Chapter 9:
Infinite Rebirths as Mages – Now We Seek the Truth Behind Our Feud
Lucil's eyes glow - a threatening red.
Rose vines erupt from the surroundings, just beside the mist.
"Rose Blossom - Take Eight - Eternal Bloom!"
The roses bloom open.
And at the moment they bloom - they absorb the water in the surroundings.
Kragalta's mist loses immense mass while Lucil's stays the same.
"You wonder why your domain vanished? It doesn't take an army. Not violence.
Just… an endlessly blooming rose."
Kragalta gasps. He looks into Lucil's face.
He sees no hesitation. No hatred - only clarity.
And the cruelest truth: Behind that quiet voice is a brutality colder than any blade.
And a mind that has already disarmed him.
Kragalta charges aimlessly to Lucil without any possibility to see how he should counter him.
"A–Arghh…!"
The aura of an executioner intensies around Lucil. As soon as he makes impact he screams.
"Red World - Rosen Death - World Ending Burst."
Lucil's voice is threatening and calm at the same time.
A glow runs through his sword. In a single, shattering moment bursts a gigantic dragon wing from his right shoulder, imbued with pulsing, flaming veins.
A dragon's cry splits the sky. An ancient voice that doesn't roar but whispers: Annihilation.
Lucil's gaze lowers onto Kragalta. Deep. Steady. Unyielding.
Kragalta's greatsword begins to fracture. The runes flicker as if breaking from sheer awe.
Around them roses begin to manifest. Hundreds. Then thousands.
They sprout from the ground, from the air, from the blood in the atmosphere. Slowly. Unstoppable.
Time seems to hold its breath.
"Expand."
Lucil's voice is barely more than a breeze.
Silence.
The world loses its colors. Turns to black and white.
No sound. No wind. No light. Only silence. Then - the collapse.
An explosion of apocalyptic magnitude tears through everything.
It shatters the reality itself.
A storm of light, pressure and rose petals beams up into the upper atmosphere. The world is bathed in a glowing red sea of flames.
Kragalta gets launched. His body spins through the storm, his greatsword shatters and its shards tear through his skin.
He coughs even more blood but only rose petals manage to leave his mouth. Tumbling, he tries to rise up.
One eye opens, flickering. His vision is blurry. He sees roses. Countless.
Something is wrong.
He looks at the ground - and sees the sky.
He raises his head - and sees the sea of roses above him.
"What...?! What the hell is this?!"
Lucil's voice echoes from everywhere. A sound that comes from no source - boundless, omnipresent.
"Red World - Aftermath."
The words vibrate through space and reality.
Kragalta screams. Not in pain. But in pure horror.
"Dunmeer! Selia! Schiltveria!!!"
Mana protects his body. He remains stuck in the atmosphere, despite all logic. Another dragon roar thunders in his head - like a curse tearing through his brain.
And then… the roses begin to glow.
He sees the world turned inside out. As space and time themselves begin to bloom.
"This is a joke... this can't... be real! What are you… what ARE you!?"
His voice trembles. Madness creeps into every word.
Yet the only answer is the blooming of the roses.
Then they lose their petals. The blossoms dissolve, float in the air. They begin glowing. Their temperature rises and then they begin flashing brightly.
A nightmare begins. Indescribable pain like pure fire in his nerves or glass shards lodged in his skin.
"No… it has to be… an illusion… a damned illusion!"
Kragalta tears all the remaining mana into his last eye. He channels it, concentrates it - to break the space.
And then - the rupture.
Space tears apart. He falls, stumbling only a few meters - and crashes out of the illusion.
He lives but his left arm is gone.
His left eye has vanished - and in the hollow of his eye socket sits a single, blooming rose.
In his right hand he now holds the damaged greatsword. The blade is chipped, weakened.
Lucil stands there. Motionless. The rose blade in his hand.
A smile on his lips.
"You freed yourself."
Lucil's voice is calm with admiration.
Kragalta bleeds. Gasps.
"What… are you…? An illusion can't… can't do… such…"
He coughs up rose petals.
"Illusions know no limits." Lucil says.
"As long as the reality exists in your mind, the damage gets… physical."
Lucil deepens his smile.
Kragalta feels it. Not just defeat or pain. True loss.
The moment when a man realizes - he has fought something that knows no rules.
He staggers. Gasping, his body full of injuries. His gaze flickers between reality and madness, life and decay.
"What was real!? What was an illusion!?"
He screams, the despair bursting out of him.
He throws all remaining mana into his eye, trying to force clarity. Runes light up on his retina. Flame-like veins race through his temples.
"If this is just an illusion… then your physical - can be broken!"
He screams. Charges forward.
One last attack. One last proof of his will.
The world stops. For a brief moment nothing moves.
Only a glow. Lucil's sword. Menacing. Eternal.
It burns red - like a bloody eternity.
"Blood World - World Ending Slash."
Lucil's voice is quiet. Like a verdict.
Then - the break. Lucil's blade flickers barely visible with an absolute effect.
Kragalta's greatsword - cut like butter.
His right arm - falling into blossoms.
A single cut. A single moment. And the battlefield explodes.
