“You said he’s been using Mirror of the Soul on the King of Wyverns for how long?!”

“Four days—”

“AGH! He said he’d be training you guys, but not once did he mention anything like this! And here I thought I could peacefully prepare the rest of the village sentry… Ugh… He’s going to get a piece of my mind when this is all done…”

We raced back in silence until we returned to the spot I had left Kouki at, the sinister energy now noticeably heavier than before.

[ The soul of the King of Wyverns has emerged 10% ]

…this much power for just 10%?

My mom had already jumped into action, the soul of the King of Wyverns in my dad’s body not yet recognizing her as a threat. Taking advantage of the situation, she ran over to Kouki’s body, which lay on the ground, unresponsive.

“He’s just knocked out. The bleeding is minor. Just stay back, I’ll take care of the rest of this.”

[ “Harumi” has activated Bountiful Blessing ] 

Despite being unconscious, Kouki’s complexion immediately relaxed.

A furious wave of mana flooded my senses. Only, this time, its source wasn’t the soul of the King of Wyverns.

[ “Harumi” has activated Terra Restrict ]

I had never seen her use such an ability before, yet the mastery and dexterity with which she conducted her movements suggested a whole different history. The bright jade energy raced up her body, yet rather than remaining about her presence, it leapt towards her target unlike any aura I’d ever seen before, wrapping itself around the malevolent rage of the King of Wyverns.

And not even ten seconds later…

[ The soul of the King of Wyverns has been contained ]

[ The presence of the soul of the King of Wyverns can no longer be detected ]

In what felt like an endless instant, the fight was over.

The two of them collapsed to the ground heavily breathing, their energy completely spent. 

I decided it would’ve been too much of a risk to move them back home in their current state—not that I alone could’ve done so efficiently either way, and instead opted to lie on the grass in the meantime.

My dad was the first to wake, fleeting in and out of consciousness at first, but then, his face shifted into a beaming smile the instant he set his eyes on me.

“...so you’ve finally made it to the next level… I’m proud of you.”

I could only make a puzzled face at first. ‘Next level?’ I hadn’t participated in the fight at all— It was mom who took control of the situation. 

Only then did I even think to take a glance at myself. I had felt such a necessity to fulfill my role in the heat of the situation that I had neglected to monitor my aura usage or even deactivate it this long after the situation had deescalated. 

But most notably, my aura had taken a completely new form never before seen in my memories, and somehow, it felt completely natural. 

The mana surrounding me no longer took the faint form of smoky wisps, now manifesting as dense threads of condensed azure energy, hovering a few centimeters above my skin and gently ebbing to each of my movements. 

It was at this moment that I began to consider the toll such prolonged use would take on me. A wave of lightheadedness overcame me as my newfound aura forcibly deactivated.

[ The Finale Event will descend in: 0:11:37:29 ]

Due to the consequences of the last training session, our family spent the last stretch before the Finale Event recovering our strength instead of returning to our drills. 

Dad’s recovery from the soul of the King of Wyverns was rather speedy, but mom scolded him nonetheless for his reckless behavior and forced him to rest indoors. Apparently, he had been expecting such a breakdown to occur and wanted it to serve as a catalyst to further our training, but who knows what his plan was if a strategy that reckless were to backfire— 

A gentle knocking echoed from my door.

“Who is it?”

The voice that replied was my mom’s.

“There’s something I want to show you. Follow me for a bit.”

I opened the door to the sight of my mom completely geared up for an adventure, carrying her usual case for prepared meals.

“We have less than half a day before the Finale Event… Where are we going that needs so much stuff? Anyways, shouldn’t we be finalizing the… other preparations?”

“Oh, just think of it as a little picnic. There’s something I’ve— err, well, technically your father has been wanting to show you, but he’s better off resting for now.”

My dad’s voice rang out from across the house, “I’m perfectly fine!”

“Shut up! You’re at the most risk out of all of us right now!”

There was a short silence.

“Fine…”

Soon after departing, we arrived at the gates of Hanakawa. With a massive lake in one direction and dense forests in either direction along the shores, the only true ‘exit’ was through a trail within the mountain valley. 

There was a period of time in my early childhood during which I deeply wondered what lay beyond the borders of our village, yet such questions quickly subsided with age. Now, as I walked through the gates for the first time, I gained an impression of how massive everything that lay beyond was—towering mountains surrounding us on either side, to which we were nothing more than ants. 

