“Another way?”
“Yeah.”
Zich took out an object from his belongings. Fiery mana burst out as it came out and let its presence be known.
“The Flame’s Tear? What are you going to do with that?” Lyla blinked. The Flame’s Tear was a treasure that held a great amount of mana and probably had many uses. Yet, it was hard to guess what Zich would do since he was not a mage.
‘By his tone, it sounds like he plans to use it to stretch out his abilities.’
“I am going to absorb the mana inside this object and make it clash against my mana.”
“What!” Lyla was stunned. “What kind of nonsense are you spluttering! Are you planning on dying? The insides of your body could burst into flames! No, there’s a higher possibility that your body could turn to ashes the moment you attempt this!”
On their way to returning to Shootuol, Zich had been looking at the Flame’s Tear like a child with a new present; now, it seemed like his mind had also regressed to that of a child.
“Calm down and hear me out first. Do you think I will do something like that thoughtlessly?”
While still grunting, Lyla crossed her arms to listen. Her gaze looked piercing like she was planning to shut Zich down immediately if he let out any more nonsense.
“A lot of my mana has been released now. However, because of how large my mana capacity is, there’s still a lot more mana that hasn’t been released yet. It will probably take a lot of time for all my mana to be released.” Even though Zich was loosening up his mana at a shockingly fast pace by using his skills and memories from before the regression, he was still a long way from his prime days. “So, I plan to forcefully awaken it by absorbing this guy’s mana and clashing it with mine.”
Zich was planning to use energy drain method which was the same method he used with the core inside Bellu’s statue to awaken his dormant mana. The only concern was that the Flame’s Tear’s mana was so overwhelmingly higher that it couldn’t even compare to Bellu’s energy.
“Then, I will be able to regain my original power much more quickly.”
“The date of your death will come much more quickly too. Did you really tell me all that confidently as if it was actually reasonable?” It seemed like Lyla wasn’t convinced. She continued, “If it was the Lake’s Tear, I might have pondered for a tiny bit since water mana is on the calmer side. But that thing holds fire mana! It’s incredibly tricky mana to deal with! It’s destructive and explosive!”
“Wouldn’t that make it more effective? I personally think lightning mana would be more effective, but it can’t be helped. This is the only option we have.”
“Zich!” At Lyla’s strong refusal, Zich shrugged.
“I thought you would be against it, but you are reacting even stronger than I expected you to. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? Are you worried about my body that much?”
“O-Of course! How could I not worry about my companion’s body!”
“Your reaction seems too intense for just that.”
“Just stick to the topic of the Flame’s Tear!” Lyla quickly steered the direction of the conversation. “Anyways, I’m against it! It’s too dangerous!”
“I also have no desire to die. I want to attempt it because I think I have a good chance of making it work. You know my mana control. Even if the fire element isn’t my type of mana, I can handle it.”
“Is there a need for you to be in such a hurry? All your mana can be awakened given the time. You can probably release it much faster than other people with an ordinary amount of mana. Can’t you wait until then?”
“I’m going to tell you clearly now, Lyla, but we don’t have much time.” Unlike his usual joking manner, Zich spoke in a serious tone. Lyla pursed her lips and listened to Zich’s words. “After finding out that Zenard has the regression ability, we are basically walking on top of a volcano that could explode at any moment. Many things have changed in our current timeline because of you and me, and that’s probably not what Glen Zenard wants. Perhaps, he isn’t turning back time because he is still confident that he can achieve the future he wants or wishes to experience a new situation he hadn’t experienced yet. But the moment he changes his mind, we’ll lose everything we’ve been working for without even resisting. Just like it had always been.”
“…”
Lyla couldn’t respond.
“In fact, even this moment right now could have happened after another regression. We have already reached a point where we might have to doubt everything—the time, our memories, and so on. To erase that possibility, we have to stop the time regression. To do that, we have to do everything available to us as quickly as possible.”
Zich relaxed his expression and he returned to his usual carefree tone. “I wish to just beat Glen Zenard up, but since I don’t even know what his conditions are to regress is, I can’t. Anyways, this is just my suggestion.”
“…I understand.”
“What about my suggestion?”
“…I agree to it.”
“Thank you for understanding,” Zich smirked.
Lyla opened her mouth again. “I will also help. I will make the thing you are about to do a bit safer. So, let me borrow the Flame’s Tear for a bit.”
“I would be grateful if you would do that, but I can’t wait too long.”
“Don’t worry. I also don’t plan on dragging this out for too long.”
Lyla received the Flame’s Tear from Zich. The red light that the Flame’s Tear gave off tickled her eyes as if it was laughing at her and asking, ‘You think you can handle me?’ Yet, Lyla’s gaze didn’t move from the light that came off the Flame’s Tear.
“I will find an answer within a week at least.” Lyla placed the Flame’s Tear in her belongings.
* * *
After that day, Lyla stayed stuck inside her room. She didn’t even come out to eat her meals, and other people had to bring her food to her room. Exactly one week later, she finally came out.
“I completed it.”
“Good work.” Zich handed some fruit juice to Lyla. Like a camel finally finding an oasis after wandering in a desert, she gulped the drink down.
