It was truly the first time he had ever been reduced to such a wretched state—stumbling, crawling, barely escaping with his life.

His wish... had been fulfilled.

Kanzaki Rei’s first wish had been to use the Divine-Tier—Lighthouse of Myriad Laws to obtain an Initial Forbidden Magic.

And now, that wish had been completed.

The wish had been released...

Which was, in a sense, equivalent to regaining another wish.

But this experience...

It genuinely sent a chill through Rei’s heart.

No matter what—

He absolutely, absolutely had to keep one impossible-to-fulfill wish in reserve as a lifesaving measure.

The fact he had survived this time... he didn’t even know whether it was because two unfulfilled wishes still remained.

In fact, he had even considered whether those two wishes might only be fulfilled in a future reincarnation.

Perhaps fulfilling a wish in another life still counted as fulfilling it.

But the moment that thought surfaced, Rei immediately cut it off and firmly convinced himself—

A wish only counted if fulfilled in this life.

As for why...

Naturally, it was because of the Deep Earth’s power to turn fantasy into reality.

In a situation like that, anything that could be exploited—

He would use it.

Whether in the end his opponent truly had no intention of killing him...

Or whether the wish itself, through that reality-manifesting factor, had played a role—

In any case...

He had survived.

Rei looked out into the surrounding pitch-black void.

Though the darkness was silent and unsettling, carrying an eerie and mysterious aura—

At this moment, after surviving catastrophe, nothing felt more reassuring than empty darkness and utter silence.

And besides—

Rei examined his own body.

Magic still remained within him.

Two spells.

One was:

Ninth-Tier Time Magic — Historical Extraction (LV 901)

It could temporarily isolate a fragment of history and extract a living being from that past moment into the present timeline.

However—

Doing so could not alter any history that had already occurred.

Once he had drawn out this magic, Rei fully understood its effects.

Which meant...

Iz knew he couldn’t kill me.

Rei had studied fatecraft.

He understood what the implications of this spell meant.

Even if someone tried to kill him, some inexplicable person would likely appear to save him.

And even if he truly died—

After his death, perhaps someone else would take his place.

Events would not change.

At least—

From the sequence of events observed through Iz’s perspective, nothing could change.

Was he here to deliver a message to me?

But if it was only to pass on information...

Did he really have to go this far?

Couldn’t he have simply talked properly?

Questions still lingered in Rei’s mind.

Then his gaze shifted to the side.

And he saw Ansu lying there.

His entire body shattered.

Countless hollow cavities bored through his form.

Half dead.

At this point, only a thread of spiritual awareness remained.

His life flickered like a dying ember.

"Ansu."

Rei looked at him.

"That... damn bastard..."

"And you just... watched?"

"Are you not going to... patch up my soul..."

Rei could feel the resentment in Ansu’s heart.

His thoughts still surfaced directly in Rei’s mind.

After a moment’s consideration—

Rei tossed out what little soul essence he had left.

That earlier exchange...

He had practically offered all his souls to Ansu.

And yet even so, Ansu had been beaten into this state by Iz in such a short time.

Which left Rei wondering—

Was Ansu usually just boasting, and actually this weak?

Or was the Iz from that point in time simply too terrifyingly strong?

Rei sacrificed seven or eight souls.

Nourished by the soul essence, Ansu gradually began recovering...

Yet his presence now was even weaker than before.

Previously, even when sealed, Ansu had still given Rei the impression of possessing roughly the combat strength of an Eighth-Class Ascendant.

As long as Rei fed him some souls and released him—

He could fight ferociously.

But now...

The Ansu before him only felt comparable to a Fifth-Class Ascendant.

Perhaps he might not even beat Luluvi anymore.

"And this..."

"This is all the soul you’re giving me?"

"I pushed myself to the limit for you."

That accusation made Rei feel a trace of guilt.

He let out a sigh—

And added another hundred souls for Ansu.

Ansu watched Rei squeeze them out as though extracting toothpaste, stingy down to the last drop...

He seemed like he wanted to say something.

But in the end, he only sighed.

"...Sigh."

Even he was helpless.

If not for his principles—

If he weren’t fundamentally incapable of trampling death...

If he weren’t forbidden from taking his own life—

Ansu almost felt it would be better to simply die.

He bared his teeth, grimacing, but stopped complaining about Rei’s stinginess.

Instead he muttered,

"The future timeline..."

"Never thought... my first battle in this life would run into a monster like that."

"His magic..."

"I’ve never seen anything so bizarre."

Rei said,

"Don’t you usually claim that even if I had to face Elthemis or the War God, you could help me defeat them?"

Ansu flared up.

He cursed,

"You brat, you have no idea what I was facing just now..."

"That thing called Iz is far stronger than the War God."

"His power is absolutely Moonstar-tier."

"I heard you call him Master."

"He’s your master?" 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"He’s that Izparut you always talk about?"

Ansu had never seen Izparut with his own eyes.

Nor did he know what Iz’s true strength was.

He had only heard Rei mention him.

"...Yes."

Rei nodded.

Ansu’s expression darkened.

"When did a magic prodigy this terrifying appear in this era?"

"If he intends to kill you in the future, you cannot leave him alive."

"Once we get out of here, intercept and kill him immediately."

"Don’t let him grow."

"Damn it—if he reaches maturity, you won’t survive what comes after."

Ansu spat out the curse.

But Rei only shook his head silently.

Kill Iz...

Such a thing...

Indeed. He already intends to kill me. I should find a way to eliminate this threat.

A malicious thought flashed through his mind.

Rei isolated the malevolent impulse from himself.

Though the thought still lingered and influenced him—

At least he knew it did not belong to him.

And so he could still control it.

Yet as he sensed that evil intent lingering stubbornly within his heart—

Rei froze slightly.

It seemed...

In the future—

I become a calamity.

My corruption... it still hasn’t healed in the future?

Is this corruption truly that difficult to remove?

Will I really become a danger to the world?

Rei shook his head.

"No."

"My actions are in my own hands."

"The next wish..."

He paused.

"...Forget it. I’ll make another wish only after retrieving the remaining two."

Having one wish in reserve allowed him to adapt to emergencies.

Otherwise, encountering another crisis like this while unable to make a wish—

That would be unbearable.

Fortunately—

This crisis had brought gains as well.

And gains even greater than he had expected.

From Izparut—

He had extracted an Initial Forbidden Magic...

The Seventh Forbidden Magic — Element.