"▇▇▇!"
Through the haze, Shiro vaguely heard someone shouting beside him.
Then—
He felt as though his consciousness suddenly left his body and drifted into the universe itself.
There, he witnessed the cosmos expand from an infinitely tiny point.
Countless planets and celestial bodies, some familiar and others completely unknown, appeared one after another throughout the universe.
Watching those worlds emerge and eventually perish, Shiro inexplicably felt the urge to reach out and touch them.
His instincts told him—
If he could become one of them, he would gain unimaginable power.
Shiro controlled his incorporeal consciousness and flew toward one of the larger celestial bodies.
But just as he was about to touch its edge—
Bang!
He slammed into something resembling an invisible barrier.
Shiro was extremely familiar with the power contained within it.
Every time he traveled between worlds, he crossed a similar barrier before arriving in a new world.
Yet this particular barrier seemed deliberately designed to prevent him from touching the planet.
No matter how much force Shiro applied—It remained firmly in front of him, completely separating him from the celestial body.
Before he could dwell on it for long, the appearance of another celestial body immediately drew away all his attention.
The moment it appeared—Every surrounding planet began revolving violently around it.
Blinding light erupted from its surface.
Its terrifying heat reduced nearby meteors to ash before they could even approach.
If an ordinary person dared stare directly into that light, their vision would probably be destroyed in an instant.
It was the central celestial body of the Solar System.
The ultimate star that accounted for more than ninety-nine percent of the Solar System's total mass—The Sun.
Before Shiro could react—The scenery in front of him rapidly receded.
Then—
"Shiro-sama!"
Rem's anxious face suddenly entered his vision.
"I... came back?"
Shiro instinctively looked around.
The dying glow of sunset had dyed the sky crimson, blending into the distant horizon and coating the grassland in red.
He was still standing on the lawn within Roswaal's territory.
Everything around him looked almost exactly as it had before his consciousness disappeared.
Once Shiro fully came to his senses, the first thing he did was scold Rem.
"Didn't I tell you this was too dangerous and that neither of you should come close?"
The ritual of Excessive Awakening was simply too dangerous.
One mistake could reduce him to a beast consumed entirely by slaughter.
Fortunately, for some unknown reason, he had not started destroying everything after losing control this time.
But nobody should gamble their life on such a low-probability outcome.
So even Shiro, who was normally extremely tolerant toward the sisters, genuinely became angry.
"This morning, after Shiro-sama suddenly let out a roar, you seemed to lose consciousness and simply stood there without moving."
"Sister observed you from a distance and confirmed that Shiro-sama didn't seem dangerous."
"Only when it was almost time for dinner did she let Rem come over and wake you."
Rem apparently understood why Shiro was scolding her.
Despite his reproach, she continued smiling gently as she explained.
"You two..."
Shiro sighed.
"Forget it."
After thinking about it, he abandoned the idea of pursuing the matter further.
At least they had known enough to confirm whether there was danger before approaching him.
That was far better than foolishly walking up without knowing anything.
Then Shiro became curious about the state Rem had described.
Excessive Awakening—
It was a phenomenon in which the inhuman soul of a Blazer who had already undergone their first awakening and entered the realm of a Desperado pulled the physical body along with it, causing the person to lose their humanity.
The last time Shiro underwent Excessive Awakening—He had lost the struggle for control.
Even after using his magic, his consciousness had only endured until the instant before his body completed its transformation.
"You said I just stood there like I had completely lost consciousness?"
"Mm."
"At the time, Shiro-sama felt somewhat similar to the adults among the Oni in the past."
"But you were much more frightening than they were."
Rem placed a finger against her cheek and carefully recalled Shiro's appearance.
"How should Rem describe it...?"
"It felt as though nothing around you was even worthy of entering Shiro-sama's eyes."
"You looked down upon everything with complete indifference."
Truthfully—
Simply standing near Shiro back then had subjected Rem to overwhelming pressure.
It had frightened her so badly that she instinctively entered a combat state.
Even the horn on her forehead had appeared without her realizing it.
The Oni might be a race that worshiped strength—But when their lives were genuinely threatened, they still experienced fear.
When Rem first discovered that she could not wake Shiro, she had nearly panicked.
Compared to the version of Shiro who had stood above everything like some distant god—Rem preferred the Shiro before her now.
The one who worried about the safety of both her and her sister.
"I see..."
Shiro nodded thoughtfully.
Under the normal course of the ritual—If someone failed to maintain consciousness during Excessive Awakening, their body would assimilate their mind and turn them into a beast.
What sort of beast they would become remained uncertain.
However, clues could often be observed even before the transformation was completed.
Take Saikyo Nene.
When she began entering Excessive Awakening, an enormous pair of horns had also appeared on her forehead.
Combined with her personality and ancient Japanese legends—
There was a strong possibility that once she completed Excessive Awakening, she would become something resembling the legendary [Oni].
Of course, among Blazers, there were also cases like Stella where the final form after Excessive Awakening was almost obvious at a glance.
Originally, after learning from Saikyo Nene that similar horns had appeared on his own head—Shiro had assumed there was a significant possibility that he too would transform into an [Oni] after Excessive Awakening.
That was why, after encountering the Oni of this world and learning that their horns were controllable organs, he had been so eager to research them.
Yet according to Rem—What he had just become seemed completely different from every possibility he had previously predicted.
Forget turning into a beast.
After completing Excessive Awakening, it sounded as though he might not possess consciousness at all.
So what the hell had he turned into?
A sloth?
Was his thinking simply so slow that he had failed to react when Ram tested him?
No.
His head was starting to itch.
It felt like a brain was about to grow.
This realm existed almost entirely within legend.
Shiro was effectively researching Excessive Awakening from zero, so he had absolutely no idea whether the experiment he had just performed counted as a success or failure.
And he did not dare try again right now.
Losing control and going berserk would actually be preferable.
If he became incapable of thinking altogether—Then even if he wanted to rely on sheer willpower to pull his foot back from that realm, he would be unable to do so.
So Shiro could only repeatedly warn Rem that next time, even if he appeared completely harmless, she was absolutely forbidden from approaching him.
Only after Rem smilingly agreed did he head toward Betty's Forbidden Library.
Perhaps—
There might be a grimoire inside describing some form of magic similar to what he had just experienced.
…