As expected, the settlement was perfect.
Shane forcibly held back his laughter, but the corners of his mouth still couldn't help curving upward.
He lowered his head and looked at the petal in his palm.
With the curse completely cleared away, his body felt as though it had been washed clean by a clear spring. A long-lost lightness and purity spread from the inside out.
With a thought, golden pages rustled open deep in his consciousness. The petal landed steadily inside and was carefully stored away.
Since the harvest had arrived, it was time to begin the next summoning.
Shane turned his face and looked at Ultear. "Wait for me a moment. This won't take long."
Her slender fingers were unconsciously winding a lock of hair by her temple.
That slightly uneasy little gesture was rarely seen from the normally elegant councilor.
Was he talking about me just now? This guy shouldn't have that kind of taste, right?
As if sensing his gaze, she quickly restrained that dazed expression and only gave an almost imperceptible nod in response.
In any case, this man always managed to come up with strange new tricks no one could understand. She was already used to it.
As long as it didn't delay them from stopping Grimoire Heart's sacrifice, she had no reason to stop him.
Shane withdrew his gaze and silently began calculating in his heart.
Although the first time entering a vision was usually relatively safe, considering how the higher-level ones became increasingly realistic, it never hurt to be careful.
He spread his wings and flew down to the peak of a nearby barren mountain covered in jagged rocks.
After steadying himself, he sat cross-legged on the spot, sank into the depths of his consciousness, and began taking stock of the "assets" he had accumulated.
Mira's village demon subjugation: perfect evaluation, 2 points.
Long-chain trial: 1 point.
Pillar of the Guild: 1 point.
Meeting Zeref: 1 point.
Add the 2 points he had just received from the [Innocence] trial, and the 1 point from the Deliora trial settlement.
Then subtract the 1 point he had previously spent to test the vision mechanism by calling "Jack."
On his current balance sheet, there were a full 7 Depth Permissions and 8 Selection Permissions.
"If I hadn't spent some earlier, it could've been even more…"
His heart struck his ribs with neither light nor heavy force. Shane took a deep breath of the cold, hard mountain air.
He had really saved up for a long time.
This was the wealthiest moment he had experienced since arriving in this world.
Based on past experience, these points were enough to let him dive into a deeper "water layer" and stir those Heroic Spirits who were greater within their respective lineages.
"Should I follow the original plan and choose a magus?"
Shane's fingers unconsciously tapped twice against his knees.
A magus's talent and knowledge would help him fill in the missing pieces in his magical system.
It would let his increasingly abundant magic be used more efficiently and rationally.
Reason told him this was undoubtedly the most sensible choice.
If this had been before he personally witnessed Ereshkigal's power, he would not have hesitated at all.
But now, things were different.
He closed his eyes, and once again, the supreme radiance of the underworld goddess's spear-staff appeared in his mind—that light which could so easily sever the boundary between life and death.
It had nothing to do with refined magical theory, nor was it some complex construction of techniques.
It was pure, unreasonable "miracle."
At that thought, Shane opened his eyes, his gaze becoming incomparably decisive.
No longer hesitating, he slammed six Selection Permissions into [Divinity], and put the remaining two into [Good].
Although the [Divinity] trait originally only required three points to select, repeated investment could make the summoning target more precise and better aligned with his expectations.
As for the remaining seven Depth Permissions, he poured them all in without holding anything back, deepening this summoning's Heroic Spirit pool.
"Summon."
He issued the command in his heart.
The permissions he had accumulated until now shattered deep in his consciousness, turning into vast sheets of golden stardust that surged upward against some invisible current.
In the next instant, the feeling beneath his feet changed.
The soft soil beneath him vanished, replaced by the hard texture of rough stone bricks and a scorching heat that could be clearly felt even through the soles of his boots.
Shane instinctively lowered his body. The instant his palm touched the ground, his fingers were scalded by the stone bricks' shocking heat, making him jerk back.
He quickly opened his eyes.
Dry air poured into his lungs, carrying a heavy, scorched feeling, as though every last drop of moisture had been wrung out of it.
He stood up and looked around, discovering that he was standing atop a grand stone altar.
The altar was extremely high, high enough to overlook the endless tropical rainforest below—
assuming those plants could still be called a "rainforest."
Everywhere his eyes reached, the vegetation that should have been lush and green had turned a deep brown, like charred coal.
This was not the withering caused by seasonal change, but a terrifying dead silence in which all vitality had been thoroughly drained away.
There was no birdsong, no insect cries, not even the faintest sign of any living creature breathing.
"At least it looks a bit more lively than the forest that got plowed through by Ankhseram and Ereshkigal in turn."
Shane shrugged and thought optimistically.
This place had none of Magnolia's warm comfort. There was only a barrenness that spread in every direction, as if it would never end.
Shane straightened and raised his head toward the sky.
But the instant he saw the horizon clearly, his pupils contracted violently, and his breath caught in his throat.
At the center of the sky, there was no star giving off light and heat.
In its place was a massive, heavy, and cold "black sun."
The pitch-black solar disk swallowed all hope. Its pale corona spilled around the edges like a ring of diseased teeth, clamping tightly onto the dome of heaven.
Under this light and shadow, like an eternal solar eclipse, every shadow on the earth looked broken and fragmented, making it impossible to tell direction.
Whoooosh—
A violent wind suddenly rose, spiraling upward from the bottom of the altar.
Within the shrieking wind, there seemed to be the low roar of some giant beast. That abnormal frequency made Shane's eardrums ache faintly.
Following the path of the wind, he turned his gaze toward the center of the altar.
There, a huge circular mirror made from a single piece of polished obsidian stood silently.
"What is this?"
Shane frowned slightly.
The deep mirror surface did not reflect his figure. Instead, hazy black smoke continuously rose from it.
He took one cautious step forward.
Cold.
Extremely cold.
Not the kind that acted on the skin, but a bone-piercing chill that stabbed straight into the marrow.
He lowered his head and looked at his own shadow.
Under the refraction of the obsidian mirror, that shadow was stretched and distorted, as though it had become a beast hiding in the dark, silently waiting for the moment to pounce and kill.
Even more hair-raising was the fact that, although there was clearly no one around—not even any living creature—
Shane could truly feel "gazes."
Not one or two, but countless.
It was as if every stone in this wilderness, every wisp of wind, every grain of sand, was an eye belonging to some existence, emotionlessly examining him, the intruder.
This was a terrifying pressure unlike anything he had ever experienced.
It was as though he had been locked onto by the ultimate form of martial force—or by the pure concept of "struggle" itself.
"This feeling… it's like walking on the edge of a blade."
Shane licked his slightly dry lips.
He could feel his magic becoming abnormally active and restless in this environment. Even the hairs on his back were standing on end from the extreme sense of danger.
There was no doubt.
The Heroic Spirit drawn by this summoning was absolutely an existence of absurdly high rank.
Shane took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the complicated emotions churning in his heart, trying to obtain more information from that strange black mirror.
As if responding to his gaze, the black mist on the mirror continued to flow soundlessly.
In the shadow cast by the black sun, vague images gradually began to emerge from the depths of the obsidian like scenes from a revolving lantern:
primeval jungles, rising hurricanes, and civilizations destroyed in war only to be remade again…