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Chapter 215: The Dark Room (8)

“The biggest difference between you and me is that whatever you do will always be packaged in a way that seems plausible,” grumbled Eugene.

He was so accustomed to hearing things like — there must be a reason, after all, it’s Vermouth, or there must be a reason, it was probably inevitable — every time Vermouth did anything. But when Hamel designed a meticulous plan and put it into action, he was greeted with comments like:

—Hey, you crazy bastard. Why are you going ballistic again?

—Hamel, what is it that you want to do?

—As expected from Hamel.

At least, that’s how it was in the past. Eugene chuckled while reminiscing about his past, his hands outstretched toward the fluttering sparks. Of course, Vermouth would have a reason for doing what he was doing. But this time around, he hadn’t informed anyone in advance and acted of his own accord, and Eugene, or rather, Hamel, got caught up in it. But Eugene did not resent him.

“For now.”

Hamel believed in Vermouth. Although Eugene didn’t know why it had to be him or why Vermouth had done such a thing, he still trusted Vermouth. His comrade’s words were spreading deep within his heart. The words fluttered through his veins, spreading sentiment and etching deep into his mind.

—Hamel, if you want to kill all the demonfolks and the Demon Kings, if you want to save the world.

Vermouth had planned Hamel’s reincarnation for the purpose of killing the demonfolks and the Demon Kings, which they had failed to achieve three hundred years ago. Vermouth had planned everything to finally allow everyone’s wishes from three hundred years ago to come to fruition. For that alone, Eugene could forgive Vermouth for having him reincarnated.

‘The Vermouth I just saw… is from before he punctured a hole in Sienna’s heart.’

It just made it harder for Eugene to harbor any resentment against him. Even Sienna herself had asked him not to hold it against Vermouth.

Vermouth was still hiding many secrets. He never revealed everything about himself, always saying that he couldn’t, that he had no choice. He had always looked lonely. He had laughed a few times during Eugene’s interaction with him just now, but his smiles were much drier than what Eugene remembered.

The whirling sparks finally settled down, and only a blazing flame remained in place of Vermouth’s vision. Eugene stared at the flame without becoming flustered.

The flame didn’t look special in terms of appearance. It was white, just like any flame created with the White Flame Formula. Eugene couldn’t feel any actual heat emanating from it either. It was a flame created from pure mana.

Eugene slowly stretched out his hand toward the flame. He wondered if he was supposed to evoke the White Flame Formula in response, but the flame moved before he could act on his thoughts. The flame surged and wrapped around Eugene’s hand in one swift motion.

There was no way it could be hot, but Eugene felt heat coming from the flame as it wound around his hand. However, the fire did not burn his clothes or his skin. Instead, the heat slowly permeated into his body. The flame entered through his fingertips, then flowed through his vessels and heated his bones, and caused his mana to boil. Eugene’s lips arced up into a smile. He immediately closed his eyes and sat down on the spot, focusing on the flame rampaging inside his body.

The six Stars hovering around his heart accelerated at Eugene’s will, and the Ring Flame Formula amplified his mana while holding it in place and preventing it from leaking out. As he concentrated, the Lightning Flame residing in his body also responded to the Ring Flame Formula.

While staying at the main house, Eugene had trained the White Flame Formula in the Root Cave of the World Tree located at the bottom of the lake. Each time, the spirits of the World Tree approached Eugene as he trained, but instead of trying to force them into obedience, Eugene approached the spirits while hoping for harmony and rapport.

In the end, his efforts had paid off. The Lightning Flame imbued within Eugene’s mana was a result of a meeting between his mana and a spirit of the World Tree. Like the primal spirits and spirits of the World Tree, it did not possess an ego, but it was also impossible to train or raise it at Eugene’s will since it was fundamentally a spirit. However, while training at the root of the World Tree, Eugene succeeded in fusing the spirits of the World Tree with the Lightning Flame while training the White Flame Formula. But this resulted in another problem — dealing with the bigger Lightning Flame proved difficult. The damned Lightning Flash was slightly different from mana, making it difficult for Eugene to control.

So Eugene ultimately sealed the matured Lightning Flame deep in his Core, though he released it partially whenever the need arose.

Craaaack!

The Lightning Flame erupted freely, causing Eugene to feel dizzy for a moment. But Eugene maintained an iron grip over his consciousness and guided his mana. The eruption of the Lightning Flame caused Eugene’s own flame to flare greatly, which, in turn, caused the newly acquired flame connected to Eugene to explode as well. Although this flame did not belong to Eugene by nature, at this moment, it resonated and breathed with him as if it were born to him. The flame continued to seep inside Eugene.

