Solar Mage

Chapter 72: The Bad Ending Part: 4

"This is the Grand Library? Father was right about this place being safe. I can't really tell if this barrier is stronger than the one around Wolkan Academy, but it feels like much more ancient magic."

I place the key into the hole, and making a loud thud, I turn the key, and the door slowly opens, the key being swallowed whole, inside the lock.

"So this is where I'll be staying for the next however long, huh? It's quite... large."

I make my way inside the massive room, quickly turning back as the doors make their loud sound, scratching against the floor as it shuts tightly behind me.

Yeah, I don't think I'll be able to break out of here anytime soon.

I turn back and continue my way down the mystical spiraling bookshelves, lit up by the single ray of light coming down from the dome in the center of the room.

When I reach the center of the room, and stand directly below the dome of light, I see ten giant sacks sitting at the front of all the spiraling bookshelves.

What's in these? Food?

I open the sacks, each of them, one by one and fall down after searching the last.

"Ahh– all of them are just full of grain pills! Come on, couldn't there be jerky or something? I haven't had any good food to eat since before– well, everything really."

I stare up at the ray of light shining down on me, and then back down at the bookshelves.

"This really resembles the library inside my mind."

"Speaking of which–"

My vibrant brown eyes turn back to pitch blackness.

"It's time to collect all my fragments."

***

A man with a long blue beard that stretches to his feet, sits, meditating under the light of the sun, on top of a mountain of worn and torn books, circled by empty, spiraling, charcoaled bookshelves. From the loud screams and explosions above him, his calm blue eyes finally open, staring out at the Grand Entrance to the room, covered in weathered marks of battle, but under its charred coat, it remains undamaged.

Has it been ten years now?

Looking closer at the door, microscopic white lines cover the frame. When all tallied up, it numbers to 3651.

I haven't been this bothered with noise since that time nine years ago when I heard that demon who stopped time and almost killed me in the Zidden Dungeon, along with hundreds of other horrific, demonic screams. It's been quite quiet since then, but this noise, it really bothers me. Even the screaming from that time nine years ago only lasted for a few hours. But this time, it has been continuing for one day, seventeen hours, forty three minutes and nineteen seconds– and counting.

I had wanted to stay in the Grand Library until I reached the 10th circle, but there isn't really a point anymore.

A glowing, orange eye appears on Arthur's forehead, closing his right, he views the entire library from everywhere all at once, becoming one with the library.

I've read all the books there are to read, but I've still yet to climb over the wall to the 10th circle.

I start to get up, pushing myself up from my knee. But now that I've seen the wall myself, while in my right mind, all those insane fragments pieced back together, correctly this time it makes it even more unbelievable for Magnus to be a 10th circle. First off, to even have a chance of reaching it in less than a thousand years, you would need a talent that breaks the laws of the universe. It's still possible for him to have reached it in his time, I heard that the mana in the air was multiple times higher than it is now. But as I currently am, it won't be possible for me to reach it even if I was given another hundred years. I need to make do with what I have at the moment.

I stare up at the transparent dome above my head and look at my reflection.

But first, I should clean myself up first.

Making no movements whatsoever, my long, blue beard is set ablaze, and completely disappears in the blink of an eye, not once touching the bottom of my chin, cleanly, and perfectly removing my beard.

I feel around it with my hand.

Hmm... feels smooth enough.

Then, my sets ablaze in a blue fire, that also exhausts in less than a second, black droplets exiting from my sweat pores.

That body cleansing technique sure is useful, but it kinda felt like there was more to the manual, like there were some pages to it that were purposefully torn out. The author had some foreign, ancient sounding name, so I'll probably never find him.,

My nose sniffs, smelling the terrible stench coming from the dense black liquid.

"Ugh, it smells terrible though– I should take a wash in actual water to get this shitty smell off of me."

I leap off the mountain of books and land without making any impact, or with the ground even knowing I landed, and walk through the empty bookshelves, throwing a grain pill into my mouth, as I casually stroll to the room where the sound of rushing water comes from.

"Damn, regardless of how many I eat, I can never get used to this disgusting, earthy taste. The smell coming from my body definitely isn't helping it either."

The noise has now been continuing for one day, seventeen hours, forty three minutes and twenty seconds.

I splash under the artificial waterfall, constantly being drained and produced again from runic letters.

"Hoooo, it's cold but it feels nice."

Just as I get up, the water around me evaporates, the circle of evaporation staying until I get out.

Then, with a snap of my fingers, blue fire appears around me, this time, remaining for longer.

When it disappears, my naked body is styled with a dark colored, full-body armor, made of my heavily condensed mana.

"Now it's time to see what the hell is making that noise."

I disappear, and reappear at the door of the Grans Library where I had tried to break out from, hundreds of times, marked all over by my magic and my microscopic tallies used to track time.

