After waiting a few seconds, as he took a deep breath of the freezing-cold air, Hans whispered:
"What? Cat got your tongue?"
The reply wasn’t imdiate, almost a dozen seconds passed before Caelan said:
"What should that even an?"
His voice sounded distracted, Hans could almost picture in his mind Caelan watching far away as he replied.
"It’s beautiful, isn’t it? It’s different from what you were used to"
This ti, the reply was pretty much instantaneous:
"Mh…"
Caelan said.
"It’s really crazy to think that your world built all of this before even discovering mana…"
"Yeah…"
Hans replied, as he also switched his attention back to the skyline.
Ember, seeing this, also turned her head toward the city, she couldn’t see everything like Hans did… but she would have liked to… she would have loved to.
It took a few minutes for Hans and Caelan to have enough of the view and finally start talking about sothing:
Breaking the ’silence’ that was previously only interrupted by the wind howling through the tal bars of the antenna was Caelan as he said:
"I suppose you’ve called out for a reason, or was it just to share this with "
Hans, who had gotten lost in thought, was brought back to reality by this comnt:
"Mh, I wanted to ask you sothing, do you know any spell that can allow to know when Ember’s in danger"
As he said that, Hans petted the snake that was standing just beside him.
"Mh… yes I do"
"Then… Could you-"
"But I can’t teach it to you"
"What? Why?"
Hans said surprised…
Was Caelan still showing resistance towards him? Didn’t he know that he could enter the plain of darkness and forcibly take it with his own hands?
"Stop thinking so much, the reason why I can’t teach it to you is that you already know it"
’Huh?’
Hans couldn’t help but doubt the man’s words…
’He already taught it to ? When did he do that?’
"Is your mory that bad? It’s the last spell I passed down to you, don’t tell you already forgot about it"
That voice resounded through Hans’s mind as he thought about it…
"Delayed…
Delayed casting"
"Bingo…
Is that what you say here?"
A smile appeared on Hans’s face as he replied:
"Yeah, where did you hear that from?"
"Oh… I picked it up when listening to your students"
Hans’s exaggerated smile broke into a little chuckle…
He couldn’t help but find the situation amusing… a skeleton whose lifespan spanned over hundreds of years learning slang from so high school students…
That wasn’t sothing that would make sense even if given all the context in the world.
"So, instead of activating the spell when I want, I should set a condition for its activation, and I will then feel it when the spell goes off.
Is that what you’re trying to say?"
"Yes"
Caelan only replied with a single word, he was sure of his answer, which ant he had probably already done sothing like that before.
This led to Hans believing it was a fairly easy spell to cast, but he soon had to reevaluate it…
In two whole hours of attempts… Hans had yet to succeed even once.
Ember also seed to be tired of it, and Hans couldn’t believe what was happening…
After his many advancents… it didn’t take long for him to learn even a high-ranking spell… so why the hell…. Was it taking so much ti?
Hans attempted again, this ti with extre focus.
He pierced the little white snake with his gaze as he held his hands close to her.
Then, a few strands of mana concentrated at his fingertips before being unleashed and falling on Ember’s body, Hans carefully tried to cast the spell composition on Ember, but when completed, it simply broke down, leaving behind nothing but Hans’s disappointed face.
His mana was already down to a third, and yet there had been no progress for the last ninety minutes.
"Caelan… what… what kind of spell is this? Why’s it so damn difficult to cast?"
Caelan began speaking but his tone gave Hans goosebumps… it was unusually lively and happy, as if he had just been relieved by a heavy stress.
"Oh, this spell?…"
As those words echoed through Hans’ mind, he could almost imagine Caelan laughing.
"… It’s simply a {conditioned casting}…
A ninth-tier spell"
At that mont, Hans’ forehead slowly reddened as he closed his eyes to calm himself down, but in the end, he failed…
"You…
Fu**ing douchebag!!!"
At that instant, an exaggerated laughter broke out in his mind, Caelan seed to be enjoying it a lot.
"You just wasted two hours of my ti! And two-thirds of my mana! It would take normal mages days of ditation to recover from this!"
But whatever he said, the laughter in his head just kept growing louder and more exaggerated.
Admits that laughter, Caelan managed to get a grip on himself and say:
"Pfftt-haha, it was you who wasted your own ti, if just you had asked instead of doing things on your own…
Hahaha, it’s so refreshing seeing you fail at least once."
"Oh yeah? Let shut up that mouth of yours, get back into the limitless dark you damn jerk"
Caelan’s eyes which were previously still blessed with the view of the magnificent skyline seed to have been shut close…
He didn’t have a body to do it, but he sighed…
It was always like that… whenever he was sent back to the plain of darkness, his mind filled with thoughts, and that limitless space let him drown in his exaggerated fears, remorses, and regrets.
’Maybe instead of giving myself hope until that kid dies, I should have just kept myself trapped in here, I would have lost myself briefly after but…
This might just be the worst way to torture … by continuously reminding myself that there’s sothing out there while I’m here rotting in this damn limitless place.’
A short pause followed this thought of his, he couldn’t tell how much ti had passed since it was difficult to perceive in there, to the point that he could barely tell if the ti between Hans’s summoning was short or long.
’Thinking back at it…’
For the first ti ever since he was trapped inside that stupid dark loneso world…
Caelan laughed:
"…it was so damn worth it!"
Then… ti passed… Caelan wasn’t sure how much he stayed sealed inside that confined infinite space, but his thoughts helped him pass the ti.
He thought about Hans, about everything he had witnessed these past few months, and also reminisced about the goddess, wondering if he would ever be able to et her again.
But as his thoughts slowed down and he once again began drowning in the deep dark, a bright crack appeared in his space, as if soone was forcefully tearing it apart and calling him out…
It was a familiar feeling…
Hans… was summoning him.
Caelan was quickly enveloped by this light, the darkness that previously engulfed his spirit, and his thoughts quickly dissolved under such a bright luster, and as if he had just woken up, he found it difficult to see anything inside that light.
A few seconds passed, and many things inside that incredible light began to take shape…
The first thing he barely recognized were two legs, wrapped in so loose black pants and followed by two white sneakers that covered the feet.
Then, just about a ter further away stood a little white snake.
Underneath both those things, a black surface held them up.
It didn’t take long for Caelan to understand what he was witnessing…
It was Hans’s sight.
Soon, two hands ca into the picture, they were quite sweaty, pretty strange since the temperature where Hans was stood below the 0 degrees mark.
Then, he heard a voice speaking to him.
"You damn thug…"
It was Hans’ voice, he seed to be fatigued, and he stopped for a bit between every word to catch his breath…
"… you said you like to see fail right?…
Then…
I hope this will crush your heart"
Hans raised his head, centering Ember in his field of view, and Caelan observed the little snake as he carefully scrutinized her…
It took him a bit to catch on, but when he did, it took him even more to let out a few words:
"You’ve got to be shitting ".
Even if it was subtle, Caelan could still see it.
There, on Ember’s back, a little white circle that barely differentiated from her skin’s tonality was standing.
"T-that’s not possible"
"Yeah, I know it isn’t"
Hans replied as he let himself fall on his back and lay on the floor.
He watched the sky, still breathing because of the built-up fatigue.
"No… no! You don’t understand! It’s literally impossible!"
Hans waited a second before replying with the sa words:
"Yeah… I know it isn’t.
This isn’t your conditioned casting or whatever.
It’s my spell, it’s called conditioned call"
[congratulations! You’ve created a new spell.
{conditioned call}(tier-8)]
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