Chapter 195
He couldn’t come to his senses.
It wasn’t just the sheer amount of mana flowing in. The eons of time melted into it were condensed far too deeply.
What Lil was doing was nothing like a simple mana massage.
It was a far more advanced form of mana transfer.
‘Why go this far?’
Park Chanwoo’s eyes trembled.
Lil was passing her Awakening on to him.
And the density of mana circulating through his entire body began to rise violently.
But an act like this would cripple the one doing it.
They might never be able to use magic again.
Even for a Transcender—someone walking the same path of magic—Lil was breaking a taboo that should never be broken.
—Empty yourself.
Lil’s voice echoed in his head.
Empty?
What was she telling him to empty?
‘Mana.’
He understood instinctively what Transcender Lil was forcing him to do.
The third stage of mana—Cohesion.
The last stage of the foundation, and the most decisive one.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say his future would be determined by how he overcame this Cohesion.
And Lil intended to realize both methods of Cohesion at the same time.
Raising mana density, and lowering it.
Lil was helping him raise the density.
Lowering it was entirely on him.
Originally, you completed Cohesion through one method or the other.
—Empty, fill, and empty again.
Lil had always believed that realizing both at once was the true completion of Cohesion.
That was the nature of magic.
If you leaned too far to one side, you could never reach the other.
Sephiro and Lil had each moved to an extreme, failing to understand the other’s domain.
Perhaps that was why they couldn’t reach the end.
In Lil’s view, this last foundational stage was one of the most important processes.
‘Empty… mana.’
His trembling body stilled.
So still it felt frozen.
He closed his eyes and began withdrawing mana, one thread at a time.
But due to the mana transcendence phenomenon, his mana density had already exceeded 150% in an instant.
And because his mana connection was so strong, it wasn’t easy to stir it and pull it out.
If it couldn’t be done normally, he needed special measures.
‘All mana to the heart.’
Gathering it came first.
He couldn’t empty the mana scattered through his body bit by bit.
The question was whether his heart could endure it.
Thump! Thump!
All mana condensed into his heart.
His heart pounded as if it would burst.
…Overload.
It had exceeded the limit of what the heart could accept.
Pain choked him.
He felt like he would lose his mind.
‘Empty.’
But he clung on and forced every last strand into the heart.
Then he released that condensed mana outward, as a single point.
Sssssssss!
Smoke rose from his entire body.
A phenomenon created as the forcibly released mana evaporated.
With the mana inside him emptied in an instant, extreme starvation set in.
Drip, drip, drip.
Blood flowed from his nose, eyes, ears, and mouth.
Mana dwelled in all things and upheld existence.
Now that it was gone, death came rushing in.
‘I’m… disappearing.’
And it wasn’t an ordinary death.
He had died once before, defeated by an overwhelming enemy.
But this surpassed that.
…Loss.
The barrier of mana that allowed him to exist was peeling away.
He was beginning to experience the Curse of the Abyss.
At this rate, he would vanish like smoke.
‘…Fill.’
Lil’s mana surged back into him.
It poured in like a tidal wave, restoring his existence.
No magician could dare attempt this.
No one could imitate it.
Only Lil—the Transcender of mana—could do it.
—Do not be afraid.
—Everything is bound to be emptied and filled.
—Setting the limit is your will.
…It was strange.
Each time he emptied and was filled again, his mana density grew thicker.
Like bones breaking and rejoining stronger than before.
160%.
If he repeated this a few more times, reaching 200% would be possible.
And he would also grow accustomed to operating near zero density.
But it meant facing death again and again.
An ordinary person would have quit after the first.
Because mana starvation—loss of existence—was the worst of all deaths.
‘Setting the limit is my will.’
He turned Lil’s words over.
When the mana barrier vanished completely, the fear was indescribable.
He wanted to let go of everything.
But stopping meant accepting that as his limit.
And he still had a long way to go.
He was only at stage 3.
Even before his regression, he had stayed at stage 1, Awakening.
He had never even attempted mana reversal.
