Black looked at the hole in the sky, pouring out a steady stream of blood.
It looked the same to him as when Kai had first laid his eyes upon it in the Pirates of the Caribbean timeline, the time when he had unleashed the Limitless Blood Firmament for the first time.
It was like the hole of the Greater Grail—a gateway to The Root.
The uncanny resemblance had been too hard to ignore, even though he had tried to ignore it many times.
Kai had comprehended the nature of his Reality Marble right after unleashing it.
However, despite being the mastermind behind the absurd Multiverse Interdependency between Mana and Breath that had resulted in the Reality Marble, even Ayin herself couldn't tell him the reason for the hole's presence.
All she had done was actualize Kai's Individuality, taking inspiration from what he had learned so far—especially the knowledge Shinobu Kocho of the Demon Slayer Verse Fusion had imparted to him.
Ayin hadn't turned the sky gray, nor had she bloodied the earth.
The hole in the sky, resembling the Greater Grail's hole, was as much a mystery to her as it was to Kai.
She did know the hole's nature, though.
It's horror, Ayin had said once, mentioning feeding Lower Rank One Enmu to it. Do not even attempt to understand it. Not yet.
And since things were working fine for him, and with so many other matters demanding his attention, Kai had left it at that.
"It's a coincidence…" Black said, his voice feeble.
The black-skinned, faceless figure scoffed. "Coincidence?!" it repeated humorously. "What did you say? … Even when I am unlucky, I am lucky — right?"
Black's body shook.
"You were unlucky when you gained the Reality Marble, didn't you?" the figure continued. "But you were still the Lucky One. And the truth about being a Lucky One is that Luck conspires continuously… taking past, present, and future into the account."
Mechanically, Black looked at the figure. "What are you trying to say?"
He couldn't see its face, but he could have sworn on his mother's name that he sensed it smirking at him.
The figure looked away from Black and stared at the hole in the sky.
"The Greater Grail opens a hole to The Root, where the blood it pours out is a manifestation of pure magical energy. Or a manifestation of curses, the black mud, if the Grail is corrupted," the figure explained. "If that's what Greater Grail is, then, by definition, the hole in your Reality Marble is also the Greater Grail's hole."
Black gulped. "How?"
"There are two types of magical energy," the figure with Ayin's appearance said. "Mana and Od. Mana is what's available in the Multiverse freely. Of course, Contestants like you cannot use it. So, in your case, the Primordial Tower supplies you with a fixed amount of Mana — as Correspondence. On the other hand, Od is the energy found within all living organisms. Not only is it limited, but it is also scarce.
"When you cast your Reality Marble, it opens a gateway directly to The Primordial Tower, consuming your MP and SP and converting it to Od — this Blood Ocean. Why? Because your Reality Marble is not a part of the Tower itself, but something unique — created by you. So, it needs a medium to convert and channel the energy into a form that you can freely use."
Black looked at the hole in the sky, containing the horror within.
Whatever it contained inside was the medium that could devour MP and SP, turning into Kai's Od — fueling the entire Reality Marble.
That's why, once a set amount of MP and SP was consumed during the casting of the Reality Marble, it could endlessly give form to the devoured Blood Essences.
And it sent a chill running down Black's spine, thinking that this medium wasn't planned. That he did not know what this medium was. That even Ayin had no clue about it whatsoever. It was like…
"… It's like your Luck imprisoned this medium in your Reality Marble," the figure worded Black's chilling thoughts, "for your personal use, but without your will. So, yes, your Reality Marble does hold a Greater Grail within it. It's just… It's corrupted."
"Luck Corruption…" Black hissed blankly.
"Bingo!" The figure hissed back. "The Blessing of Luck Corruption was not just to bring down your Luck, but also to corrupt its nature. That's why the two times you have died after your resurrection are both because of Corruption. Ironically, both Corruptions had stemmed from you only. One, because of your use of Eon Soul Dew, and the second because of Nothing Is Impossible. Your Luck is still actively trying to purify itself, as clear by the sudden surge of Points in your Luck Stat… It will not succeed, though."
"… Why?" Black asked.
"Your Reality Marble is not complete," the figure answered. "It lacks the Life component. Isn't that why you are here? You want to cause a Multiverse Interdependency between Mana, Breath, and Life. Magic Circuits can convert a person's Od into magical energy. However, that wouldn't suffice for you. Because if you only fuse Magic Circuits with the Reality Marble, then you will end up regaining only the MP and SP that you had lost. No. You want to go beyond that.
"You want a way to increase the Od within you artificially. That can be done if you somehow consume Mana not from The Primordial Tower, but from the Multiverse itself. Like… a Wand."
[Initiating Self-Destruction Countdown...] The Ad Infinitum beeped.
In the next moment, it beeped again. [... Error!]
Black blankly looked at the figure.
This was something buried deep into the black hole of the AI mindscape. To access this knowledge was to go past the concept of infinity itself. Kai had made it such that only the likes of Deep Ones could truly hack into his mindscape without destroying it.
And this figure, who knew all of Kai's secrets at the tip of its fingers, didn't act like a Deep One.
The entity giggled. "To fuse The Philosopher Stone and Eon Soul Dew before layering it with your Magic Circuits, turning it into a Magic Core — a factory to endlessly generate Od from outside Mana and then use that Od to create magical energy as pure Stats… Isn't that the principle behind turning yourself into a Wand… Kai D. Stormborn?"
Black stepped forward toward the figure… enchanted. "… Who are you?!"
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