Somehow, the whole experience didn’t feel too world-changing considering what lay in store at the end of the day.

The mountains’ density subsided after about twenty minutes of walking as the scenery gave way to more forests. Only, the terrain out here was completely devoid of sentient life. No tracks or footprints in the dirt, no paths or trails for us to follow, just overgrown greenery that trampled over the decay of their ancestors. 

We continued on for what felt like another ten minutes or so.

Eventually, I began to see traces of a radiant, unfiltered light shining towards us from ahead. It was at that point that the forest stopped, and the view beyond was utterly breathtaking.

“Just what is this place…?”

My mom sighed.

“Your father calls this place ‘the Horizon.’”

Beyond the edge of the forest, not even a single speck of remarkable nature nor landmarks stood out, and such a reality was what made the view itself so remarkable. Without any inconsistencies, the scene was constructed of nothing but endless sprawling plains that unfolded as far as the eye could see.

“Is there even anything out there?”

“We don’t know. In our recorded history, nobody that’s tried to venture beyond the Horizon has ever made it back.”

Looking back on it now, I don’t know why I didn’t simply try to reach out and walk beyond the Horizon. Maybe I was simply incapable of such a thought… But if I had done such a thing, would any of the following events in my life have even occurred?

“So… why did you and dad want to show me this? If anything it makes me feel small and insignificant—”

She sat down on the thick grass and patted the spot beside her, signalling for me to join her. As I took my spot beside her, she began unpacking the meal she had brought along.

“It’s been a dream of his to ‘liberate’ our village and travel beyond the Horizon. See what’s out there. You know him and his reckless desires…”

She was clearly still hung over about the stunt he pulled during our training.

“Even I don’t fully understand how he thinks sometimes.”

It was a vague answer that still didn’t fully satisfy my question, so I continued asking in a similar vein.

“Why show me specifically but not Kouki?”

“You’ve been working extremely hard to keep up with him. We both know that there’s been many times you’ve felt like quitting, yet even so, you still kept pushing. We don’t want you to lose that sense of self… I guess he wanted to show you the Horizon as a way of saying that we’ve all got our impossibly large aspirations that make us feel too small to even try. But… as long as we have our goals as stepping stones to get there, we shouldn’t give up until we reach that end.”

She smiled at me. 

“I see…”

We sat in a prolonged silence until we finished our meal.

“By the way… I’ve been meaning to ask. What was that ability you used to contain the King of Wyverns’ soul the other day?”

“Ah, that— It was nothing like the auras we’ve been teaching you to use, right?”

I nodded.

“A remnant of the old world that we no longer practice here—the magic of the World Chain”

“Magic… Is it dangerous?”

“Only if you use it too much. Using it once in a while to save something dear to you is fine for my body.”

Her eyes didn’t quite meet mine as she spoke, but her words sparked a faint nostalgia in me, reminding me of the oldest logs stored in our archives regarding The Great Uprising, our untouched history. She seemed to not want to dwell on the subject, so I decided to change topics.

“We haven’t gotten to continue our training recently, so I never got to ask, but what was up with my aura that day?”

“That was the ‘next level’ of aura mastery your father has been trying to get you two to reach. We call it ‘weaving,’ due to the thread-like form your aura takes when using it. It requires a precise control and regulation of mana that greatly enhances your capabilities beyond what a normal aura can achieve. In a way, it is the closest our world has gotten to the old world.”

She hesitated for a moment before admitting, “Kouki has yet to attain that level of control.”

“If it was something so significant, why haven’t you guys told us about it so we could reach it sooner?”

“Weaving is not something you can just hear about and learn like information from the archives. Everyone reaches their ‘enlightenment’ for it differently and at different times. Your father was trying to create such a high stakes situation that could force the activation of at least one of yours.”

“I see…”

The rest of our conversation continued in idle chatter until we felt it was time to return home.

[ The Finale Event will descend in: 0:04:58:51 ]

We watched the sunset once more in silence. It was now only a few hours until the Finale Event. 

Had I known this would be our last sunset together as a family, I would’ve tried harder to make conversation, but… 

…there is no point in dwelling too much on the actions of our past selves.