Chapter 190

RMSBS – Episode 190 . Enlightenment (6)

The lab in the Magic Tower .

Zod looked at Desir with a puzzled expression .

“I was going to plead for you to stop just one more time, but it doesn’t look like you’ll change your mind . ”

“Unfortunately not . ”

Desir stared at Zod with a determined expression . Zod could feel his firm will from just seeing his eyes .

‘I thought he had made his decision impulsively… ’

That was why Zod gave Desir a week to think things over .

‘I never thought he’d train for a solid week for the sake of the implant . ’

He couldn’t dissuade him anymore . Zod decided to respect his resolve .

“Just wait here for a second while sitting back to back with the homunculus . ”

Desir went to where the homunculus was . It glared up at Desir, bound in a kneeling position .

“So you willingly chose to bring a catastrophe upon yourself . ”

She didn’t look as ghastly as she did before . Long gone were the machines keeping her alive, and her body had regained its structure, not to mention her beauty . Nobody had allowed her to manipulate causality, nor was any medicine used; it was the homunculus’s natural resilience that allowed it to recover . It made them realize one more time that she was not a human but a homunculus . No human could recover this quickly .

Although her body had recovered, the homunculus was still not a threat .

Strong skills completely prevented it from manipulating mana . Her remarkable body was also tied up in specially manufactured chains, so she could not move in the slightest .

The girl completely incapable of movement bore no resemblance to the monster who had reaped so many lives during the war .

Looks were deceiving though . It was the most powerful enemy imaginable, with the godlike power of manipulating the principle of causality . This homunculus had put Desir and his colleagues, the Starling Party, in mortal danger .

Desir, without any hesitation, chose to improve himself at his enemy’s expense . He did not feel any guilt from doing so .

*Flop*

Desir sat down back to back with the homunculus .

As he did that, he could feel several mana circles inside the homunculus .

However, he couldn’t sense any trace of mana from within the empty circles .

Desir studied Zod . He was getting ready for the circle implantation procedure, running around the lab preparing equipment and materials . A little later Zod approached him, signaling he was ready to start .

Desir glanced at the object Zod was holding .

“What is that?”

“It is a safeguard that keeps you and the homunculus aligned during the transplantation, so that the mana circle doesn’t fall apart . I’ve also put together an ancillary device to help you harmonize with the mana circle . I made these for you . ”

Zod listed off various things to consider and avoid while binding Desir and the homunculus together tightly with a huge band of some kind .

“You cannot detach from the homunculus, no matter how painful it is . If you bleed, just throw up the blood; you can’t afford to lose focus . Sadly, paralysis magic isn’t an option . ”

Desir nodded .

Paralysis magic could be detrimental when it came to fast and precise mana control .

“The most important thing is that everything has to be done quickly . Even though we may succeed in implanting the mana circle, it could get damaged and break if you don’t immediately harmonize it . ”

“I’ll keep that in mind . ”

Zod strapped the two of them together, signifying his preparation was complete . He nodded at Desir .

“Let’s start at the count of three . One… Two… Three!”

Zod started circulating his mana while placing his hands on the chests of Desir and the homunculus . At the same time, the huge band-shaped device started glowing .

Desir could feel the homunculus’s mana circles more intensely than before . He could see them so clearly that he could tell exactly where each mana circle was positioned and what frequency it was currently at . .

Amongst all the mana circles present within the homunculus’s body, Zod took notice of a particular circle close to its heart . It was closest in frequency to Desir’s own mana circles, so Zod began prodding it in preparation for the transplant .

However, this mana circle was a Sixth-Circle .

Zod could not implant a Sixth-Circle with his current level of skill, and Desir had no chance of handling it .

Zod began injecting mana in order to attack the homunculus’s circles directly and break it down .

From Sixth-Circle to Fifth-Circle . From Fifth-Circle to Fourth-Circle .

The homunculus was shaking in pain as its mana circle was ripped apart, but her body seemed otherwise intact .

Luckily for the homunculus, not only was Zod operating with extreme precision, but its body was well beyond that of a human’s . No regular magician would be able to withstand the pressure exerted on the homunculus’s mana network .

Finally, the Sixth-Circle was a Fourth-Circle . That was good enough to transplant and something Desir could manage .

However, Zod didn’t stop breaking it down there . Instead, he split the circle into four separate pieces . In doing so, Zod made it much easier to transplant the circle into Desir’s body, but greatly shortened the amount of time Desir had to integrate it .

Zod controlled his mana with an even higher level of precision and delicacy as he divided it into four pieces .

“Get ready . ”

Disassembled mana circle pieces started shifting from the homunculus to Desir one by one .

With two pieces transferred, the operation seemed to be going smoothly . However, Desir’s body started showing an adverse reaction as the third piece arrived .