A half-circle of absolute annihilation divides the world.
On one side: blooming roses.
On the other: Dead earth, black ash and nothingness. Not even the dust remains.
The shockwave tears the horizon. The sky itself seems to shimmer from the impact - as if the strike has split the very firmament.
Kragalta stands. Both of his arms are now gone.
From the stumps of his shoulders, eternal rose petals drift outward.
Blood no longer flows - only petals.
His mouth opens - a surging of even more rose petals.
"The roses… they're your power… If I hadn't… been so brainless… running into them… should have withered them first… Then you'd have to… tap from other resources… Your blood… right…?"
His voice is fragile, dying but his look stays clear. A bitter smile flashes across his lips.
Kragalta falls to his knees.
He knows he's dying but his mind… still functions. Just long enough to recognize the cost.
The price the trial demands.
"Say I'm right. You owe me that - as a mage."
Lucil stands still for a moment.
Then he speaks without hesitation.
"You're smart. Therefore…"
"Rose Expand."
A single rose petal glides through the air - it lands gently at Kragalta's right stump.
There a thorny plant-arm grows a final act of honor. Not made of flesh but of magic - a gift. An ending for Kragalta.
"Last words." Lucil says quietly.
He walks on, slowly, silently, passing Kragalta.
Kragalta turns after him, watching the back of the man who bested him. He sees the rose tattoo with its wings.
His gaze softens. He takes his fedora, places it to his chest and bows slightly - in honor.
I hope… I stay in your memory."Kragalta says with an honest heart.
Lucil's voice is soft as he walks.
"Your first name."
"Kragalta James. Shadow Mage."
"I'll remember it. I promise."
Lucil pauses briefly and raises his sword to the sky.
Calm and dignified, he speaks.
"LuSilfer – End of Roses."
The blade dissolves into rose petals. A dragon's roar echoes across the Rose Temple.
And in the heavens it appears: LuSilfer.
Mighty dragon wings woven from roses spread across the sky - like a living painting of light and death.
Around the dragon countless violet roses are dancing, wrapped in a pulsing aura as if each blossom is part of Kragalta's last judgment.
He hovers there - not as a savior, not as a demon but as a final judge who came to silence the world.
Kragalta looks up - no anger, only respect.
"It was an honor, Lucil."
A single beat of the dragon's wings. The world quakes.
The dragon inhales - a violet gleam in its maw.
A violet stream of fire. Silent in its endless beauty.
Kragalta looks around. Violet roses bloom around him.
The sky becomes petals, the light drowns in silence.
And Kragalta James - departs this world with dignity.
North Ireland | Belfast
The room is silent - far too silent.
Janette and Jesse stand frozen as the body of Kragalta James slowly tips to the side.
At first heavy then feather-light as if death itself is gently laying him down.
But instead of crashing to the ground his body begins to change.
Flesh turns into rose petals, his veins into delicate strands of light and every movement, every final tremble becomes part of a surreal, relentless farewell.
Jesse sees it first. She screams and throws herself onto him but what she holds in her arms falls apart - not into dust, but into blossoms.
"No! No! This can't be!"
Her voice tears itself apart.
"James…"
Janette speaks softly. Composed. Shattered.
The final trace of Kragalta melts into flowers. Violet, warm rose petals drift over Jesse's hands and cheeks as if he is taking her heart with him.
"He has fallen." Janette says gently but full of mourning sadness.
"In a battle against a mage… just as he wished. Just as he knew. Still… why in this trial?"
Jesse's tears flow silently but in her eyes burns a fire - one born of loss.
"What good is all of this… if he just disappears…?"
"That is the price, Jesse", Janette whispers.
"The price to become stronger as a mage. And he did pay for it."
She places her hand on Jesse's shoulder. And when Jesse looks up she sees the same empty anguished stare in her mother. Both, now silent.
Tokyo | Red Dragon Clan
Lucil slowly opens his eyes. The steam of the bath hovers like mist through the air. He sits up.
His wounds are healed. His tattoo has grown wings.
Softly, reverently, he whispers.
"LuSilfer… I have you again. Thank you."
Lucil rises from the bath, takes several deep breaths as he walks to his clothes.
Slowly he dresses - black cloth trousers, polished shoes, deep-black jacket with the label "Uria High School".
His movements are calm and composed after the trial. Around his neck hang two necklaces - the dragon necklace and the rose necklace.
As they glow a golden echo pulses inside - a living sign of a pact.
"We have our Avatars back, Silver."
A smile lies on his face. Not a triumphant one but a quiet, an honest acknowledgment of what was - and what ended.
With solemn deep respect he says.
"James Kragalta… Shadow Mage."
Rose Temple
At the entrance of the Rose Temple where once only wind and blossoms dwelled it still stands - Lucil's statue.
Something has changed about it.
The statue of Kragalta is gone - not shattered, not toppled or destroyed - but relocated.
Deeper hidden within in the Hall of the Broken where only a few monuments are ever given place, it now stands:
Kragalta James.
Slightly bowed. Armless. His fedora held reverently to his chest.
A statue that lets no hero cry out - but a mage who fell in the trial.
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