Eugene had no use for his sight at the current moment, so he closed his eyes and contemplated the events that he was currently experiencing. Even though he had not activated Ignition, he found that his Cores were moving in an unusual fashion. They were rotating faster and faster without an end, and the mana contained within also continued to blast without an end in sight. The flame that seeped inside caressed his Cores and refined them, changing the nature of the explosions held within.

It hurt like hell. The newly acquired flame and the explosions stimulated the six Cores, and the Lightning Flame exploded at random intervals while attempting to permeate the flame of Eugene’s White Flame Formula. Was this what he was supposed to be experiencing? Eugene couldn’t tell. What if the wild fire and the lightning crippled him instead?

However, his doubt and worry lasted for only a moment. In the end, everything was happening inside his body, so even if he became crippled, it was because he had failed. Even though he was faced with an unexpected, tense situation, Eugene still burdened himself further with such thoughts. Nevertheless, he could rest easier thinking it was up to him because although it was slightly cliched, Eugene believed in himself.

Crack.

He was awakened from his semi-comatose state due to a strange sound coming from inside his body.

‘How long was I doing this for?’

He remembered staring at the flames, then closing his eyes once he found it unnecessary. He remembered handling the flame that permeated his body, then sitting down on the spot to concentrate better. That was where his thoughts trailed off. There had been no need to think afterward.

He had been wholly concentrated, but for what…? Had he been trying to control the flame? Or had he been trying to stop himself from completely blazing like tinder?

‘Well, that’s not important.’

He had been concentrating, though he didn’t know to what extent. Then he had been jolted from his concentrated state by a sound. The sound of a joint cracking, or…. No, that wasn’t it. It had been the sound of something crushing and breaking.

‘What broke?’

His Cores, the six Cores that had been spinning and accelerating around his heart, had broken. Cores acted as the source of mana produced in the body. When one’s Cores were broken, it would result in them losing all of their mana and never being able to handle mana ever again. However, Eugene’s mana wasn’t scattered at all, even though his Cores had been smashed. It was because they had reformed. Although his Cores weren’t as distinct in shape as before, they shone brighter and rotated quicker in response to Eugene’s mana.

The Lionheart family’s White Flame Formula allowed the user to express their mana in the unique form of a flame, and its method of distinguishing between achievements was different compared to other mana training methods as well. The White Flame Formula used the classification of Stars, counting the dividing Cores around one’s heart as Stars. Currently, there really were six Stars around Eugene’s heart. His original Cores had broken, and new ones had risen as Stars.

His flame subsided.

“Phew.” Eugene opened his eyes while exhaling a long breath. There was a strange smell…. Eugene sniffed around while looking down at himself. He was appalled by what he found. His whole body was damp. Was it sweat? No, it wasn’t just sweat. There were some dark impurities mixed in with the sweat…. Eugene jumped up from the ground while freaking out.

‘No way. Did I… lose control because I was so tired?’

Fortunately, it wasn’t quite that. Eugene gave a deep sigh before throwing off his clothes. He noticed that something similar to dead skin fell to the ground whenever he moved his body.

“Huh?” He paused in the midst of taking off his clothes and rubbed his skin with his hands. His pale skin peeled off like scales, and the newly exposed skin was as white and bouncy as a child’s.

“Restructuring of the body…. It’s not what I was aiming for, and not something I need at my age either. Nevertheless, it must have turned out like this because my body must have judged it was necessary.”

He couldn’t figure out the exact reason for the restructuring, but Eugene gave a joyful smile. It wasn’t just his skin. No matter how skillful Eugene was in manipulating mana, he couldn’t rid his body of all the impurities. There had been impurities deep within his body that could not be burnt away by mana, and such impurities had been most heavily accumulated in his Cores.

‘All the existing Cores were smashed apart. I guess all the impurities were expelled in the process.’

Eugene stood up and moved around. His body had originally been light and powerful, but he felt like a stranger in his own newly structured body. He almost doubted if his body really had been light and powerful before the transformation, and the sense of incompatibility he felt proved that his body had improved.

“…It’s nice,” muttered Eugene before taking note of his Cores. The six Stars of the White Flame Formula had rotated at all times, and the same was true now. Eugene’s Stars were still spinning. When Eugene willed it, the six Stars shone brilliantly and chased after their tails. Within their rotations, new Stars exploded and created a nebula.

