At the time Revor laughed in joy and Erna shouted in despair, Ariel was barely holding on to the little amount of strength that he had left. However, even though he hadn’t fallen unconscious, he didn’t have the strength to even keep his eyes open and so his mind retreated to the inner space where his Mana core was located,

He simply stood there while already feeling half-dead, all that was holding his soul back was only his pure will to live. He could feel how his life was slowly extinguishing and inwardly though about, what could he do.

Ariel was pushing his limits to even stay alive and at the same time understood that it was impossible for him to continue fighting, but he refused to give up. If he died now it is unknown what would happen to Erna, and he didn’t want her to experience anything horrible like torture anymore.

Through both of his lives there were only five people he could get along with. In his previous world it was only his partner who was the first person he had ever called a friend and even gave up his life to protect. When he was reborn he then experienced parental love from his mother for the first time and it became something so precious he couldn’t even explain it himself.

Later on he made friends with Brendon and Sarah. They kept engaging him so much that in time he became close friends with them with no way to resist. Brendon took the place of his best friend, while the relationship with Sarah was a bit more complicated, since he knew that she had feeling for him, but he himself didn’t know how to answer them.

The last one he had made a connection with was Erna. She was his fiancée, and at first he was lost at how to interact with her, but very soon he found that, out of all of his close people she was actually the most similar to him. They countless shared things they like and disliked, not to mention both of them usually had the same opinion about things or events. Like that, as they spent time, she soon became as precious as the others to him and he couldn’t abandon her in a situation like this, so he had came here to save her, even if it meant death.

If she was saved maybe he could once more die happily, but right now he didn’t know what could happen after he died, so he didn’t want to go out like this, so soon. Ariel let out a sigh of frustration at his powerlessness as he felt his strength slowly sapping out of himself. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do, but simply slowly die here

As all his power was leaving him he took a look at his Mana core, he always thought it was pretty and it usually managed to calm his mind. The blue sphere of coldness felt as if it was closer to him than any family could be and is also another thing he regretted. He wished that he couldn’t give it a proper form before he died, but now it is out of his reach, all the same.

Looking at it Ariel started to pander as his emotions began to lose their shackles and gush out of him. “Some say the Mana core takes form of ones soul. I wonder what my soul would look like.” Only a silent mummer could be heard in the empty space, after which Ariel closed his eyes as he continued imagining.

However the only thing that would always come to him as he tried to imagine his soul’s form would be the ice flowers he had kept creating from when he was little. Now that he thought about it, the reason he would create them was because they felt like something important to him even in his previous life.

To Ariel they held foolish dream that he had once thought about back on earth. On one of the lonely winter days when he was lonely and decide to wander the streets, he randomly thought while looking at the snow melting on his hand, flowers are always waiting for the summer to bloom , but if a flower was made out of ice, wouldn’t that be such a cruel joke to it?

An ice flower might yearn for the warmth of the summer, but before the summer would come it would melt and turn into nothingness in spring, forever unable to achieve its goal. Isn’t his existence similar to it? He desires feelings and emotions of other human’s, but somehow it is always out of his grasp, he never can achieve that wish and whenever he comes close the world pushes him back a step.

Opening his eyes after pondering about his pitiful existence he witnessed a shocking scene. His Mana core which was formless before, slowly took the shape of a crystal like flower with unmatched beauty.

This left him dumbfounded for a moment, but soon he let out a serene and beautiful smile as he looked at the flower and silently spoke. ‘At least, before my death you let me witness this, thank you…” Finishing his last words he felt the dark abyss devour his consciousness.

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After an unknown amount of time Ariel once more regained his consciousness and opened his eyes, to only be welcomed by a bright and unknown room. He felt confused and lost as he recalled the events before which happened before he lost consciousness.

Back then Ariel thought that he would die and never see the world again, and it should have been so. Maybe he reincarnated again? Ariel tried pushing his body up and easily succeeded, indicating that his theory was wrong and that he was not a baby again, although he did feel some kind of heaviness on his stomach.

When he get into a slightly better position he gave the room in front of him a quick look, and soon let out a sight of relief. Even though he had almost never come here, he had seen this place before. It is the room meant for long term patients of the Academy, meaning that this most likely wasn’t a dream and that they had somehow made it through that event.

As his body relaxed after confirming that everything was okay, he decided to take a look at what was weighing him down, since before. However what he witnessed left him speechless, there were two head lying on his stomach, belonging to Erna and Sarah respectively, peacefully sleeping without a care in the world. Looking at this scene and wondering aout how long they have been here, he felt warm inside and at the same time awkward as he thought about what he will have to do after both of them wake up.

