Chapter 37: Shinra Incident [7]

As the battle continued, Leon’s body laid on the cold cobblestone. The pool of blood had settled beneath his figure, as his limbs quivered violently. Eyes, and mouth both freezed open. Little by little, the tip of his fingers turned black around the nails. Cracks began to form on his skull, extending towards his eye socket. Leon felt all that. But the voice couldn’t escape his throat, no matter how much his body screamed to cry. Perhaps taking the [Drop of Limitless] more than once had been a mistake. Or perhaps... the entire strategy had been. Leon had devised several strategies to defeat Lucian, and among them, this had seemed the most optimal. But the deed was already done. Laying on the cold ground, Leon looked back at his newly acquired life, which didn’t last long either. Unlike his past life on Earth, where he had achieved most of what he desired. But this one... failed to give him the right thrill. ’If I die here...’ Leon thought. If he died here, would it be possible for him to transmigrate one more time, in a whole new body, with a whole new life? He inwardly chuckled. ’I have so much greed.’ The thought of achieving his desires had once thrilled him. Yet, when he finally attained them, all he felt was boredom. No one could truly be satisfied if their goals were reached too easily. They would inevitably wonder... Was my desire really that easy to obtain? In his past life, he had worked hard to realize his dream, to create something he longed for more than anything. But Haru had achieved so much at such a young age that it no longer felt... thrilling. ’How laughable.’ Indeed. When he transmigrated into Leon’s body, nothing came easily. The world of ’Rebirth of the Fivefold Calamities’ which Haru had created was unforgiving, and living within it brought him that thrill he had long forgotten. ’No...’ Leon’s breath caught. ’No. I don’t... want to die.’ For the first time, he realized something important. ’...I want to live.’ Focusing on his weakening heartbeat, Leon began drawing in Light Mana, channeling it endlessly around his heart before guiding it through his arteries. To truly master mana, one had to understand its very nature and for that, the body itself needed to memorize the mana’s flow. Every affinity possessed a distinct mana signature, each circulating in its own unique pattern within the body. Ordinarily, all living beings were forced to manually guide mana along these paths, a process that inevitably slowed its overall throughput. But if the body could be trained to memorize that flow and sustain it automatically, the result would be a breakthrough beyond current limits. It wasn’t mere theory, it was a proven fact. And Ethan had already achieved it. Who taught him this? It was the king himself. The technique was known as [Mana Imprinting], and only those of the royal family possessed the true method to perform it. Under the King’s personal guidance, Ethan had mastered it , which granted him a sky rise in power. Same as Ethan. Eula, and Rinna also followed the same technique. This was one of the reasons why every royal blood turned out to be a genius. Leon knew about this method, and had been trying his best to perform it the moment he awakened. But his previous trials had all resulted in failure. ’Almost...’ Leon focused, as the Light Mana entered his arteries spreading a warm sensation to his body. His nerves relaxed, and he felt his body calming down. ’Almost...’ He guided the mana toward his central nervous system, letting it seep into every nerve across his body. A surge of warmth coursed through his bloodstream. "Alm...ost," his rasped word escaped between his shallow breaths. At last, the Light Mana flowed through his intercostal nerves, climbed the length of his spinal cord, and entered his brain. The faint crack along his skull flared with a dim golden light, and his already golden eyes grew even purer shining with a radiant hue. The darkness faded from his sight, revealing the clear night sky above. Streams of numbers passed across his vision, followed by a single horizontal line-shaped like a command palette. [Initiating second Awakening] [Searching for Optimal Stat Configuration] ↳Initializing Boost... [Counting Skills...] Analyze – Quick Step – Hawk Eye – Mana Sense [Applying Boost] [Success] ↳Unique Skill Detected... [Counting Unique Skills...] Skill Deconstruction – Voiceless Incantation – Command of Grace [Applying Boost] [ERROR] [Re-attempting #1] [ERROR] [Re-attempting #2] [ERROR] [...] [Conclusion : The given set of skills cannot be boosted] ↳Three Distinct Mana Signatures Detected... [Gathering Information...] Ice – Fire – Light [Admin Level Request Detected] [Setting Priority] [Target : Light ✦] [Boosting Efficiency...] [Success] ↳ Granting Admin Privileges... [Access Level: Administrator] [Processing...] [ERROR : ’System Root’ Declined the Acknowledged] [Admin Level Request Detected] [Finding Solution...] [Solution : Set Limitter] [Bypassing Protocol] [Avoiding the ’System Root’] [World system : Access Granted] [Injecting Cool Down Period] [Converting ’Administrator Privileges’ to Skill] [Success] [New Unique Skill Acquired] [∎ Creator: <??-rank> Usage : 30sec] — — — "GHAAA!!" Leon’s body jolted upright the instant the command lines vanished from his vision. "Haah...haa,,,haa.." He huffed, gasping for breath. Clutching his aching right eye, he glanced down at his empty hand... only to find it surrounded by tiny, brilliant yellow motes drifting lazily in the air around him. "What...is that?" He extended his hand toward them. POOF–! The instant his fingers brushed a mote, it was drawn into his body. "..?!" He recoiled, eyes narrowing in confusion. "Light Mana?" he guessed. He could feel it, flowing through his veins without him even willing it. No manual channeling, no conscious effort. His Light Affinity was... asserting all by itself. ’My Light Affinity...’ His right eye throbbed, his whole body swelled with warmth, and the floating motes of mana filled his vision.. There’s only one answer to all of this. "I’ve... awakened. Again." The [Drop of Limitless] must have worked. Still covering his right eye, Leon pushed himself to his feet. All around him, the golden motes floated, converging toward his position. Then he looked ahead, where an even denser concentration of bright yellow motes were converging. Ethan. Clusters of Light Mana clung to him like armor, far denser than Leon’s own. He was still locked in battle with Lucian, alongside Eula and the Twilight Order. The buildings around them crumbled to dust, and the sky above was so clear the stars shone unobstructed. ’What happened while I was gone?’ he wondered. Regardless, the tide was against them. They were losing. "Shit," he muttered. Leon needed to act. He still had the three-line incantation he had entrusted to Eula, and from the looks of it Lucian’s full attention was on Ethan. ’Great, I might still pull this off.’ But he was hesitating, because he only fought in video games. He could literally end up dead in real life. To make his plan work, he had to get closer to Lucian. But... ’Even Ethan and Eula didn’t go that close.’ Leon had no real combat experience, hell, this was his first time witnessing an actual clash between mages and swordsmen. As doubt gnawed at him, something stirred. A fragment of knowledge surfaced... and with it, a familiar transparent interface appeared before his vision. ———「Creator – <??- Rank>」——— ◆ Usage: Grant Access to the World System. ◆ Limit : Can only be used for 30 seconds. The user may feel in a coma for a few days, depending on the commands the user overwrites. ... Will you be using this skill? ————————————————— ▷ Accept ▶ Decline —————————————————