Chapter 19
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Chapter 19: The Sword Reveals Its Roar
The Branch of Yggdrasil is the World Tree of Arad. Many towering trees resembling it, though smaller, grow across the land. These "Branches of Yggdrasil" connect to underground magic veins through their roots, making them ideal foundations for city-scale magic arrays.
The Dawn Garden oversees the Tree of Life. Its clerics, self-styled "gardeners" wielding powerful spells, remain neutral in the duchy’s politics—they care little for who holds power.
Even when the Delos Empire seized Hertonmar, the Dawn Garden swiftly cooperated with the new rulers, as Midi witnessed in his past life.
Midi understood their pragmatic stance.
Sigmund and Lilian, the other members of the top trial team, awaited them at the Dawn Garden. After brief greetings, the four approached the main entrance.
"You’re the academy trial champions," said a silver-haired woman with a sweet smile. "I’m Celia Kremin, an elder here. Congratulations on your victory. I’ll guide you to the Nibelungen Dragon Sealing Array." She bowed slightly and strode forward without pause.
Doors swung open as Celia led them deeper. Though no guards challenged the group, Midi’s demon god-enhanced senses detected hidden watchers. Fina, sensitive to magic, frowned but held her tongue.
For the Dawn Garden, covert surveillance instead of searches counted as hospitality—previous champions hadn’t received even this. Their caution revealed the ritual’s importance.
The path split as they descended. Three more gardeners joined Celia at the crossroads.
The subterranean Nibelungen Dragon Sealing Array spanned kilometers, its four Eyes requiring simultaneous activation to harness the year’s accumulated magic—hence the four-person teams.
Pre-assigned based on compatibility tests, the group separated: Fina to the east, Midi west, Sigmund north, and Lilian south. Each entered a stone-lined chamber.
Mithril cores, millennium-grade vein hearts—materials from the Iron-Blooded Duke replaced the academy’s standard offerings. These glittered like constellations as Midi stood at his Eye’s center.
Sunlight flickered—dimming, then flaring painfully. Midi’s ears popped as warm winds surged upward, magic lifting him airborne. His hair floated weightlessly as Hertonmar’s vista vanished, replaced by infinite darkness.
Materials blazed like torches. Silver streaks pierced the void—meteors converging before Midi to form a sword.
No scabbard. The broad blade hovered silently, icy radiance cascading from its edge like glacial waterfalls. Warmth fled as biting cold spread, carrying the desolation of northern winters.
No words were needed. This was his demon god—the comrade who’d fought beside him for eighteen years, then fulfilled his final wish. Since rebirth, Midi’s vows had been silent. Now, he spoke aloud.
"Let’s fight together again, old friend." Cold flames kindled in Midi’s dark eyes.
No grand oaths, just simple truth. Yet darkness quaked, magic roiled, and starlight blazed anew overhead.
In an elven-worthy treetop lodge, Celia orchestrated the array’s operation. Four senior gardeners monitored the Eyes’ magic flows as she commanded the whole.
Despite her young age, as the most gifted gardener in Dawn Garden, she’d overseen this work for years and witnessed various so-called geniuses pursuing perfect transmutation in Belmar Duchy.
Most couldn’t even absorb the magic released from a single Eye during array activation, letting it dissipate. This stemmed from weak physical attributes, unstable willpower, and fragile souls. These were merely talented individuals – perhaps influential, yet still ordinary.
The true geniuses could fully absorb one magic unit. Their honed bodies and unbreakable wills achieved "perfect transmutation".
The rarest type reversed the Nibelungen Dragon Sealing Array’s operation when standing at an Eye, drawing multiple magic units during transmutation. Celia had only read about such cases in archives.
Not even the famously powerful Iron-Blooded Duke achieved this in a century – he’d only managed perfect transmutation. Thus the magic-formed dragon kept sleeping in Belmar’s dragon vein.
This time, Celia pinned hopes on Fina Hamilton.
After studying the trial’s top four, she estimated the gunslinger and cleric would leave minimal magic residue. The black-haired boy’s spoiled past suggested poor physical attributes – an average talent at best.
But the red-haired girl’s unprecedented magic reserves stunned Celia from their first meeting. What whirlpool would form during her transmutation?
"Status?" Celia asked calmly, gaze fixed on the eastern Eye.
"All normal," chorused four senior gardeners.
Then one voice quivered:
"Magic output… accelerating rapidly! The array’s going wild!"
"East Eye?" Celia pressed, prepared.
"West Eye!"
"What?" Celia froze.
A deep dragon’s roar echoed through Hertonmar as blazing light erupted from Midi’s western Eye, stabbing skyward like a heaven-piercing spear!
The towering Tree of Life trembled, countless leaves clapping like applauding hands.
Midi had triggered the Nibelungen Dragon Sealing Array.
The slumbering dragon awakened.
"That… guy’s a genius among geniuses?" Celia mentally reviewed their meeting, struggling to reconcile the ordinary-looking boy with this magic absorption.
"The array’s failing!" another voice cried.
"I know," Celia snapped.
"East Eye now!"
Before the words faded, another beam exploded from Fina’s position!
Celia gaped. Two array-disrupting transmuters in peaceful Belmar? Unthinkable!
"What now?" The veteran gardeners panicked.
"Monitor magic flow immediately," Celia ordered. This year’s Tree reserves allowed three array activations – eight perfect transmutations remained after the academy trial’s usage. More than enough for Midi and Fina.
Then their absorption surpassed two units.