He let out a sigh and leaned against the edge of the bed, refusing to think about this matter any further, when suddenly he heard a familiar voice from the side. “Oh, so you woke up young man.” Freezing for a moment Ariel didn’t respond, he was completely caught off guard, even though he surveyed the room before and didn’t find anything, somehow he was sneaked up on, this hasn’t happened before.

Turning his head to look, he soon became surprised because the person who spoke to him was the same elderly man that he had once met in the hallway on his first day at The Academy and also the person he tried searching before, but couldn’t find any clues about.

Right now however he was simply sitting there with a friendly smile on his wrinkly face as he sincerely looked at Ariel. Only after a couple of second did Ariel finally respond. “Yes, I have just awoken. Might I ask the elder who might you be, and also who saved us back there?” The old man let out a bright laugh at his polite words as he responded.

“Who I am, you will find out soon enough, but don’t worry I don’t mean you any harm. As for how you survived, shouldn’t it be me to is asking about that? From that young girl’s words, it was you who saved her and yourself, but if you want more details you should ask her yourself.” Feeling astonished Ariel turned his eyes to Erna while trying to remember the events once again. However he was unable to recall anything about him defeating the duke.

Categorizing this as another mystery that he will have to look in to later, he pulled his eyes away from his friend and returned them back on to the elderly man, who just at this time, spoke again. “We found you two after the duke has already been eliminated and don’t know much about what happened. However I am impressed by your performance, there are only few students capable of accomplishing something like what you have, that night.”

The old man wasn’t stingy with praise as he looked at Ariel with approval in his eyes, after which he continued speaking. “Also, it is not your only merit that you have earned.” As he spoke he took out a very familiar letter. Undoubtedly it was the same one that the black clothed man dropped before, as it had the same symbol of a gate with a chained skull.

After letting Ariel have a good look at it the elder spoke in a more serious voice. “That letter gave us several important clues about the crisis we are facing right now, it was extremely valuable get, and you definitely achieved great service by obtaining it. However I think you should have a look at it yourself.”

When he finished speaking he handed the letter to Ariel, who carefully took it and started reading. The basic idea was that the senders were part of some kind of an organization called The Church ff The Forsaken and it was addressed to Revor in hopes to cooperate with him.

In exchange for helping him attain a higher political power they asked for help in their future tasks inside the kingdom. This was truly a traitorous act, which luckily was stopped quite soon, but now another problem had arisen in Ariel’s mind.

As if knowing what Ariel was thinking about the elder spoke. “After reading this letter, we used all of our power to look into this organization. Unfortunately we didn’t find much, although we did ruin several of their plans before they found out that we learned about their existence. Also, we found out that all of them are practitioners of that despicable black magic.” His last remark was said with visible anger.

The next moment the elder looked at Ariel with concern in his eyes as he gave a warning. “Still, we are currently powerless to do anything besides trying to stop their spread in this kingdom. You are the main reason it ended up like this, so they will most likely aim for you for revenge, so be careful. Even though they wouldn’t dare to act in our Academy or the city again, if you ever travel anywhere further, make sure to pay attention.”

Just when he was done giving the warning he returned to his previous atmosphere and spoke. “Anyway, right now you should get some rest and think through everything. We will meet again.” Finishing his conscious the old man disappeared with his last words, leaving only the astonished Ariel.

Due to his increase in strength he could discern people of even higher strength, but even now he was unable to do that for the old man, meaning he was at least higher that a Grandmaster. Shuddering from that thought, and memory of that last teleportation, he felt fatigued and completely lost about what to do. Soon he gave a slight bow to express his gratefulness. “Thank you.” After that he once more started thinking.

This dangerous organization had come out of nowhere and put a lot of pressure on him. Looking down at the two girls sleeping on his body he let out a sigh as he started slowly stroking their heads. Thinking about it now was a waste of time and he should simply relish in the feeling of being alive.

Ariel slowly leaned back and closed his eyes while starting to relax, when suddenly a beautiful icy flower appeared in his mind. He was shocked at first, but soon let out his rare and stunning smile, not knowing that the girls who he had thought were asleep were there to witness it.

Recalling his last memories Ariel completely relaxed as he forgot about the church and thought. “Maybe it was impossible for a flower made out of ice to relish in sunlight in his previous world. However now I am in a place much more magical and just maybe, I will find way to achieve my dream, as long as I push forwards.”

While thinking blissful thoughts, Ariel peacefully fallen into a sweet sleep, dreaming about the new possibilities, he had only though about just now, and wondered, how much can he accomplish of them.

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If you want to read further, visit https://verathragna.wordpress.com/ I will always have an extra chapter or two there. Feel free to visit.