The library.

Julian POV:

It's been a few hours since the fight I had with Nacht.

With enough rest and food, I am back to my full strength.

But an uneasy feeling still remained in the back of my mind.

Kirin had already informed me that my presence has long been changed from a human to a spirit.

I already had the blessing of the Dark Phoenix but the Dragon bloodline strengthened that blessing.

Still, it was good to know that we could leave this dungeon if things go downhill.

But the problem is this guy… Nacht.

He is dead set on exploring the dungeon. Apparently, he read about Alric from another dungeon and since it was his laboratory, he didn't want to let the opportunity go.

No matter what I asked, Nacht straight-up ignored me and only spoke up when he had to say something himself.

Now I understand why Yami hates this creepy stalker.

With nothing else to do in that chamber anymore, we stepped into the portal.

Third-person POV:

After exiting the portal, the red Golem that had Secre and Kirin found themselves in a ruined city.

They immediately felt traces of forbidden mana in the air which Kirin started absorbing hungrily.

The city was nothing Secre had seen so far, there were tall skyscraper-like structures and roads made of black stone structures.

At the center of the city was an infinitely tall tree that reached the purple sky with a ring-like building around it.

If Julian was there, he could have recognized the scene as the ruined city was similar to the cities in his world with tall buildings, roads, and broken cars.

Problem was that Julian and Natch were nowhere to be seen.

"This place is serious trouble….." Kirin said.

"Are you talking about this city?"Secre asked.

"You know that spirits like me were once a part of nature right? With this, I could sometimes see memories that are recorded in nature.

In the memory of nature, it is said that Dragonoids were the most technologically advanced species that ever existed.

They made up for their lack of mana with their innovation.

The metal boxes you see were called cars which could make people go from one place to another without using any magic.

But what's trouble is not this….

I have been having a weird feeling since I entered this dungeon and finally, after coming here, I could pinpoint the reason for the feeling."

There is a dead spirit here who is one of the reasons for this continuous release of forbidden mana. "

Secre was shocked to hear that.

"How is this possible? I thought spirits returned to nature or burst into mana after they die?" Secre asked.

"Did you forget whose dungeon this is? If these lizards can create such a complex dungeon, making a dead spirit into a source of corrupted mana doesn't seem impossible. "

Kirin pointed to the ring-like building around the tree.

"There is the source, we must go there if we want answers"

"We can't go like this! We will die without Julian's help! "Secre exclaimed.

"Ugg fine birdie, we will wait for a while.

If he doesn't come, we have to do it alone "

Both of them waited for some time but neither Aoki nor Natch was to be seen so they decided to move forward toward the source of the corrupted mana.

As they moved forward, the corrupt mana got stronger which was very nice for Kirin as he was continuously using it to rebuild his body.

But what surprised him was that Secre was completely unaffected by the mana.

"It sure looks high from here, " Kirin said looking up.

Climbing was impossible so they started flying toward the ring-like chamber.

They found an open balcony and entered through it which opened up to a huge room full of books.

Most of the books were in terrible condition as if they were burned down or eaten away by rodents.

The entire chamber was filled with dust, especially the roof which slowly started to fall off like snowfall.

"Woooo!

That's a huge ass library…

Must be heaven for nerds" Kirin commented.

"I don't feel any mana from here, as if the corrupted stopped all of a sudden" Secre said.

"Give me some time to look around "

Kirin looked around carefully not missing any detail and finally found something that intrigued him.

Out of all those books was a book that was pure black in color.

"Birdie, don't move and wait here "

Kirin flew towards the book and brought it down from the shelf using the Golem.

As soon as he opened the book everything froze around him.

"Did I become too fast or the time around me stopped "

Line-by-line texts started to appear in the book.

"This book…..looks like someone's Grimoire.

Weren't Grimoire supposed to disappear after the owner's death?

Sigh! nothing in this dungeon surprises anymore. "

Kirin inspected the book and found that it was covered with sealing magic used from forbidden magic.

"Let's see…if we do this…then this…and this….Done!"

Cracks started forming on the book as it slowly started breaking into fragments which started floating and creating a black hexagon on the floor.

At that instant, similar cracks started to form around the entire room which turned into more black hexagons.

All the hexagons shone in a purple light and started to bring changes into the giant chamber.

The books that were burned and torn apart started to repair automatically while the dust started to get disappeared.

Within a few seconds, the entire space changed to a brand new library.

But the most noticeable change was that there was a black hexagon at the center of the library with a green-skinned woman standing having multiple rods coming out of her stomach.

As the changes were completed, Kirin found that the time was moving normally again.

"What just happened? I suddenly found that I could not move anymore" Secre said.

This made Kirin think of some possibilities.

"So was it really time magic? How did the seal create time magic as it is something not even forbidden magic can create in my knowledge. "

'The only time magic user I knew was the supreme Devil Astaroth….since the devil and the Dragonoids were on the same time, they might have done something '.

Putting those thoughts aside, both of them approached the green woman.

"She is….was a plant spirit before something was done to her," Kirin said with a bit of sadness in his eyes.

"From the feeling she gives, she was most probably a greater spirit"

"I don't think greater plant spirit exits anymore," Secre said.

"Yes, in the current time only four greater spirits exist"

Kirin touched the woman's head and felt that she no longer had any life but just a battery to release corrupted mana.

"Can you do something about her? Going by her expression she seems to be suffering" Secre said.

"Since she is no longer alive, I can absorb her body," Kirin said.

"You can do that too? Never knew spirits were so well versed in anything "

"Don't compare me to other spirits, I am special and the majestic of them all !"

Secre rolled her eyes hearing that.

"I don't know about other spirits but I spent a lot of time observing all kinds of living beings and learning some tricks from them.

The sealing forbidden magic that I learned was from humans hundreds of years ago."

As Kirin now had accumulated enough forbidden mana to make a new body.

[Forbidden magic: Imagination recreation]

Dark blue mana started to gather around him as his body started growling larger and taking a different form.

Finally, as the blue mana around him settled, Kirin had now taken the form of a handsome blue-haired man with beautiful gem-like eyes.

'My body construction is complete, all I need is to connect his psychical body to my soul'

"I will first look into the books and then think about her" Kirin said approaching the books.

They spent a few hours looking into the books that they together could read.

Some were analyses of spells, some were experiment records, some talked about the affairs in the world during that time, some told seals and finally, some talked about stories of heroes.

They looked into more books about could not make anything out of them.

Secre's eyes shone brightly seeing one book in particular written by Alric himself.

"This is the book from where I recreated the spell to seal a devil, "Secre said.

Both of them memorized everything that was in the book and got the steps to break Secre's seal.

The missing piece that was stopping Kirin from breaking the seal himself was found in that book.

Still, the process was not simple unless he had access to all the magic stones.

"Aye birdie takes some rest, for now.

Let me get my work done "

Gathering mana into his fingers Kirin started to draw complex patterns around the woman's body.

"I feel bad for going this to a spirit but there is no other choice"

One by one Kirin took out all of the rods from her body and stabbed his hand into her stomach where the rods were.

[Forbidden magic: Life transfer]

Slowly the woman started breaking into near-endless particles of corrupted mana and entered Kirin's body.

He immediately started to use forbidden magic to

Memories that the plant spirit had started to appear in Kirin's mind one by one.

"Experiment subject…..The city of Astropolis...The tree of origin…..The first magic....transmutation…..the cataclysm…."

Slowly numerous memories settled in Kirin's mind as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Well FUCK !"