Magus Reborn [Stubbing in Three Weeks]

Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and Kai didn’t get more than an hour of actual sleep.

Even that had only happened because Amara came to find him in the middle of his work. After a late midnight dinner, she forced him to rest for a while, refusing to leave until he actually lay down. Kai woke up an hour later, feeling fresh enough to start working again, though he truly wished there were more than twenty-four hours in a day.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of changing that part of the world. He was no god. Not yet, at least.

As it turned out, the pressure of feeling like the world might end any day was a great motivator. It sharpened his thoughts and forced his mind to keep moving, and because of that, Kai made a great deal of progress with the mana hands.

Part of it was because the prototype had worked.

Once he had a working model, even if it was nowhere close to the final version, he had a base to build on. That changed everything. He was no longer trying to create something out of nothing. He could test, adjust, fail, repair, and improve the structure piece by piece.

In just three days, he managed to build on the design by adding a wide network of mana veins.

They were not true veins, of course. They were closer to tubes made from condensed mana, running through the structure on his back and allowing mana to flow in a straight line. That made it much easier to push power into the hands without needing to control every small movement manually.

The result was still far from perfect.

Even something as simple as pushing mana through the structure could burst one or two of the artificial veins if he applied too much force. But at least the rest of the network held together now. That alone was progress. A few days ago, the whole thing would have collapsed the moment he tried to move too much mana through it.

The spells he could cast through the hands were still limited as well.

For now, anything beyond second-circle spells was too unstable, unless it was one of the imprinted spells built directly into the structure. Those worked differently. Kai only had to push mana into them, and the spell would activate on its own, following the pattern he had already carved into the mana hands.

That made them reliable.

Not perfect, but reliable enough to use in battle if he had no other choice. And for now, that was all Kai could ask for.

Honestly, a part of him wanted to rely on the imprinted spells instead of trying to cast through the mana hands normally. They were far more effective.

Second-circle spells were not going to harm tougher opponents, and right now, forcing third or fourth-circle spells through the mana hands would cause more problems than it solved. The structure would likely break under the pressure, and even if it held, the strain on Kai’s mind would be too much.

That was the real issue.

He wasn’t only using the mana hands by themselves. He was trying to use them while casting his own spells at the same time. His current limit was triple casting. With two extra hands added into the process, his mind would have to manage five spells at once.

That was far too much.

If he forced it, he would not become stronger. He would fracture his Mana brain and make himself useless at the worst possible time.

Kai had known this would be a struggle. But honestly, he had expected to adjust to it faster.

As it turned out, he had been overconfident in his own abilities. Even using two extra second-circle spells through the mana hands had been difficult. The burden on his mind was heavy, and he knew it would only grow worse with higher-circle spells.

He couldn’t allow that weakness to remain. So he had to think of another way. And there was only one thing that could help him—the seventh circle.

During the last three days, Kai had looked into it as much as he could, despite knowing the problems that came with advancing too quickly. His growth had already been unnatural, and forcing another leap so soon could create issues he might not be able to fix easily.

But the seventh circle was different from the sixth.

If the sixth circle was about the soul, then the seventh was about the body.

That alone made it more complicated. It wasn’t something he could solve with a single spell and a proper mana-dense location. The body had to be changed, strengthened, and rebuilt in a way that allowed it to hold and process far greater amounts of mana.

That took time.

Even the fastest Mage in history to reach the seventh circle had taken no less than nine months to complete the process. And he didn’t have nine months.

That was nine months of continuous advancement without even getting the chance to eat or drink, simply surviving on mana while the body slowly changed. That was dangerous enough on its own, but he didn’t have nine months.

Even if he did, he certainly didn’t have nine months where he could do nothing except focus on cultivation. He had a kingdom to run and Maleficia to counter. Moreover, there were things that needed his attention—like the corruption zones spreading through his land, enemies preparing around his borders, and a Sixth-Circle Shadow Mage somewhere in the dark. Sitting still for nine months while everything moved without him was not an option.

But at the same time, he couldn’t simply reject the idea of advancement. Strength mattered too much.

If reaching the seventh circle was the only way to stand against Malefic, then Kai needed to find a path toward it, even if that path was unreasonable. Ideally, he needed a way to advance while barely any time passed in the outside world.

That meant one of two things.

Either he had to modify the advancement method, or he had to learn how to slow down time. Both were far outside what he could currently do.

Kai might be a great Mage. He was the fastest person in this world to reach the sixth circle, and he would admit that he was good at studying magic. But he was not some impossible genius who could create an entirely new field just because he needed it.

The reason he had risen so quickly was not only talent.

His organs were of a certain quality, and he carried knowledge from thousands of years in his mind. Those advantages mattered. Without them, he would not have reached this point so fast. But even with them, creating time spells out of nowhere was not realistic.

Chronomancy had never truly developed.

Time wasn’t a natural aspect a Mage could simply awaken and train. There had been attempts through rituals, of course. The ritual Kai had used to send himself back in time was one of them. But even those attempts had never progressed beyond a certain point, and most of them ended in failure or death.

He wasn’t going to rely on something like that. Dying here would be far worse than falling, and he knew that better than anyone.

