Pure, raw, and excruciatingly painful mana was let loose in Rai’s body. At this point, he gave up trying to contain it. He could use the seals again, but that would leave him deprived of the mana he needed to stop this Daemon.

His body burned from the inside out. Rai’s mana channels screamed as they were overrun by a richness and quantity of mana that they’d never felt before. It was terrifying. Rai felt like his whole body could rip itself apart if he made the wrong move. He had the mental presence to, with a thought, return Ghost to his seals.

What Rai didn’t have the mental presence to notice was something the Daemon picked up on. “You... You’re a monster! An actual monster! The fabric of the world around you is melting, and you’re stood there wincing in pain?! What the fuck is wrong with you!!” As much as he was a Daemon, if the world got destroyed then he wouldn’t have much to torment for fun.

Rai couldn’t hear him. The waves and waves of mana coursing throughout his body assaulted his senses completely and utterly.

He didn’t know if it would work, but he had no choice. It was all or nothing. Rai poured all of his mana into the next attempt. He raised his arm, aiming towards the possessed Pico. Everything he had, he directed towards the spell.

The Daemon within Pico was clearly extremely worried. If he got close then he would be pulled into the reality bending phenomenon surrounding the boy. But if he had his conduits, then he would be fast enough to slice off the boy’s head before he got crushed into cosmological mush. Possessed Pico looked around, checking the status of his conduits. Only three more needed to re-join their heads to their bodies for the conduits to be active once more. He took a step towards them, to speed them up.

Rai activated Antithesis with all of his mana.

The world lost its colour and sound.

Rai watched the aftermath unfold in pure silence. He didn’t know what would happen, but all of his mana was gone, his inhuman mana reserves were drained completely and utterly. The pain he was feeling drifted into nothingness in that instant.

Possessed Pico had multiple holes in his body. The Undead were gone. All of the magical gems were nowhere to be seen.

Pico’s body dropped to the ground with nary a whisper.

A low, rumbling, vibration hit Rai. It was the Daemon’s voice in his head. “I’ll be back one day boy. We’ll see how you stand against my true form when that time comes. Bahahaha! You’ll die the most gruesome death anyone’s ever witnessed.” The voice faded away with its final words.

After a moment of confusion, Rai was hit by torrential backlash from releasing all of his mana and using it all in one fell swoop. His body was in even more pain than when he unleashed all of his mana. It was like he was being stabbed all over his body with a searing blade, at least he managed to think whilst in absurd amounts of pain.

He tried to scream. But there was no sound. He tried to call for help. But there was no sound. He screamed again. But there was no sound. There was nothing he could do. The world remained in monochrome, and felt more like a void than the world he lived in... Regardless of how painful it felt, for some reason, Rai couldn’t faint. His body would not fall.

Somehow, an entirely new type of pain assaulted Rai's nervous system. A sharp pain burrowed into his eyeballs. He screamed and cried and wished for it to end, but the pain never stopped.

His eyes both felt like they were being written on with a blistering hot needle. Rai sobbed dry tears. The liquid in his body had been long since drained. He called for his mum, wishing for her to somehow appear in front of him magically and take all of the pain away. She didn’t come.

He’d rather die than endure this torture.

Only when the pain had reached its climax.

It faded.

It all faded.

Rai saw and felt nothing. He heard nothing. The world was nothing. He couldn’t even feel his body. All he knew was that he felt like he was suspended in some kind of limbo.

A pair of blue flames flickered, alive, in the distance. “##[]@’][@#”

There was no ringing pain like when the Daemon tried to tell Rai its name, but the phrase still didn’t register.

The flames brightened.

“###;#’;[]’#@[email protected]//.. #’#[:@...... as##f[///..... Th’## There.. There we go! You’re the one who used Antithesis aren’t you?”

The flames waited for a reply that Rai couldn’t give. He couldn’t feel his voice, nor the rest of his body. It was an awful feeling that made him feel more dead than anything previously had. This was impressive, given that he had just died.

“Oh. Whoops. Yeah, you’ll need your body if you want to talk. I’m Ig’lyn, nice to meet you.” Ig’lyn waited for a reply again... “Ah. Ahahaha. Silly me, I forgot again. Give me just one moment here.” The flames moved around, as if they were looking at different things in the empty nothingness that Rai couldn’t see. They returned their attention towards him, flaring brightly.

Feeling.

Rai could feel again. His senses returned to him, and he could move his body around once more. I never thought I could feel so relieved, he thought to himself. Rai looked at his body, which was completely naked. The only thing on his body were his seals. He thought to himself that he would normally be embarrassed in such a situation, but given all that had just transpired he found some kind of solace in simply being in his own body. That solace outweighed any desire to be embarrassed.

“Wonderful! Now that that’s sorted. Who are you and why can you use my spell?” Ig’lyn’s tone shifted from bright and cheery to frightful and dreary.

Rai gulped, he felt like there was no point in lying to this thing.

“I’m... I’m Rai. I found the theory for the spell in a book and applied it to make it into an actual spell.”

The flames flared again, then waited a moment. The voice attached to the flames chuckled so hard that Rai felt like he was about to fall over.

“So you’re telling me that you just found the formula lying around somewhere and then just used it? Have they not taught you about forbidden spells in whatever time period you’re in?! They’re forbidden because they evolve, just like people! If you’re not careful, they’ll grow to a point where you can’t control them!”

Rai was just talked at a whole bunch with a lot of information that he wasn’t quite in the state to completely understand. Many thoughts zoomed around his head, but the first thing Rai wanted to do was figure out what this thing in front of him was.

“What the fuck... I have so many questions.”

The flames made a motion that was almost like an eye-roll.