"Haaa– finally, after ten years, I can finally leave this dull library. Father was right, I hadn't reflected on it since now but, it was lonely. Placing my hand on the newly formed orb that I noticed, from after I became a Great Sage two years ago.

Hesitantly, after a pause, I raise my hand, and grab it, the orb turning blue before it disappears, the door beginning to open. Behind me, the mountain of books I had created, start to levitate up as high as the dome, all together, like a single being, before separate, scattering and filling the bookshelves from where they were originally placed.

Huh, how neat.

When the door fully opens, I turn back around, and see the stone hallway full of cuts, signs of intense battle, and directly in front, a skeleton is all that's left, his spine, and the rest of the skeleton being forced to the wall, by a crimson greatsword, in his hand, even after death, never letting go of his chipped obsidian blade.

I stare at the skeleton's blade with a blank expression for a long time.

That sword it's holding is father's Time-slashing rapier.

As I walk closer to the skeleton, my blank expression turns to a smile. I kneel down to him and pull out the greatsword lodged inside him, and throw it forcefully into the wall.

His skeleton falls to the ground, rattling but not falling apart. Continuing to stare at the sword tightly held in his hand, I admire it with warm eyes.

"It's fine now, you can finally rest."

I carefully loosen his fingers from the broken rapier, and stick it deep into the ground.

"Thank you for waiting for me all this time, you are the best dad I could have ever wished for."

I calmly walk out of the long, lonely hallway, the echoes of my footsteps, the only sound to be heard.

As I walk in silence, unable to get the picture of my dad's skeleton out of my mind, I hear a crack come from in front of me, my body immediately reacting, I take a large leap backwards, returning back to the entrance of the Grand Library.

I quickly recover and stare back at the place where I just stood.

What's that? Did I bump into a wall glass or something? No, that's impossible, there's no way I wouldn't have been able to detect something in front of me. If it's not that? What else could it be?

A voice comes from my left.

"Wow, that was a long jump, but you sure are younger than I imagined."

What? My senses weren't even able to detect him! Is he Magnus Arcanus?

Just as I try to jump back, the old man with a beard that circles around his neck like a scarf, snaps his fingers, disorienting my thought process and flow of mana.

"Let's take this battle somewhere more fitting."

We both stand, hovering high in the air, above the lifeless field of gray stone, where chunks of land seemed to have disappeared, in a variety of shapes, like the atoms that formed the matter had just been cleanly ripped out.

I wasn't certain of it before since I couldn't feel his mana, but I'm certain of it now, this old man here is Arcanus! What he did just now was definitely teleportation, shortening the space between two locations and merging them! Just like what Terminus did, except it looks like he can erase space as well.

"So, how have you been doing? Personally, it's been nice feeling the fresh air for the first time in thousands of years."

He says with great joy in his voice, while I stare at him fiercely with indifference, not saying a word.

"Not much of a talker huh? Well, that's fine too, I just wanted to congratulate you on being the last one alive!"

I squint my eyes, looking at him much more fiercely with my Killing Intent.

"You– did you kill everyone?"

He rotates his body upside down, happily playing around like a child.

"Everyone? You mean all the humans? No, how could I? I'm not a monster! I just killed every strong person, and you just so happened to be the last one! I must say, you're really good at hiding, I've been searching for you for over a day and two nights now!"

My eyebrow flinches.

A day and two nights?! If what he says is true, then that means he eliminated all the strongest mages, swordsmen, and martial artists in less than two hours!

"Were you the one responsible for that skeleton back in the stone hallway?"

Arcanus looks at me with a confused look.

"Who? You mean your father?"

My eyes widened in surprise.

What?!! How does he know that?!!

He bursts out into laughter.

"HAHAHAHA!!! You should've seen the look on your face! Haa... You must be wondering how I knew right?

My body trembles slightly, as I stiffen my muscles.

"Don't be so cautious, I'll tell you,I just want to enjoy some conversation with another human for the first time in two thousand years. Did you really think that those old geezers–"

He pauses and looks at himself, curling the tip of his beard.

"Huh, I guess I'm an old geezer now too, anyway, how could just six mages, just barely at the 9th stage possibly be equal to me? I had full control inside, and could've left whenever I wanted."

"As much as I wanted to kill your traitorous father myself, I stayed true to my will and waited. When I was released from the seal, your father had already been a skeleton."

If it wasn't him, then it must've been those demons, I have some more questions, but I can find them out from the demons I find in hell after I finish this guy.

He looks at me with a smile under his beard, continuing to rotate around in the air.

He doesn't take me seriously at all, I was caught off guard at first, but I can beat him in an instant. I will make him pay for what he said about my father.

I stare at him, my eyes now void of emotion, and unwavering determination, my first target set.

"Oooh, are you curious for more? Well, I'll happily entertain you with the answers you want if you entertain me with conversation."

