Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 116: Calculated

His attention, though, immediately turned to Ophanis.

"How are you awake? I thought you’d remain asleep until I reached the D-Rank."

A thought flashed through his mind and he became silent for a long while. Eventually, though, his expression softened and the edge in his voice mellowed.

"Also, thank you for saving me. Again. I’ll try my best to—"

"There’s no need," Ophanis cut him off, "I’ll be here forever. If you die, I die. We are one."

"You’ll save me in the times to come as well."

Hearing this, Uriel couldn’t help but faintly smile.

"Regarding my state, I still am unable to remain awake for long, but thanks to the strange changes your talent has done to your body, I’ll be able to fully awaken once you reach the peak of the F-Rank."

"In fact, I’ll awaken in tandem with your Sparks."

Uriel nodded. "That’s good to hear. It shouldn’t be too long until I get there."

He was already at the peak of the G-Rank; all he needed to enter the F-Rank was undergo the Ascent Step.

He was close.

"Alright, you can go to sleep. Don’t overwork yourself. We’ll have time to talk later."

The Ouroboros tattoos on his back stirred and Uriel felt a pulse of aether warm his body, Ophanis’ mind rapidly falling into slumber.

With this, he continued to assess his body.

His perception sunk into the deepest depths of his flesh, his mind resonating with his own body, something he’d learned during his fight with the Emperor.

He felt every inch of himself.

And he immediately frowned. The frown rapidly turned bitter.

Unsurprisingly, his core had become massive. Its pool of energy was now ridiculous, and the sheer quality of aether within was ridiculous.

But unfortunately, whatever weird change had happened to it, what the Emperor had called Elemental Anchoring, seemed to linger.

When he tried to pull on his natal aether, something stirred, but not completely. It was so strange he was at a complete loss for words.

But he had an inkling as to what was happening.

’During my fight with him, while in my trance, I was naturally using and wielding elements, and the aura of those elements was the same as my natal aether.’

His gaze sharpened. ’Did...my natal aether become elemental in nature?’

’Now that I think about it, Enoch never used aether like I did. He always either uses it internally to boost himself, or he summons the flames and lightning of his class...’

’Maybe elemental control is the next step of aether control? Or maybe it’s the true start of the path itself, only open to class wielders? That’d make sense.’

Remembering all the maddening feats he’d accomplished in his fight with the Emperor, Uriel couldn’t help but get excited at the prospect of his new powers and elements.

He had no idea how to use them, but he was confident in his own talent. A few meditation sessions would have to work, and if not, well, he’d deal with it when the time came.

But none of that had been why he originally frowned.

He sighed.

’My Mage circles are broken.’

Though they didn’t cripple him, for some reason noticing their absence around his core left him feeling almost sad.

But the unfortunate truth was that...this was objectively good news.

Uriel had chosen five specific magic types for his first five circles.

Namely the; Versatile All-Purpose Mage Circle, Sensory Enhancement Mage Circle, Augmentation-Diminution Mage Circle, the Analysis-Inspection Mage Circle, and the Versatile Resonance Control Formation Mage Circle.

Choosing them had required days of thought and the choice he’d made had many layers of consideration and expectations.

The first layer had simply been his body. Back then, after the advent, the most glaring of his weaknesses was his body.

His stamina was terrible, his battle IQ was the lowest it could be and worst of all, he was the worst of the worst glass cannons.

Any single injury, no matter how insignificant, would summon his coughing and at that point, he was done for.

So, one of his goals had been to make up for this weakness by forming his buff and debuff magic but also by leveraging his massive aether pool through his formations.

And...it worked. Ridiculously well.

When he fought the Emperor, the Vine-Corpse and many others, none would even dare think his body was that of a cripple’s.

The second layer had been a lack of specialisation. Back then, Uriel hadn’t formed his Class yet and in his predictions, he wouldn’t form one until a long time, so he couldn’t afford to wait.

Because of that, he’d decided to make all his rings auxiliary in nature and as broad as possible, especially when his first and fifth rings were put together.

These two rings together essentially made him a Fifth Circle Mage able to wield all magic types under the skies.

He could use ice, water, earth, gravity, healing and all kinds of magic with it.

But none of these layers had been the most important. In fact, they were mere afterthoughts.

The most important layer had been his future disability.

As Enoch had said, Uriel’s disease wasn’t as simple as him coughing, or him having to die in a year. No, it was much deeper.

It had once been so bad that as a child, Uriel had lost all senses and mobility and that was exactly what he feared would happen again.

Before his Minor Evolutions, the extent of his symptoms had been a sensation of constant burning, sharp pains linked to all physical contact and a feeling of endless cold nothing could warm.

But it could get worse.

He’d chosen Versatile All-Purpose Magic as his first circle in case he lost the ability to fight, so that in situations of survival he could still be useful to Enoch and Ayah, through cooking and menial matters.

He’d chosen Sensory Enhancement Magic as his second circle because he knew that eventually he’d lose all his senses, just like he had as a child.

He’d chosen Augmentation-Diminution Magic as his third circle because he knew he’d eventually be entirely paralysed, just like before Arthur somehow healed him in the past, before the...Blood-Heaven Massacre.

He’d chosen Analysis-Inspection Magic as his fourth circle because his mind was his greatest asset and if his body failed him, then he’d inevitably have to become supreme using it. He couldn’t be dead weight.

And finally, he’d chosen Versatile Resonance Control Formation Magic as his fifth circle to hopefully scale all previous circles and make them eternally useful.

Back then, all Uriel had wanted was to not weigh down Ayah and Enoch during their journey, to not become dead weight and risk their lives.

Everything had been calculated.