The Sea of Concepts fell into silence once again.
The First Spell’s last sentence still echoed through the endless white space.
"If the Mother Spell finds out about this... either it will choose you as its heir... or it will personally destroy you."
Daniel gave no answer. No fear could be seen on his face, nor excitement.
Only with that same calm gaze, he watched the thousands of spells that covered the entire white horizon.
Fear? Fear of death? Him? That was the most ridiculous thing he could hear. At his current level, his power alone was enough that no entity below a true god could kill him.
And that was only considering his power, aside from all the extra lives he had, even if accounting for their flaws.
He still had very great trump cards that could likely allow him to survive even against a true god.
Of course, he wasn’t sure and needed to test that.
The First Spell observed him for a few moments, as if trying to catch any change in his expression.
Then he slowly raised his staff made of primordial runes.
"The final test... begins." At that moment, the entire Sea of Concepts transformed.
Hundreds... of lights appeared from the depths of the endless whiteness.
Each light was a spell, but this time none came forward to ask questions. No voices could be heard.
Only a flood of concepts existed. Suddenly, the first wave entered Daniel’s mind.
He no longer saw a white landscape.
Before him appeared the first human who, thousands of years ago, had turned the concept of fire into a spell.
A moment later, that image faded.
It was replaced by the first mage who had altered the flow of mana to create wind.
Then another spell.
And then another.
Each spell showed not just a skill... but an entire history.
The mistakes made during its creation. The versions refined over centuries.
The reasons certain parts had changed. The disagreements different generations of mages had about them.
And the concept hidden in its depths.
He was practically watching the entire history of the magical world with his own eyes, experiencing it piece by piece, and this helped him greatly to understand the entire foundation of the magical world.
The second wave arrived.
This time it was no longer just memory. The concept of time directly entered his mind. Past, present, and future momentarily lost their meaning.
Immediately after, the concept of gravity surged in.
The feeling of heaviness and lightness simultaneously cast a shadow over his being.
The Light Spell...
The Darkness Spell...
The Ice Spell...
The Void Spell...
The Life Spell...
The Death Spell...
Each one screamed a truth.
If an ordinary mage’s mind were in Daniel’s place, only ten or twenty concepts would have been enough to shatter their consciousness forever.
But Daniel... didn’t resist. He didn’t try to separate one from another. He let them all flow freely through his mind.
His spiritual and mental power was not something that would tremble under such pressure. It would take hundreds of times more just for him to feel a slight pressure.
A few minutes...
Or perhaps a few hours...
Time had no meaning in the Sea of Concepts.
Gradually, something changed in his gaze. He no longer saw a thousand separate concepts. Invisible threads appeared between all of them.
Fire spell... was incomplete without time.
Time... without change was meaningless.
Change... without energy didn’t exist.
Energy... couldn’t be defined without space.
And space... without laws, was just void.
All of them... were connected to each other. No spell was independent. No concept was complete on its own. All... were just pieces of a much greater truth.
This showed why a thousand spells were truly a family. They couldn’t exist without each other, couldn’t live without one another.
The First Spell smiled quietly.
For the first time, a sign of satisfaction could be seen on his face. He stepped forward.
"After seeing all of us... how do you now define magic?" His voice echoed through the entire Sea of Concepts.
This time... Daniel didn’t pause even for a moment to think. His eyes calmly moved among the thousand spells.
"Magic... is not one thing. You are not a thousand separate beings either. All of you... are a single truth looking at itself from different angles."
"Spells weren’t created to change the world. Spells... describe the world itself."
"What do you think?" The First Spell turned to the other spells and asked.
No one spoke. A thousand spells had simultaneously fallen silent.
A few moments later... the small flame spell stepped forward and smiled.
"I accept him."
"His way of thinking is still incomplete... but his path is correct." The Time Spell said slowly.
"For the first time... someone didn’t see us as tools." The Light Spell whispered quietly.
The Darkness Spell stepped forward, its gaze still cold.
"I disagree."
Several other spells looked at it. They expected it to continue with those cold, emotionless words, and no one expected it to agree.
But its next words surprised everyone.
"...But even I can’t deny he’s truly good."
After that... voices rose one after another.
"Accept."
"I agree."
"He can continue."
"His understanding is incomplete... but good."
"Finally, someone gave the right answers."
"For the first time... he thinks like us."
Thousands of voices, like endless waves, filled the entire Sea of Concepts.
The First Spell closed his eyes. A few moments later, he quietly struck his staff on the invisible space.
All sounds went silent.
"Based on the vote of a thousand spells..." His voice echoed through space with a majesty beyond any law.
"The participant... has successfully completed the entire trial."
Everyone waited for more. Even Daniel felt that something was still incomplete.
But... nothing happened.
The Mother Spell did not appear.
"Is it over?" Daniel fixed his gaze on the First Spell.
The First Spell nodded quietly.
Daniel said nothing. He was somewhat disappointed. Clearly, he had expected much more. He felt he hadn’t received what was rightfully his.
The First Spell continued.
"We are not allowed to give the Mother Spell to anyone. It... chooses for itself. Even we... are only its children."
For the first time, even the pride of the oldest spell had faded.
"Until it is sure that you have become truth itself... not just a seeker of truth... it will never appear."
Daniel breathed quietly. He wasn’t disappointed. On the contrary, he felt this was not an end, but just the beginning of a longer path. After all, it wasn’t as if the world would end if he didn’t obtain that thing.
At least he had been able to understand the foundation of the magical world as he wanted, and even more, he had seen how it was formed.
"But we also made a decision." The First Spell smiled very faintly.
A thousand spells stepped forward simultaneously. The entire Sea of Concepts lit up with their light. A single voice rose from among thousands of concepts.
"So until the day the Mother chooses you, we will not wait." The bodies of all the spells slowly turned into particles of light.
But unlike before... none of them entered Daniel’s sea of consciousness.
The First Spell explained.
"From today, we will reside in your existence in our true form."
"Not as tools, not as power, but as witnesses until the day the Mother Spell makes its decision."
At that moment... all the particles of light settled not in his mind... but in the depths of Daniel’s being. He could feel the presence of each one. The flame spell was still that energetic child.
The Darkness Spell was still cold and quiet. The Time Spell, calm and thoughtful. The Light Spell, full of peace. None of them had disappeared.
All were alive, and now... they lived within him.
The Sea of Concepts slowly faded. The endless white light began to collapse. And at the same time... outside the trial... all eyes were fixed on the stone pillar.
Suddenly, all the runes began to crack. Thousands and tens of thousands of ancient runes started disappearing one after another.
Not just disappearing, but as if they were completely erased, as if they had never existed.
"My god, what’s happening here? What’s happening to the trial?"
For some reason, Serys felt that her ominous prediction was about to come true and she was right