Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 175: Shackled Heart Spiral Tower

Ciel found himself at an impasse, unsure what to do.

On the one hand, he absolutely could not tell his mother what he’d given up for these pills and seeds, but on the other hand...

’...I can’t make her sad.’

Ciel’s lips trembled, memories he’d hoped not to remember flashing across his mind, and his legs nearly buckled under both their echoes and his mother’s pressure.

He didn’t know what to do.

Seeing Ciel’s reaction be so fierce, the woman paused for a moment, then suddenly softened.

Pulling on the hand she still tightly clung to, she slowly drew him back towards herself. He kneeled beside her once more and she softly caressed his arm, soothing him.

"Tell me, please."

Uriel, nay, Ciel nervously bit his lip, consumed by overwhelming tides of shame and guilt.

He threw his sleeping older brother a glance, and seeing his twisted expression of pain, he sighed.

He began to talk.

"I...went to the main building, and grandmother was already waiting for me, as if she knew I was going to come."

"I didn’t have to speak, she already knew what I needed."

"She brought me to the red room and then...and then..." the words seemed stuck in his throat. "And then she tied me to the altar."

"She used a pointy knife on my stomach and opened it. Then my blood started to spill onto the divine stone. And she simply waited there, praying and bowing as the seconds passed."

He paused, swallowing hard.

"And then she closed my stomach. She told me where to go to get what I needed, she kissed me on the cheek, then she left."

His pupils trembled, tears threatening to spill as his voice forked and his lips shook.

The sudden shift caught his mother by surprise, but aware that all she could do was listen, she simply squeezed his hands reassuringly, then remained silent.

It didn’t seem to calm him down, though.

"And when I went to the place to get the seeds..." he looked down at his torn rags.

They hadn’t always been torn.

"...there was a lady."

——

"...argh..."

Uriel stirred from his sleep.

Pushing himself off the bed, he slowly sat up, groaning in the process. He slicked his hair back, then closed his eyes, exhaling a long breath.

’As usual; agonising and bitter.’

He didn’t even bother thinking about the dream he just had. If he did, he feared he’d drown in one of the strange episodes he’d had in the cave.

’The past is the past.’

He reopened his eyes, then sighed, a sigh which rapidly turned into a yawn as he stretched and got to his feet.

He let out a groan of pleasure as he shook his limbs and awoke the machine that his body had become.

"Kih!"

The fox soared from the bed’s covers and across the air to land on his head, instantly nestling itself there.

Bitterly shaking his head, Uriel couldn’t do anything but simply accept that he’d become this little beast’s cushion for now.

"Alright, it’s shower time."

Just as he was about to leave his floor and head a couple floors down to the bathroom, he paused. His attention focused on the fox.

"Are foxes like dogs? In the sense that—argh!"

The fox instantly bit his scalp, sending a jolt of pain through his body.

Uriel’s body shuddered and he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"What was that about? You don’t like dogs? Are you cous—...you know what, never mind."

"But that’s not what I was trying to say. I heard dogs clean themselves by licking their fur—"

"Kih!"

"Ah, yes, cats. Well it’s the same thing anyway. Wait, how do you even know what those are?"

He made his way to the spiralling stairs.

"That’s still not what I wanted to say. I was asking to know if I had to wash you."

His voice got stern.

"If you’re going to be in my luscious hair all day, you ought to be clean, and if you’re going to follow me everywhere, there’s a certain standard to uphold."

"Kih?"

"No, you don’t smell, but there’s virtue in setting preventive habits. I also think it’s good for your immune system. You’ll see, it’s very relaxing."

"You get a bunch of hot water, well not ’hot’ but relatively warm—you know, warm but on the fringe of boiling—and then you..."

...

A couple hours passed.

Uriel sat cross-legged on a large cushion in one of the upper floors of the spiral house, one that was particularly empty.

The walls here weren’t of old stone but rather made of glass, giving a clear and direct view of the desert beyond.

With the little fox sleeping on his lap, the both of them clean and smelling of fresh flowers, he quietly watched the desert as he caressed its fur.

’...’ 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

It seemed his own circadian cycle had synced with the desert in reverse, as he slept during the day’s chaotic sand waves and awoke at night, when the rain fell.

It pelted across the glass, but the glass was so thick he couldn’t hear its patter, only see it. He let his gaze stretch beyond, observing the frozen sand plane and the torrential weeping of the skies.

It was quiet, and it was extremely peaceful.