‘The limitation of his mana compatibility… ’

The repulsive force was massive . If Zod’s attention wavered for even an instant, it would be flung away within a second .

Even without an operating manual or practice doing this kind of operation before, he instinctively knew what must be done .

Zod wrapped the piece with his overwhelming Seventh-Circle mana and forcefully pressed it into Desir’s body .

He did this in a confident manner only possible for Zod Exarion, the only Seventh-Circle magician in the continent .

Soon, all of the mana circle pieces were transferred into Desir .

*Twitch*

Desir felt a pain great enough that his heart nearly stopped . . It felt like something had grabbed his heart and was trying to smother it . The foreign mana circle was putting his body into shock . The pain ended there though, as a result of his thorough preparation over the last week . He did not, could not, allow the pain to distract him any further .

*Bleugh*

Eventually, he coughed up a mouthful of blood .

Zod, still watching over him, instinctively raised his eyebrows in concern, but continued to work in silence .

The mana circle pieces that were divided by Zod started combining into one overtop of Desir’s existing Third-Circle .

The pieces fused together, soon forming a Fourth-Circle, implanted no different from a natural addition to his set .

After finishing his part of the procedure, Zod gathered back his mana .

“The rest now depends on you . ”

Zod carefully studied Desir .

Once Zod’s mana, the force that had been restraining the repulsive power, had completely faded, the implanted Fourth-Circle started rioting . The mana circle quickly became unruly and pushed and pulled mana chaotically around Desir’s body .

Although the pain right now was bearable, it would quickly grow too strong to bear if he didn’t finish his job in a hurry .

The mana circle began to absorb mana from its surroundings to fill itself, since it was no longer being quelled by the mana suppressing equipment affecting the homunculus .

Desir hurried to read its frequency, knowing it would quickly change if he took any longer .

Zod looked at him in admiration .

‘He’s fast . ’

Zod remembered watching Desir control distinct frequencies a few times in the past .

Today’s Desir was significantly different . He was doing it far faster than Zod recalled him being able to do so .

All it took was a second for Desir to read the new frequency and force his own mana to begin resonating with the implanted circle . .

A disparate noise echoed .

*CLING*

This part of the process was also faster than Zod assumed it would take .

The movement of the mana circle that looked like a wild horse rushing down a hill at breakneck speed seemed to die down, albeit only by a little bit .

However, it wasn’t going entirely smoothly .

‘Its frequency is changing too early . ’

The color drained out of Zod’s face .

As the implanted mana circle had absorbed a little bit of Zod’s mana, the frequency had changed quicker than expected .

It was a necessary step to implant the circle and they were prepared for it, but even Zod did not expect just how much it would affect the proceedings .

They were simply unlucky .

After trying to regain control, Desir eventually gave up and restarted the process once again . Starting from zero, once again at the frequency reading stage .

“… Darn it . ”

Zod’s palms were sweaty .

Unlike Zod, who was growing increasingly nervous, Desir was entirely unperturbed; even though it was on him to succeed, and even though he knew the price of failure, he remained entirely resolute .

He calmly went back to reading the frequency once again and controlling his mana .

However, the frequency of the circle changed once again .

Desir was about to read the frequency again, not giving up .

“Bleugh!”

Desir coughed up a mouthful of blood . The circle that was in the process of collapsing affected his body and dealt him a severe internal injury .

‘The big change, in the beginning, was impactful . ’

The mana was rampaging much more chaotically than they imagined it would . The upper portion of the Fourth-Circle, which had been difficult for Zod to re-bond, now had a crack in it . While it was a minor crack now, nobody could foretell when that little crack would grow and destroy the circle .

Zod wanted to help Desir, but he couldn’t do as he pleased here . Someone else’s interference in the process would only cause more problems for Desir .

Desir had to solve this on his own .

‘… if Desir cannot solve it, then… ’

Zod carefully gathered his mana . If the situation got any more dire, if Desir’s life was truly in danger, he resolved himself to step in and break Desir’s mana circle with his own hands .

When a circle is destroyed due to a mana deluge, that magician dies in nine cases out of ten . Before it got to that point, if he broke Desir’s mana circle under his exquisite control, he was far more likely to survive .

This was a fate better than dying, after all .

Zod was going to approach Desir for the final resort .

Desir suddenly lifted his hand towards him .

‘How is he so relaxed… ?’

He was surprised for a moment, then realized Desir’s expression had noticeably lightened .

At the same time, Zod felt that the movement of mana within Desir’s body, the mana which had been rushing so crazily just moments ago, had certainly died down . He soon found out why .

Desir had halfway succeeded in harmonizing with the mana circle . In order to buy himself more time, he restrained the unruly circle using his mana, the same way Zod had done when he was implanting it .

—-

Chapter brought to you by The Patrons .

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