The Lightning Flame was roused along with his mana. Instead of circulating separately, the flame was embracing the lightning. Eugene silently observed the phenomenon.

The White Flame Formula was given its name because it formed a white flame of mana. But if it was called the White Flame Formula solely based on the appearance of the flame it produced, then what Eugene produced now could not be called the White Flame Formula.

“I don’t like this,” Eugene muttered sincerely. The flame Eugene created now was close to a dark purple, which wasn’t white at all…. To be honest, Eugene didn’t care much for such a change. The color of the flame? What did that matter? As long as it was stronger than before, it was a matter of celebration.

However, the problem was Carmen Lionheart. She would definitely get excited when she saw the unique color Eugene’s flame produced. Perhaps she would even give a terrible nickname to Eugene’s purple flame and even attempt to change the name from the White Flame Formula.

‘It’s purple, so is she going to call it the Purple Flame Formula? No…. I…. I don’t like that….’

Eugene shuddered as he finished undressing. The smell was too pungent, so he decided to clean his clothes with magic before going out.

After cleaning his clothes and putting them on, Eugene looked around for the last time. Of course, there was no trace of the flame after it was completely absorbed by Eugene. He could not see Vermouth’s vision anywhere either.

“Goodbye.”

He had not planned to say such a thing, but it just came out of his mouth. It was a farewell to Vermouth’s vision, who would have been waiting for Hamel for three hundred years, even though it had been pre-recorded and not sentient. Eugene remembered Vermouth’s dry smile.

Eugene turned around with a grin.

“It’s a place that hosted me for half a year, after all.”

He crossed the magic circle and saw the door located not too far away. How long had it been? It felt as if it had been quite a while, and judging from how hungry he felt, it seemed as if a whole day had passed.

‘I feel kind of sorry. Everyone’s waiting for me to come out at the entrance to the Dark Room.’

He had been feeling under pressure from Ancilla’s gaze lately. He had heard from Cyan that since there was only half a year left until the Knight March, Gilead, the head, would need to depart for the Black Lion Castle with the elites of the White Lion Knights. It was so that they could hold joint training with the Black Lion Knights to prepare for the Knight March.

Ancilla seemed to understand, but she also seemed depressed about the thought of being separated from her husband. Therefore, it was obvious that she would want to spend as much time as possible while her husband was still here, but Gilead was being dragged down to the Dark Room almost every day because of Eugene.

Mother might try to poison you, Cyan had stated in a matter-of-fact voice.

Of course, Eugene wouldn’t die from just any poison. However, the mistress of the Lionheart family wouldn’t conjure up just any regular poison, would she?

‘Should I just send her on vacation to a scenic resort?’ Eugene wondered.

He could send her away, just her and Gilead. Ancilla wouldn’t openly show how happy she was, but she would certainly accept the trip as a gift if he insisted. Eugene felt no filial piety toward the two, but he still considered Gilead and Ancilla as close relatives.

Eugene opened the door.

‘So the least I can do for them is to….’

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by something lunging at him. It was Carmen Lionheart throwing her fist at Eugene’s face without any hesitation. It wasn’t just her, either. Gilead and Gion came at Eugene from both sides, seeking to completely subdue him. The three were bound to be skillful and in sync. After all, they had been working together repeatedly to overpower him for the last half a year.

There was a simple reason why they attacked immediately — Eugene had been in the Dark Room for too long. Eugene had mistakenly thought it to be a day, but in fact, three days had already passed since he entered the Dark Room.

The three had taken turns guarding the entrance for the past three days. The physical and mental burdens weren’t significant, but they had been worried about Eugene.

After confidently declaring his intent to overcome the Dark Room, he had not come out for three days… so they couldn’t help but think something had gone wrong. However, it had been impossible for them to check since only one person could enter the Dark Room at a time.

But the door had opened suddenly, and the three judged that it would be better to suppress rather than try to gauge the situation. It was unprecedented for anyone to stay in the Dark Room for three days, so it was reasonable to think that Eugene would rampage.

Eugene did not know all these details, but the combined attack of the three was too fierce. He could not find an escape, and the attacks were too fast for him to try to speak out. So Eugene was forced to evoke his flame instead.

When he stomped his feet on the ground, purple flames erupted around him. Then he accelerated using Lightning Flash and escaped through a fine crack in their formation.

“It’s me. It’s not the phantom, it’s Eugene….”

“This flame…!?”

A glimmer appeared in Carmen’s eyes, and Eugene’s face distorted.

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