[11]

"I once made a vow that no descendant of the Aozaki family could enter 'there' unless they surpassed me," her grandfather said.

"But now, it seems that vow no longer holds any meaning."

"Why?"

Aoko asked, surprised.

"I thought I'd have to fight you first."

"Hahaha," her grandfather laughed stiffly—the first time Aoko had ever heard him laugh.

"Look at me now, in this sorry state. How could I possibly still be able to fight you?"

"So, Eiri Fumizuka did kill you?"

Aoko asked, astonished.

"Is a Magician so fragile?"

"Not quite," her grandfather shook his head.

"I was strong when I still had my body, but I had already lost the possibility of progressing any further."

"You mean you hit the limit of your potential?"

Aoko asked.

"No, I mean I went down the wrong path," her grandfather reminisced.

"In my research and use of the Fifth Magic, I entered a misguided route, and there was no turning back. The cost of that mistake was gradually losing the emotions humans should possess, so I discarded my body through the hands of that Fumizuka child."

"The Fifth Magic has that kind of effect?"

Aoko frowned.

"If that's the case, I might need to reconsider whether I want to fully claim the Fifth Magic."

"You misunderstand," her grandfather said.

"That wasn't a flaw of the Fifth Magic, but a flaw of mine. In approaching the root, my shortcomings led me down the wrong path. That's why I passed the magic crest to you and abandoned my physical body."

Aoko thought for a moment, then asked, "So that's why you swore that only someone stronger than you could enter the cave?"

"Exactly," her grandfather replied in a bright voice.

"If you aren't stronger than me, then approaching the root is meaningless. It would just be a waste of time."

"I obtained the Fifth Magic when I was very close to the root," her grandfather recalled, "but that was as far as I could go. I didn't quite reach the source of everything."

"So, I decided to see if a descendant might appear who was stronger than me and could attempt to enter the cave leading to the root."

"If you succeed and come back alive, I'll give up staying in the surface world and head to the Outside," her grandfather continued, speaking to himself.

"Staying on the Inside would only dilute the authority of the Fifth Magic."

"I understand," Aoko said. She had no intention of persuading her grandfather otherwise, nor did she consider asking Touko to create a new body for him.

"I've decided to enter the cave."

The entrance to the cave leading to the root was hidden deeper in her grandfather's workshop basement. Following her grandfather's footsteps, Aoko arrived at a plain wall.

"It's right here," her grandfather said.

"Hm?"

Aoko was puzzled.

"There's nothing here."

"Use the crest you just obtained and think carefully," her grandfather tapped his head with a finger.

"I fixed the timeline of the entrance. Without sufficient mastery of the Fifth Magic, you won't be able to enter."

"Sounds like a legacy defense," Aoko muttered, frowning at the wall.

"So, I have to disable it?"

Her grandfather didn't say anything, only gesturing for her to proceed. Aoko braced herself and approached the wall, studying it to figure out what to do.

She saw no magical glow nor sensed any spell traces on the wall. Running her hand over the unremarkable surface, she considered simply smashing her way through.

But since her grandfather had said it was sealed with the Fifth Magic, breaking the wall wouldn't reveal the entrance behind it.

With that in mind, Aoko steeled herself. She closed her eyes and, after gathering her resolve, began activating the Fifth Magic.

A surge of immense magical energy, channeled through her vast number of magic circuits, flowed into the Aozaki family's magic crest. A faint glow emanated from her right arm as she touched the wall, and intricate light patterns resembling a circuit board appeared on her skin. Her consciousness ceased its interaction with the material world and plunged into the boundless astral river, while everything around her froze—everything except her grandfather, who continued observing her.

Normally, a human body can barely withstand the burden of using the Fifth Magic, her grandfather mused. In the past, when he used the Fifth Magic, he endured excruciating pain—a pain born from the limitations of being human, limitations he eventually discarded along with his emotions.

All Magic is an enemy of the world, and any human born of this world who attempts to wield an Otherworldly Law must endure the pain the world inflicts to erase humanity. This pain exists on a mental plane, a method designed specifically to obliterate human emotions.

To go further, her grandfather had discarded his emotions. But when he reached the brink of the Root, he lost the key to his origin due to his incompleteness, hitting the limit of his existence.

The descendant now before him, this girl with unknown elements mixed within her, continued to activate the magic crest while enduring this pain that threatened to erase her consciousness. The old magician couldn't help but feel a surge of expectation.

Aoko, nearing the world of the Root, was being subjected to extreme pain and loneliness, but she coldly thought that such things were trivial. For some reason, at that moment, Aoko found the price she was paying to use the Magic to be utterly insignificant. These signals that seemed to be attacking her thoughts had no way of stopping her from using the Fifth Magic, let alone destroying her consciousness.

Indeed, the pressure from the world's retaliation did not affect Aoko because, if the person enduring it was completely indifferent to these painful signals, then the attack was as harmless as a gentle breeze.

The world's consciousness became confused. The amount of pain it had inflicted could easily destroy any human, so why was this one unaffected? Was she even human?

Aoko had no idea about the world's internal struggle. She was entirely focused on approaching the Root and using a partial activation of the Fifth Magic to lift her grandfather's seal.

"Subjective Axis: Release," Aoko whispered, not as a spell but as a self-hypnosis trigger.

With her words, the wall in front of her began to change. A door that hadn't existed before gradually appeared on the surface, and the constant spacetime fluctuations that had been occurring at Planck-time intervals vanished.

Aoko opened her eyes again, delighted to see that she had succeeded. Just as she turned to boast to her grandfather, she realized his spirit was gone. Perhaps the Fifth Magic that had been continuously activated on this door had been the anchor that kept his soul in place.