Vol. 2 Ch. 76

After having a heartfelt conversation with Noa, Leon felt a sense of relief, as though a heavy weight had finally been lifted from his chest.

For the next few days, Leon focused on storing magic energy and training in the Nine Gates of Hell technique. With Aurora’s guidance, his training progressed much faster than before. However, just like in the past, the energy storage in his body remained slow. His dragon tattoo and some unknown element within his body seemed to siphon off a significant portion of the magic he was trying to store, making the process painfully slow.

Despite all his efforts, Leon still hadn’t figured out what was wrong with his body.@@novelbin@@

He asked Aurora if she had any insights on the matter. She regretfully admitted that her research mainly focused on magical arrays and wasn’t very specialized in the intricacies of the human body.

With no other option, Leon continued his usual method of slowly accumulating magic within his dragon tattoo, hoping for a breakthrough.

The four of them—Leon and his daughters—continued to live in the hidden underground space, taking care of Rosvisser, training, and awaiting Aurora’s research to bear fruit.

Three months passed.

Finally, Aurora decided it was time for the first test of her reversal magic array.

Everyone gathered in Rosvisser’s crystal chamber as Aurora activated the magic array on the floor.

The array was intricate, its lines and symbols complex and sprawling. Any scholar or professor specializing in magical arrays would have marveled at the sheer magnitude of the work. After all, this was the result of Aurora’s ten years of dedicated research. She wasn’t just trying to reverse an ordinary spell—this was the key to changing everything.

Aurora stood before the array and activated it with a wave of her hand.

Immediately, the room was filled with a bright glow, and the array began to react.

The three others watched with nervous anticipation. Whether Aurora succeeded or not would determine the future of their family.

The light emitted from the array grew brighter and brighter, and the entire chamber began to tremble.

Leon instinctively raised his arm to shield Noa and Moon behind him. “Aurora, is everything alright?”

Facing away from them, Aurora waved dismissively. “It’s fine.”

But her tone wasn’t right.

She didn’t sound excited like someone about to succeed. Instead, her voice carried something else...

The next moment, the light from the array suddenly flickered, as though a string had snapped, and the magic dissipated into thin air.

The chamber fell silent.

The array on the floor was now charred, leaving blackened marks as if it had been burned.

Aurora slowly lowered her hand. After a brief pause, she whispered, “It failed.”

It was a simple statement, but the defeat in her voice was unmistakable.

Ten years of dedicated research had resulted in failure, and for someone like Aurora—who had always dreamed of being a scholar—it was a heavy blow.

What made things worse was that there were less than three months left until the anniversary of Rosvisser’s coma. If they couldn’t complete the reversal magic in time and send Leon back to the past, Rosvisser’s fate would remain unchanged.

No one wanted to accept such an outcome.

Yet the cold reality of failure felt like a knife, deeply wounding Aurora’s spirit.

“Hey, Aurora—” Moon started, trying to comfort her sister, “it’s okay. This was just a test.”

But Aurora didn’t respond.

Her shoulders slumped lower and lower, as though an invisible weight was pressing her down, threatening to crush her under the burden.

After a moment of silence, Leon stepped forward, standing beside Aurora as he gazed at the scorched array on the ground.

“What caused the failure?” he asked softly.

Aurora’s pink eyes trembled, and her voice wavered. “I... I don’t know.”

Leon looked at his daughter, her face filled with fear and uncertainty.

At that moment, he realized that what she feared most wasn’t failure itself—it was being unable to save their family.

“Aurora, have you ever heard this saying?” Leon began.

Silence.

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Leon continued, “My teacher taught me that for a long time. But later, I realized that the reverse of that saying is also true.”

Aurora blinked, slowly lifting her dejected head to look at her father.

“The greater the responsibility on your shoulders, the greater your power must be.”

“Everyone believes in you, which is why they entrusted you with this task.”

“But don’t let that responsibility become a chain that binds you. Remember what Noa told your mother—about accepting yourself?”

“Accepting yourself is important, but accepting failure is equally important.”

“If someone can’t handle failure, then they don’t deserve success.”

Leon gently placed his hand on Aurora’s shoulder.

Just moments ago, her shoulders had been weighed down by invisible despair, but now, with her father’s warm hand resting there, she felt a sense of comfort and stability.

“Push those thoughts of failure and its consequences out of your mind, Aurora. You’ve been working on this reversal magic for ten years. Trust yourself—you can do this.”

Her mother had once told her that what she loved most about Leon was the sense of security he gave her. As long as he was around, she always had the courage to face anything.

Back then, Aurora hadn’t understood what her mother meant by that.

But now, in this moment, she began to understand that feeling.

Beneath her glasses, Aurora’s pink eyes regained their sharp focus.

She furrowed her brow and turned her attention back to the charred magic array.

After observing it for a long time, she slowly spoke, “The fact that the array started glowing means it can be activated. At least, the first phase was successful.”

“The problem must have occurred in one of the later phases.”

“A magic array has four phases to completion: activation, operation, maintenance, and termination.”

“Our issue occurred during the operation phase. In most arrays, to ensure they operate properly, they need a sufficient amount of power.”

“I knew that, so I prepared a large number of power-storing crystals, but it seems they didn’t work.”

With that, Aurora walked over to the crystals and picked one up for closer inspection.

“The energy inside hasn’t been used up. That means these crystals didn’t participate in the array’s operation.”

“But why...? I’ve tested these crystals many times, and they’ve always worked with other reversal spells. Only in this case, with Ravi’s space magic, did they fail.”

“If the array lacks sufficient power during the operation phase, then we’ll also fail at the maintenance phase.”

“We need to figure out why the crystals aren’t being integrated into the array’s operation...”

Leon crouched beside her, observing the crystals as well.

After a moment, Leon spoke, “You mentioned Ravi’s space magic, right?”

“Yeah, because that’s the magic that sent you to this future,” Aurora confirmed.

“But Ravi’s magic was unstable at the time, wasn’t it? And the reason for that instability was... his Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale.”

“The Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale!”

Aurora’s eyes lit up, as if she had just grasped a lifeline.

“The reason these power crystals didn’t work is because their energy isn’t compatible with Ravi’s space magic.”

“When you were sent to this time, it was because of the energy from Ravi’s Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale.”

“So we need a source of power similar to Ravi’s scale to successfully operate this reversal magic.”

Leon smiled, pleased to see his daughter’s quick thinking, but he had to point out the next challenge.

“But where do we find something like Ravi’s Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale?”

Aurora paused, scratching her head. “Normally, a dragon needs to be at least a hundred years old to start forming a Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale, but the three of us together aren’t even a hundred yet...”

“And even if we had a scale, its energy would be different from Ravi’s,” Noa added. “We’re Silver Dragons, while Ravi was a Star Traveler Dragon. Our power sources are fundamentally different.”

“Right, exactly,” Aurora sighed, threading her fingers through her messy pink hair in frustration. “So where are we going to find a Heart-Protecting Dragon Scale like Ravi’s? Especially one from a Dragon King?”

“I did receive some reliable intel recently,” Noa said casually. “It’s possible we might find the scale we need in the Empire.”

Leon looked at her, surprised. “The Empire?”