Mage Manual

Chapter 1631 - 1198: Going Home

Outside, ripples of elemental energy spread one after another, and Weiser’s voice rang clearly in Ash’s ear: "We’re back."

Ash immediately got out of bed, and while turning around to tuck Sonia in, he saw her fingers still clutching his sleeve, but eventually, they weakly slipped away. Ash’s heart melted, and he tucked her hand back under the blanket, bending down to kiss her at the corner of her eye.

Weiser and Dedarose, who had been out all night, returned looking road-weary, bringing with them eight boxes full of Sun Technique Spirits.

"Luckily, the urban legends about the Devil spread, allowing several owners to head towards Azura, otherwise we couldn’t have acquired so many Sun Technique Spirits so quickly..." Weiser said. "How are they doing?"

"Same as last night." Ash took them to the triple-bedroom, and as soon as they pushed the door open, they saw Vishi sitting on the bed. Her hair was draped over her shoulders, her nightgown’s shoulder straps slipping down, making her look just like any normal elf girl. Still, her back was extraordinarily straight, her demeanor calm and naturally commanding, like a dormant beast.

Without enough rationality to control herself, the huge beast-like nature hidden beneath her human skin was constantly on the verge of breaking loose.

The Ghost Prophet looked up at them, her breaths long and face flushed, as if nothing was amiss, asked, "Have you gathered the Sun Technique Spirits?"

"Are you sure you can——?"

"Give them to me." Vishi extended her hand.

When the eight Sun Technique Spirits were placed into Vishi’s Magic Temple, they were immediately thrown into the Eternal Wonder of the Sky Garden, "Profanity Ode." Unlike the Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon, or Ancient Battlefield, the Eternal Wonder of the Sky Garden is not battle-focused but leans more towards auxiliary operations. It’s unclear why the All-knowing Weaver sent the Sky Garden to earth.

The effect of the "Profanity Ode" is simple: collect enough of the same Technique Spirits, and you can summon a pseudo-god, which can be used for casting, creating Wonders, or enacting Miracles! Although its effect is straightforward and brutal, its hidden potential is immeasurable. Ash couldn’t even imagine how much the All-knowing Weaver hated himself at this moment—with the "Profanity Ode," the All-knowing Weaver was equivalent to possessing all the Divine Beings!

Although only one pseudo-god can exist at a time with the "Profanity Ode," summoning a new one makes the old one disappear, but this flaw is negligible. As long as there are enough different types of Technique Spirits, you can summon different pseudo-gods according to different needs, providing more options no matter the situation faced.

Moreover, the rarity of Divine Beings varies, and those of the Fate, Truth, and Prophetic factions are certainly the hardest to obtain, but the "Profanity Ode" ignores faction barriers, allowing the summoning of corresponding pseudo-gods with a large number of low-level technique spirits!

This is why Ash and others were acquiring Sun Technique Spirits—they needed a Sun pseudo-god to construct a healing Wonder.

With the Source Power running the Wonder, an overwhelming fatigue washed over Vishi’s mind, causing her to involuntarily hug her arms, body trembling uncontrollably. At that moment, a pair of hands pulled her into an embrace. Her beast-like instincts were about to react, but upon sensing a familiar presence, she immediately calmed down, continuously squeezing her soul to extract enough mental resources to operate the "Profanity Ode."

Vishi opened her palm, revealing a butterfly made of glass. The butterfly’s patterns resembled cracks in the glass, as if a touch could shatter it completely.

"Leave it to... you." Vishi said weakly.

Ash integrated the Sun pseudo-god into the Heavenly Kingdom of Souls. Following the design blueprint given by the Witch, he first dismantled the "Time Lock" Wonder, then integrated the Sun pseudo-god to construct a new Upper Time Wonder—

"Jump!"

Ash grabbed Vishi’s wrist, activating the "Jump" Wonder, extracting a suitable time point from his memory: the day before the Senluo Divine War!

Under the massive Source Power of the triple residual force, the intricate machinery of time began to reverse rapidly. Ash seemed to hear the sound of water rushing; it was the Flowing Gold River violently evaporating!

Vishi’s injuries from the Senluo Divine War vanished without a trace, as if she had never been hurt. This was not recovery or healing but directly overlaying her past soul body status onto the present.

This is the theoretical effect of the "Jump" Wonder—no matter what injuries or curses you suffer, directly find a time node in the past when you were in good condition, then jump back!

