Chapter 10
Ars.
One per soul.
A deep, unique brilliance.
But I, Shion, had made a pact long ago.
One secret, one Ars.
Seven secrets, thus seven Ars.
The na of the pact.
Septem Arcana.
* * *
The first fla unveiled the past.
My first secret, that of Shion Pollinglight.
‘He dreams a futile dream.’
I longed to reach the Imperial Throne.
I raged and toiled with grand ideals, only to et death without achieving them.
Yet this futile dream, unsevered by death, still drove to breathe in vain.
Even in this second life, I gazed upon the Imperial Throne.
A foolish, senseless dream.
Utterly futile.
All was futile.
Yet I couldn’t abandon it, making it all the more futile.
I still gazed, chasing that vain pursuit.
A futile dream, re fantasy.
Powerless, utterly helpless.
But an Ars is a paradoxical thing.
The ultimate contradiction overturns reality.
A fantasy, nothing at all, becos sothing.
Sothing capable of anything.
Grasping, releasing, stroking, kneading, clawing, touching, striking, groping, stirring, and even praying—the first Ars, ‘Fantasy Finger.’
* * *
“You can’t see it, can you?” I said.
I could see it.
Only I could see it.
The ‘Fantasy Fingers’ drifting about.
Called fingers, but akin to a single hand.
“This fantasy is mine alone,” I declared.
Hands that shouldn’t be visible.
Hands capable of nothing.
Yet I gazed at them.
I treated them as my own.
Such was my Ars.
Those hands, varied in shape, moved in their own ways.
They writhed as if screaming, gesturing as if begging to be unleashed, like a dance.
But they couldn’t defy my will.
The futile dream, futile gestures, futile struggles—all were mine.
“Eek—!” Valziart cried.
Mud-like tentacles surged toward .
Hard as steel, fierce as a lion’s heart.
I moved to block them.
The writhing hands flew forward.
One blocked, another twisted.
Two formless gestures reduced the tentacles to mud in an instant. Valziart stomped in fury.
“All that bravado, and it’s pathetic,” I said, shaking my head.
I kept blocking her mud tentacles with ease.
Reluctantly, I counted the hands I’d summoned, visible only to —nobody else could do it for .
“Only this many? I ate well in the palace, gathered mana, but ti was too short,” I muttered.
One, two, three… thirteen.
Only thirteen ‘Fantasy Fingers’ summoned.
Turning fantasy into reality required power.
That’s how an Ars worked.
Even for the relatively efficient ‘Fantasy Finger,’ fifteen days of gathered strength could only muster this much.
I shook my head.
“But don’t worry. It’s enough to crush you, weakened as you are,” I told her.
“Flapping your tongue, you wretched brat!” Valziart snarled, charging with effort.
I wielded my thirteen hands.
“Your true nature’s showing, Valziart. Or should I say your essence?” I teased.
“Kee—yaaah!” she scread.
“Screaming won’t change a thing,” I said.
She was a noble of the shadow realm.
Normally, thirteen ‘Fantasy Fingers’ couldn’t touch her.
But sealed by Sen Sorti and starved for four hundred years, she was pitifully weak.
It was bound to be easy.
“Ugh, ughh—!” she groaned.
Torn apart, torn apart, torn apart.
Invisible hands ripped into her.
Black mud seeped from the tears.
She scread, feeling her existence erode.
“This can’t be! I’m Valziart! Even after four hundred years locked away, I’m…” she cried.
“For all your talk, you’re too weak,” I said.
She fell apart, piece by piece.
With each mont, she faded.
Her body, her essence.
All by just thirteen ‘Fantasy Fingers.’
“This… this way… …” she gasped.
She lanted, watching her vanishing form.
No recovery ca.
She felt her existence dissolve, the inescapable dread of death.
Where strength faded, fear rose.
“…To a kid like you…!” she wailed.
The torn shadows didn’t return.
The first ones twitched, but the later ones lacked even that strength, drooping and dissolving. Valziart’s form crumbled.
All that remained of the girl was her head.
The head crawled, tiny tentacles sprouting from her neck.
I approached, seeing it clearly.
She couldn’t escape.
A pitiful sight.
“What a sha,” I said, smiling at the black tears streaming from her eyes.
“You’re mine, Valziart.”
* * *
Black mud seeped into .
The girl’s form completely collapsed and vanished.
My consciousness deepened.
A sound leaked from an unknown inner realm.
‘Aha…’
A re groan soon turned to laughter.
The girl’s cackling laughter.
Having lost her body, she laughed gleefully within my mind.
She had no choice but to.
‘…Aha, hahaha…!’ she laughed.
Valziart laughed wildly within my mind, utterly delighted.
‘I thought I was really done for,’ she said.
In the white expanse of my ntal world, her black form appeared.
‘To let this Valziart’s essence into your mind!’ she exclaid.
Black shadows writhed, filling my consciousness.
‘So fearless, so generous!’ she mocked.
She was a shadow noble.
Unbound by physical form.
Even with her body destroyed, she thrived in the mind, more vibrant than ever.
A bit more tearing, and she’d have been in real danger, but that was past.
She gleefully road my mind.
‘I owed you out there, so I’ll devour you from within, prince!’ she declared.
Her shadow tentacles reached out, ravaging my mind.
The fragnts floating in the white expanse—mories, emotions, pieces of my soul—were snatched one by one.
