Altera, who had been closely observing Rozen's condition, suddenly lifted her eyes.
"Buzz!"
Rozen, standing before Altera, still maintained the posture of reaching into the mana reactor, with the lines and runes on his body continuously flickering and trembling, growing more frequent by the second.
Until, at one moment, all of these lines and runes abruptly froze.
"Bang!"
Accompanied by a sound akin to glass shattering, the runes and lines exploded and disappeared.
Simultaneously, the two Command Seals engraved on the backs of Rozen's hands shattered and vanished.
At this point, Rozen returned to his normal state, with the dark and sinister aura surrounding him completely dissipated.
Altera understood what this represented.
"The seal... has vanished?"
The seal that had been present within Rozen since his arrival in the world of Strike the Blood had now lost its effect and disappeared.
Rozen was no longer a living spirit of the Fourth Primogenitor.
The title "Divine Child of Origin" — from this day forward, would no longer exist.
"Ugh…"
Rozen's eyelids fluttered slightly as he slowly opened his eyes.
As soon as they opened, a sharp glint flashed through them, making anyone who saw it shiver.
Seeing this, Altera narrowed her eyes.
"Is it over?"
Altera directed a question toward Rozen.
"Yeah." Rozen smiled, looking quite pleased. "It's over."
At this moment, an unprecedentedly vast amount of High-Grade Mana flowed through Rozen's body.
Having taken the Original's mana, Rozen did not gain mana that surpassed ley lines directly, as all of it had been compressed into High-Grade Mana, in an extremely compressed state, significantly reducing its volume.
However, even so, Rozen's mana now ranked at the level of Second or Third Generation Vampires, an increase from his past self that was impossible to quantify.
And this was all mana compressed to its limit.
If Rozen were to dilute the High-Grade Mana, reverting it from its compressed state into normal mana, it would again surpass the ley lines and become more powerful than the Fourth Primogenitor.
Under these circumstances, the magic circuits in Rozen's body continued to operate autonomously, constantly increasing Rozen's High-Grade Mana.
At the rate of this increase, it wouldn't take long before Rozen's High-Grade Mana surpassed the ley lines.
When that time came, it wasn't hard to imagine how terrifying Rozen would become.
However, this transformation did not come without some losses for Rozen.
First of all, because the Original was eradicated, Rozen lost the ability to transform into a vampire, and thus, lost access to infinite vitality.
That, however, didn't matter.
After all, all the Beast Vassals within Rozen had already formed an absolute contract with him and would no longer drain his vitality. They only needed mana to function. So, lacking infinite vitality was of no consequence to Rozen.
In fact, now that Rozen no longer needed to rely on the Original's power, the Beast Vassals within him were sustained entirely by his mana. It wasn't like in the past, where he needed to open channels for the Beast Vassals to use the Fourth Primogenitor's mana to remain summoned.
The feeling of relying on his own power, as opposed to borrowed strength, was completely different.
Moreover, with Rozen's body filled with High-Grade Mana, the Beast Vassals could now utilize it — they were more than pleased.
Given Rozen's current mana reserves, he could fully support their summoning and existence without relying on external forces.
The only concern might be the artificial life form residing in another world — Astarte.
In the past, the girl had relied on Rozen to establish a channel to the seal within his body, using the Fourth Primogenitor's vitality to sustain her own artificial Beast Vassal. Now, with the channel severed, Rozen would need to find a new way to sustain her life and enable her continued use of her Beast Vassal once he returned.
For Rozen now, this wasn't a difficult problem to solve, so there wasn't much cause for concern — he just hoped that Astarte wouldn't casually summon her Beast Vassal during this time.
This was the first loss.
Besides that, there were two other losses.
"The Command Seals granted by Chaldea's summoning system are no longer usable, and even the Crimson Wing Formation can't be used."
This was the reason why the two Command Seals on Rozen's hands had disappeared.
The two Command Seals were mana crystals that directly connected to magic circuits. In Rozen's newly evolved and transcended magic circuits, they could no longer exist.
Additionally, the magic circuits now within Rozen were no ordinary thing, and the Command Seals could no longer connect with them.
In short, mere Command Seals were incapable of coexisting with Rozen's current magic circuits.
Thus, both the Command Seals granted by Chaldea's summoning system and the ones Rozen had inscribed to alter the nature of his magic circuits, enabling him to use the Crimson Wing Formation, were unable to connect to his magic circuits. As a result, they failed and disappeared.
Of course, the contract between Rozen and Mash still remained.
The Command Seals were merely a tool for issuing orders and a crystallization of mana. Even if they were gone, the contract between a Master and their Servant would persist. Otherwise, Masters who exhausted their three Command Seals wouldn't be able to maintain their contracts, which clearly wasn't the case.
There was no such logic.
Still, the fact remained that the Command Seals couldn't be used, nor could the Crimson Wing Formation be activated.
"Though it's a pity that I've lost the tenfold or even hundredfold amplification, the Crimson Wing Formation merely enhanced my mana. It didn't directly convert my blood into High-Grade Mana. With my magic circuits constantly enhancing my mana now, the importance of that secret technique is rapidly diminishing."
Therefore, despite all these losses, they were not significant.
Compared to Rozen's gains, these losses were inconsequential.
"The only regret is that the ascension isn't complete, and the infiltration of Foreign Mana is still ongoing. I can't immediately refine Foreign Mana."
On this point, Rozen felt some disappointment.
If he could immediately refine Foreign Mana, not only would Rozen become even more fearsome, but he would also be able to formally use the power of "Miracle."
Of course…
"This is only a matter of time," Altera said.
"You've already obtained the 'Key' and the 'Qualification.' From now on, it's only a question of time."
Once his ascension was complete, Rozen would fully grasp Foreign Mana and the power of "Miracle."
At that point, what heights Rozen would reach, Altera didn't know.
The only thing she knew was that, for the first time, she found herself somewhat looking forward to it.
This was a feeling she had never experienced before.
And this was only the beginning of the changes.