Roar—!
In a hidden base of the Oath of the Reversal in the southern wastelands, a ritual was reaching its climax.
"—, ———!"
At the heart of the ritual, an old man fervently recited spells in front of a magic circle.
Despite the deafening noise all around, his eyes, filled with madness, focused solely on completing the grand spell.
Strange patterns drawn all around on the walls and ceiling constantly emitted black light, slowly engulfing the surroundings in darkness.
'Everything is proceeding smoothly. It seems there are no issues elsewhere either.'
A burly man watching from a distance nodded in satisfaction.
The preparation phase, led by the elderly man conducting the ritual, had lasted 30 years.
Though preparations in the vast southern region had only started about ten years ago, the preliminary work had taken a whopping thirty years.
'Well, I heard plans had been made even before that.'
He wasn't sure of the exact timeline, as he had joined the Oath of the Reversal later, but it was a plan long in the making.
By now, spells strategically placed across the continent by the organization's collective effort over the years would have been activated simultaneously.
This would significantly aid the ritual taking place at this central location.
'This is the moment all our hard work pays off.'
Despite their utmost secrecy, organizing several village-scale sacrificial rituals was no easy task.
There were countless setbacks, from being discovered by passing powerhouses or religious orders to being reported by suspicious locals, derailing their plans.
Each time, the organization managed to downplay the incidents as the acts of solitary dark wizards.
Against all odds, they managed to keep their ultimate objective concealed.
'Having the ritual in the central continent would have been ideal, but it was impossible due to the strong influence of the religious orders there.'
Hence, this place, located between the central and southern regions in the wastelands, was chosen.
This land, abandoned due to its lack of resources, was the perfect place to carry out their plans.
Roar—
How long had the ritual been underway?
From the base of the magic circle, a black light surged upwards through the darkness.
Ignoring the ceiling, a black pillar stretched high into the sky.
Even from afar, it appeared as if the sky was split by a black line.
"Cough, choke—!"
The elderly man conducting the ritual coughed up black blood.
Dead blood continuously flowed from his seven orifices, and his limbs trembled uncontrollably.
Ignoring his dying body, he exerted every last bit of his life force to complete the ritual.
Yet, he had not reached his desired threshold.
'To have come this far and still not complete the grand spell...!'
In his lifetime, he had never met anyone with greater magical talent.
From a young age, he was hailed as a genius of the century, and in his youth, he was even considered for the position of sect leader...
Yet, despite dedicating 30 years of his life, he couldn't perfect the spell.
To connect to the 'Abyss' at the very bottom of the dimensions, a door.
'The one from a thousand years ago suddenly seems all the more remarkable...'
He scoured the entire continent for places where the boundary with the Abyss was weakened, sacrificing entire nearby villages as a whole to supply energy.
And yet, despite personally overseeing the ritual as one who prides himself as the greatest archmage of the continent, this was the outcome.
'It's alright... I anticipated this from the beginning. Everything is according to plan.'
His original goal wasn't to fully summon 'it' from the Abyss to become the second Immortal King.
If it was insufficient, so be it.
The old man tightly clutched the locket necklace around his neck.
Without hesitation, he offered his soul and very existence as a sacrifice.
"Cough—!"
The culmination of the archmage's 'karma' and 'status', who had transcended to the utmost limits, became the nourishment for the ritual and faded away.
Yet, the door did not fully open, and all he could do was forcibly twist to create a gap.
However, his initial purpose was achieved.
"Keek... Kehyahah—!"
Even as he felt his soul dispersing, he laughed without care.
Dominating his heart were solely anger and madness.
His thoughts became murky, and the precious things that had been supporting him disappeared one by one.
Finally, 'it' that was embedded deep within the Abyss began to ascend along the pillar.
Whoosh—
As something emerged from the incomplete entrance to the Abyss, most of it was torn away, and only a fragment fully revealed itself.
And that fragment leapt from the black pillar...
Thud!
It directly burrowed into the old man's heart.
Clang!
The impact caused the chain of the locket necklace to break and roll on the ground, but he showed no reaction.
Now, he was merely an empty shell.
The 'Seed of Madness' that parasitized the old man's heart immediately fell into dormancy due to the imperfections of the summoning.
Having lost over 90% of its substance upon escaping the Abyss, it was inevitable.
Most of the dissipated madness rose along the soaring black pillar, spreading across the entire continent.
Thus, a second Abyss was opened.
And 'Madness' took root across the continent.
***
'Those Oath of the Reversal fools have opened the Abyss. Never thought they'd be this insane.'
I knew they were a force operating in the shadows, but I had no idea they could open the Abyss.
It seemed I had to reevaluate them; a mere criminal organization couldn't pull off something like this, there had to be high-ranking officials involved somehow.
'That aside.'
There was something I had to do.
Having caused such an incident, I couldn't just stand by and watch.
[A ritual of this magnitude. The energies of the continent are in turmoil. ...Should I go see it for myself?]
I was about to commence the 'Home Theater' operation in earnest, but this was a variable far beyond what I had anticipated.
A showdown with them was necessary.
As Hans focused quietly, trying to trace and move toward the center of the energy,
Squirm—
Something inside him reacted.
-I won't let it be! I absolutely won't leave anyone on this continent alone!
'Hm? What's this?'
-Bring death to the world! Revenge! Drench this continent in death!
Suddenly, a will exploded from within Hans.
It was the surge of thoughts from the 'Heart of the Immortal King,' which had become his own heart.
It quickly swelled in size, trying to invade Hans's mind.
-What are you doing! Hurry, become one with me and cover the world in death...
Overwhelmed by the sudden influx of thoughts, Hans furrowed his brows in fiery anger.