“Go ahead, ask whatever you want. We have all the time in the world here.”

“Great... just another question to ask.”

“What was that? I didn’t quite catch you.”

“Ah don’t worry, I was just thinking. So, my first question is: who are you?”

“I just told you, didn't I?”

Rai felt like he was missing a lot of information here, nothing made sense. “I was getting hit by the backlash of...” He didn't want to tell Ig'lyn about his mana seals, since he didn't know whether Ig'lyn could be trusted or not. Unlike the celestial being, who Rai still didn't fully trust, he was given no reason to trust this being. “... some stuff. Then I ended up here while everything was really painful. I still don't know why or how you're even talking to me, or what happened after the battle.”

“Were you born an idiot or... did you just become one as you grew up? 'Some stuff'? Really? I get that you don't trust me, but man that's weak. I'm only here because of you anyway. Just a profile of a sorcerer from a bygone era.”

Rai was even more confused, but move forward without dwelling on the point for too long. If Ig'lyn was a profile, then he should ask as many questions as he can and get as much information as he can.

“How can I understand you now?”

“I downloaded our language to your brain? Don’t tell me the people in your era aren’t even capable of that much?!”

“...”

“Oh. Ouch.”

“Don’t... don’t worry about it. Anyway. Who actually are you? Not your name, but your people. You talk about a bygone era as if you’re from another time.”

“Of course I’m from a different time. I’m what you would probably know as an Ancient. There were none before us, as far as we know... or knew. That spell you used is one of mine, I made it. I set it to trigger this profile if anyone was to actually evolve it. To this day...” He pondered for a moment. “No one. You’re the first to evolve it.”

Evolve? What the fuck does that mean?

Rai asked a follow-up question, which actually was what he wanted to ask about before. He asked these questions knowing that the information may be false, but Rai felt that it was better to get some kind of understanding than have none at all.

“You said before that forbidden spells can evolve, what do you mean I evolved the spell?”

“Do I really have to spell it out for you kid? Or, well, actually, no one’s been stupid enough to pour literally all of their mana into the damn spell before, so I guess you’re not the brightest tool in the shed.”

Rai stared at the flames, deadpan.

“Okay fine. You know that burning feeling you felt in your eyeballs before you fainted? That was the spell being etched into your eyes. The true spell, not the unevolved one. Evolved spells often manifest in different ways before they evolve. I doubt you’ll find any other evolved forbidden spells out there, since their evolution conditions are so absurd that no one would actually do what’s required to evolve them. Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t any other idiots like you.”

Ig’lyn snickered. The flaming eyes moved up and down in a motion that resembled laughter.

Rai ignored Ig’lyn’s other insult, and his attitude became more studious than before. His curiosity got the best of him.

“So, how does Antithesis, now evolved, work?”

“Hah. Hah hah hah!” The blue flames disappeared then appeared again directly in front of Rai. “I don’t think I care enough to explain it to you. Figure it out yourself.”

Rai wasn’t sure where this animosity came from. As the eyes flicked back into their previous position, he asked another question.

“What was the last year you remember from when you were alive?”

“Okay. After I answer this, I’m not answering anymore. The year was 4100 DW. It was the peak of the Daemon War. We, what you would call Ancients, were fighting against the Daemon hordes. I’m fairly certain you had to fight one just now, since there’s still some of their murky mana lingering around you.” He paused for a second. “From what I can tell... You really had that much trouble with a useless captain?!”

“Why did I get this one?” Ig’lyn muttered to himself. “

Rai tilted his head; the question was practically plastered over his face.

Ig’lyn sighed again, he could tell what Rai wanted to ask next. “What you fought was probably just a possessed body. If they possess someone, then the Daemon are limited to a fraction of their own power and require conduits of some kind to allow them to use some of their true power. They don’t have that limitation if they’re using their true bodies. So, if you come across a Daemon, run for your life or you’ll probably die.”

Rai groaned, remembering the cold sensation of his chest being pierced. “Yeah, wouldn’t want that happening again.”

“Again?”

“You didn’t see? I died before. Only came back because of a celestial god thing from outside of Zenith.”

The blue flames stared at him.

“Yeah. Okay. Time to go. You won’t see me again, or maybe you will, I suppose it depends on if you can find my home.”

His home? How would I do that when he’s an Ancient? Wouldn't his home be long gone?

The eyes died out, and there was an echoing voice in the distance.

“See ya later loser!”

Rai still had more questions he wanted to ask and was about to shout out. Before he could, however, he felt like he was pulled over a huge distance in a very short amount of time.

Rai didn’t know how to feel about this interaction with Ig’lyn. If it truly was an Ancient, then did that mean the Ancients were the creators of forbidden spells? How would this new information change things? First, a celestial appears in front of him. Then, an Ancient does the same.

He didn’t understand what was happening to him, nor why. But if he was alive, then he would live his life to the fullest. The first thing he wanted to focus on was finding his father.

With that thought, Rai woke up.

He moaned in pain. Rai’s body was extremely stiff, and he couldn’t move a limb. He opened his eyes to see Sin sat beside him. Her face was puffy around her eyes, and her knuckles were white to the bone. Sin was sleeping, but began waking up upon hearing Rai’s pained sounds.

“sniff... rai? Rai?! You’re awake! You’re alive!! Oh thank goodness...” She broke down. “Thank... Th.. hic- Rai... Don’t scare-hic me like that again... please-hic... please.” Sin had none of the physical strength left to hug him, but she forced herself to anyway.

Rai forced himself to speak. His voice came out somewhat raspy.

“I’m sorry.”

He sobbed alongside her, unable to return the embrace given his inability to move his limbs.

“... I’m sorry.” Rai whispered softly.