First Seal · [Blood Scorcher]

Consciousness sank, returning to the tabletop where time seemed frozen for eternity and only the flames still burned. Horn seized [Restlessness], which was trembling violently and nearly cracking under the deep grooves etched into it, and hurled it into the fire.

[Restlessness], its wings spread as if to take flight, was burned away in the flames. The door between soul and dream appeared, revealed by such searing passion, and stretched across the tabletop. The Edict of Liminality sealed away every impulse, leaving behind sturdy locks and chains that stubbornly barred the Apprentice from ascending.

But if the door wasn't meant to be opened, why leave a lock on it?

In a flash of realization, Horn saw that the key to opening it had long been in his hand.

And there was more than one!

Like a hazy dream replaying itself, the magnificent pillars that supported heaven and earth appeared once more. Their projections beneath Horn's feet gave rise to a dazzling array of paths.

At the end of the paths, a curtain woven from vast starlight was swept aside. Lofty figures of solemn grandeur, as if they embodied the truths of the world, turned their gaze upon him.

One was a blazing furnace, shattering the night and ending all that was unchanging. One was a cup filled with blood, tempting to the utmost and overflowing with pain. One was a cold dawn, exacting and precise, meticulous in every detail. One was a savage beast, harboring wrath and growing stronger without end. One was a full moon, perfect to the utmost and dazzlingly radiant. One was a fragrant flower bud, intoxicating and dreamlike, forever out of reach...

More paths appeared one after another, but these six stood out most clearly, resonating with the blood and fire.

[Ash Forge], [Cup of Insatiable], [Pale Dawn], [Golden General], [Arc Moon in Mirror], [Flower Artisan].

The powers left behind by six great Hours all bestowed their favor upon him, urging this rare, unpolished gem to make a choice.

Choose one.

And with it, decide your fate.

But Horn lowered his head and looked at the ground beneath him. Ivory-colored wax traces meandered underfoot. The place where he stood was both the beginning and the end of the path.

Before he could choose, he had arrived at a completely different outcome. Before he could begin, he had reached an endpoint that should have been impossible to attain. Before he could answer, the question itself had become a paradox.

And so Horn made his decision.

If I don't go to the mountain, does that mean it won't come to me?

If I want it, I'll take it myself!

???

As countless question marks seemed to rise, even the projections of the Hours faltered at this unprecedentedly bold declaration. For a moment, the magnificent scene froze, and even Horn couldn't help feeling uneasy.

It's not really going to refuse, is it?

Come on, surely not?

Fortunately, after a brief instant, just as if it had been fated, one power abruptly expanded. Flames roared and light poured forth, driving the other paths reluctantly into darkness.

[Ash Forge] overwhelmed all the rest, leaving Horn with its mark as proof.

Amid the roar of machinery and the clanging of hammer blows, the phantom of a burning woman was forged within the furnace. She reached out with a gleaming finger and touched Horn's chest, brushing against his beating heart.

There, she kindled a spark of response.

[Influence: Pulsing Appetite] was burned away with ease, like tinder catching fire, igniting an even greater light.

Within his consciousness, the dark blue-green gears that formed the tabletop meshed and spun together. Their impossibly complex mechanisms fit together like a flawless puzzle, but now they ran nearly wild, digesting this vast gift. Sparks flew from every crevice, illuminating everything with brilliant light.

The vast spiritual power stolen from Saliba was greedily swallowed by the flames. A fierce golden-red fire blazed at the very center of the tabletop, while four points of light followed fixed paths, circling the flames like planets around a star.

At that moment, at the center of the vortex in the heart of the flames, under the ever-growing, irresistible pull of fate, the black point of light was the first to be captured. It joyfully merged into the flames.

Twisted, dark-black text appeared beside the fire like a hallucination:

[The worth of metals, death and rebirth, beheading and ravens. Nigredo is Corruption and Calcination, and the foundation of great works.]

[You now know how to kindle the fire of Nigredo.]

[Corruption and Calcination], awakened!

The bandages on his back fell away, revealing an impossibly complex spiritual circuit, completed at some point without his knowledge. Guided by it, his burning impulses and desires were refined and folded, then finally bound within his seemingly boiling blood, heralding the completion of his great work.

On the screen of light, flame-like patterns coiled and spiraled, contracting without limit toward the center to form an abstract sun. A genuine seal had been branded into the screen's background.

First Seal · [Blood Scorcher]!

With an unprecedented sense of fullness, Horn opened his eyes. Through the torn-open ceiling, he stared at the sky stained crimson, the storm clouds churning and colliding like rotting chunks of flesh, the hospital reduced to ruins, and Saliba lunging to bite him, the beam of light almost breaking free from his chest.

Fire blazed in his eyes.

Looking at the colossal creature at arm's reach, Horn offered the stunned face before him his most sincere greeting.

Have you eaten today?

If not, then come and taste the pain and despair in these tears!

In the next instant, flames that had transformed into a deep, profound black surged upward. First they ignited Horn, then everything else, and, bolstered by that pain and those tears, shaped a massive body that could rival Saliba's current form.

Then he surged forward, attacking, biting, and fighting in the most straightforward way imaginable.

He vented his endless fury!

Abandoning all control over his body, Horn instead fought with all his might to seize control of the spiritual power, the ritual, and even the entire boundary, wringing the last fuel from Saliba's reserves and focusing solely on keeping the flames alive.

If he couldn't control the power, then he'd let the power control him.

Above his head, [Crown of Moloch] revealed its true form beneath the nourishment of spiritual power, cloaking the giant of flame in deep-black armor that gathered and scattered like smoke. Blurred faces appeared across his constantly shifting body, one after another, roaring aloud and spewing flames and thick smoke.

Without caring how sinister he looked, Horn let his body lunge forward. In that unexpected instant, he actually pinned Saliba down and trapped him in a cage of fire. The countless faces set into his armor all opened their mouths at once.

They devoured him!

Saliba's crimson, pulsing blood sprayed like a fountain. Tangible flames of dark fire tore at his body, ravenously swallowing this generous gift, then pressing the attack.

Scales, flesh, organs, bones.

Black flames swept over him, greedily stripping Saliba of everything, then tenderly returning the piercing pain to him. He couldn't help but howl, feeling the warmth of the world.

One sentence, and he'd stay warm for the rest of his life!

Feeling his once-abundant stamina and spiritual power vanish into that damned black fire, Saliba watched even the divinity he had painstakingly refined teeter on the verge of collapse. The being, experiencing fear again after so long, could no longer worry about maintaining the ritual. Even his desire for Ascension was temporarily suppressed by the urge to survive.

It was fine. He already possessed the most important status, and [Restless Blood] flowed through his body. Given time, he could recreate today's miracle and complete the final piece of the puzzle.

—As long as he could escape.

When that time came, he would make Horn pay for every last humiliation!