After a heart-to-heart talk with Noa, Leon felt as if a weight had been lifted from his chest.
In the following days, Leon devoted himself to magic storage and practicing the Nine Hells Gate.
With Aurora's guidance, Leon made remarkable progress in mastering the Nine Hells Gate.
Yet his magic storage remained unchanged—the Dragon Mark and some unknown entity within his body split the magic in an eight-to-two ratio, causing extremely slow storage.
Even now, Leon still couldn't comprehend what was happening to his body.
He'd consulted Aurora for insights.
His youngest daughter regretfully admitted her expertise lay in magic formations, not fields like human anatomy.
With no other options, Leon could only rely on his tried-and-true method of storing magic bit by bit into his Dragon Mark.
The family of four—father and three daughters—stayed in the hidden underground, guarding Roswitha while training and awaiting Aurora's research results.
Three months passed.
Aurora prepared to test the reversal formation for the first time.
The group gathered in Roswitha's crystal chamber, where Aurora activated the formation on the ground.
The formation's intricate runes were so complex that even veteran scholars would marvel at its complexity.
This culmination of Aurora's decade-long research sought to reverse no ordinary magic—but the very fabric of reality itself.
Aurora stepped forward, raised her hand, and activated the formation.
The formation immediately radiated light as the runes gradually came to life.
The other three couldn't help but tense up as well.
Aurora's success or failure determined the future of their family.
The intensifying glow made the entire chamber tremble.
Leon instinctively shielded Noa and Muen with his body. "Aurora, everything okay?"
Aurora, with her back to them, casually waved her hand. "Under control."
Leon's frown deepened—her tone was all wrong.
It didn't sound like the excitement of nearing success—it felt more like...
Then the light vanished abruptly—like a snapped bowstring. It dissipated completely, leaving no trace behind.
The chamber returned to calm.
Charred scars now marred the formation.
After a weighted pause came the soft admission,
"Failed."
Her summary was succinct, but her voice carried unmistakable disappointment.
A decade of devoted research had ultimately proved fruitless.
For someone who had aspired to become a scholar since childhood, this was undoubtedly a heavy blow.
What was even more pressing was that there were less than three months left since the day her mother fell into a coma.
If she couldn’t complete the reversal magic before then and send Leon back to his original timeline, her mother's fate would remain unchanged.
No one wanted to accept such an ending.
Yet the cold sting of failure felt like a knife plunging deeply into Aurora's heart.
"Aurora—" Muen opened her mouth, trying to console her younger sister. "It’s, it’s okay. This was just a test."
However, Aurora didn’t respond.
Her shoulders sank bit by bit; the invisible weight seemed ready to crush her entirely.
After a moment of silence, Leon moved to Aurora's side, their eyes fixed on the scorched remains of the formation.
"Where did the failure occur?"
Aurora’s pink pupils trembled as her voice shook. "I-I don’t know."
Leon looked at his youngest daughter and saw her face written with the word "fear."
At that moment, Leon understood—it wasn’t failure she feared the most, but the inability to save their family.
"Aurora, have you ever heard of this saying?"
Silence.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Leon continued, "My mentor taught me this for a long time, and later, I realized this phrase works in reverse too."
Aurora blinked and slowly lifted her dejected little head to look at her dad.
"The greater your responsibility, the greater your power."
"The reason everyone trusts you to handle this is that they believe you can."
"But don’t let responsibility become a pair of shackles that bind you. Remember what Noa once told Mom—accept yourself?"
"Acceptance is vital: accepting yourself and accepting failure."
"If someone cannot handle failure, then they simply don’t deserve success."
Leon reached out and gently rested his hand on his daughter’s shoulder.
Just moments ago, her shoulder seemed almost crushed under the weight of invisible frustration and disappointment. But now, with her father's warm hand placed on it, she felt a profound sense of reassurance.
"Try to kick those thoughts about failure out of your mind. Aurora, you’ve been studying this reversal magic for ten years. Trust yourself—you can do this."
Her mother once said that what captivated her most about Leon was his ability to always make her feel safe.
It was as if with him around, she had infinite courage.
Aurora hadn’t understood what kind of power her mother was describing back then.
But now, at this moment, she seemed to get it.
Behind her glasses, Aurora’s pink pupils regained their sharpness and determination.
Focusing her brow, she turned her attention back to the extinguished formation on the ground.
After a long moment of observation, Aurora spoke slowly,
"The fact that the formation emitted light proves it can be activated. At least the first stage went off without a hitch."
"The problem must lie in the subsequent phases."
"Every formation requires four phases: Activation, Operation, Sustention, and Completion."
"We stopped at the Operation phase just now. For most formations, a successful operation relies on sufficient energy."
"I accounted for that—prepared ample energy crystals—yet they remained inert."
As she spoke, Aurora walked over to the energy crystals, picking up several to examine them closely.
"The energy inside hasn’t diminished, which means these crystals weren’t involved in the formation's operation."
"But why...? I’ve tested these crystals many times—they work perfectly in all reversal magics. Only this reversal of Ravi’s spatial magic doesn’t utilize them."
"If there’s inadequate energy during the Operation phase, we’ll fail in the Sustenance phase as well."
"So solving the problem of energy not interfacing with the formation is crucial..."
Leon knelt beside her, observing the crystals with her.
After some thought, Leon asked, "You mentioned Ravi's spatial magic earlier, correct?"
"Mm-hmm. Because Dad, Ravi’s spatial magic was what originally transported you here."
Leon: "But Ravi’s spatial magic malfunctioned back then, didn’t it? And the reason it malfunctioned was Ravi’s Heart-Guarding Dragon Scale—"
"Heart-Guarding Dragon Scale!"
Aurora abruptly looked up, her excitement akin to grasping a lifeline.
"The reason the energy crystals didn’t work is that their energy properties differ from Ravi’s spatial magic."
"The spatial magic that brought you here, Dad, contained the power of Ravi’s Heart-Guarding Dragon Scale."
"So to make the current reversal magic function, we need something similar to Ravi’s Heart-Guarding Dragon Scale."
Leon smiled, proud of how quick his daughter was to catch on. Yet, he couldn’t help but bring up the next critical question.
"Where can we find something similar to Ravi’s Heart-Guarding Dragon Scale...?"
Aurora froze for a moment, scratching her head in frustration. "Normally, a Dragon Clan member would need to be at least a hundred years old before gradually forming a Heart-Guarding Dragon Scale. But combining all three of us sisters’ ages doesn’t even add up to a hundred..."
"And even if we did have Heart-Guarding Dragon Scales, their energy properties would surely differ from Ravi’s," Leon added.
Different bloodlines,' Noa interjected. 'We're Silver Dragons—Ravi's a Stardrake. Not the same magic."
"Mm, big sis is right," Aurora sighed deeply, threading her fingers through her chaotic pink curls. "Ah~~so where are we supposed to find something like the Heart-Guarding Dragon Scale of Ravi, and on a Dragon King-level no less!"
"I did receive some reliable information not long ago," Noa said casually. "There’s a place where we might be able to find the Heart-Guarding Dragon Scale we need."
Leon turned to her, intrigued. "Where?"
"The Empire."
