The Giant Aberration stood before Hio, slowly lifting one foot. Even if it lifted its foot only halfway relative to its massive size, it was already soaring into the sky. If it fell, his body would be crushed and he would die without any way to resist.
But Hio still stood there, unmoving.
‘Was that really sacrifice?’
Had the message that his Authority was growing really been a reaction to his sacrifice? Or could it have been a reaction to something else? With that thought, he carefully examined the memory of that moment once more.
The situation back then. The numerous red eyes looking down at him. The suffocating feeling of being trapped within them. The resentment of wanting to go out and fight. The thought of having to protect the Expeditionary Force and the Holy Maiden. His heart at that time. His emotions.
‘…It wasn’t that.’
It wasn’t sacrifice. The Authority hadn’t grown in response to sacrifice.
Anger, helplessness, annoyance, frustration. He had been enduring it. Without even realizing it, he had been practicing patience again. He endured and endured and endured to the limit. Even in the midst of a shock that felt like an explosion in his heart, he desperately held onto his fading consciousness, enduring and enduring.
And finally, the Authority reacted.
The scenes tangled and began to rewind at a speed he had never felt before. He arrived at a memory from the past, at least twenty years ago. Come to think of it, it had always been like that.
Since he was a child, he was used to enduring. From the orphanage, the start of his memories. When he faced the pure malice of children who turned his lack of parents into a trivial joke, he endured. He endured with the single-minded thought that he would grow up quickly and become a better adult than them.
Nothing changed even when he grew up and became an adult. Even after losing the friends he trusted, the lover he loved, and the colleagues he relied on in an instant. Even at the moment he was limping like a fool and receiving sympathy from people whose names he didn’t even know, he endured.
If asked what he endured, he endured the desire to die. He endured the resentment he wanted to explode. He didn’t know why he went that far. Was it because he thought it was meaningless? Or because he thought it was futile?
Even after entering the Vental World, he had to endure. Because of his traits, because he wanted to gain skills, because he had to become strong. All sorts of excuses were attached to the reason for his patience… but now he felt he knew.
It was just his life. It was everything about the person named Hio that had been built up layer by layer. He hadn’t realized it until now, and he might have even been denying it, but there was no such grand mission or conviction in his life.
Living as a hero. Expressing anger toward the whole world. Living a thousand years for a dragon. He wasn’t such a grand person.
He had simply endured. He was just a person who persevered. And that was the current version of himself. He had become the Hio Pavlenko that people liked.
“…!”
His blocked ears opened, and only then did the surrounding noise begin to rush in all at once. His mind woke up like the cold outside wind encountered at a hazy dawn. His head was clear.
The mana spread around him, the Abyssal energy scattered about, and the presence of the lurking entities were felt more clearly than ever before.
*Whoosh—* the scream of air being pushed away rapidly. The massive foot of the colossal abnormality descending, covering the sky.
Against it, Hio slowly raised the staff in his hand. His hazy eyes were now sharply focused, and there was clear strength in the hand holding the staff.
The Giant Aberration was solid, strong, and massive to the point that no magic could block it. But that was all. It was a being for which that was the limit. For some reason, that was how it felt now.
So, without any intention of retreating, he shot his mana and his magic toward the falling giant foot. He threw his life into it and sent it flying. Before long, the entity’s foot and the magic he had fired collided.
What occurred was a small explosion, far too humble compared to the entity’s massive size.
*Bang!*
A small flame that wouldn’t even be a handful to that giant. However, the giant tilted.
“…”
The giant’s body, which couldn’t be blocked by any flashy magic, was being pushed and slowly tilting by a single small explosion.
*Bang!*
He shot his magic once more.
*Bang!*
A little faster, containing his anger.
*Bang!*
A little more, carrying his resentment.
*K-Boom!*
Soon, explosions began to occur all over the entity’s body. The massive body of the entity staggered here and there, unable to compose itself from each explosion.
*K-Boom!*
The Giant Aberration was strong. It was born strong. Therefore, it did not know. It did not know the heart of the weak. The sorrow.
*K-Boom!*
It was the same. One who has never endured cannot know the heart of a person who can do nothing but endure. The weight they carry. That immense weight that one cannot help but be crushed by because it is so heavy.
*K-Boom!*
Because it had never experienced it, that massive body staggered from a small explosion. It could not handle the weight of the patience contained within. The explosions became faster and more numerous.
*K-Boom!*
Vitalianus’s Ideation was the overwhelming Imperial Golden Lion. That was his life as a hero. Atawolf’s Ideation was the angry Black Mist, and Regarda’s Ideation was the free green dragon.
Hio’s Ideation was Patience. The anger of one who had endured and endured. The resentment that could not be helped. Regret and self-reproach. Grief and sorrow. Thus, it was finally born.
*K-Boom!*
A flashy flower. A Red Calendula. A feast of red flowers blooming all over the giant’s body.
*Bang!*
A pretty flower that endures through winter and blooms in early spring.
*K-Boom!*
Do you know the beauty of a calendula that finally blooms after enduring and enduring? Do you know that the patience contained in the short life of a calendula is heavier than the weight of a giant?
*K-Boom!*
The red flowers covered the body of the giant, which was now falling after staggering. What was contained within them was Hio’s Ideation, the weight of one who knows patience.
*Thump!*
The body of the giant, which had once looked down upon the sky and towered so high, finally crashed into the ground. What brought it down was not flashy magic or overwhelming power, but small, pretty flowers.
Amidst the rain of red petals that began to scatter and disappear, Hio slowly closed his eyes. A clear mind. An expanded sense of energy. Sharpened five senses. If the 6th Circle was the stage of reconstructing and strengthening the physical body, the superhuman of the 7th Circle was the stage of opening the mind and drastically raising the grade of the soul.
That was why he could tell. The fallen Giant Aberration. At the same time, every entity that had stopped moving as if time had frozen. And.
“My disciple.”
A voice heard from right behind him. An eerily emotionless voice. He could feel how immense the power contained within it was. How powerful and infinitely dangerous it was.
“Pavlenko.”
When he turned around, he saw how terrifying Kreutzvalt’s expression was. How deep and distant an abyss the eyes of the man who had cast off his mask were. Only then could he know.
“You did well.”
He was afraid. He was terrified. Facing Kreutzvalt now was several times more frightening than the night he was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of entities. He had to be careful. He had to be tense.
“Then…”
He could know instinctively. This very moment was the one Kreutzvalt had been waiting for for over a thousand years. Therefore, this monster knew the weight of patience better than anyone else.
“Now, die.”
He was indeed afraid. He wanted to escape immediately. But he forced the corners of his mouth up into a twist.
“Fuck off.”
He had to endure.
**[Hidden Trait: Violence is Forbidden! (Patience: 997/1000)]**
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