Chapter 357 – Thousand Years of Promise, Thousand Years of Waiting (2)

“You’re gone.”

“… Yes. Really gone.”

Right after Yandel jumped through the door opened by the circulating life and threw himself into the distortion of time.

Iris muttered blankly, and Elisha nodded her head with an even more weary expression.

Did it look too pitiful? Carla gently grabbed Elisha’s hand and said.

“Elisha. Now…”

“I know, Carla. We do what we have to do. Because that’s what Yandel asked for.”

Grumpy voice. The other people also stood up from their seats one by one, cheering up.

An atmosphere where everyone is ready to fight. Even at this moment, the circulating life, a little tired from supplying Yandel with enormous life force, lightly reached out and said,

“Are you going? If so, we will open the way.”

Another door that appeared opposite the door Yandel entered.

Solari watched this for a while and whispered softly to the circulating life.

“… My husband. I wish you well.”

“Don’t worry. I will do my best like my child.”

The circulating life that still looks tired, but nods loudly as if to be relieved.

The Solari also nodded and headed out of the sanctuary.

Others also enter the door in turn, nodding lightly toward the circulating life, whether or not they feel greatly different.

Finally, Iris looked at the door Yandel entered with a complicated expression, but… In the end, she got her feet together with the others.

Just like Yandel, in order to continue their fight in their respective places.

***

The inside of the time warp was a little different from what I thought.

I wondered if I was enduring the infinite circular staircase that I saw when I first came to the Sanctuary of Circulating Life…

“What?”

In fact, the space spread out in front of my eyes was the scenery of a vast grove. There was even a cabin set up for comfort.

Perhaps this is the result of the adjustments circulating life spoke of.

I heard that in addition to this, in exchange for feeling the pain a little more distinctly, it maintains a state of forced awakening so that it never goes crazy.

I did not feel hunger, and physiological activities such as defecation and sleep were also temporarily suspended.

If I go out someday, I will slowly forget what happened in this place to prevent my current mind from being ruined in advance.

It was an adjustment that took care of even the smallest details. Maybe it’s a trap made to collapse the minds of enemies, so he knows the danger better.

When I went inside the cabin with a smile, I saw a bleak figure with only one bed. He probably didn’t care about the other furniture. Or lack of time for that.

“Well, I didn’t come here to play, so it doesn’t matter.”

He nodded and sat upright on the moderately hard bed. Then slowly focus on your breathing and begin to contemplate your inner self.

Ugh-

Although it consumed quite a bit in the fight against the ugly prosperity, even at this moment, with the help of the endless mana attribute, the amount of mana is recovering quickly.

However, no matter how much I recover, in the end, the vessel I have… It cannot exceed the limit of the magic stat of 28.

Stats get harder to raise as you go backwards, and the range of each increase jumps exponentially.

That’s why it is necessary to reach the Archmage in order to move on to 29, unless it is a special case.

In order to gather mana beyond one’s means, proper preparation or sacrifice is required.

I don’t have time to prepare, so I have no choice but to sacrifice.

Just in case, I checked to see if I could fill up the mana core that had recovered to about 80% while breathing mana…

It must have been true that in distorted time, you cannot gain enlightenment or build up magical power.

Instead of trying to respond to me, the mana in the atmosphere is rather frightened and runs away.

After all, there is only one way.

“Whoa.”

I sighed lightly and prepared my mind.

Converting life force into magical power is fundamentally very inefficient.

Aside from the pain in the process, the conversion rate is low, and the mana thus obtained is only a one-time use that cannot expand the bowl.

In other words, from now on, no matter what happens, you must continue to convert without stopping.

It is usually impossible. It’s not that other people ripped it off.

Unlike Mana, which has no sign of recovery, he focused his mind on his body overflowing with vitality.

Now, the mana rod, which has become one with the blood vessels, reacts to this and begins to accept life force, not mana, into it.

“Cuck!”

Sensation as if sharp pieces of glass are rolling through the veins. My eyes widen at will, and my hands and feet tremble.

I want to collapse on the floor with a scream right now…

I have to do it though.
You have to do it.

Because this is the only way to defeat the ugly prosperity, to protect me and my women.

The vitality that circulated the mana road gradually changed into magic power, and soon followed the path to the place where the mana core was located.

Originally, the mana that should have been accumulated in the core, but now it can’t do that, and it just circles around the heart like smoke.

But it was definitely magic under my control.

Feeling the energy that was still only a handful, she raised the corners of her trembling lips.

“It’s worth a try.”

The words were full of bravado, but now was the moment when the bravado was needed.

***

While concentrating on mana conversion for several hours. Suddenly, I felt a strange feeling in my body.

Pain is also a kind of stimulation. So if you continue to feel it, you will have no choice but to get used to it.

