Harem System In A fantasy World

Evander rarely ever visited home with his main body, having gotten into the habit of using clones for such things, but this time, he had done so because this was likely going to be his only chance to return before the Legacy World opened.

It wasn’t because he hated home.

His mother and younger sister were here, after all, and unlike his father, the two of them were considerably less crass.

However, it was only natural that he spend the short break they had been awarded training and gaining whatever little strength he could before that promised day arrived.

In fact, despite the grace period having already ended just a day ago, he hadn’t even made any plans to travel.

Because he could feel it.

I’m close.

Just a little more, and my understanding of my Will of Darkness will progress.

Evander’s eyes remained closed as he sat alone in his training chamber, his mind immersed in the darkness surrounding him.

Comprehending a Law did not come with some sudden, overwhelming increase in strength. It wasn’t as though the moment someone grasped a fragment of a Law, their cultivation would suddenly leap several realms.

That wasn’t how it worked.

What Laws did was fundamentally different.

They transformed one’s understanding of magic.

They transformed the way mana was manipulated, the way spells were constructed, and even the way an affinity itself could be expressed.

It was the difference between knowing how to swing a sword and understanding why a sword cut.

The deeper one’s comprehension became, the closer they came to grasping the true nature of their affinity.

And breaking through in that regard might actually allow Evander to draw closer to Xavier.

Even if it was only for a short time.

A faint smile appeared on Evander’s face.

Despite the unwavering faith he had in his own talent, he had long since been convinced that Xavier Dawncrest was simply another kind of creature.

He would know.

Seven years.

Seven years of chasing that lofty goal of standing beside Xavier as an equal, and not once had he succeeded.

What hurt the most wasn’t even losing.

It was the fact that Xavier probably didn’t consider him a rival.

Whenever they happened to cross paths, Xavier barely spared him more than a passing glance, treating him much the same way he treated everyone else.

Maybe that’s what it takes to have that kind of talent.

To be so naturally gifted that everything around you simply ceased to matter.

To remain aloof because there was no one worth looking toward.

Evander exhaled slowly.

No.

That wasn’t the entire reason.

There was something else about Xavier’s talent that he had come to understand over the years.

The reason Evander didn’t believe his imminent breakthrough in the Will of Darkness would suddenly give him an advantage over Xavier was the same reason mages who wielded abstract affinities such as Gravity, Time, and Space were so feared.

Most people thought of affinities as separate things.

A scholar couldn’t afford to think that way.

They needed to understand that while these affinities were separate, they were also connected.

Different expressions of a greater whole.

Darkness existed alongside light.

Space existed alongside matter.

Time existed alongside change.

Gravity was intertwined with space itself.

The deeper one understood those connections, the more frightening the possibilities became.

And that was precisely what made Xavier’s path so terrifying.

Evander believed the only reason Xavier Dawncrest had yet to comprehend the Will of Gravity was because so little was actually known about the affinity.

While there were countless scholars who had spent generations studying fire, water, earth, and the other common elements, gravity was different.

There were theories and fragments of ancient research, but no established path or universally accepted method of comprehension like the others.

Xavier was essentially walking through an unexplored wilderness with nothing but his own talent to guide him.

Every step he took was one he had created himself.... And somehow, he was still progressing.

That bastard really is something else.

At this point, one might say Evander was giving Xavier far too much credit.

After all, hadn’t Evander managed to stand his ground against him during the selection tournament?

He had.

He had even forced Xavier to take him seriously for a brief moment, but Evander knew the truth.

His hands tightened slightly.

He had lost, and worse... That bastard hadn’t even used all of his strength!

Boom!

The ground beneath Evander suddenly caved in.

A violent surge of darkness erupted from his body, swallowing the surrounding light as though the very concept of illumination had been rejected from the room.

Evander’s eyes snapped open, and for a moment, his pupils were completely consumed by darkness.

Then something clicked, not within his mind. But deeper, within his very understanding of Darkness.

The countless fragments of knowledge he had accumulated over the past seven years suddenly began connecting together, forming a picture that had always been just beyond his reach.

His breathing stopped as a profound sense of understanding filled his being.

’So that’s it...’

He had been looking at Darkness as an element, as an affinity, and also as a source of mana, but that was only the surface.

Darkness wasn’t merely the absence of light. It was concealment, silence, septh, and the unknown.

The things that existed beyond perception.

The things that remained even when everything else had been stripped away.

His understanding deepened again.

Boom!

Another shockwave erupted.

The darkness surrounding Evander twisted violently, forming countless tendrils that spread across the training chamber before retracting into his body.

His Will of Darkness had advanced.

And with it, his control over every spell he possessed underwent a fundamental transformation.

Evander slowly raised one hand and a sphere of darkness appeared above his palm.

Previously, creating something like this would have required a deliberate circulation of mana.

Now, it appeared almost instinctively. He had long since progressed past the need to voice his spells while casting them, and now he had taken another step forward.

The sphere didn’t merely absorb light; it seemed to distort the perception of everything around it.

Evander stared at it, and he smiled with genuine satisfaction.

"Finally."

Seven years, countless hours of meditation, hundreds of failed attempts, and a full week of pushing himself toward the edge without rest.

It had finally paid off.

He clenched his fist and the sphere vanished. Evander’s expression slowly became serious.

His breakthrough had arrived, but the first person that came to mind wasn’t himself.

"How much closer am I now?"

He knew better than to assume that this breakthrough would suddenly put him on equal footing with that monster.

But for the first time in a long while, he felt like he had taken another genuine step toward that goal.

Evander rose slowly from the crater beneath him. His eyes burned with renewed determination.

...

"What?"

Evander stared at his father with a stupefied expression.

He had come here straight after his breakthrough, still riding the high of finally achieving the progress he had been chasing for the past week, and this was the last thing he had expected to hear.

Not only had his father somehow managed to completely ignore the breakthrough he hadn’t even had the chance to announce, but he had also dropped something so absurd that Evander wasn’t even sure he had heard correctly.

His father frowned at him.

"Have your ears gone deaf or something? I said the Chronos girl got betrothed to that boy named Elion Nova."

Evander’s jaw literally dropped to the floor.

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