The dark started to itch.
I felt the damp stone. I felt the suffocating pressure of being in a body made of fluid.
I didn't move. I didn't try to pulse my [Magic Sense]. I just lay there in the dark, the memory of Fenris's dying thought echoing in my mind. "Master... run..."
< Logic Sequence Initiated... > < Status: Spirit Slime (Juvenile Grade). > < Current Loop: 02. > < Warning: Soul Integrity at 88%. Repeated death will lead to permanent fragmentation. >
"Archivist," I thought. My voice was different now. The "Silent Scholar" was gone. Something colder had taken its place.
< I am here, Aris. >
"The Holy Kingdom... they knew. They knew about the Silver Loop."
< Confirmed. The data gathered in Loop 01 suggests the Inquisition possesses 'Ancestral Records' regarding your existence. You are a 'Known Variable' to them. >
I pushed myself up from the cave floor. My silver body was smaller now, the mana I had spent months accumulating gone, reset to the baseline. But I had the blueprints. I had the formulas.
And I had the rage.
"They think they can break the loop by killing me," I whispered, the air in the cave beginning to vibrate with a lethal frequency. "They think they can play God because they have 'Miracles.'"
I looked toward the back of the grotto, where I knew a dying wolf was currently lying in his own blood.
"This time," I said, "we aren't building a village. We're building a fortress. And this time, I'm not stopping at the forest."
I slid toward the exit, the blue light of my core reflecting off the jagged stalactites.
"Archivist. Begin 'Project Ascension.' If the world wants a Monster King, I'll give them one they can't execute."
[Volume 1: End]