Collecting Memories Between You and Me

"I must..."

"I must stand up..."

"I can't let... the Wizard down."

Her battered body, driven by sorrowful determination, reached out to touch the Tower Spirit, establishing a bond of authority.

From that moment on,

the ownership of the Tower of Salvation changed.

Servia Clawphire became the new master of the tower.

With the death of the previous tower lord, she automatically ascended as the first authority holder.

"Wizard..."

"I will become strong enough... until the day we meet again..."

Servia left the tower's core.

Along the way, the sunlight blazed brilliantly.

Her silhouette stretched long in the light, gradually blurring into a hazy, lonely figure.

She walked on, all the way to Xu Xi's former room, gathering familiar memories and the fragments of their mundane daily life.

Her state was so dazed

that she stumbled and fell multiple times along the way.

Yet the pain of falling did not wake her from her trance.

Mechanically, she picked herself up and continued collecting the items.

Among them were Xu Xi's densely packed research notes on flesh regeneration,

his years of meticulous records on cultivating necrotic mushroom variants,

or the broken remnants of his attempts to forge a sword-type magical artifact.

Xu Xi's weapon had always been a staff—

never a sword.

"Wizard..." Servia murmured softly after gathering everything.

Facing the belongings in the room, she no longer wept in sorrow but stood silently, gazing at them.

Mimicking what Xu Xi had once done for The Hansen couple long ago,

she cast a dust-repelling spell on the items.

Sealing the room forever.

Preserving those memories in their most beautiful form, untouched by time.

"Goodnight, Wizard."

The door closed.

The feelings the Hero held for Xu Xi, the memories they shared—everything was now sealed within that room.

She would live.

She would grow strong enough.

And wait for the day she would reunite with the Wizard.

Then, with a radiant smile and formidable power, she would protect that deceitful Wizard.

The arrival of the Tower of Salvation eventually drew the attention of the native forces of the Heruka World.

They were not Wizards,

but wielded equally formidable methods of soul manipulation.

With greedy, exhilarated cries, they sought to conquer the tower and seize its mysterious knowledge from another world.

At the critical moment,

cross-dimensional travel activated once more.

In a subtle maneuver, the tower curved through the Heruka World, slipping out of the encirclement.

Winds howled, the air trembling with force.

All that remained was a vast emptiness and drifting blades of grass.

"W-what just happened?"

"Was that... divine intervention?"

The Herukans exchanged bewildered glances, fear evident in each other's eyes.

Having never witnessed dimensional travel before, they fled in terror of the unknown,

terrified they might vanish next.

By the time the Herukans encountered the Tower of Salvation again,

a decade had passed.

Servia, now a four-circle Wizard, annihilated all invaders single-handedly.

No—

it was more like cleaning up.

Her movements were effortless, as casual and violent as a human sweeping away trash.

"Outrageous!"

"To disrespect me—you, an otherworldly demon, have courted death!"

"Quick, surround that woman!"

Shocked, the Herukan elites mobilized in full force.

Their greed only grew—they now sought to extract the secrets of Wizardry from Servia.

But Servia appeared and vanished just as swiftly.

After a fierce battle, she activated cross-dimensional travel once more and departed.

Servia had always remembered Xu Xi's words.

She refused to entangle herself with the Herukans, fighting only to ensure the tower's escape.

Time was on her side.

It would carry her to greater heights.

Until then, safety came first.

And Servia's goal was never the Heruka World.

What truly mattered to her was that unspeakable land of doom.

"The Endless Netherworld, the Undying One..."

"He must be there..."

"The one responsible for all tragedies, denying the dead their rest, preventing the Wizard's return..."

"I swear... I swear..."

"I will avenge Father, Mother, Grandfather, Grandmother, the Wizard... everyone!"

Her grip on the sword hilt trembled violently from sheer force.

Her voice was hoarse,

like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

The Hero sought vengeance for Xu Xi, for all who had been lost.

She could not accept that the architect of their suffering still roamed free,

perhaps even crafting new tragedies elsewhere.

Unforgivable.

Absolutely unforgivable.

She would never, ever let Him escape!

......

"Lady Servia, please be careful."

"Are you certain... you don’t want us to stay?"

To raise her sword against an Undying One of the seven-circle realm—

this was far too perilous.

Servia was willing to stake her life on it, to dedicate her entire existence to this mission,

but she refused to let the ordinary people in the tower suffer for her sake.

Thus,

she found a peaceful corner of the Heruka World to settle them.

Humans from both worlds were much the same.

Without the Tower of Salvation, the refugees from the Wizard's world would blend in seamlessly.

"Thank you, everyone."

"But this is too dangerous. I don’t want you harmed."

Servia smiled, declining their kindness.

Just as Xu Xi had once refused to let her fight, long ago.

The two were much alike—both willing to sacrifice themselves rather than endanger others.

That was why Servia could never accept Xu Xi’s departure.

She always believed it should have been her who gave her life.

"Goodbye, everyone."

With one final farewell,

amidst countless worried gazes, Servia returned alone to the Wizard Tower and departed through dimensional travel.

No longer lonely.

No longer afraid.

The Hero had grown accustomed to solitude.

She would continue advancing down the path of strength.

Until the day she slew that twisted, malevolent Undying One.

......

"I am the Lord of the White Crows, a fifth-circle Grand Wizard! Who dares stand in my way?"

"So many soul flames... unprecedented."

"Hand over your tower!"

After parting with the others,

Servia left the Heruka World behind.

Piloting the tower, she traversed the chaos, searching for traces of the Endless Netherworld.

Along the way,

she encountered Wizards from her own world, engaging in fierce battles.

She strayed into spatial rifts, nearly lost in the abyss of time.

Trial after trial, brush after brush with death—

until she finally reached the fifth-circle realm.

"Wizard... I, too, want..."

"To become... a gentle light, just like you..."

The Hero’s path was one she forged herself.