane simply lived his own life until the end."

Living one's own life. Perhaps that was the hardest thing.

More than good and evil.

"Like Master..."

"Yes."

Harvest turned his gaze.

"And like that boy."

In the center, among the 400 students, Shirone lay motionless.

He had promised never to harm anyone, and until the very end, he kept that belief.

Canis checked on Harvest's condition.

"How are you?"

"What does it matter? I'll die. I can't live unless I parasitize life."

Arin spoke.

"Make a contract with me. Canis won't last without exhausting his mental power."

Harvest shook his head.

"Sorry, but that's not possible."

"What? Why not? If it goes on like this, you'll vanish."

"My master is Canis."

Canis bit his lip.

Now, it was his time to live his own life. No more excuses. It was time to take full responsibility for his life.

"Harvest, I will accept you as a subordinate. But I won't forgive betrayal twice."

"Hehe, understood, master."

"Canis! This is too dangerous! What if something goes wrong…?"

Arin stopped speaking.

Canis's shifting form, like liquid, was becoming solid, as if the mud was seeping in.

'Canis…'

Would he one day be able to remain unshaken, like Shirone's form in the moonlight?

When Harvest placed his hand on Canis, the remaining life force in him began to drain.

'If this is my life…'

Canis, who had lost consciousness, collapsed forward.

Meanwhile, separated from Canis's group, Alpheas stood with a gloomy expression.

He had saved the students, but it felt like he had lost too much.

"Headmaster."

Etella shared the same thought.

From this point on, there would be great changes at the Magic School.

The students who regained their memories would be thrown into chaos, and Alpheas's decades-old mistakes would be exposed.

"Etella, I am a sinner."

"Don't blame yourself too much. If even mistakes are unforgivable, then the very existence of humans would be a sin."

Alpheas shook his head.

Anyone could make mistakes. But everything had its consequences.

Like Arcane, Alpheas had no intention of running away.

"He's the one who elevated dark magic to the level of a grand wizard. Harvest is an innovation in the field of memory transfer. Abyss Nova will be registered as a standard spell by the Magic Association."

In front of Arcane's body, Alpheas closed his eyes.

"Always a boy, the grand wizard Arcane. The path you walked in magic will be passed down to future generations."

It must have been a complicated emotion.

Etella, understanding this, waited a moment before asking.

"Headmaster, what are you planning to do now?"

"What could I say? I am also in a position where I wait for my fate. Let the experts handle the punishment. Instead, why don't we celebrate today's hero?"

Alpheas looked for Shirone.

The boy had a talent that could amaze anyone. Even he couldn't be certain whether he could move 400 people at once.

"This is bad!"

Amy was crying beside where Shirone had collapsed.

Sensing something was wrong, Alpheas and Etella hurried, with Iruki and Nade running from the other side.

Before they could arrive, Amy had already shouted.

"Shirone isn't breathing!"

Meeting the Gods (1)

In the realm of infinity, Shirone spread endlessly, and the more he did, the fainter he became.

Without even a trace of attachment to the world, he felt like he was dissolving into everything.

Just as he was about to return to nothingness, a powerful force pulled him into a single point.