[ ]

What exactly is the Root?

According to the explanations of Magus, the Root is the cause of all things, the so-called first impulse.

If you were to ask Touko Aozaki, she would say the Root is the Akasha she pursues.

As for Aoko's own understanding, the Root is ultimate knowledge. Because no matter what you want to know, as long as you can find the origin of that question within the Root, you can immediately obtain the "effect" of the problem being solved from this "cause." It's the world's most powerful encyclopedia.

Everything is here, and nothing is here.

Aoko felt her "self" constantly melting away. In this ultimate void, she felt nothing, yet she seemed to know everything.

Her pain was gone, her wounds were gone, because her shattered body existed between being and not being.

Aoko desperately wanted to fall into a deep sleep, but a voice deep within her heart told her absolutely not to.

Normally, if a Magus reaches the Root, their self is instantly overwhelmed by the Root's infinite causes, leading to assimilation and disappearance in an instant. However, within Aoko Aozaki's concept of "humanity," there was undoubtedly an element mixed in that did not originate from the vortex of the Root.

And it was this unknown element that firmly maintained her self, allowing her to survive within it.

And as long as she continued to "live," she would take more and more "rewards" from the vortex of the Root...

What did Aoko want? She couldn't quite remember... In her confusion, Aoko seemed to see the Aozaki family's Magic Crest, and it was as if she had once recalled her grandfather casting the Fifth Magic on that door...

Magic...

Right, she was a Mage.

Aoko Aozaki immediately became clear-headed. Within the vortex of the Root, she instantly gained form.

She immediately reached for her wounds, only to touch smooth skin. The wounds vanished as if they had never existed. Aoko wanted to see something, but she was blind, seeing nothing, yet it was as if she saw everything.

I need clothes, Aoko thought.

The next instant, Aoko's previous clothes were back on her.

Aoko immediately understood the mechanism here. She began to fully operate her Magic Crest, demanding all knowledge regarding the Fifth Magic.

Perhaps it was because she had escaped the hallucinatory state within this chaos, but Aoko immediately felt a powerful repulsion, as if the vortex of the Root did not allow such a strong sense of self to exist.

However, Aoko had already begun to absorb the mysteries of the Fifth Magic. Before she was completely stripped from the Root, she wanted to master the complete Magic that surpassed her grandfather's!

As Aoko "questioned" with all her might, the Magic Crest that had only existed on Aoko's right arm now spread to her entire left arm. Moreover, even the Magic Crest on her right arm became denser, and the glowing patterns became even more bizarre.

A searing pain etched into her nerves occurred on both of Aoko's arms. However, Aoko paid no mind to it. She now only wanted to laugh heartily, and she did just that.

The Magic Crest of the Fifth Magic covered her arms and began to spread to Aoko's back. However, just as the crests extending from her arms connected on her back, the laughing Aoko was ejected.

"Ouch!"

Aoko landed on the ground with a thud. She rubbed the spot on her spine that had been broken by the primate killer and found it completely intact. Her other wounds had also disappeared, as if she had never been injured.

Aoko stood up again, dusting off her hands. Then she looked around and found herself back in the previous cave. However, the "stinky dog" that had severely injured her was nowhere to be seen.

She reached for her waist; her material pouch was still there, and the materials inside had inexplicably been replenished.

Her grimoire was also still there. She remembered something, opened the book, and checked the pages where she had used the scrolls. She found that the used scroll pages had been restored, but the spells on the scrolls were gone.

Aoko seemed to understand something. She closed her eyes and felt internally. Her body was now excessively healthy, even stronger than before she entered the cave.

The Weave Fragment was still there, and Aoko breathed a sigh of relief.

As she lowered her head, Aoko's hair fell down. Aoko grabbed her long hair and looked at it, realizing her hair had turned a fiery red.

Why was this? Was it some kind of side effect of the Fifth Magic?

Aoko recalled that in her "past life" memories, the Aoko Aozaki of the original timeline also had her hair turn red after activating the Fifth Magic. But now her hair maintained its red color in its normal state. Perhaps this was a sign of her having completely mastered Magic?

These were all insignificant matters, Aoko thought confidently.

She looked back. The entrance that had been there had disappeared. This was merely the end of an ordinary cave.

Grandfather won't blame me, right? Aoko thought guiltily. Making the entrance to the Root disappear, all Magus in the world would probably want to kill her.

But none of that mattered, Aoko thought confidently. The number of Magus in the world who could pose a threat to her now was no more than five.

She walked out of the cave with light steps, not noticing that with every distance she walked forward, a section of the cave behind her disappeared.

When Aoko returned to her grandfather's underground workshop, she looked back, and the cave had completely vanished.

Perhaps this was like a loophole in the world, Aoko sighed and thought. Now that her grandfather was gone, and the cave to the Root had disappeared, was she considered a prodigal daughter?

But she had obtained the complete Fifth Magic, and even formed the complete Magic Crest of this Magic. She should be considered an honor to her ancestors, right?

Thinking of this, the newly born Fifth Magic user Aoko Aozaki was no longer guilty. She hummed a pop song that hadn't yet appeared in this era and "cleaned up" her grandfather's Magecraft workshop.

Since the old man was gone, it was too much of a waste for these inheritances to remain in this dark basement. Aoko, without any guilt, packed up the remaining books and various ceremonial garments from her grandfather's workshop, preparing to collect them in another basement at her and Toko's villa...

Huh? Aoko frowned and thought, is something wrong...?

Well, forget it. Aoko shouldn't think too much about such things at this time. Aoko happily identified the functions of her grandfather's various Magecraft inheritances, piling them up in the center of the room, waiting for the right time to call for a car to transport them all...

---Divider---

"Hey, Touko," a cute 'little boy' with golden hair walked beside Touko and asked, "Is your sister very strong?"

"She's the one who inherited the Fifth Magic Crest," Touko said as they walked, "and she has some strange Magecraft. Of course, she's very strong."

"Then will we win?" the golden-haired little boy asked, "Will you win, Touko?"

"We will win."

Touko said in a firm and undeniable tone, as if something had already been settled.

A confident, slight smile appeared on her beautiful face. Touko looked straight ahead, as if she could already see her sister, who had just inherited the Magic Crest and was defeated by her and Beo.