’It would’ve been nice to have the sound of rain to fill the silence.’

He could draw a formation to replicate the sound, as he’d once done while in the settlement, but he didn’t want to.

’Ah well, there’s peace to be found in silence anyway.’

Uriel took a deep breath in, then slowly closed his eyes.

Darkness consumed his vision and he sank into his own mind, his attention turning to the cube which had appeared there not too long ago; the puzzle from which he would get the key to the Spiral House.

The key to his freedom.

’As expected.’

Using his new ability to peer at the runic structure of things, he looked deep into the cube and almost instantly he found himself absorbed into a world of endless runes.

The darkness of his mind was illuminated by seas of dark silver runes, and in front of him the dark cube appeared, floating on its own.

Uriel gazed at the runes filling his mind, intently observing them.

’It was about time I learnt anyway.’

In the real world, he finally exhaled the breath which he’d been holding, then breathed in once more.

’Aether is potential, and runes are tools that mold and shape energy to cause transformation and change.’

’Magic, in a sense, really just feels like a complex and advanced form of resonance.’ He paused. ’Most things involving aether probably are.’

’But runes...’

The countless life-and-death moments he’d been through for the last couple of weeks flashed across his mind and something seemed to click.

’...are an expression of essence and intent, intertwined by a force of the mind, intertwined by...Will?’

A fireball.

To cast a fireball, a mage had to understand a runic fire language, which could range from an Iron grade language to a Diamond grade language—Uriel wasn’t sure if Jade and Chrome languages existed.

But that was beside the point.

Back then, when he’d learnt his runic languages for his circles, he’d always asked himself why runic languages even had grades.

Was it not the same fire they wielded? An Iron grade language against a Diamond one, what was the difference?

Was fire not fire?

He finally understood the difference.

It was the captured essence.

The separation of grades came from the depth of understanding of the person who originally formed the runic language—how much of the essence of fire did they truly understand?

How much of its laws did they truly capture?

’Ah, I see. To form a runic language, you must peer into the runic fabric of a subject, then directly comprehend its essence, its laws, and fundamental components.’

But then where did the ’intent’ part come from?

’Shape. Intent gives shape.’

It all came back to the fireball.

Even after a mage properly understood the laws of fire from its runic structure, how exactly were they supposed to use that understanding using aether?

It wasn’t like the world naturally forged storms, blades, and summons of fire. No, all those were unique creations of mages.

How was that raw comprehension turned into refined results?

Intent.

’It comes back to my initial enlightenment I had against the witch.’ He chuckled. ’It’s resonance.’

’You translate your intent into the real world as runes through mind resonance, then use your mind itself, your Will, to bridge the runes of your intent and the natural runes of fire.’

’And thus, a runic language is born.’

His cores shook and his body overflowed with energy.

’So, if I track my steps, then that means that to comprehend foreign runic languages, I simply need to resonate with them.’

He opened his eyes and exited his mind, the world of runes around him fading as he returned to the glass-walled floor.

’...’

Uriel extended a palm, aether coalescing alongside silver runes, and in a blink a dark cube appeared floating atop his palm.

Identical to the one that had once been in his mind.

’Hm.’

The challenge of the puzzle had been to not only be able to peer into the runic structure of the cube within his mind—something most wouldn’t be able to do—but also to comprehend that runic language across the chaotic rune field in the cube, and then to form the cube in the real world, a feat that would leave runic matters aside and demand incredibly complex aether mastery.

It was supposed to take years.

’What a strange runic language. It opens a path of magic that creates...cubes? Very heavy cubes, I must say.’

’Is this one of those crafting magic paths? Hm, I guess this could be useful for crafters, I suppose.’

For some reason, he doubted it. The runic structure he’d comprehended was quite...complex. If he had to give this runic language a grade, he doubted even the Jade grade would be enough.

Uriel found the thought ridiculous considering that mere moments ago he’d been unsure of the existence of Jade and Chrome grade languages.

His gaze narrowed.

’It feels like there’s more—’

He didn’t have the time to finish his thought. The Spiral House suddenly shook and golden fog filled everything, blinding him.

[You have solved the Spiral Puzzle!]

[You have formed the Spiral Key in record time!]

[You have gained ownership of the Shackled Heart Spiral House!]

[You have gained ownership of the Shackled Heart Spiral Tower!]

The notifications paused for a moment.

[Your candidate status is evolving!]

[You have become a Spiral Candidate!]