“Ouch…”

But I couldn’t get used to the pain at the cost of awakening.

The shards of glass were still tearing me from the inside, and the squeezing pressure on my heart hadn’t abated at all.

***

It’s probably been about a week. There are days and nights here too, but I can’t afford to pay attention to that, so it’s not accurate.

Anyway, after about a week, the pain got worse.

In addition to the sensation of being torn apart by pieces of glass, the sensation of slowly slicing from the extremities toward the center was added.

The reason is simple.

In the meantime, I came up with a trick of my own, and the conversion speed and efficiency improved even more.

It is only natural that more life force is converted into mana and the pain increases.

Still, this is worth it.

***

It was an illusion. How could he endure to have his lungs sting as if he were swallowing fire with every breath and his whole body being cut by saws?

I just feared being sober through all the pain.

Of course, it didn’t stop there though.

***

Origin regression was used.

In fact, Yong In-hwa had no intention of using it until the end.

In the state of tolerance, all abilities increase, so you can endure it much more easily, but it is impossible to maintain it forever.

It’s because I was afraid of the reaction when I returned to my original form one day… It was so hard that I ended up using it.

All we have to do is keep it as long as possible.

***

I was about to lose my mind.

The backlash coming after the release of Yonginhwa was more severe than expected.

However, thanks to the forced awakening, I didn’t really lose my mind. I just felt like I was holding on to one rope in my fading consciousness.

Still, thanks to holding on tightly to the rope, the mana conversion could not be stopped midway through.

So far, I’ve accumulated a bit more than twice my maximum mana, but it’s a waste to blow it up like this.

I vowed never to use Yonginhwa again, no matter how hard it was.

***

How much time has passed

The converted mana had increased tremendously before I knew it.

The smoke that swirled around the heart lingered even after filling the body, to the extent that a handful came out through the nose and mouth with each exhalation.

Of course, the smoke that came out like that didn’t disappear as it was, but it was hovering around me.

But it’s not enough. At this level, at most, I would have cast Furnishment 15 times.

No one dies from being stabbed fifteen times with a needle.

So will the ugly prosperity.

***

I couldn’t be more grateful for the excellent memory characteristic.

Whenever I was having a hard time, I always remembered the images of my girls and made up my mind, but thanks to my excellent memory, I was able to remember them no matter how much time passed.

Okay.

Is it Daesu that is painful to die every moment?

As long as this memory remains, I can die any number of times.

***

Just because there is a hut doesn’t mean you are confined to it.

I often walked in the woods because I was able to forget the pain for a while when I went outside and received other stimuli.

Then one day. For some reason, the large forest reflected in my field of view felt smaller than usual.

So I climbed up a suitable tree and took a good look.

“Ah.”

It was true that it was actually smaller.

The endless forest was becoming a desert from the end.

It is said that the power of the circulating life in this space is decreasing.

Perhaps the battle outside intensified.

The overflowing mana enveloped my body like mist, but it was still not enough.

***

The forest is all gone. The cabin and bed, where you could lie down comfortably, also turned to dust and scattered.

Fortunately, the vitality delivered by the circulating life is still there, but that is all.

There is nothing here.

Maybe that’s why I thought it was difficult for a long time.

***

I walked and walked in the desert aimlessly.

Because it was harder to sit still.

At some point, the mana was accumulated to the point where it was difficult to even measure it, but it was not yet enough to defeat the ugly prosperity.

How much longer do I have to stay like this?

There is one thing I have realized in the meantime, the awakening effect of circulating life only prevents me from going crazy, but has no other effect.

… I’m honestly a bit tired.

***

I want to see other people.

I thought that as I looked up at the dark sky all the time, as if I didn’t have the strength to stay up all day and night.

I have endured by revisiting the memories that I can still vividly recall, but this is the limit now.

I don’t know how many years have passed here, but at least it must have been a lot longer than the time I fell on the continent of Eurelia.

However, no matter how much pain it is, it is buried in time.

The longing did not dilute, only intensified.

***

I lay still and looked up at the sky.

It’s hard to even move now. It’s not that the body is tired, it’s more that the mind is so tired that it doesn’t have the strength to do so.

Just blankly looking up at the sky and counting the stars.

No, there’s no way there’s no stars left in the gray sky where even the darkness of night has already collapsed.

What I counted were memories of the past.

My women’s faces, their warmth, their voices, their touches… And the promise we made at the end.

Every time I think of it, the memories become stars and decorate the empty sky, and I endure the day again with the stars as comfort.

However, when it becomes difficult to hold on, one more time traces the past and counts new stars.

How many times did he repeat that new stars rose one by one in the sky?

The empty sky was already filled with starlight.

Carefully, I reached out my hand and grabbed hold of it.

It’s time to go.