***
{Inside The Projection}
But that was all.
Just thrashing woes.
The Roc was truly dead~.
And the three, after healing Malik to a moveable state, walked to the mountain in the distance.
They reached it by the end of nightfall and the start of a new day.
Safira and Jasmine were beyond exhausted at that point, sleeping the moment they hit the cold stone.
Malik joined them.
…
The cave was dark and damp—the usual.
It wasn’t the worst place he’d been stuck in, but it was definitely up there.
Once awoken, Malik leaned against the wall, cleaning his dagger from dried blood.
Jasmine and Safira sat nearby.
They woke up an hour or so after him, fidgeting and leaning on the wall facing his.
The tension between them was thick; nobody really knew what to say.
Every time someone opened their mouth, they thought better of it and shut up again.
Finally, and unsurprisingly, Jasmine couldn’t take it anymore.
“O-O-Okay, what… what happened back there?”
Her voice was both sharp and shaky.
“You… you knew that thing was coming. You didn’t even hesitate. And what you did to it… Malik, who are you?”
Safira nodded, chiming in:
“Yeah, you said that you’re barely a Magi… was that a lie? And now… you’re… acting different. It’s like you’re not the same teach anymore. Just what’s going on with you?”
Malik looked at them for a second, then looked back at his dagger, continuing his work.
The girls glanced at each other, starting to get annoyed at how they were being treated.
“I-If you’re going to act this way, t-then you shouldn’t have saved us in the first place!”
At those stuttering words from Jasmine, he sighed, rubbing a hand down his face.
He looked exhausted, more mentally than physically.
“You two ask a lot of questions…”
Unsheathing his dagger, he locked eyes with the two.
“…If you want to survive, you need to stop sitting around wondering about me and start focusing on yourselves.”
Jasmine frowned even further and glanced at Safira for backup
She knew that her words were not getting to him any time soon.
But the girl just shrugged, clearly having given up, accepting the change.
With that, Malik took away their opportunity to debate, pointing at the center of the cave.
“Both of you, sit down over here. Lotus position.”
They hesitated for half a second before reluctantly following his orders.
Safira’s legs were a little wobbly, but she managed to get into position.
“What’s next, teach?
Jasmine did it with a huff, clearly still emotional about his actions.
“O-Okay, now what?”
“Shut up and focus.”
Malik replied, deadpan.
“Close your eyes.”
“Clear your thoughts.”
“No distractions.”
“Just focus on your breathing and your body.”
The girls muttered something under their breaths but closed their eyes anyway.
Soon, the cave fell into silence except for the occasional drip of water echoing from deeper inside.
“Breathe in. Breathe out. Slow. Steady.”
His instructions came like a metronome.
“Feel every muscle in your body.”
“Every twitch, every movement.”
“Feel your heart pumping.”
“Feel your lungs expanding.”
“Focus.”
“Don’t think about anything else.”
At first, it seemed pointless.
Safira shifted uncomfortably, and Jasmine’s brows furrowed in concentration.
But after a few minutes, something changed.
Their breathing slowed, their postures relaxed, and the tension in their faces started to melt away.
They weren’t just sitting anymore; they were sinking into themselves, becoming hyper-aware of their own bodies in a way they’d never felt before.
“Good.”
Malik noticed that rather quickly.
“Now, here’s the hard part. Focus everything on your brain.”
Jasmine’s eyes popped open.
“W-What?”
“I said focus on your brain. All your attention. All your energy. Do it.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
Safira muttered, cracking an eye open to glare at him.
Malik’s gaze was like steel.
“Just do it.”
Grumbling, they closed their eyes once more.
Again, at first, nothing seemed to happen.
Then, slowly, they began to feel it—a strange, tingling sensation, like a current moving through them.
It started in their limbs, spreading through their torsos, circling their hearts, until it finally surged toward their heads.
The moment it hit their brains, it was like flipping a switch.
Pain exploded through their skulls like their minds were being torn apart and stitched back together at the same time.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
Both of them screamed, their hands flying to their heads as they writhed in place.
“Keep going!”
They did, and their screams only got louder.
“Don’t stop!”
“Push through it!”
Malik kept encouraging them like that and hours passed.
The pain didn’t ease; it just shifted, becoming something deeper.
It wasn’t just pain anymore—it was transformation.
They could feel their bodies changing on a level they didn’t even know existed, their very essence being rewritten.
It was terrifying and exhilarating all at once.
And then finally, when they thought they couldn’t take it anymore, it stopped.
The pain ebbed away, leaving behind Aether that buzzed through their veins.
Slowly, they opened their eyes.
