The Genius Mage Was Reincarnated Into A Swordsman Family - Chapter 324

Chapter 324: The Unwritten Script

The silence under the Nullification dome was absolute, pressing the horror of Greed’s revelation into every fiber of my being. I was a puppet, a time-bomb, destined to die and become a vessel for a cosmic traitor.

I forced myself to breathe. The terror was so potent it functioned as an unnatural stimulant. My exhaustion was gone, replaced by a cold, searing desperation. My very identity felt like sand slipping through my fingers, and the impulse to fight back against the puppet strings was all that kept my mind from fracturing.

‘Why haven’t I been erased already?’ I projected, the question raw and demanding. ‘I absorbed the Icarus fragment. That was a major power step, enough to shatter my consciousness. Why am I still me?’

Greed’s voice was a cold, precise echo in the crushing darkness. {I told you I found security measures, runt. I lied. Arkadius left you defenseless against his Ego. But in my brief, full scan of your psyche—a scan that mapped the full architecture of your soul—I found something he never accounted for.}

{I saw the thousands of years of accumulated past lives—reincarnations that, while fragmented, are numerous enough to create a psychic deluge. That chaos, combined with the sheer magnitude of your current two souls1, should have resulted in total ego dissolution long ago. The surge from the Icarus fragment should have been enough to let the dormant Ego boot up and suppress the confusion. It didn’t. And I know why.}

{The Ten Eyes Mantra.} Greed spat the words, part contempt, part grudging respect. {That pathetic mantra technique you found in that place—it is not merely a tool for sight or magic. It is a very high-level, utterly forgotten Celestial technique. A lost protocol that Arkadius never predicted you would find, let alone master.}

This was the key. Not a grand cosmic shield, but a simple, self-developed technique.

{Your ability to retain the memories of your previous life—Klaus Zagerfield—and to maintain your distinct identity now, despite the pressure of thousands of years of fragmented selves, is due to the Mantra. It is actively centering your scattered ego within your own mind realm.}

{Arkadius’s plan was built on the idea that the sheer, chaotic overflow of millennia of existence would instantly overwhelm any mortal mind. You should feel like thousands of people all screaming simultaneously in the center of your mind. Your consciousness would be lost in this internal chaos, allowing his Ego to slip in and assume control uncontested. That is why you lost a sense of yourself at first. But as time passed, thanks to the five eyes you had already opened, your true ego began to center itself despite the chaos. The Mantra works like a mental barrier, strengthening the line between the Klaus Zagerfield and Klaus Lionhart parts of you, and keeping the memories of your past lives from breaking through and tearing your mind apart.}

{When you absorbed the Icarus fragment, your identity should have been compromised. The five eyes you currently have open were enough to center your soul and reject the automatic overwrite. The Mantra is the only reason you are still Klaus. It is a mechanism of self-definition, forging a single, cohesive identity out of the debris of countless others.}

Greed paused, and for the first time, its tone held a trace of genuine, clinical praise. {And your use of the Mantra… forming magic circles within the eyes themselves to use magic without spending your own energy. It explains your ability to use magic despite the lack of conventional circles around your heart. It’s an incredibly clever improvisation. A move Arkadius would never have considered, bound as he was by conventional Celestial laws. Celestials are beings of rigid design; they could never conceive of such an efficient misuse of power. It is that unconventionality—the product of your non-Celestial, desperate mind—that saved you.}

‘What is the Babel Tower?’ I pressed, realizing that was the place Greed referred to. ‘What does it have to do with this Celestial technique? Tell me!’

{The Babel Tower is a secret that even I cannot fully access,} Greed projected, its voice strained, as if fighting a physical constraint. {Arkadius never expected any anchor to find that place. Out of thousands of techniques and artifacts within that labyrinth, the Tower deemed you worthy of the one technique necessary to fight the fate of the Ego. It is—}

Greed’s voice abruptly cut off. It was instantaneous, a sudden, dead silence that sliced through the Nullification dome. I felt no external pressure, no incoming thought, yet Greed’s voice was gone.

The Nullification barrier, designed to cloak us from everything—even the dormant Ego and the cosmic forces of the Primordial—didn’t just fail; it visibly compressed around us, a silent scream of resistance against an unknown force. Whatever censored Greed’s words sliced through the barrier as easily as air.

{The Babel Tower is protected by a security layer far beyond even the Primordial’s passive systems,} Greed finally managed, its voice returning with a desperate, metallic echo. {Something is censoring this knowledge, even from me. The significance is immense. The security is so thorough that when you exit, you lose recollection of the interior; what you retain is just a vague recollection of the Tower’s interior—the ultimate security measure to prevent high-level information from leaking. The Tower itself operates outside the known cosmic architecture.}

Greed’s voice returned, now ice-cold and utterly focused, ignoring the trauma of the interruption. {You have a window, runt. The fragments you’ve collected are stirring the dormant Ego. The countdown accelerates with every piece you find, but the Ten Eyes Mantra gives you a single, precise chance.}

{The five eyes you have open stabilized you initially. But it’s not enough to win the war. The only way to survive Arkadius taking over is to complete the technique. You must open all Ten Eyes of the Ten Eyes Mantra.}

‘Ten Eyes?’ My mind reeled. That was the finish line—the ultimate mastery, a feat that felt impossibly far off now.

{Yes. Only then will your own ego be completely centered, completely fortified, and absolutely proof against the overwhelming psychic pressure of Arkadius’s activation. It will ensure that your current self is the one in control, no matter how many past lives or how much power you assimilate. Your consciousness will achieve permanence against the usurper. Think of it not as a battle for power, but a war for definition. Opening the final five eyes will not just stop the Ego; it will forge a third, ultimate self—a permanent identity, immune to the overwrite.}

{You are now in a race against yourself. The next phase begins immediately. You must find the power and the method to open those remaining five eyes. If the dormant Ego activates before you succeed, the death will not be physical. It will be the erasure of everything you are, replaced by the consciousness of a King you never knew. Your consciousness will simply terminate, and Arkadius will stand in your place, wearing your skin.}

The Nullification dome pulsed once, then silently, completely vanished. The destroyed chamber was illuminated by weak, distant light. The moment of truth was over, but the objective was terrifyingly clear.

I stared at the black sword in my hand, feeling the weight of an ancient king’s ambition pressing down on my soul, realizing that my power was now my existential clock.

Open all ten eyes. Or be erased.