Chapter 116

“What… what are you doing now!”

The child, finally regaining consciousness, shouted. But did the voice reach anyone’s ears?

As if shouting into the void, the cry didn’t elicit any response. Soon, the girl realized she couldn’t even hear her own voice.

Silence. A deep, tranquil silence was broken by a voice. Naturally, it wasn’t her own voice, but an emotionless one.

“All you can do now is roll around. No, there’s one more thing. This time, I’ll take your mouth away.”

Now, Roka has no mouth. Without a mouth, she can’t scream.

Neither sound nor scream could pass through her throat, only echoing and swirling around. Roka glared at the blue light with a venomous gaze. And then, her vision went dark.

“This time, I crushed your eyes. Child. Do you still not understand?”

Darkness. Silence. Stillness. A world unknown to those who have seen light since birth.

Those born blind do not fear it, but the child was afraid. Everything she had built crumbled like a sandcastle before the masterless swordsman.

Now, to the child who couldn’t even see, a voice whispered.

“Everything you thought was yours, in fact, wasn’t yours.”

‘What… nonsense…!’

Without a mouth, she couldn’t protest. Without eyes, she couldn’t glare.

And now, even the voice didn’t reach her. Silence. An absolute silence approached Roka. More than any threatening words, that stillness was more terrifying.

-Heron? Heron?

The nearly terrified child desperately searched for the voice that had brought her to this state. Unable to open her mouth to call out, she screamed in her heart.

-Child.

Her heart answered. As if another self whispered within her heart, the answer came back.

-I took everything from you. But even so, there’s one thing left for you.

-What’s left for me…?

-Yes. Only your true self. That much, no one can take away. If you still don’t understand, think about it.

The voice fell silent again. Realizing something on your own and being told the answer.

At first glance, they might seem to lead to the same result, but in reality, they don’t. Realization must be entirely your own to unleash its full power. Realization handed to you by someone else can’t do that.

-Roka… doesn’t know about that.

Struggling, Roka thrashed. Well, she tried to.

She couldn’t tell if her body was actually moving or not. She just hoped it was.

-Quickly, give me back. I have to go protect my master!

-…Do you think your body is yours?

But time is never infinite, and even now, Roka is slowly dying. Ignoring this opportunity for realization, what can be done? Only giving hints to guide her.

The voice continued calmly. It seemed like two selves were conversing in Roka’s mind. Feeling dizzy, the child responded.

-No. It’s my master’s.

-Whoever’s it is, it’s just borrowed. Ownership belongs to no one. It’s merely borrowed from the world. Child, you received your body from the world when you were born, and when you die, you must leave it behind. It’s not yours. It’s just passing through.

What kind of nonsense is this?

Roka frowned at the confusing story. Of course, it’s just her personal thought. Whether her body was really making that expression, she had no way of knowing.

-The magical power you wield is ultimately the power of the universe. You borrow it from the universe while you’re alive, and when you die, you must return it. Can you call that your power?

-……

My magical power isn’t my power? Then whose power is it?

What does that mean? Roka didn’t understand at all.

-So, my body and my magical power aren’t mine?

-Yes. You just think they’re yours. The only thing a person can claim as their own in life is one thing.

-What is it?

-The only thing left for you now.

What’s left for me? What do I have now?

Without eyes, arms, or legs, the last thing left for me. Finding the answer wasn’t hard. Roka muttered without realizing.

-Heart.

-Yes. In this vast world, only the heart can truly be called your own.

Something that no one else but yourself builds up, something that doesn’t return to the world when you die but perishes with you. That is only the heart.

-Child. Refine your magical power with your heart. If magical power is water, the heart is the vessel. The shape of the vessel determines the shape of the water. Even without using magical circuits, you must be able to move magical power with your heart alone to be second tier.

Suddenly, Roka’s eyes opened. She saw herself lying on the burning ground.

She could also see her own body, charred black. Trying to move her body, no strength came. Her entire magical circuit was utterly destroyed.

