Chapter 213: The Magical Formula of Angels (3)

“I will trust you. No feeling of unease will arise.”

Ikael smiled. It was fortunate that Shirone was a quick-thinking boy.

“That’s exactly it. Then, from now on, we will begin.”

Ikael closed her eyes and executed the possession.

When her body of sacred light entered Shirone’s mind, Shirone opened his eyes wide.

A flash burst from his pupils, and a strange sensation of two minds merging was transmitted.

— Shirone, how do you feel?

— Eh, huh? This is……

Shirone, experiencing possession for the first time, felt confused.

He could not distinguish whether the thoughts now arising in his head were his or Ikael’s.

As if he were crazy, he felt like he was playing two people by himself.

— Do not get confused. I am Shirone, and Shirone is me. You just have to think.

He understood the method, but even the thought that had just arisen felt like his own illusion, which made his skin crawl.

Did he really have to think exactly those words? He felt like he could think anything else if he wanted.

— Do not hesitate! If you begin to doubt, everything that composes Shirone will collapse. Possession is a sensitive technique. Just accept it.

Shirone decided to simply believe. Even if the thoughts in his head were only his own illusion, he concluded they were the truth.

As he calmed down, his heartbeat returned to stability.

Although there had been an incident, it was still at a point where the angel’s magical circle had not even begun.

Ikael decided to overcome the first obstacle.

— From now on we will create the body of sacred light. Bring your mind outward.

Shirone transformed the Spirit Zone into separation type.

An angel’s halo is above the crown of the head, but Shirone brought the Spirit Zone forward.

Because it was the direction most familiar to humans.

— Is this fine?

— Yes. No, you did well. Whatever you do, Shirone’s decision is important. You must find the most efficient method yourself. Now we will create the halo that will be the foundation of the magical circle. It is about drawing a perfect circle with light.

Shirone did not think of anything and waited. Then no voice arose.

— Excuse me…… am I supposed to do it now?

— Yes. Do it now.

Shirone, who thought he would receive some advice, was confused. But thinking there must be a reason, he expanded the light into a ring shape.

A halo with a diameter of 1 meter was born in front of Shirone.

At a glance, it was quite impressive.

It was a clean circle, and the brightness was appropriate. At this level, it did not seem inferior even compared to an angel’s halo.

— It is completely insufficient. With such a distorted circle, a massive amount of information cannot be processed.

As expected, he heard Ikael’s criticism. When entering units that the human eye cannot distinguish, the shape was a disaster.

He could not find a method. A perfect circle is nothing more than a concept.

How was he supposed to materialize something that does not exist anywhere in the world?

— A perfect circle?

Shirone had a sudden realization. There was one, the only perfect circle that exists in this world.

— That’s right, Shirone. It is the Immortal Function. That is why the nephilim are called descendants of angels.

Open the Immortal Function and expand the mind to the limit. That was the only perfect circle.

Because the whole is always perfect.

— But if I do that……

The existence called “I” will disappear. Had he not already experienced it in the space-time of the labyrinth?

— You must activate the Immortal Function at 100%. And then, grasp it again and materialize it into form. I will control it, but it is definitely dangerous. Can you do it?

He had to return from the domain of infinity. This was the first obstacle necessary to learn the archangel’s ability.

— I will try. I already did it once, so the second time will be easy, right?

In reality, he did not think it would be easy at all. But if he did not say something absurd, he felt he would go mad from the tension.

Shirone opened the Immortal Function.

It was a release without restraint or hesitation. His mind decomposed and expanded toward infinity.

Shirone’s mind became the Akashic Record. But since it was already perfect in itself, he could not obtain any information.

— Shirone! Shirone! Listen to my voice! You must not let go of yourself! Record this sensation in your mind! You must pull it back with the indestructible body!

Shirone pulled the decomposed mind into its minimal unit within the frame of the indestructible body.

A massive ring of light swept everything as it rushed toward Shirone’s mind.

A cold sound, like glass being cut, exploded. Then, before Shirone’s eyes, a perfect halo without a single flaw was born.

The speed of light rotating using the halo as a rail was literally the speed of light. Even though it had been released in separation type, the Spirit Zone was still clearly the mage’s mind. Something like that rotating inside the mind was enough to paralyze thought.

In a word, Shirone had materialized the concept called Immortal Function into the real world.

Ikael’s voice became sharp.

— Shirone! From now on we will engrave in your halo the exclusive battery of the archangel! You must not release the indestructible body! You must endure in order to live!

From the front, a red flash shot out and collided at the center of the halo.

As a red wave spread, a magical circle of the simplest calculation that distinguishes between 1 and 0 was born.

From there, the formulas began to become increasingly complex.

Flashes of various colors, coming from an unknown place, struck the halo like rain, engraving the magical circle.

Numerous magical circles fit together like gears and rotated.

The appearance of magical circles rotating with different sizes, speeds, and directions resembled the internal mechanism of a clock.

Shirone’s mind was on the verge of exploding.

The first gear rotated several gears, and those gears rotated hundreds more.

The scale of the calculations kept increasing.

From a certain point, Shirone abandoned calculation.

He could not comprehend the meaning contained in the halo.