In terms of time, it’s now jumping back to the past; in terms of effect, it’s the past covering the present!

Although the injuries disappeared, Vishi remained weakly leaning against Ash; clearly, the Trial Curse did not vanish due to the time jump. Not only did Ash’s hopes fall short, but Vishi also felt unusually uncomfortable, weakly cursing, "Still... not working... that garbage Drama Poet..."

"It’s okay, I expected it to be like this." Ash supported her to lie down, smiling, "How could the Six-winged Trial be that simple? Don’t worry, I will find a way to help you complete the trial."

"I can definitely complete the trial myself!" Vishi said with reluctance, "I won’t entrust my life or death... to others..."

Though unable to eliminate the Trial Curse, "Jump" at least treated the injuries left by the Divine War for everyone. Sonia’s injuries were minor and nearly healed over the days, but Ash still performed a jump for her.

The witch’s treatment was somewhat troublesome, as she was injured in her adolescent form, her little girl form was unscathed. Still, this didn’t mean the witch wasn’t hurt, only that the injuries would be exposed when reverting to the teenage form.

Ash quietly awakened the witch, asking Diya if she could revert to her teenage form. Diya muttered a few words that Ash couldn’t understand, but they must have been complaints for waking her up. After a while, the sound of a bronze bell rang suddenly in the room, and the little girl under the blanket quickly grew into a curvaceous young woman.

Ash initiated the "Jump" for the third time to overlay the witch’s past injuries onto her present self. His face turned pale; the time Wonder is significantly different from other factions’ powers; the longer the time spanned, the more Source Power consumed, and Ash’s repeated use exhausted his Source Power reserves.

"Alright, you can change back now." Ash said quietly and was about to leave the room when the witch grabbed his wrist.

She pointed to Ash’s heart, "Heart," the witch said, "your heart hasn’t healed yet."

Ash was taken aback; the area around his heart was still hollow, the Destruction Blood River’s injury stubbornly preventing the regeneration of his soul body. However, since his Source Power was drained now, healing could wait, so Ash said, "I’ll heal it later."

The witch lightly shook her head, expressing discontent with a hum, still holding onto his wrist tightly. Ash gently rubbed her head, exhausting a few remaining Source Crystals to activate "Jump" one more time, overlaying his past over his scarred present.

"I’m alright now, you needn’t worry." he said softly.

Even though Ash’s injuries could be healed through miracles, he found himself helpless against the Sword Maiden Witches’ curse. Even with the "Illusory Promise," since even the healing Wonder proved ineffective, Ash had little hope for the Fate Wonder.

According to the Drama Poet, the main difficulty of the Six-winged Trial was supposed to be on himself, yet why did only the Sword Maidens suffer? What did he need to do to share in their suffering, to help them complete the trial?

As Ash pondered deeply, he noticed that the witch hadn’t let go, still straining her eyes open wide, gazing at him.

"Play the game."

"Huh?"

"You promised last night to play the game," the witch said languidly, "I want to play the game."

Ash exchanged a glance with Weiser and the others outside, thought it over, then carried the witch into the game room. There were no seats in the game room, so Ash surrounded the lazy couch with the witch nestled comfortably inside it.

Holding the game controller, the witch seemed genuinely more spirited, drowsily playing a two-player game with Ash. When Ash made a mistake and got punished, she laughed happily, but her lips pouted unhappily when it was her turn to make a mistake, finding it quite engrossing.

"Ash."

"Yeah?"

"I want to go home."

Ash turned to look at the witch, repeating with uncertainty, "You want to go home?"

The witch nodded firmly, "Go to our home."

Ash didn’t say anything, continuing to play the game with the witch until she slowly fell asleep, then gently carried her back to the bedroom.

Then he called over Weiser, Felix, and Dedarose, calmly saying:

"Let’s go to Nabistin."

Weiser reminded, "A law Angel can enter the Gospel through the Sky Gate at any time."

"I know, but we may not necessarily alert a law Angel, and even if one truly comes..."

"So what?"

The Silver Lamp was stunned. With Ash’s head lowered, no one could see his expression. His tone was peaceful, yet his voice clearly harbored uncontrollable arrogance. The pain of the Sword Maiden Witches invoked not just his tenderness but also a volcanic fury.

He was done with the despair named helplessness.

This was not just their trial but Ash’s trial as well.