A healthy body houses a healthy mind. Living in a sick body, the mind also becomes sick.

Just as someone living in a damp, moldy basement becomes unconsciously depressed, when the body is tired, the mind is also tired. When the body is dying, naturally, the mind is also dying.

Going against that natural order, reversing the relationship, is what makes one first tier. In any case, the true self is the mind, and this body is merely an appendage to it, according to Heron’s philosophy.

Even if the body dies, if the mind lives, it is not dead. Rather, the body can be revived by the virtue of the mind. Even an unhealthy body can be revived if a healthy spirit resides within it.

If the body can influence the mind, the opposite must naturally be possible.

Whether the body is burned or torn by blades, one must be able to stand alone with a pure heart to be first tier.

If you realize it directly, you can leap from second tier to first tier. The reason this realization was imparted to Roka now is because he hoped she would grasp even a part of it and survive.

-Can you pull magical power with your heart to reconstruct your body?

Roka’s heart wasn’t yet independent enough to leave the body, but repairing the body, the house, was possible. Even if the body dies, if the soul doesn’t die, the body can be reconstructed with the help of magical power.

Reconstructing the body entirely with one’s own heart, making the body the image of one’s thoughts, is still far off for Roka.

So now, a large amount of magical power is indispensable for body reconstruction. In any case, such a big task requires that much driving force.

“Ah, it’s not working?”

Roka groaned. A voice came out, but it was the sound of someone dying. It was clear that the life in her body was fading.

-Don’t try to pull magical power intentionally, lower yourself completely. Like all rivers flowing into the sea, if you become the sea, the magical power will naturally flow to you.

“So… it’s not working.”

-Then, there’s nothing to be done. This is as far as it goes.

Somehow, it seemed like a sigh was heard.

Not just seemed, it was definitely a sigh.

-Sigh, as expected. Realization imparted by others can only guide the direction, it can’t make you leap forward in an instant. What can be done? You couldn’t grasp the opportunity given.

“Heron…?”

-Sorry, child. I’m just a remnant. If I had a real body, I could have helped somehow, but as a mere remnant, I’m already running out of power. We won’t meet again.

“Don’t… don’t give up on me…”

Roka groaned and shouted. She thought she shouted loudly, but the sound that came out was as small as a mouse’s squeak. There was no energy left in her body to make a sound.

No answer came. The lingering thought of Heron, which had been in the womb, had used all its power and disappeared.

Originally, it was a thought left to elevate her when Roka reached a critical point. Its size wasn’t that large. It was unexpected that it even launched a direct attack against the Phoenix.

After creating a space for the heart and giving her an opportunity for realization, it could no longer remain.

‘Am I… dying like this? Like my sisters?’

The awakened mind became hazy again. Death, which had momentarily receded, approached again. Thus, only regrets remained, and now, death became frightening.

For a short while, one can charge forward without fearing death. But facing death for so long, it’s natural for anyone to fear it. Any living being fears death.

One can momentarily ignore it with madness or completely resign to it.

But when facing it for so long, the desire to live suddenly surges. That’s why humans are like reeds.

Slurp.

Then, something flowed into the mouth of the child who didn’t even have the strength to open her eyes. A cold liquid flowed down her throat. The moment it touched her tongue, Roka opened her eyes without realizing.

A taste she had never felt before. Not salty, not spicy. Far from the savory taste of meat. Sour? Absolutely not. This, for the girl, was a taste she was experiencing for the first time.

‘It’s delicious.’

Like a baby suckling its mother’s milk, she instinctively swallowed what came in. A sweetness that made her tongue tingle bombarded her taste buds. For a child who couldn’t taste sweetness and thus didn’t like sweet things, it was nothing short of a new world. The first sweetness in her life.

The crushed Firefly Meringue went in, not leaving even the last drop of juice.

Kyle finally let out a deep sigh and looked at the child in his arms.

“Don’t ever do something so dangerous again.”

Really, how scared he was, this child would never know.