Like ice struck by a drop of hot water, the frozen layer cracked under the sudden shock.
Spiderweb cracks spread across the clear ice.
The eyelids of the man inside twitched.
His long sleep had finally reached its end.
Outside air blew in through the cracks, and the faint breath of it seeping through was intoxicating.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Basil, who had been lecturing an owl, sensed something.
It swept across the sky above Wizard City.
Riddle stared fixedly at that spot.
The lively, restless Tom sat beneath the throne.
"Whew..."
The sound of breathing passed through the ice to the outside.
The ice melted rapidly, as though it had fallen into a lake.
His clothes were dry, his eyes open for the first time in so long.
At that moment, the sun atop the Magic Tower shone with dazzling brilliance.
The wizards felt joy well up from deep within. They did not know why, but every one of them smiled from the heart.
It was a slow, heavy movement.
Blood began flowing through his stiff fingers.
Ice crystals fell from his eyelashes as they trembled.
Starlight shimmered.
An almost imperceptible change spread through every wizard.
From a cosmic perspective beyond human sight,
Earth flickered.
Throughout the universe, every magical being looked up at the starry sky and saw that flicker.
In Vanaheim, the High Tower of the Seagull Cluster flickered at the same frequency, as if answering.
Odyssey was in the palace. The age of magical decline had plunged this great nation into an unprecedented slump.
Magic had waned, and talented people had died in war.
Those forms of magic had no successors.
Once proud, Odyssey now sighed every day over the changing times.
He looked up, and a sea of starlight filled his eyes.
His expression