I had four Arcanas in my possession.

The Tower

The Hermit

The Sun

The Hanged Man.

Of these, my favorite was the first one. The reason was simple.

‘It’s the easiest.’

Manipulating space was by no means an easy feat, but the process was simple.

Besides, the Arcana did most of the work. All I needed was to infuse it with Mana.

The consumption rate was also reasonable.

However, just because I preferred The Tower didn’t mean I couldn’t utilize the others.

Though I lent The Hermit to Neron, I could still use it with my Original Magic—at least, to an extent.

Then, what of the other two?

I had some plans for The Sun, so it was best not to bring it out now. However, The Hanged Man was the most important Arcana at this juncture.

Each Arcana defied a law in the world. The Tower was in charge of space. The Hermit controlled time.

As for The Hanged Man… it interfered with the law of Resurrection.

Body and Soul

They were the two most essential parts of a human.

If one part was absent, the human was as good as dead.

Even if Resurrection Magic was to be used, there was a need for both elements to be present. Magic was simply supposed to act as glue to bind them together.

However, in the current predicament, the Elves had been so mercilessly killed that their bodies were in shambles.

Perhaps a few arms and legs would have remained after being gruesomely killed by Demon Beasts, but the Miasma would have corroded them beyond recognition.

Their bodies were as good as non-existent.

Fortunately, I was able to dispatch Automatons to retrieve their Souls.

Before they dissipated and were corrupted by the Miasma, they used the magnets I developed for such situations and absorbed all the souls of the fallen.

As a result, I was in possession of the souls of all the Elves who died.

The issue was their body.

‘That’s where you come in!’

The books flipped quickly, showing the Magic Circuit of The Hanged Man shining bright.

Controlling the Automatons hanging in the air, I deployed the souls of the dead Elves. My Memoir automatically utilized Spellcraft to ensure that the Souls didn’t dissipate into thin air.

Since they were all present, the condition for Resurrection was complete.

Even though The Hanged Man defied the law of Resurrection by not needing both elements to be present, it still required one aspect.

Without any specific essence to trace the source to, it was impossible to Resurrect a being.

If there was no base, The Hanged Man couldn’t operate.

But, with the Souls of the dead ones all present, and the abundance of Mana available to conclude the ritual, I brought everything to a perfect close.

‘And so… it ends.’

**************************

The bodies of every single Elf were constructed by The Hanged Man Magic Circuit in my Memoir.

Using the information from their respective Souls, their exact bodies were made—having no flaws.

It was a miracle to many shocked eyes, but this was simply the work of Magic—albeit at the Transcendental Level.

One by one, the living Elves were made… until not a single individual was left unaccounted for.

And just in time too.

My Mana Pool had almost dropped to critical condition.

Barely hanging on to thirty percent of my Mana after this whole ordeal… it took quite a toll on me, after all.

Fortunately, everything worked out.

****************************

“Haaa… how exhausting.”

As I descended from my heights, my lips murmured those words.

Clara and her soldiers had gone to take care of the naked Elves, so only the ones I arrived with were waiting for my return.

“I did it, just as promised.”

The Elf Royalty was stunned beyond words. I could see pure reverence in their eyes, a d some were emotional to the point of shedding tears.

Derius was one of the latter. He was always an emotional one, after all.

“Y-you really did it…”

“You did the impossible.”

“Are you alright?”

“Are you even human anymore?”

“As expected of my Betrothed’s protege.”

“Is this truly Magic?”

“Thank you so much!”

Many more words filled with cheer, disbelief, praise, and concern assailed my ears at once.

I could only smile and laugh with everyone surrounding me.

And then, before I knew it… everyone was in an uproar to celebrate what would be the turning point in history.

A single Mage who had yet to reach adulthood, raising over three thousand Elves from the dead.

It was absurd, but true.

Even if I decided not to venture any further, my name would forever be embedded in history.

I had both Humans and Elves as witnesses. Surely, I had created an irrefutable legend.

However…

‘Not enough!’

… I still wanted more.

Until I achieved everything I could in Magic, there was no way I could be satisfied yet.

I had lots of limits at the moment.

The ones who were weaker than me couldn’t notice, but my abilities were lacking.

What if a hundred thousand people died next time? What if I was meant to repair an entire continent with my Magic?

In my current state, that was impossible.

Which was why I had to get even stronger. Strong enough to surpass the limits of Magic.

Only then would I be satisfied.

“Let’s have a feast in celebration!”

In response to Aurora’s bold words, everyone present raised their voices in enthusiasm.

“YESSSSSSS!!!”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. A threat was looming, yet these people could only think about fun.

Still, they weren’t entirely wrong.

Thousands of lives had been saved. Surely, it called for celebration.

‘Well, I’ll use the feast as a chance to bring up the two-pronged assault that’ll be coming our way.’ A smile formed on my face.

From my calculations, the Demon Beasts would invade the Elves from the Northern Border and the Western Borders respectively.

Those two were respectively the most guarded and least protected territories.

For the Eastern Kingdom, the invasion would be coming from the North and East.

By attacking the strongest and weakest strongholds, Zenkiel will be able to surmise our level of power and act accordingly.

That was the plan.

‘Well, then… let’s see how it goes.’

____________________________

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

There’s been so much dialogues and info dumps lately. I’m sorry about that.

We’ll be switching to action soon.