‘What secrets make your mind stink? It’s mouthwatering!’ she said, rummaging.
‘Hmm. Let’s see. What have you been through…?’ she mused.
mories surfaced. Zionis’s mories: the palace’s neglect, Nebulo’s mockery, a child’s wary heart.
‘A harsh life. Rare for a prince to be so mistreated,’ she noted.
She didn’t stop, diving deeper.
mories surged: mountain dirt, the taste of insects, the sll of blood, a girl watching the sea with , a silver-haired mage.
‘…?’ she faltered.
‘What are these mories?’ she wondered, bewildered.
She tried to stop but couldn’t.
In a mory, the silver-haired mage smiled at her.
A re mory, yet it looked straight at her, then vanished.
‘…How? How can a human’s mories be like this?’ she thought.
My mories overwheld her, crashing like waves.
‘No, no, no…!!!’ she scread.
A cry, a roar, a shout from the depths, amidst the lies.
Return to , my things.
Please return, all my ti.
Yet you don’t return.
Oh, battlefields.
Oh, unforgettable comrades.
The tis passed, the things lost, the longing to reclaim what can’t be reclaid, the aching sadness I’ve co to know, a woman’s voice telling to turn back, the Imperial Throne I must one day reach…
All these…
‘…These are things that haven’t happened! Things from a future that shouldn’t be here,
why…!?’ she gasped.
Her face hardened.
‘Even your na was a lie! Shion Pollinglight? Using Pollinglight’s na? Who is this man…?’ she thought.
mories poured forth.
‘This is… it’s as if…’ she faltered.
Black emotions overwheld her shadows.
She scread.
It was impossible.
My mind was filled with things that shouldn’t be.
‘…As if you defied ti!’ she realized.
“You saw,” I said softly.
“You saw my secret,” I added.
“Ah…!” she gasped, leaping back in shock.
There I stood, the blonde prince.
She lashed out with tentacles.
This was the ntal realm; no re human could oppose a shadow realm noble.
It had to be so.
“Secret-keeping prince! What are you? What are you!” she shrieked.
“You tangled ti? You… monster!” she accused.
“Don’t want to hear that from you,” I said calmly.
I faced her black tentacles unflinching.
Hands appeared—hazy forms, ‘Fantasy Fingers.’
This ti, she saw them too.
They crushed her tentacles.
Black mud splattered and she scread.
“How do these hands reach into the mind!” she demanded.
“I said it’s a fantasy. You could say this is their true domain. Like you,” I explained.
Thirteen ‘Fantasy Fingers’ crushed her tentacles and pinned the black girl.
A shadow realm noble, yet she couldn’t resist. In the ntal world, against a re human.
“By the way, Valziart, thanks for following into my mind. Now I can seal just your consciousness,” I said.
“Have you even read that?” she asked.
“That you’d try to devour from within if I took you whole? Too obvious,” I said, smirking.
“Your power’s tempting, but I can’t let you chatter in my head,” I added.
“……”
“Sen Sorti said so too. Even the tastiest food needs its poison removed,” I said.
“…Sen, Sorti?” she squeaked, her voice rising sharply.
Even as her body crumbled, unseen fury surged.
“…You, you, you! You’ve t Sen Sorti!?” she demanded.
“Of course. That guy’s still alive and kicking,” I said with a bright laugh.
“He’s the one who told you were here. Explained it quite kindly,” I added.
“Ugh, aaah—!” she roared.
Her face twisted instantly, grotesque and monstrous.
A voice, mangled like black shadows, erupted threateningly.
“Seeen, Sortiii—!!!” she scread.
“That wretched human, that damned last mage! Even after four hundred years, you drag down—!!!” she cursed.
Her fury turned to .
“You, what are you, kid! How do you know Sen Sorti? How have you lived things yet to co?” she demanded.
“That’s…” I said, stepping closer.
Sothing descended from above, a searing heat.
Her body lted further.
Seven flas descended.
“…A secret, Valziart,” I whispered, bearing the seven flas.
“A secret too deep for the likes of you.”
“Ughhh…!” she groaned.
She began to cackle.
She had no choice but to laugh.
“Devilish kid! With an angelic face…! The empire’s luck has run out… to have soone like you in its bloodline!” she said.
Defeated by force and trickery, she felt oddly relieved to be so exposed.
“This is interesting. Yes, at this point, it’s fun!” she said.
Hahaha.
Her laughter tinged with madness.
The shadow realm monster cackled, her face lting stickily.
“Have it your way. I’ll sleep, so go ahead, use my body as you please. Rampage to your heart’s content!” she declared.
She lted away.
As writhing black mud, as sleek shadow, as a lovely girl.
She surrendered all her power to , leaving only madness.
“Let it be worthy of this Valziart’s na!”
Aha, hahahaha—!
* * *
Her laughter still echoed in my ears.
No, it truly lingered in my mind.
But I pressed it down firmly.
It quieted.
“Sleep quietly, monster,” I said.
I raised my hand.
Black tal coated it.
Not just my hand—any part of my body could summon black armor at will.
Sotis hard, sotis sharp.
All as I wished. I clenched my fist—*crunch*. A chillingly dull sound rang out.
A stone door stood in my way.
I struck it lightly.
A boom echoed, and the stone crumbled.
The shadow armor bore no damage.
“I’ll make good use of your power,” I said.
My blue eyes sank deeply.
“For my secrets.”
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