"I have no problem," Aoko said, looking at Sellen's worried expression. "Master Lusat shared with me the vision of the Origin he glimpsed and taught me an Origin Glintstone magic."
"So that's how it is...!" Sellen stared at Aoko in astonishment. After confirming that she wasn't lying, her eyes eagerly shifted to the motionless Master Lusat, as if she were gazing at a mountain made of gold. "If we can bring Master Lusat back to the academy, then the research on Origin magic will finally—"
"Hmm, you'd better calm down first," Aoko said, pulling the excited Sellen back. "How should I put it? I believe that for a Glintstone sorcerer like you, who already possesses a Primeval Glintstone, coming into contact with Master Lusat might result in instant assimilation by his Origin nature. You could completely turn into an unthinking piece of Glintstone, which would render the human study of Glintstone magic meaningless."
Sellen frowned and stared at Aoko for a while. But under Aoko's sincere gaze, she eventually chose to believe her words. After all, Aoko had no reason to lie to her—she was, after all, the one who had freed her from prison.
"But I understand your desire to explore the origins of Glintstone magic," Aoko said, releasing Sellen's hand. "I have another method to share the knowledge with you. There's a type of magic I know—it's a form of empathic magic. As long as you don't resist, I can share the memory fragments I experienced earlier with you. That way, you'll also obtain that Origin magic."
"...Alright," Sellen thought for a moment, took a deep breath, and then fixed her determined gaze on Aoko's blue eyes. "Let's begin. I won't resist."
Aoko raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised at how easily Sellen trusted her. However, recalling what Sellen had done in the original timeline, she found it unsurprising that Sellen was willing to trust the person who had saved her. With that in mind, Aoko placed two fingers on Sellen's smooth forehead.
Sellen tensed as she saw intricate patterns glow on Aoko's exposed skin—lines of strange luminescence emerging on her arms, neck, and cheeks, shining brilliantly in the dark cave.
"I learned this trick from my roommate," Aoko chuckled. "She always jokes that it's a useless spell, but looking at it now, maybe there's no such thing as a useless spell—only incompetent sorcerers, huh?"
As Aoko finished speaking, Sellen's consciousness was engulfed in a vast, pitch-black starry sky. The light of awareness faded from her eyes, leaving her standing motionless. Meanwhile, Aoko carefully maintained the empathic magic, sharing the extracted memory with Sellen.
Perhaps human physiology differed between the two worlds, but Sellen's body had been created by Touko. Even though Aoko lacked Touko's level of expertise, she still understood the characteristics of the body well enough to apply such precise magic without issue.
About ten minutes later, Aoko ended the spell. The magical markings on her body faded, but Sellen had yet to wake up. Instead, she suddenly collapsed, forcing Aoko to catch her before she hit the ground.
After carefully checking Sellen's condition and confirming that her Touko-made body had not crystallized into Glintstone, Aoko used her creation magic to conjure a high-backed chair and placed Sellen on it.
Sellen would wake up soon, but the main issue at hand wasn't whether she would regain consciousness—it was how to transport Lusat back to the Royal Academy of Caria.
Aoko could easily open a portal and teleport all three of them back, but the real problem lay elsewhere. Upon inspecting Lusat's body, she discovered that portions of the Glintstone crystals growing from him had fused with the surrounding Glintstone clusters. She could only roughly determine which parts belonged to Lusat by their color.
Separating Lusat from this mineral vein would require delicate precision. Aoko pondered how to perform this surgery to extract the Origin sorcerer while ensuring he remained intact.
A while later, Sellen woke up—not naturally, but because of a clinking sound that disturbed her rest.
Rubbing her eyes, the first thing she saw was Aoko crouching beside Lusat, holding a chisel and hammer, carefully chipping away at something. She observed her work meticulously, as if afraid of damaging something important.
"Oh, you're awake?" Aoko glanced at Sellen before continuing her task. "How do you feel? Did you learn the new magic?"
"...This truly is an Origin magic worthy of Master Lusat," Sellen murmured, staggering to her feet. "My situation is far worse than yours. You recovered in an instant, didn't you?"
"I'm a special case," Aoko replied without looking up. "You already know that my 'Law' is inherently connected to the stars and the universe. So, when I received the 'information' from Lusat, I could adapt quickly. Most humans wouldn't be able to."
"But that's a minor issue. I suggest you help me out here," Aoko said, waving a hand to summon another set of excavation tools from her imaginary storage. She placed them on the ground beside her. "Master Lusat's body has fused with the mineral vein. If we use magic to cut him out, we might harm his actual body. So, we have no choice but to separate him manually, bit by bit."
Incidentally, Aoko originally kept these tools in her travel backpack. But ever since she switched to wearing Carian robes, she had stuffed the backpack into her imaginary storage for convenience.
Sellen looked at the tools, then at Aoko, who was diligently chipping away at the Glintstone. A strange sense of surrealism washed over her—her perception of Aoko shifted once again.
She raised an eyebrow, picked up a pair of protective gloves, then grabbed a tool and moved to the other side of Lusat to begin working alongside Aoko.
Meanwhile...
On the other side, Touko had successfully infiltrated the hidden passage to the Altus Plateau, following the elite squad led by Messmer. The path had been guarded by a Magma Wyrm, but before it could even let out a roar, Messmer had already hurled a spear straight through its skull, ending its life in an instant.
As the squad reached the plateau, Messmer stood atop a hillside, momentarily frozen as he gazed upon the familiar landscape of his homeland. After taking a long, deep look toward the royal capital, his expression hardened once more, resuming his usual cold and serious demeanor, as if the fleeting emotions he had just revealed had never existed.
Rellana stood silently beside him, saying nothing. As someone who had accompanied Messmer through the entire Holy War expedition, she deeply understood his emotions. It was the same feeling she had experienced upon returning to Liurnia.
But precisely because she understood, she chose not to comfort him. Instead, she patiently waited for him to recover before pulling out a pre-marked strategic map and handing it to him.
Touko, watching their subtle interactions with amusement, refrained from commenting. To her, the demigods of the Lands Between were certainly powerful, but they possessed too much humanity. Compared to the divine beings of the Type-Moon Earth, who were extensions of the planet's will, the demigods here felt much more like humans.