He smiles cheerfully floating in the air with his legs crossed.

I raise my hand, forming a condensed rod of mana in it, catching it and pointing it at him.

"No, I would much rather end you now instead of letting you live for another second. It's time for you to pay for the crimes of killing the gods and Great Sages. And as the disciple of those whom you've killed, and as the Apostle of the great goddess, Pyro, I will now bring Divine Punishment down upon you."

Arcanus looks at me in shock, like I did something unbelievable.

"Are you sure? I mean, the people who reached the 9th stage in this era are stronger than the Great Sages in my era, especially that Grandmaster! It felt like I was fighting Seraphis Dawnbringer all over again!"

Damn it, if he's made such a comparison, that means he truly must have

I feel the suppressed flame of wrath inside me start to burn again.

"Huh, let's see, who else did I kill that was memorable? Oh yeah, there was someone else just like me in this era who used space magic! He was quite hard to kill because of all the unique artifacts and traps he set, it took me longer to kill him than all the others who reached the 8th stage and above combined!"

The fire blackens into its true form of wrathful hellfire.

"Kgh– ENOUGH!!!"

Like a star exploding into a supernova, my black hellfire bursts out in all directions, setting the entire area stretching for the next mile on eternally burning black flames. The recoil striking back heavily, my breathing rate increasing, while a black fire appears on my chest.

"Huff- huff–"

Is this the power of wrath planted in me by that demon of wrath? How disgusting... but it looks like it worked.

"I must say, your presence feels much stronger than any of those that I fought before, and especially whatever you did just then–"

He tries to pat down the black flame that devours his robes.

"That was quite the powerful move."

"But is that really all? Are you really the prophesied one to defeat me? I allowed those Great Sages to seal me, though immediately regretting my decision, and waiting the full two thousand years in fear that they would be too powerful for me to handle, but not only did they not even reach the 10th circle, they also rejected my offer for peace, and tried to kill me! Even though we have the same enemy, I cannot let someone who tried to take my life live. Especially one who shares the same blood as them."

Holding the black fire as much as possible, using all the strength left in my body to try and suppress the pain, I hover in the air, defenseless and pathetically gasping for air.

"Huffff— Huffff—"

"I'm sorry Arthur, this was the most enjoyable conversation I've had in two thousand years, but if it makes you feel any better, you never even stood a chance."

Arcanus slowly raises his hand, changing our surroundings to his Mind's Realm, his magic circles flying out of his chest and enlarging, creating a dyson sphere around us. In the center where he stands, aside from the ten white mana circles surrounding us, another forms in his hand, taking the shape of a staff, and being pointed at me.

So this is his Mind's Realm, how empty, but fitting, just like how I can't understand how to surpass the wall to the 10th circle, I can't understand the mind of the Transcendental Wizard. Ha, I never stood a chance, he's already reached the 11th circle. And here I am, thinking I was the hero of the story, but relying on the power of demons, and still losing. What a pathetic tale.

"It seems you've finished making your amends with this world."

I smile broadly, without looking up from the ground, while his staff points directly at head.

"Ha, hardly, but what can I do?"

He stares down at me with a remorseful and hesitant look on his face.

"Goodbye."

I tilt my head down, accepting my fate for the final time, as the sound from his staff whirrs for a second, before it releases a colorless deletion ray that erases anything out of existence, quickly traveling through the air, until the sound suddenly stops, and I feel the air get warmer, my head still attached to my neck, quickly opening my eyes, to figure out the situation, but a familiar, calming voice comes first.

"You've grown much taller, Arthur– but I miss your beautiful brown hair, and beautiful eyes–"

Pyro!! She's alive!!

I feel all the wrath inside me leave as I hear her beautiful voice, all my loneliness being– tripled.

"KHHHGGK—HKKKFFF!! Why are you making such a sad face Arthur? You look much more handsome smiling– KHHHGGK—HKKKFFF!!!!"

Without me even knowing, my mind gone blank, my face had changed, with her warm golden blood dripping down on my arms, quickly losing their heat and color.

"I've missed you for a long time– you promised that you would've come to visit me–"

I stare up at her uneasy, smiling face, where her golden blood drips from her lips.

"Your– your wound—"

Her hair begins to lose its life, becoming paler and paler.

"Shhh– it's okay, now, I'll always be there to save you–"

She moves her fingers across the black dot where the hellfire was, on my chest.

"But you using this power– saddens me..."

Her blood drains to a sickly white, her hair losing all color as the last flames in the Realm of Fire die around us. Her lifeless body falls against mine, weightless, and the world around me collapses into cold silence. My mind goes blank, unable– unwilling to grasp the reality in front of me.

The fire, both around me and within me, is gone. All that's left is the dark, empty shell of what this place used to be. I sit there, frozen in the ashes, the last flicker of hope snuffed out, leaving nothing but cold emptiness.