How could he know what concept the 170,000 calculation circuits and 4,800 magical circles were trying to reveal?

“Uuuugh!”

Blood ran from his nose. He clenched his teeth and tried to endure, but formulas reaching 100 million lines continued to coil upward endlessly.

Calculating that was beyond human limits.

— Shirone! Do not try to understand it! I am understanding it! It is about accepting it through the intuition circuit!

Shirone understood Ikael’s intention.

There was no need to calculate. She was trying to simplify complex concepts into truth and engrave them directly into Shirone’s brain.

When the number of magical circles engraved in the halo exceeded 40,000, Shirone was able to experience the domain of the gods.

Nothing less than the calculation speed of light.

Even so, the fact that it took time meant that the concept contained in the halo exceeded human capacity.

He still could not know what it was, but it was certain that it was a magnitude beyond imagination.

— It’s not going to work. I can’t take it anymore……

The indestructible body began to crack.

It was natural, since a human was forcibly absorbing the battery contained by a higher-dimensional being.

It was the third obstacle Ikael had mentioned.

— We’re almost there, Shirone! If you endure just a little longer…!

Shirone’s effect began to affect Ikael.

When the progress of the calculation exceeded 90%, the magical circle automatically began advancing toward completion.

Shirone’s mind was in a state of overload. It was as if a bomb implanted in his head had exploded.

He could feel countless cracks forming in the indestructible body. His mind was breaking. In other words, he was going insane.

In fact, Shirone’s mind was heading toward severe destruction.

Ikael watched with sorrow. Even if the magical circle was completed, in the end he would not endure it. When the amount of information reached 100%, the indestructible body would explode.

At that moment, a special change occurred in Shirone’s mind.

The indestructible body was breaking beyond cracks, shattering into countless fragments. If that was Shirone’s current mind.

At that thought, even Ikael felt a chill.

But a different result than expected appeared.

Although the durability of the indestructible body converged to 0, the form of the mind did not change in the slightest.

If one compared the indestructible body to an iron sphere filled with water, Shirone’s current state was like the process in which the water freezes.

When water begins to freeze, the iron sphere breaks.

But what if it were a rubber ball? It would only increase in size according to the expanded volume of the ice.

That was why Shirone pulverized durability down to the particle unit and added flexibility.

Softness overcomes force.

Shirone’s iron sphere shattered, but the form of the ice contained inside remained intact.

Ikael’s chest grew warm. Was this the ability of humans? Even though his mind had turned to dust, even though it should have been immense mental pain, Shirone maintained his mind until the end.

That will evolved Shirone’s mind to a higher level. That was the evolved state of the indestructible body, the level of the diamond body.

He broke the frame. Only the content remained.

With nothing left to destroy, Shirone could not waver in any situation.

If the indestructible body was the extreme of durability, the diamond body, where the frame disappeared, was the extreme of flexibility that humans pursue.

The density of accumulated information engraved in the halo exceeded 95%.

It was an enormous amount of information.

But the indestructible body increased in size according to the increased amount. Then it compressed again with force, trapping the angel’s information.

— Congratulations, Shirone.

Ikael offered praise without reservation. Could a human move like this between opposite extremes?

Shirone came to possess both strength and flexibility at the same time. It was undoubtedly a leap.

Shirone, buried in the angel’s information, could not think of anything. He only tried to endure, and only realized that it was easier than before.

When the angel’s magical circle was completed, he finally regained consciousness.

A halo in which dozens of magical circles rotated at different speeds entered his sight. Probably, inside it, hundreds of times more magical circles were in operation.

It was a truly beautiful magical circle.

The halo that Ikael had executed was completely transmitted as experience to Shirone. He could not understand the principle, but he could imprint the completed concept as if it were a seal.

— I did it, Ikael…

With those words, Shirone closed his eyes. As his consciousness drifted away, the world sank into darkness.

**/

Faced with the intense light, Shirone frowned. When he opened his eyes, Ikael was looking at him with a worried expression.

“Are you okay, Shirone? How do you feel?”

Shirone sat up. For some reason, he felt a little embarrassed.

Since meeting Ikael, he had already lost consciousness twice. He thought that dealing with a higher-dimensional being was quite exhausting.

Holding his throbbing head, Shirone asked,

“How long was I unconscious this time?”

“A bit long. About 20 minutes.”

“Eh? Why…?”

If it was Ikael, she could have woken him much earlier.

When Shirone looked at her as if he couldn’t believe it, Ikael said with an apologetic expression,

“Shirone was in a state of shock. Even if I had woken you by force, you would not have been able to fight at your best. Especially because to use the angel’s magical circle, you need to pour in all your mental strength.”

Ikael’s words were correct. But the fact that time had been lost was still concerning.

“You don’t have to worry. Because of this, Shirone’s mental strength has grown stronger. Also, since you have already fully recovered, you will be able to reach the destination faster than before.”

Shirone examined his changes. In his body, something far more powerful was occurring than when he reached the state of the indestructible body.

When his mind was drawn into a place much deeper than before, Shirone regained his confidence once again.

‘If I go at full speed, I can make up for the lost time. What happened to Rian and Canis?’

At a glance, they should have already arrived or be about to arrive. If he calculated it that way, there was still a chance to make up for the lost time.