The time bubble popped after only ten minutes as Alveolo’s mana capacity was completely drained. She only hoped that it was enough time for him to logically reconsider the verdict as she collapsed.
“...You can rest easy now, demon,” said Reginn to Alveolo, “I have nothing against you.”
Alveolo collapsed after crawling onto one of the seats from exhaustion. It had been a particularly long day for the Endlegion, no, everyone involved.
Reginn turned to look at the colosseum, and it seemed that it was mostly barren. The King had disappeared as well with the rest of his entourage. It did not matter. He no longer wished for an audience, or to impress anyone. He simply wished to do the right thing.
Reginn made his way forward. One step, two steps. These last few days helped Reginn understand how blind he truly was. While he considered himself a genius, it seemed that he was but a fool, deluding his false reality. The hero had let his pride take control, his earthly desires for love, respect and control spewing forward. Such a childish, unchecked tyrant was not what Avangarden needed — not what the people ever needed — but a protector. He had long considered himself one, protecting the denizens from the evil natures of humanity, and perhaps he did so, but it was not the correct method to do so.
What the people needed was not punishments, but knowledge and reflection. He only knew so after experiencing those two things, not punishment. Punishment for the sake of revenge, or righteousness was not the path to good. His crusade based on the commandments of the Goddess was but a zealous rampage.
As such, Reginn would make his amends this day.
After finally facing the unconscious Kyriekaos, Reginn raised his hand. He chose to save Attila.
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Within the realm of the shadow, the skies split a million-spiked star, the centre of which rapidly descended Reginn. The sunlight was quickly extinguished, and the hero began to look for Attila. However, she was nowhere to be found.
“...Attila! Attila!”
The hero could feel that time was running low. If any more minutes were wasted, such could be the finale for the demon. He began to run without direction, intensity slowly rising with each pounding step. Then he finally came up with a new idea; he would create a unique spell, involving the sixth path. Instead of sending information, streaming information or stealing information, he would directly alter the construction of the mind. Now that he knew exactly how mindscapes visually existed, he could begin coordinating certain aspects with the characteristics of the mind.
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From his true body, partially leaving the realm of the shadow, Reginn quickly scanned Kyriekaos’s brain with mana, using electron alignment to locate the various areas. He could then observe the movement of electrical signals. By altering the electrical signals himself and then observing the effects on the realm of the shadow, the hero instantly mapped and mastered the art of manipulating the mindscape. After almost tasting defeat against the Endlegion Silverguards and Ayn, this feat helped him regain his confidence as the first king of magic, as they called him.
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Now, with the skill mastered within the span of seconds, Reginn returned to the realm of the shadow. The first aspect he altered was the shadow it self. He changed the gloomy void into a bright blue sky, full of beautiful clouds and shining suns. Then, he began to shape the dark floor into knee-deep water. The moment after summoning the water, he could hear the nearby splash of someone quickly standing back up. Swiftly, Reginn made his way toward the source of the sound and found Attila. However, her entire arms were now disintegrated, as her mana skin dissolved.
“...D-don’t worry, I’m here to save you.”
“...Y-yeah.”
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This was the first time Reginn had felt this much anxiety. He had felt enough anger and grief to kill a man, but never fear to this extent. It made his brain operate even faster, but even then, he could only come up with a single solution:
To sacrifice his own mana skin.
Reginn’s mana skin was special as it was positioned extremely far from him. As the boundary of the spirit was the domain in which one could manipulate mana for most people, Reginn’s range was immense as his covered an immense area. It was also exceptionally thin as well, allowing mana to travel more freely within and out of the mana skin, rather than slowly concentrating all mana within toward him.
This meant that he would need to sacrifice an exponentially great amount of his mana skin to make up for the thinness, but first, he would need to learn to manipulate his mana skin.
While it sounded simple on paper, in reality, this was the territory of soul-bending, which was not his forte. However, as the situation demanded it, he began visualizing his mana skin, existing at the boundaries of his senses. They were mostly in the city, but also in a nearby forest as well. He began to slowly encroach the radius into a smaller, and smaller circle. Now they were completely in the city, then within the district, then within the block, then within the island, then within the colosseum. Now the radius was only around ten paces, and the skin was condensed enough to hold a normal soul.
He could feel the mana rapidly encroaching on his body, then being destroyed into nothingness. It did not feel like anything, but he still knew that if his range of mana skin was equal to zero — meaning that the mana skin fit his body perfectly as it should for most creatures — he would lose all of his ability to cast spells.
However, the risks were worth taking. Reginn had made a promise to someone special after all, and he would no longer live life with any regrets.
Now, for the surgery to continue, his soul would have to be temporarily unbound. It was already insane to reduce his mana skin on purpose, but exposing his soul would be similar to spilling water onto a floor from a container, and then trying to pick it back up with another. However, he continued knowing the risks of the operation. This was the punishment for the ignorances of his life.
He could feel his soul burn, exposed to the harsh mana of the environment, but he fought on as the membrane began enveloping Attila, saving her soul from total deterioration. Reginn had never felt pain like this before. It was nothing like being burnt, electrocuted or flayed, but like exposing you brain to the open air and acid, like directly ripping one’s spinal nervous system, or the panic one felt as they drown personified into a torturer. While it felt like an eternity, soon Attila’s soul was saved, and Reginn quickly resealed his soul.
Reginn fell immediately onto the water in exhaustion. When he checked his radius of effect, he was glad to learn he had just two paces left. He would not be able to perform many of his ranged attacks such as befalling the opponents or controlling the orbs, but he would still be able to engage many spells from a close enough distance.
After a few minutes of rest, the hero rose once again and reached his hand out to Attila, whose arms had been slowly regenerating. After her fingertips returned, she gladly accepted the offer, holding him by each other's wrists.
“T-thank you… I… I owe you my life…”
“...Don’t worry about it. That’s just what heroes do.”
However, Reginn knew that his mission was not yet over. While he may have prevented the total destruction of Attila’s soul, her body was still occupied by a foreign invader — Kyriekaos.
Using his new authority over the mindscape, he began to make the world smaller and smaller, eventually ending up with a sphere with a radius of his height. Its fantastical gravity kept him upright at all times, but as soon as he turned, he could see two figures — Kyriekaos as well as the flowers.
“...Congratulations on saving Attila. It seems that the acid of my soul will not be able to do anything against a divine barrier.”
He was unsure exactly which prisoner it was this time, but it did not matter.
“...Sadly, the flower learnt of how I led her to the trap,” said Kyriekaos, “I suppose this is a goodbye.”
And so, the flower’s spinal tentacles began to entangle Kyriekaos, ready to absorb her for even a sliver of an advantage.