The Seventh Forbidden Magic — Element.

Before this, Rei had never imagined he would obtain a Forbidden Magic in such a way.

He had originally assumed the first Forbidden Magic he acquired would be the one already existing within this ruin itself—

Time.

...

The first time he had encountered the Seventh Forbidden Magic had been in the Forgotten Kingdom.

Back then, a silver-haired twin-tailed mage had used this magic.

If he had possessed Lighthouse of Myriad Laws at the time, he likely could have learned it then.

And that mage... 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

It seemed she had activated Element through her own Origin Magic—

And after casting it—

She had self-destructed alongside the spell.

Which meant...

Ordinary Origin Mages weren’t even capable of releasing this magic properly.

Seventh Forbidden Magic: Element — Initiation Form: Elemental Genesis

Activation Requirements: Elemental Origin Comprehension; LV 100 proficiency in all elemental magic categories.

Activation Cost: Lose at least 50% of elemental perception.

Effect: Release the Wave of Primordial Genesis, deconstructing all existing matter into base elements.

Elemental Genesis.

That was the move he had witnessed in the Forgotten Kingdom.

Reducing everything—

To its most fundamental elements.

That technique alone already surpassed the destructive power of the vast majority of magic...

But the Initiation Form—

Was merely the beginning.

Seventh Forbidden Magic: Element — Release Form: Elemental Kaleidoscope

Activation Requirements: Elemental Origin Comprehension; must be in Initiation Form; mana pool greater than 10 billion; mastery of over ten thousand spells of every elemental category.

Activation Cost: Lose all elemental magic currently mastered.

Effect: Within range, form a Complete Elemental Domain. Within this domain, all 1st–9th Tier elemental spells in existence are continuously manifested simultaneously.

It looked almost like martial combat techniques...

It even had a second form.

Beginning at Sixth-Class Mage, one studied composite magic.

At Seventh-Class Mage—

One studied multi-stage magic.

One spell serving as the prelude to the next.

The textbooks had explained it before.

Multi-stage magic existed because a single spell could still be too complex, so a complete spell was broken into multiple steps for release.

At the same time, it reduced excessive mana expenditure.

For example—

If one only intended to cast the First Form, there was no need to release the entire three-stage structure.

Release Form: Elemental Kaleidoscope—

Repeatedly manifesting all elemental magic in existence...

All?

Even Rei found it difficult to imagine how many elemental spells existed in this world.

Elemental magic was the most common and most widely used branch among mages.

Even he himself was profoundly proficient in countless elemental variants.

By comparison—

Arcane, Psychic, Soul, Death, Summoning...

Those were the niche schools.

Then came the final stage.

Seventh Forbidden Magic: Element — Final Form: Elemental Collapse

Activation Requirements: Tenth-Class Mage rank; must be within Release Form.

Activation Cost: Permanent loss of world elemental existence.

Effect: Infinitely expand the Complete Elemental Domain, causing all elements in the world to collapse and annihilating all elemental existence.

Now he understood...

Why it was called Forbidden Magic.

This wasn’t magic normal beings were meant to use.

The moment it was unleashed—

It became a catastrophic disaster upon the world.

Perhaps even far more terrifying than the destruction of an entire Secret Sea.

And the activation costs...

Were absurd.

To activate the Release Form—

You lost every elemental spell you had mastered.

And the prerequisite itself demanded mastery of ten thousand spells in every single elemental category.

Not ten thousand total.

Ten thousand for each category.

And then—

To cast the Release Form—

You lose all of them.

How many mages in this world could possibly use this Forbidden Magic?

...

No wonder that mage had self-destructed back then.

If there existed a third person besides himself and Iz who could cast this magic—

Rei would suspect something was fundamentally wrong.

Fortunately...

Divine-Tier — Lighthouse of Myriad Laws allowed him to release Initial Forbidden Magic without paying any activation cost.

But only the costs were waived.

Mana consumption still remained.

Conditions still had to be met.

At least with his current capabilities—

He couldn’t use the Final Form.

At most—

The Release Form.

"That..."

"Is more than enough."

Rei felt the three-dimensional rune circling within his body.

After learning the Seventh Forbidden Magic, this rune had condensed inside him—

A symbol whose very form conveyed Element.

And learning it did more than grant access to overwhelming magic.

There was something equally important—

Through the rune, he could receive immense insight into elemental principles.

Even without activating the Initiation or Release Forms—

Rei could feel all of his elemental magic had been greatly strengthened.

His gaze shifted toward an empty stretch of darkness beside him.

With a casual point—

1st-Tier Lightning Magic: Thunder Strike (LV 100)

BOOM—

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Dozens of lightning bolts, each as thick as chimneys, crashed down violently—

Their power was several times greater than Thunder Strike had been before.

And even the number of bolts had increased.

It wasn’t merely an amplification of active spellcasting.

It passively enhanced all his elemental magic—

And also inspired countless new elemental insights,

allowing him to create and comprehend even more elemental spells.

Even if he never cast the Forbidden Magic once after learning it—

The benefits were immense.

Just one Initial Forbidden Magic was this useful...

If I obtain a second one...

How strong would I become?

Especially when the Initial Forbidden Magic here concerned—

Time.

Time-based magic was universally recognized as absurdly overpowered.

And his second wish still remained unfulfilled.

That wish—

Was to use the talent Deepest Truth to answer the mysteries of this ruin.

But...

So far—

There had been no opportunity to trigger that talent.

His senses swept the surroundings again.

Only after surviving the ordeal did he truly observe this place.

An empty black expanse.

Only himself—

And Ansu, heavily wounded and still recovering.

In that battle, Rei really had given Ansu nearly all his souls.

But in less than a few seconds—

Ansu had burned through them all.

He had even forced an overdrive eruption,

damaging part of his own foundation in return.

The one fortunate thing—

The damage had only affected the foundation of this life.

It had no effect whatsoever on his reincarnation cycle.

Rei touched the darkness beside him and asked,

"Ansu..."

"What do you think this place is?"

Hearing the question, Ansu snapped irritably,

"Look, look, look—always asking this old man to look."

"I just fought for your life and death."

"I’m a wounded man who hasn’t even had time to recuperate, and you’re already putting me back to work."

Rei answered calmly,

"At the time, we were insects tied to the same thread."

"If I died, you wouldn’t have fared much better."

He paused.

"...Though I suppose I did trouble you."

Rei sensed within himself—

His complete control over Ansu still remained.

Then he released several thousand souls.

The souls drifted into Ansu’s spirit body.

"These souls..."

"Consider them compensation."

"Ansu—if one day I ascend to the Ninth-Class throne..."

"We might become true friends."

"That wouldn’t be impossible."

But for now—

Ansu was still far too dangerous a threat.

True friendship with him was impossible.

Being able to maintain their current relationship of mutual exploitation...

Was already good enough.