Magic With You

Calter took his first step on the stairs and he can suddenly feel pressure bearing down on his body and soul. But since it was just the first step, the pressure is too weak to cause any harm to him

Calter continued and took his second, third, fourth, fifth, and so on steps. The more steps he took, the stronger the pressure becomes. Even then, Calter didn't lose his composure and focuses on the task in front of him

Panicking won't do him any good. In fact, it will just make his will weaker and the chances of him failing and dying would be higher if that happens

Calter didn't know how much time has passed and he doesn't care. The only thing in his mind at that time was ascending this stair

Even after Calter took his hundredth step, the end of the stairs is still far from him. He judges there he only took one-tenth of the overall steps. Meaning that this stair might have a thousand steps

As soon as Calter took his hundred and one steps, he felt that the pressure he was receiving increases a lot. Even then, the pressure was still not enough to cause him to fail

Calter steadily climbed the stairs in a not too fast nor too slow manner and every hundred steps, the pressure he is receiving will experience a huge increase in strength

After five hundred steps, Calter is already sweating and his legs can finally feel some tiredness

"I will climb these stairs!" Calter said to himself. He might only feel some tiredness and pressure now but the pressure was increasing and he only ascended half of the stairs

The pressure will just continue to increase the more steps he took. Calter needs to believe in himself that he can do this, if not, he might as well fail as a strong belief and willpower is needed to climb to the top of the stairs

Calter continued and reached the six hundred, seven hundred, and eight hundred steps. At this time, his body is already sweating a lot and droplets of them fell to the ground

After taking the eight hundred and one steps with his aching and burning legs, Calter was forced to grit his teeth. The strong pressure was bearing down on every inch of his body

Even with Calter's physique and the use of various medicines, his soul and body are still being pressured this much. If not for Calter's soul receiving some protection from his core, he might have already failed

Calter continued again and his speed turned much slower than before now. He can feel his throat getting dry due to how much he sweated but he ignored all of that

When Calter reached eight hundred and fifty steps, the image of the Menace Kingdom being destroyed by their enemy, Thunder Gold Kingdom flashed in his mind

This was another obstacle from the stairs again. However, Calter ignored that and continue. Menace Kingdom is not that much important to him

Calter only cared about the Kingdom because it was his backing as a Royal. If it falls into the hands of Thunder Gold Kingdom, the Sternix Family might be massacred. And Calter won't allow himself to die

However, Calter is clearly aware that the two Kingdoms do not have the power to destroy the other. Their strength is roughly on par with each other

Calter continued and when he reaches the nine hundredth step, the images of his parents being burned alive entered his mind

Calter has some affections with his parents but it was still ineffective. He is completely aware that it was just an illusion. Nothing of that is true and it will never happen

The youth climbed the stairs again and when he reaches the nine hundred and fifty steps, his heart can't help but falter. The image of Kence being tortured alive entered his mind and he momentarily stops before the pride from the fake memories did its job

Calter 'doesn't know' Kence, okay? Why would he feel grief if that happens?

Calter's pride helped him this time and he continued bit his heart was still feeling uncomfortable as the images never stopped flashing in his mind

Soon, Calter reaches nine hundred and ninety steps. At that time, both his body and mind are already extremely tired. It was begging him to rest

Calter huffed before weakly raising his feet. His speed was too slow though and it took some time before he manages to take another step

After reaching nine hundred ninety-one steps, Calter was forced to his knees. The pressure was much much stronger than before. His weakening soul and body are barely holding on now

More images of Kence experiencing horrible things entered Calter's mind and his heart just simply won't settle down. It made things harder for him

Calter's core throb and sent an 'encouragement' to Calter. He only has few steps left, Calter can't give up!

The youth grabbed on the next step on the stair and raised his body on it. Even when the pressure continues to grow and Calter is already on the brink of breaking down, he still did his best and never stopped his body from moving

Calter is afraid that if he stops, it would be game over for him

Soon, Calter reaches nine hundred ninety-eight steps and more images of Kence appeared in his mind

Calter can see himself offending a son of a Noble and the unknown kid ordered his guard to kill his 'servant' which is Kence

Calter watched as Kence was killed because of him and the youth's blood dyed both of their bodies. However, even then, Kence is still smiling at Calter and the latter cannot see any anger or blaming from the former's innocent eyes

"W-what is this?" Calter asked himself and he wants to clutch his head because of the weird images but he was too weak to raise his hands

"What is with these images? Why do I feel like it came from my own memories?" Calter asked himself. The images of before are more horrible than this one but Calter can feel that they are illusions

However, this one made his heart to tremble even harder as if he really experienced it before

Soon, the images changed and this time, Calter and Kence is in both unfamiliar and familiar room while the former is cultivating

Calter senses magic fluctuations and when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Kence's pained face while blood leak out from his mouth

When Calter lowered his head, he saw a fire arrow penetrated Kence's chest and his blood dyed the bodies of the two

This scene once again gave Calter a feeling that it really happened before

"W-what is happening? What is this itch in my heart? Why is that person always in my mind?" Calter asked himself

"Survive and you'll know" Calter's core said to him and the youth's willpower was ignited

Calter doesn't know where the strength comes from but he took the last two steps of the stairs and his body reached above the clouds

Soon, Calter found himself standing in the middle of nothing. Calter's mind suddenly gained some clarity but he still cannot understand this nothingness

In this place, literally, nothing exists. No light, space, time, etc. Even the word nothing doesn't exist!

"At first there is nothingness where even the concept of nothing does not exist. But soon, that nothing becomes something"

"That something is completely empty, even a single speck of light did not exist, only darkness was present in the world for a long time .... "

That hard to understand and weird passage entered Calter's mind before the next words were cut off. He can't understand it but the passage gave him a feeling of great curiosity. It was as if a big secret will be revealed to him if he knows the whole story of that

After some time, Calter found himself in the world of pure darkness that he entered too when he becomes a Magic Warrior. It was a world that doesn't have any other thing existing in it aside from darkness. A world where other things are unnecessary

Some of the darkness formed an eye again. However, this time, the eye's aura was weaker than before as if it uses a lot of its power

"The heavens are sealed while another heretic appeared. The more time that you exist, the shorter the time that the heavens will be sealed. This is a race against time. You need to be strong enough before the heavens are unsealed or else .. .. your very existence itself will be erased as if you didn't exist in the first place "

The eye 'said' to Calter before he returned back to reality

The lightning from the 'heavens' that are apparently 'sealed' is now fully absorbed by his core and body. His body that even his own mother wouldn't recognize was miraculously healed as if nothing happened and it even made his body's quality higher than before

The burnt marks on Calter's body vanishes and was replaced by healthy skin. Even his hair grows at a rapid rate and it returned back to the normal length

"As expected, he survives. Will he be able to reach the same heights that the universe's heretic achieves and even exceed it or will history repeats itself?" A small girl not far from Calter muttered to herself