He lacked both the knowledge and someone to teach him.
Meeting Lil was a miracle.
A miracle that could finally quench the thirst he’d carried his whole life.
‘There is no limit to magic.’
That was why he loved it.
Beyond talent, magic had no ceiling.
He could even surprise Sephiro with basic magic.
[ I will kindly call you ‘Archmage.’ You can brag about it anywhere! ]
The only human recognized by Dragon God Sephiro.
And as far as Park Chanwoo knew, no being of any race had ever been called Archmage by Sephiro.
Magic was like a dragon’s breath.
To cast magic, to a dragon, was the same as being able to breathe.
No one praises someone just for breathing.
Sephiro’s recognition proved that Park Chanwoo had surpassed even the racial traits of dragons.
Everything began with that single word.
Park Chanwoo’s dream.
The burning passion to become an Archmage.
So—
‘There is no limit to me either.’
He would not set limits.
He would surpass Dragon God Sephiro—that Transcendent Dragon.
If he couldn’t surpass him, he would rather die.
‘…Empty.’
Empty. Fill. Empty again. Fill again.
Little by little, he was breaking through the barrier of mana—the realm of Awakening.
—
Awakening.
Most magicians stop at this first stage.
It is the act of recognizing and awakening mana.
The stage where you treat mana and magic sincerely—not as [Skills] or game-like elements.
Then comes the second stage, Flow.
Few even know about mana reversal.
And even if they do, attempting to reverse mana while risking death is not easy.
But once you reach Flow, you become aware of mana’s essence.
You can execute more precise magic through mana.
From this point on, the user’s will begins to be imbued into their magic.
It is the moment when unique color enters it.
…And the third stage, Cohesion, is far more difficult than the first two.
It is the final foundational stage, and the point where the kind of magician you become is decided.
There are magicians who dominate mana.
They wield powerful, dazzling magic.
As they repeat the stages, they consume and wield immense mana, to the point that the rulers of mana even disrupt nature’s order.
Most magicians fall into this.
And there are a few who treat mana as a friend.
Like Lil—those who do not go against nature and providence, and regard mana as equal to themselves.
—I realized too late that insisting on only one direction does not suit the nature of magic.
It was the paradox of magic.
You cannot reach the ultimate by clinging to a single direction.
To reach the true end, you must know how to dominate, and how to be close.
Sephiro was the same.
He only knew how to dominate.
—Sephiro. You did not understand my way. I also did not understand your way.
Shouldn’t a true magician try to understand everything?
You can’t overcome a wall if you become hostile from the start.
The problem was that the realization came too late.
She should have known it at the order of stage 3, Cohesion.
No—more than that.
Even if she had known, she still could not have executed it.
To acquire both paths at once required a will that didn’t fear death, an open mind, sincerity toward magic, and a teacher like Lil willing to attempt mana transfer.
The chance of having all of that was close to zero.
—But this mortal is different.
…Yet someone who had it appeared.
Lil watched Park Chanwoo with his eyes closed and thought,
‘Before I knew it, he was overcoming the wall alone.’
He no longer needed her help.
After grasping the method, Park Chanwoo began emptying and filling on his own.
Releasing mana—then seizing the released mana and filling himself again.
It was astonishing.
She had never taught him how to recapture mana released outside the body.
Yet he had acquired it and begun executing it.
‘…He is moving forward alone.’
Park Chanwoo had already completed the third stage, Cohesion.
Even Lil, a Transcender, had not expected that.
And even after completing Cohesion, he was breaking through another wall.
She wondered if it was a phenomenon born from acquiring both paths, but no matter how she looked at it, Park Chanwoo himself was entering another Awakening.
In particular, the act of drawing mana emitted outward back inside, filling himself with it—
It could only mean one thing.
‘Resonance of mana.’
He was resonating with mana.
…It meant he had entered the advanced fourth stage, Resonance, on his own.
And then—
Hwaaaaaaak!
Five-colored, brilliant flowers bloomed above Park Chanwoo’s head.