Chapter 199: The minimum?

[Approval received.]

The words disappeared, and every window surrounding Ravian contracted into a single white point before vanishing completely.

For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then the same white point unfolded once more into hundreds of intersecting lines.

Within them appeared the diagrams he had seen throughout the books: Aura circulation pathways, mana-circle structures, representations of the Soul Crown, spell formulas, elemental relationships, failed dual-path experiments, and fragments of ancient methods whose creators had died at some point no surviving record could date precisely. They overlapped and intermingled as every part that conflicted with the nature of Ravian’s body or soul was discarded, while each remaining piece settled into place as Sovereign Pride adapted it to him.

The System did not simply compile the results. It deconstructed them using the information Ravian’s mind had absorbed fully and with absolute precision. Ravian had provided Sovereign Pride with enough theory and practical material to complete the rest, meaning none of this would have been possible without him and Absolute Focus.

Entire techniques vanished when the System determined that they depended upon bodies, elements, or spiritual structures Ravian did not possess.

[Traditional Aura paths require Mana circulation to be excluded or subordinated.]

[Traditional Magic paths require Aura circulation to be excluded or subordinated.]

[The host possesses a fully formed Aura Core and functioning mana circles simultaneously.]

[Identified as the host’s first unique condition.]

[The host possesses a Dual Soul of unknown rank.]

[Identified as the host’s second unique condition.]

[The host possesses the Void Element and an initial comprehension of the Law of Void.]

[Identified as the host’s third unique condition.]

[No existing path can accommodate the host regardless of the modifications applied. Completing path construction...]

’Damn... I did all of this?’ Ravian thought.

[Known paths cannot incorporate all confirmed factors without damaging or suppressing at least one of them.]

The lines converged even further.

[Constructing a path that treats incompatibility as a resource rather than an obstacle.]

[Core principle established: Whatever prohibits union shall be devoured by the Void Element, allowing the process to continue through an unconventional circulation.]

[Forbidden Path established: Void of Prohibition.]

A pulse of pressure passed through Ravian’s Aura Core and mana circles. It was not forceful enough to injure him, but it was precise enough to make him aware of every place where the two systems existed side by side without ever truly connecting.

He had possessed both powers ever since opening the Ninth Gate.

Until now, however, he had done little more than possess them.

The final lines folded inward and assumed the shape of a book.

It was not a physical object. The volumes lying open upon the desk in the Academy’s archive remained untouched, while another book appeared within Ravian’s perception in a way that surprised even him. Its cover was a deep gray almost entirely devoid of color, and its center was occupied by a pattern resembling an open mouth formed from black lines. White threads crossed its edges, looking like cracks that had been repaired rather than permitted to spread, evoking a path that had been "adjusted" to fit him.

Symbols appeared across the cover.

Ravian recognized the language immediately.

It was Prohibian, the language the System had previously mentioned when he attempted to read the name written upon Sovereign Pride.

’You have to be kidding me.’

More windows appeared.

[A personal Path Book has been created within Sovereign Pride.]

[Book: Void of Prohibition.]

[Language: Prohibian.]

[Status: Incomplete.]

[The book will evolve alongside the host’s knowledge, comprehension, body, and ascension through the ranks.]

[Warning: No other individual can practice this path safely. (More accurately, they will die the moment they attempt it.)]

[Absolute Focus is the minimum cognitive requirement for comprehending it. The remaining requirements are specific to the path and demand that an individual possess a dual path like the host’s before they can even attempt to learn it.]

Ravian stared at the warning.

’And who said I would give it to anyone else?’ Ravian asked.

[...]

The System apparently had no answer to that.

Ravian then noticed something else the System had said while announcing the creation of the Path Book.

’The minimum?’ Ravian repeated, referring to what it had said about Absolute Focus.

[Correct.]

’That wasn’t a compliment, was it?’

[No.]

Ravian clicked his tongue and opened the book.

The first page alone nearly made him want to close it again.

Prohibian was absurdly difficult. Although Ravian knew the language, he had not mastered it.

He could read it, but he could not fully understand everything it conveyed. It was like someone who understood English well enough to communicate in it, yet still encountered numerous words whose letters they could recognize without knowing their meaning. Sometimes they might know a word’s ordinary definition without understanding its intended meaning within a particular passage, while a sufficiently complex poem might remain completely incomprehensible to them.

Ravian now faced precisely the same problem.

It was less like reading a sentence and more like solving several interconnected equations while each equation attempted to redefine all the others.

Nevertheless, Ravian tried. He broke the problem apart, straining his mind and using Absolute Focus to divide the page into something resembling layers in order to simplify it slightly, then applied the same process to multiple layers of that single page simultaneously.

He began with the first line.

Minutes passed, followed by several more.

For perhaps the first time since entering the Grand Archive, Ravian read slowly.

He compared every symbol with the linguistic fragments he understood, tested every possible meaning within his mental world, and discarded any interpretation that destroyed his simulated body. Progress was not measured in pages, but in the individual relationships between concepts.

The first simulation connected his Aura Core directly to the lowest of his mana circles, but Ravian did not stop and continued working through the result.

Aura and mana did not conflict merely because one was Aura and the other was mana. Each carried an underlying structure that dictated how it was permitted to move and what it could affect. When both attempted to occupy the same circulation pathway, those rules rejected one another in a controlled manner rather than erupting into the chaos he had encountered before.

The Void no longer needed to erase either form of power. It only needed to erase the rejection between them, allowing both to flow smoothly together.

For now, Ravian still had to rely upon simulation to apply the new technique to himself. Although it had been designed specifically for him, he was the first person to test it, and there were no instructions to make the process easier. Ravian was effectively in the same position as humans trying something for the first time to determine whether it was safe for anyone else.

He was the test subject of his own experiments, and the simulation was the only suitable environment.