“You are a mess.” Like Zich said, Lyla’s complexion looked like a patient’s. Her hair was disheveled, and there were long dark circles under her eyes. Her complexion was also very pale. Overall, she didn’t look like she was in a great state at all. However, Lyla paid no attention to her appearance; the result she had was much more important than her appearance.
“Let’s go back to where the Tree of Water is. This object’s effect will be greater there.”
“That sounds good, but you should spend at least a whole day sleeping.”
“…Is it that serious?” Lyla rubbed her face.
Zich firmly replied, “It feels like a zombie is talking to me.” Honestly, Zich was greatly exaggerating her state, but this was enough to convince Lyla.
“…Okay. I’ll sleep for just one day.”
“Yeah. No matter how urgent things are, there is an order we should follow. Rather than just quickly doing things and ruining the whole process, it’s quicker and better to rest when it’s time to rest.”
Lyla nodded and went back to her room. Then, she slept sweetly for the whole day.
* * *
Zich and his companions went back to where the Tree of Water was. The tree was emitting mana while letting out blue water streams.
“This place is full of water mana,” Lyla said while taking out the Flame’s Tear from the magic box. “It’s a very good place to suppress fire mana, even more so if you directly use the water mana here.”
“You’re not thinking about using the Tree of Water, right?”
“Are you insane? How can you say that even after seeing what happened to Finel? We’re just going to use a bit of the mana that is in this space.”
While saying this, Lyla took out another object from her magic box. It was a pouch. She pulled the string on the pouch to open it and put her hand in it to take out a silver powder. The powder consisted of finely ground mithril; Lyla had purchased it in the magical tower a while back.
Lyla softly scattered this powder right next to the Tree of Water and began drawing a certain symbol. Complicated lines crossed and intertwined with each other. Symbols that were hard to identify started to come together and became more concrete and specific.
“Woah!” Elena let out an exclamation while watching her teacher. From her perspective, Lyla’s work surpassed an amazing magic circle to a level of masterful artwork.
“I’ll let you research it later on.”
“Really?!” Elena was overjoyed by Lyla’s words.
Lyla finished the magic circle. It was about three meters in size, and it looked very sophisticated. Moreover, since the magic circle was made out of mithril, its price was probably also very expensive.
“It’s done!” Lyla put her arms on her waist and looked down at her work. She meticulously scanned her magic circle to make sure there were no errors, but her magic circle was perfect.
Lyla stared at Zich. “You said you’ll do energy drain, right? You just have to do it here.” Then, she pointed at the center of the magic circle. “I made the surrounding water mana swirl from the inside here.”
“Yeah, I can feel it.”
“With this amount of water mana, the destructive nature of fire mana will be decreased somewhat. Then, it’ll be very helpful for you.”
“Yeah, it definitely seems like it will. Thanks, Lyla.”
“If you’re thankful, you should be careful. Don’t easily die on me.”
“I will keep that in mind.” Zich walked inside the magic circle. He carefully stepped inside to not scatter the powder away and reached the center of the circle.
Lyla stared at him with a concerned look on her face. Hans and Snoc’s eyes also met. Even though they didn’t say anything, they knew they shared the same thought by reading each other’s expressions.
‘Don’t you think they seem closer somehow?’
‘Yes, it seems so.’
While Lyla and Zich were unaware of Hans and Snoc’s cheeky(?) imagination, the two of them continued on with their plan. Zich sat down in the middle of the magic circle and tightly clutched onto the Flame’s Tear. He felt a hot sensation from his palm. Zich closed his eyes, and Lyla gulped her saliva. The others also stared at Zich nervously.
‘Energy drain.’
Ziiing!
The mana inside the Flame’s Tear moved. Mana that felt like rough flames incinerating everything in a dry grassland dug into Zich’s body.
“Ugh!” A groan came out of Zich’s mouth. His companions tightly clenched their fists. Although Zich was normally calm even while receiving an injury that normal people would die to in shock, he couldn’t suppress a groan (even if it was only for a moment). Thus, his companions were able to understand just how much pain Zich was in.
‘It really is difficult.’ Zich sweated while trying to control the fire mana that erupted into his body. The fire mana recklessly moved in all directions and tried to rip apart Zich’s body as if it was an invader breaking through a fortress.
‘Nonetheless, what Lyla prepared for me is really helpful.’
Even though the surrounding water mana was unable to suppress the fire mana completely, it continuously interfered with the fire mana’s energy. Zich slowly moved the fire mana inside his body. The sweat droplets on his forehead began streaming down his face. However, Zich was unable to feel this sensation at all—he had already blocked all his external senses. This was how focused he was.
Zich was successful in leading the fire mana towards where his mana was without inflicting that many injuries on his body. However, the truly important part started from there on out.
‘I need to stay completely focused.’ Zich steeled his resolve and made the fire mana collide with his mana. It seemed like an immovable fortress that would never collapse.
Crasssssh!
It was a sound that only Zich could hear—something that sounded like the sky and earth opening and tearing apart—and it rang throughout his body.