>FWUUUUUSSHHHH<
Neron felt himself get expelled from Jared's inner space.
Thanks to the black stuff's interference, their Resonance had been grossly affected, causing Neron's presence to be treated as a foreign entity that had to be removed.
'A—ah…'
Before long, everything became a blur, and he returned to his physical body.
His eyes opened, and he gazed longingly at Jared, who was also groggily opening his own.
Both of them stared at each other with amazement and more respect toward the other. Once again, they were of one heart and soul—minds thinking alike.
Opening their energetic mouths, they compressed the emotions and multitude of words into one simple statement.
"AMAZING!"
**********************
I had questions.
Of course, I would!
Neron had gotten crazily strong in such a short period. How was that possible? Plus, his body was housing way too many Mana Cores. How did he achieve that?
'I even had to dedicate a hundred years to reach this far…'
Was this a difference in talent? I was appalled and also very reverent at the achievement of this man. Still, I had to know!
"My Time Magic allows me to age my body in real-time, or quicken the rate by which I produce Mana Cores. Since it's an internal process, the process isn't very hard. Plus, I already had an excessive source of Mana, so creating more Cores wasn't very difficult."
That was his answer.
As simple as it sounded, it had worked efficiently for Neron—making him unbelievably stronger than the last time we met.
"I'm honestly grateful to you. I thought I couldn't grow stronger any longer, but… now I've far surpassed my past self!"
'Yeah! You're a monster among monsters now!'
"What about you, Jared? What was that within you? Did you finally—"
I smiled upon hearing him bring up the matter.
"You're talking about my joint Core formations, right?"
He nodded and looked at me with absolute sincerity.
"I finally found a way to balance the existence of Miasma and Mana. By transforming half of my Primary Mana Core into a Miasma Core, I was also able to make more Miasma Cores, connecting them in a circuit—just like I did for my Mana Cores."
"H—hold on… you have pure Miasma Cores in you?!"
"Yeah. You couldn't see them because I limited my Resonance with you. If I had used complete Resonance, maybe you could have seen them as well…"
"Why didn't you?"
"Because they're formed of Miasma. They would interfere with your Mana. Since you do not have Miasma, you can't resonate with my Cores."
Neron's eyes widened a bit upon receiving this revelation.
"Ohh! No wonder I was immediately disconnected once I came into contact with the Miasma part of your Primary Mana Core—or should I even call it that…?"
He was probably referring to the fact that my Core couldn't possibly be named as a 'Mana' entity since it also had Miasma forming half of it.
"I call it a Fusion Core. So far, I have a thousand White Mana Cores, a thousand Miasma Cores, and five hundred Fusion Cores—excluding the primary one. They're all connected by a system of intricacy, making the flow organized."
If I didn't carefully arrange the energy flow, then the opposing energies would ultimately clash with each other.
I also needed my Cores to be pure White, so all the previously colored Mana Cores were swallowed by White Cores, transforming them into Subcores.
"So, you can use both Miasma and Magic? That's incredible…"
"Yeah..." I opened the palms of both my hands, generating Mana on my right, and Miasma on the left side.
They both flickered—like flames—and danced atop my palms.
"… But that isn't all."
Squeezing my palms, the dark and light flames vanished.
"I created a new form of energy. Something that's neither Miasma nor Mana. The effects gave me a breakthrough that I have always wanted to have." I smiled.
Neron seemed very interested in my explanation, drawing closer with each statement I made.
It was nice to see another Magic enthusiast like me.
"It's called An—"
>WHAM!<
Before I could complete my statement, the door to Neron's office was flung open, and a person rushed inside.
She wore a flowing lab coat—pure white—and the rest of her formal attire was also white.
Having some sort of enchanted glasses in her eyes, her stern face was somehow filled with worry. The blond hair that sat atop her head fluttered as she ran into the office.
Something about her was… familiar.
She looked much younger than I was. Her flat chest spoke volumes of her immature growth, and the flushed expression on her face resembled a child, talkless of her short height.
'She's cute…'
Her bright blue eyes sharply turned in Neron's direction, and she quickly spoke before the sudden atmosphere died out.
"Headmaster, Neron! It's about Professor Maro. He had another accident in the research center!"
Once I heard the girl's voice, I was almost done piecing everything together. An image formed in my head. The girl from my memories was so similar to the young lady before me.
'They're both small, delicate, and… flat. So, it's really—!'
"Haa, what did he do now?" Neron interrupted my thought with a heavy grumble.
"He tinkered with the wrong Magic Items again and caused an explosion. Lots of properties and infrastructure have been damaged—and even he is heavily injured."
'Ainzlark has specialized staff who can use Healing Magic. Why bother reporting this so frantically to Neron?'
"And you need me to reverse all the damage and the negative effects of the accidents… AGAIN…" Neron remarked tiredly.
'Ah, so that's it!'
"Yes, sir!" The blond-haired lady—who seemed more like a younger girl—spoke with a far more mature tone than one would expect from someone like her.
"Haa… I see. Got it. You guys in the Research Department are the only ones who give me a headache." Neron stood from his seat.
"Apologies for that, sir! Since you always complain that you're bored, I thought you'd want some work to do."
'Pfft!'
For a child, she sure had nerve.
Even Neron froze once she said that. He looked at me with a bashful smile and rubbed his dark hair rigorously.
'HAAHAHAAHA! How hilarious!'
Even after all these years, some things never changed. My friend was the exact same.
