Gantz played with the boys for a while, chasing them through the trees of the grove. His brow was relaxed, his eyes smiling, and his hair flew in the wind as his white smile shone brightly. For a time, all that mattered was that single moment—that feeling swelling in his chest: joy, a pure and childlike joy. Whenever he caught them, he would tickle their bellies, cherishing the soft laughter they let out; other times, he would lift them high into the air, making them feel as if they were flying.
— "Uncle Gantz, will we be able to fly one day?" Galadriel asked.
— "Of course! Study hard and become great sages!"
— "But Uncle, isn't being a sage forbidden? You can only learn magic if you are part of the church."
— "Don't worry about that. Things change very fast. You never know what the world will be like when you grow up."
Galadriel didn't quite understand, but he nodded. — "When you come back from your trip, Uncle, I will be the supreme sage!"
Gantz's lips expanded into a smile. — "Great dreams lead small men to great places and even greater deeds."
Galadriel whispered Gantz's words to himself as if memorizing them, turning the phrase into a sacrament.
— "And what about you, Mazaniel?" Gantz asked from beneath a beautiful pink pine tree, taking advantage of the breeze to dry the sweat from his body.
— "Me?... I want to be as strong as them!" He pointed toward the distant ice mountains.
Gantz looked at Mazaniel in surprise as a shiver serpentined through his body.
— "Your aspiration is gargantuan, boy! Do you have any idea how powerful they are?"
— "My dad said it only takes one of them to turn a city like ours into a desert of ruins."
— "He didn't lie. Not at all," Gantz pondered. — "I pray I never cross paths with one of them."
— "Why, Uncle Gaga?"
— "Uncle Gaga?" Gantz turned his head and smiled.
— "Your name is too weird. It's easier to say Gaga."
Mine isn't the only one, Gantz thought, but said nothing.
Afterward, he spent some time with Esmeralda.
— "Can you teach me something about fighting?" she asked, standing with her hands on her hips. She wore a black top that covered only her shoulders and chest, showing off an abdomen full of definition and muscle fibers; tight black shorts also made it clear that her legs were exceptionally well-trained.
How am I going to teach her anything if I don't even know how I fight? I just follow the muscle memory I acquired from other people... Wait! If I can do it, maybe I can't pass that on to others?... Better leave that for later. Let's see what I can manage to teach.
— "Come on. Strike me the best way you can."
He had barely finished speaking when the green fist was already driving toward his face. Twisting his body aside with ease, he grabbed her wrist, thrust his waist toward her, and used his back as a lever to flip her through the air. She crashed down on her bottom, and he twisted her arm behind her back, immobilizing her.
— "Did you see how I did it?"
She looked up, her large eyes shining with a childlike smile on her face. — "Do it again!"
It was the first time Gantz truly thought that this girl looked like a child.
She took three more hits before she finally understood the mechanic and managed to do the same to Gantz. When she attacked him again, he changed the movement—since the idea was to teach, he grabbed her arm, directed it backward, slipped his arm between hers, and twisted.
They practiced a few more times until Esmeralda grew tired, and Gantz took the cue to head to a private room on the second floor of the house. Ever since he had conceived that idea, he could hardly wait to put it into practice.
Looking around the bedroom, he took a moment to appreciate the wooden furniture, whose sides resembled ocean waves. Their surfaces gleamed as the sunlight filtered through the windowpane. The white walls highlighted the rich brown of the furniture and the dark blue bedspreads. Tree branches covered a small portion of the window, which had a white frame.
Sitting on the bed and feeling the softness of the mattress, he almost wanted to sleep. However, he had postponed this task for too long; it was time to put things in order. He closed his eyes while breathing in for four seconds, releasing for another four, and holding his lungs empty for four more. He repeated this for ten minutes. His body grew lighter with each cycle until he could feel nothing at all. His consciousness plunged into the darkness—he didn't know how to describe it; it was like swimming and flying at the same time, going further and further until bright lights appeared, looking like tiny stars in the distance. He approached slowly, realizing that the light sources were not stars or crystal balls, but memories. Not just his own, but a cluster of other people's memories, forming small galaxies separated from one another by tiny empty voids. The largest of them sat right in the center, glowing with an arrogant, light blue hue.
