Chapter 11: The Ritual

Chapter 11: The Ritual

An azure-colored sphere remained floating in Julius's palm. It rotated slowly as it illuminated the room, though it flickered periodically as a sign of instability.

"It's becoming more stable and I can keep it longer, as I thought the way to improve something so abstract is pure practice, instead of study." Julius was satisfied, the Reality Marble didn't exhaust him to the point of knocking him unconscious if he didn't expand it. In fact, what mattered was not so much the size, but the fact that the more he expanded it, the more things he trapped inside, and, therefore, the laws of the world were modified for more bodies.

The World tried to prevent the existence of Reality Marbles because they modified its laws, the less they affected the easier it would be to stabilize them.

Otherwise, magecraft operated due to mystery. If science killed mystery, then it was obvious that in order to enhance their magecraft a magus should stay as far away from the scientific method as possible, and focus more on simply practicing once they had enough knowledge not to commit suicide in practice.

That's right, the more one understands magecraft, the weaker it becomes on a general level.

Suddenly, the sphere in Julius's hand stopped flickering and the magus felt that he might jump for joy seeing the miniature world completely condensed.

"This is what I needed! Now I can start the ritual!" He got up from the bed he had been sitting on and got ready. "After five years, I can finally reach Sequence 5."

Through his will, the sphere expanded to the entire room. However, there was something Julius didn't notice due to his excitement.

"Is there anything wrong?" Rin entered curiously only to find herself swallowed by the starry universe. "Huh? HUHHH?!"

"Tohsaka?" Julius finally noticed her due to her scream.

However, the ritual had already begun.

Rin watched as Julius suddenly rose into the air, though it was difficult to discern directions in the vacuum of outer space. She was shocked when he started to appear and disappear.

Julius felt his consciousness slip away as countless illusory doors opened one after the other. Luckily, every time he went through a door, he appeared not far away, since the Reality Marble served as a barrier to both worlds.

And then the Reality Marble cracked. Julius had made a huge mistake, he didn't remember that the four coordinates in the Spirit World not only served to not get lost but also to stabilize the Beyonder's mind in the process of ascending.

He already knew he couldn't lose control thanks to the system and that he would eventually regain consciousness. In this state, he was unable to keep the Reality Marble working.

Somehow, seeing the cracks, Rin realized that something terrible had happened.

"Julius, stop!" She tried to warn him and ran to grab him.

By chance or fate, she managed to catch him, although that didn't fix anything. Rin became dizzy as she felt how the whole world was constantly changing at incomprehensible speeds.

She watched as the sky changed and went through various colors, they were no longer in the starry void of before.

"Ugh." Julius suddenly noticed that something was grabbing his arm and that caused him to regain consciousness. He was able to summon up enough will to stop the doors from opening again and again.

They both fell to the ground uncontrollably. Although they were not hurt, they were incredibly dizzy.

"I feel like I'm going to throw up." Julius commented as he used one knee for support and tried to stand up.

"What the... hell was that?" The girl held her head in pain. "And why is it so hot?"

"Oh shit…" Julius muttered, causing Rin to finally open her eyes to look around her.

Everywhere flames were consuming the ruins of what had apparently been a city.

"Where..." Rin thought that she had gone crazy.

Julius put his brain to work, if he could trust his memories then it meant they had ended up in a Singularity.

'I thought Spirit World might not exist in this universe, but the ability can change so radically?' The previous Sequences had been exactly the same as in Lord of the Mysteries, so he didn't expect to find himself in this situation. 'Shit, shit, I have no idea how to get back to our world.'

He looked at Rin, who seemed even more scared than him.

"Tohsaka, I'm sorry, this is my fault." He caught the girl's attention. "I think I know where we are, we'll just have to survive here until I figure out how to get back home."

"Wh-where are we?" She asked, clearly concerned about all the fire surrounding them.

Julius held out his hand for her to get up, which he did. "I think we've strayed a bit from the regular time axis."

Rin was smart, so she quickly picked up on what Julius meant by that.

"So this is..."

Julius nodded.

"That's right, I think we're in Fuyuki right now."

------------------------

Next chapter is coming out in 2-3 hours.