Everything was different.
The cave wasn’t just a cave anymore.
Malik could easily imagine what they were feeling.
They could see every crack in the walls.
Every droplet of water as it fell from the ceiling.
Jasmine blinked, her hand trembling as she held it up to her face.
“What… what is this?”
Safira let out a shaky laugh, tears streaming down her face.
“We did it. We… we did it. We’re Magi now.”
Jasmine’s shock turned to excitement, then to pure joy.
She jumped to her feet, her laugh echoing off the cave walls.
“We did it! We actually did it!”
“Hell yeah, we did!”
Safira joined her, the two of them laughing and shouting.
They were now filled with unrestrained happiness, forgetting everything else.
A celebration of survival, transformation, and the promise of what was to come.
They had ascended.
They were no longer just ordinary people struggling to survive.
They were something more now, something divine… closer to God.
‘Sinbad…’
Malik watched them silently, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
‘You’ll allow me to be happy for them just this once, won’t you?’
***
{Outside The Projection}
The hall was losing it.
“Did… did he just—”
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“Turn two mortals into fuckin’ Magi?! Yeah. Yeah, he did.”
“But how?!”
“That shit’s possible without an Incubator?!”
With that question, further chaos arrived.
Magi were yelling, pointing at the projection, and some just stared in shock, knowing exactly what happened but just too shocked to process it.
“That’s not even possible!”
A woman with thick glasses waved frantically.
“No, no, no, you people don’t get it! That’s an ancient technique! Like, stuff only our ancestors did!”
“…That’s the old way?”
“The one that used to kill people just for attempting it?”
Gasps rippled through the crowd like a wave.
“Holy shit.”
“I thought that was outlawed centuries before then.”
“Outlawed?”
The same woman’s voice cut through the murmur.
“No, that was only in our time. In theirs, it was just abandoned. Our Sultan was the one that banned it.”
“So the incubator?…”
“Yes, he was the one who created that method.”
“It’s only natural… he knew just how risky it was first-hand.”
A man beside her gestured at the projection, where Safira and Jasmine still glowed faintly with residual Aether.
“But it worked.”
Awe was evident in his tone.
“They survived it. Not only Lady Safira but Jasmine as well.”
“Barely.”
A skeptical voice shot back.
“That pain they went through? Most people would’ve died before they even got halfway.”
“Right. A fact that makes them… monsters now.”
“They did it in their first attempt, something I’m sure the Sultan didn’t expect.”
“…Yeah.”
The hall collectively turned its gaze to Safira.
Her earlier embarrassment was gone, unmentionable in this context.
And though she felt their eyes on her, she didn’t react, locked on to the projection.
The crowd didn’t care for her lack of interest in them.
Palpable reverence was in their stares.
They simply looked at her in a whole new light.
She wasn’t just a beauty like no other but a beast as well.
“But not just Lady Safira and Jasmine.”
The scarred woman tilted her head toward the projection.
“Don’t forget him. He’s the one who guided them out alive. And…”
Her voice lowered, almost hesitant.
“If he’s teaching this method, it means he went through it himself.”
All eyes now shifted to Malik on the screen, still leaning casually against the cave wall, watching the girls with an unreadable expression.
“He did this… as what? A five-year-old?”
An old man nodded grimly.
“Yes. No way he’d know how to guide someone through it otherwise.”
“…Wait… holy…”
Someone whistled low, unable to express their thoughts.
“So…”
“…It’s…”
“…Starting.”
“…Now?”
It was followed by many others.
Finally, it started to click for the crowd.
They weren’t stupid—far from it—but somehow, it had taken this long for them to really process what was staring them in the face.
Yeah, they’d realized it long before.
The Sultan they knew began to show himself in this Malik on the projection.
But connecting that to actual achievements?
For whatever reason, that was a harder pill to swallow.
They’d gotten way too comfortable with the image of him suffering.
Like, really comfortable.
It was easy to forget that wasn’t all there was to him.
Sure, the pain was a huge part, but still, just a part of the bigger picture.
A part of something… extraordinary.
And the first to fully wrap her head around that?
Noor.
Not surprising, really.
After all…
“I knew it!”
The technique Malik used?
Oh yeah, her family still practiced it—ban or no ban, they didn’t give a shit.
And now, watching him pull it off, any suspicions she had?
They were practically screaming in her head.
This wasn’t a coincidence. No way.
There was some kind of connection between Malik’s guardian and her family.
She didn’t know if it was a good one or not, but one thing was clear—she was all in on figuring it out.
‘Just a few more clues… Just a few more, and I’ll have it.’