He didn't need to guess who it originally belonged to.
Entering the galaxy and navigating through the lights, memories began to flow like the waters of a river. Making an effort to ignore all the irrelevant parts—even though the memories seemed to possess a consciousness of their own and insisted on penetrating his own mind—Gantz made sure to locate Olete's magical studies. They amounted to a ridiculous quantity of information; it could be said that more than half of the lights in this spiritual galaxy were lined with magical knowledge.
How do I find simpler information about magic?
As if understanding his will, a cluster of lights flew toward him, gathering around him as if he were the sun of a small galaxy. The memories did not wait for a second command before making contact with his consciousness. A vast amount of information began transferring to him at an alarming rate. He felt a severe headache, as if he had been struck by a hammer. The pain escalated to a peak before gradually subsiding.
His eyes snapped open, glowing in shades of blue. The energies that had previously formed a shapeless core in his torso separated, flowing into his mind. From the dark space, light emerged, and with that light, a grand, verdant domain expanded—trees, flowers, rivers, and a blue sky filled with beautiful clouds. In the center of it all, a small wooden house protected by a beautiful red roof seemed to finally consolidate the location. Tears slid down his cheeks as he felt the wind on his skin, the scent he loved so much, and the earth beneath his feet that he had missed so deeply. Now Gantz was home. No matter where he went, inside his mind, he would always be home.
On the porch, he spotted his siblings sitting on the railing, smiling at him. His mother was wrapped in his father's strong arms—smiling, relaxed, and happy. He took a step toward the house, and their bodies slowly disintegrated while whispering words into the wind.
— "Live, and make us proud." The wind carried the words to his ears. His tears dried, his brow relaxed, and a faint smile appeared on his mouth as he walked slowly to the porch and sat on the swing his sister used to love.
— "I'm back."
Gantz had finally consolidated his Mental Palace, abandoning his trauma and accepting his gift—no longer as a curse that took the lives of his relatives, but as a part of himself. He had taken the first step toward becoming a sage. In this place, he could train his techniques without consuming mana, and he could consolidate information in any manner he wished. This is the difference between a normal person and a sage: while one forgets part of the information they receive, the other keeps every detail alive in their Mental Palace, making it possible to review the information whenever desired.
His eyes were now capable of perceiving subtleties that had previously gone unnoticed. Thousands of colors danced around him. He knew exactly what they were due to Olete's memories: mana, pure and simple, present everywhere. The quantity wasn't large, owing to the low quality of the environment. Rising from the bed, he grabbed a pencil from the dresser drawer and blew a blue mist toward the graphite. The tip became resplendent. He knelt on the waxed wooden floor and began to draw several symbols: an eye representing perception on the sides of the spiral circling the bed, stars representing ascension. When he sat down again, flames exploded from the lines. The flames emitted no heat; they simply stood high above the mattress level. To Gantz's eyes, vibrant colors danced as they fed the flames, and the smoke originating from them began to be absorbed by him, circulating through his body until concentrating in the center of his chest.
Outside, the trees stopped swaying. The weather turned grim as the grove fell silent, devoid of any and all creatures. Without realizing it, the residents fell into a deep sleep as the mana vanished from the surroundings.
The temple flowed, and Gantz uttered: — "I am man, I am boy, my time is short, but my ascension will be swifter. I am the sovereign of my own destiny, and here I take the first step to forge my new trajectory. Here I am reborn."
As the last syllables were spoken, the flames devoured his body. Black smoke spiraled toward the ceiling and vanished while his skin rejuvenated, returning to look like that of a baby. His veins, muscles, organs, and bones underwent a restructuring. In the center of it all, a core the size of a walnut finished its formation, spiraling at high speed, devouring the surrounding energies until it was completely formed. The flames entered his body and consolidated the sphere of light like iron being forged. From his pores, nose, mouth, and ears, a bluish flash exploded, vanishing from reality and restoring normalcy to the environment.
The green of his eyes shone as he felt completely invigorated. Gantz was no longer a mortal.