He could grasp the situation immediately, but it wasn't something he had wished for.
'The thoughts of the previous Immortal King. Has it sprung forth again due to the opening of the Abyss?'
It wasn't the will of the 'Heart of the Immortal King' he had been dealing with until now, but the thoughts of the previous Immortal King that lingered there.
It seemed to have quietly slept while the Abyss was closed and awakened due to this incident.
'The second Immortal King? Surely not the first? ...No, perhaps it's both.'
Given the insistence on becoming one with him, that seemed the most plausible.
'The Heart of the Immortal King also originated from the Abyss, so it seems to have been overly activated by this incident.'
The sudden situation was irritating.
Because of those thoughts, the information in the 'Mind Hub' surged, leaving no room for leisure.
The Heart of the Immortal King was always a tight squeeze on its own, but the thoughts of the predecessor were not to be taken lightly.
[Sigh— How dare the ghost of the past command me around.]
-Immediately become one with me... What?
[A loser sure talks a lot. I'll handle this, so you just disappear quietly. Your constant barking is intolerably noisy.]
-...Ha...
At Hans's sharp rebuke, the thoughts transmitted from his heart paused momentarily.
But only for a moment.
-...Ha, hahahahah—! You! You have escaped the will of 'death'! You're maintaining your self-consciousness completely! Well, that's why you haven't become one with us yet! Hahahahah!
The laughing thoughts once again resounded in his head.
-I am... We are! Still caught in 'death' like this! Ah—! Death, oh death! Please grant us complete death! Death—! ......Ah, drench the continent in death! Ahahaha!
'It seems completely insane.'
Well, if his mind were sound, he wouldn't have accepted the Heart of the Immortal King in the first place.
Afterward, having spent hundreds of years dyed in the death of the Abyss, it was natural to end up like this.
'Whether it's truly the soul that's captured or merely imbued with thoughts, I can't say.'
But that wasn't really the important issue.
What's important now is that I'm unable to do anything because of this guy, especially in an already busy situation.
'He'll probably fall back asleep once the Abyss closes, but it feels wrong to just leave it at that.'
The 'Heart of the Immortal King' was already mine.
I hadn't paid it much mind since it didn't really show any signs of being second-hand, but discovering it was engraved with the previous owner's name meant I had to scratch it out, didn't I?
Thus, through the skillized 'Heart of Immortality,' Hans was able to observe his heart and soon found a foreign substance.
'I found it.'
It was a thought, akin to a concept without a physical form, tangled up in his heart.
But even after finding it, the problem was how to remove it.
'It's not physical, nor is it an energy form. Just like the myriad of negative emotions contained in the heart, this thought is part of those emotions... Huh? Emotions?'
An idea flashed through my mind.
The 'Mind Hub,' which I had frequently used, wasn't suitable for this situation.
What I needed now was a more direct way to interact with emotions... And I had just the right skill for that.
'Persona.'
A skill that had been used to imbue an avatar with the emotions of the original body, which over time had evolved to amplify and control specific emotions.
That was the answer I found.
'The Heart of the Immortal King has already become one with Hans completely. The skillized 'Heart of Immortality' proves that.'
Then, couldn't it be said that the emotions contained within it were also Hans's?
If so, scraping out a thought that wasn't originally part of it should be feasible.
Confident, Hans boldly spoke to the thought.
[Stop your babbling and wait quietly. I'll extinguish you forever.]
-Extinguish...? Extinguish! Eternal death! To disappear from this world! Death!!
The thought, which had been causing a commotion by itself, reacted to Hans's words.
The response was more violent than expected.
-Ahahah—! If you truly give me eternal death, I will give you a gift! Something you should have had but didn't!
Curiosity piqued for a moment, but what's the point in further conversation with a madman?
Hans immediately focused on the interior of his heart through the 'Heart of Immortality.'
The first thing that appeared was... all sorts of negative emotions, including death.
These were the emotions concentrated in the original 'Heart of the Immortal King,' too dense and sticky to even think about touching.
'After all, that wasn't my goal.'
What he targeted was the thought mixed in like an impurity.
Being mixed in for only a short period and inherently alien, it wasn't too difficult to separate.
At that moment, as Hans used 'Persona' to slowly decompose the thought,
-Ah... It's dispersing. I'm being extinguished! Eternal death approaches!
The thought, which had been incessantly screaming about death, began to exclaim in ecstasy.
-A gift! I will give you a gift! It will help you drench this continent in death!
What the thought referred to as a gift became immediately clear.
Part of the thought separated, dividing into a part that contained mere information and another that had a sense of self.
The information harbored by the thought seemed to be the gift.
'I don't know how much it will help, but it's better than nothing.'
And Hans confidently separated and scattered the self-aware part of the thought.
-Ah... Death... that brilliant...
The thought of the former Immortal King disappeared without finishing its sentence.
And Hans could finally have a moment of peace.
'Phew, that feels better. But I've wasted too much time.'
Dealing with the thought had taken up more time than expected.
'What's this gift he mentioned? If it's information from 300 years ago, it probably won't be much help.'
The most likely thing was knowledge or experience about magic...
But with the 'Heart of the Immortal King' providing 'Vile Wisdom' and 'Forbidden Knowledge,' and adding the 'Path of Magic' that encompassed the laws of other worlds, he wasn't lacking in that area.
With a light heart, he checked the gift and couldn't help but be surprised by the unexpected information contained within.
'Oh...? It's definitely worth calling a gift.'
Indeed, it matched exactly what the thought had mentioned about 'what you should have had but didn't.'
'A quite favorable variable.'
It was information regarding the 'Legacy of the Immortal King.'