So for now, he pushed the thought aside.

The seventh circle mattered, but it wasn’t something he could force today. What he could do was continue improving the mana hands and prepare to purge the corruption zones. Those were problems in front of him, and unlike time spells or impossible advancements, they were things he could actually make progress on.

So Kai returned his focus to the mana hands.

If he could not reach the seventh circle yet, then he would become as strong as possible within the sixth.

For now, he was only waiting for Elias.

And as soon as the old Magus returned, he didn’t waste time. He asked both Elias and Veridia to accompany him to the corruption zones, and as it turned out, the two new Sixth-Circle Mages were a little reluctant.

Not because they didn’t want to help, because they wanted to duel each other first.

Kai didn’t know what exactly had gotten into them, but both looked far too pleased with their advancements. Veridia still carried that sharp satisfaction in her expression, and Elias looked younger as well. Even more than Veridia, in fact. The old Magus could easily pass as a middle-aged man now, with fewer wrinkles, clearer eyes, and a steadier strength in the way he carried himself.

Both of them were clearly eager to test what they could do. Kai had no intention of allowing it.

He wasn’t going to let them waste mana in a duel and delay the purging for another day. The plague was still spreading. People were still suffering because of it. Every hour they wasted was another hour for dead mana to crawl farther into Lancephil’s land.

So they moved immediately.

Elias was not happy about it, but in the end, he chose to let one of Kai’s wind hands carry him instead of travelling on earth platforms. The platforms were fine over large stretches of grassland, but they damaged the ground over time and were not as fast. He wanted speed, not dignity.

Like that, the three of them headed toward the closest corruption zone near Veralt.

This one had spread a lot from a distant town near a small mining settlement. From the reports, the main problem had been the town’s size. It was too small to hold the fiends for long, and once the place was overrun, the creatures had moved on quickly. As they spread, the dead mana followed with them, poisoning more land in every direction.

From above, the corruption zone looked like a large drop of blood that had fallen onto the earth and spread outward.

The ground had darkened into a sickly red-black stain. Trees stood twisted and half-dead. The roads were broken, and the fields around the town looked as if something had drained all life from them. Fiends and weavers moved below, some wandering aimlessly while others gathered near pockets of thicker dead mana.

It was worse than Kai liked. Veridia looked down at the corrupted land for a while before speaking.

“I believe we should take different sections.”

Veridia pointed toward the road.

Several groups of weavers were gathered there, eating what looked like a fiend. Their thin bodies bent over it, pulling pieces apart before stretching the remains across the road in long, disgusting strands. The corruption continued past them, reaching all the way toward the distant town.

“I will take care of that,” Veridia said.

Elias looked in the same direction, then toward the town. “You handle the roads. I will take the town.”

“Sure,” he agreed. “I will stay above and keep watch for any larger fiend. If Victor appears, I will handle him.”

Both of them nodded. A moment later, Kai released Elias.

The old Magus dropped straight toward the ground, but there was no panic on his face. Before he could hit the earth, a platform burst up from below and caught him smoothly. Elias landed on it as if he had stepped onto solid floor, then immediately rushed toward the town.

The platform carried him forward with frightening speed. When he reached the walls, they broke beneath him.

The sound was enough to draw every creature nearby. Dozens of weavers and fiends turned toward him at once, their bodies twitching before they rushed in his direction. Elias simply watched them come and let his magic do the work.

Spikes erupted everywhere.

They didn’t only rise from the ground. They burst from broken walls, cracked stones, old houses, and the remains of streets. Any creature that charged too quickly was skewered before it reached him, their bodies lifted into the air as black blood spilled down the stone and dirt.

The larger fiends pushed through anyway.

They ignored the first wave of spikes, their heavier bodies tearing themselves free as they continued toward him. Elias lowered his hand slightly, and the earth beneath them shook. The ground opened under their feet, dragging them down before closing again. A moment later, more spikes formed inside the earth, and the trapped fiends died without even managing to crawl back out.

The few creatures that came from the rooftops met an even worse end.

A section of Elias’s platform rose higher and curved into a shield. The weavers leapt toward him, only to smash into it with enough force to break their own limbs. Then the shield split apart into several massive boulders and dropped on them before they could recover.

The street shook as stone crushed bodies. More weavers and fiends died beneath the falling weight. Kai watched from above, eyes narrowing slightly.

He had always known that Earth Mages could be terrifying when their feet were on solid ground. Their strength came from control, from the ability to turn the battlefield itself into a weapon.

But seeing Elias move like this made Kai believe it properly. The old Magus didn’t fight the town. He used it.

Elias had been strong before.

But after reaching the sixth circle, it felt as if he had been holding back all this time. His magic was far more natural. The ground responded to him almost instantly.

Kai was certain Elias could handle everything on the ground by himself.

Even Veridia, floating nearby, looked more than a little impressed.

“The old man seems to have gotten his youth back,” she said, watching as another row of spikes tore through a group of fiends. “Look at how he is fighting.”

Kai glanced at her, then pointed toward the section she had agreed to clear. “You should get moving too.”

“Do not give me orders. I was just on my way.”

She raised her hand and pointed toward the groups of weavers and fiends rushing along the road toward the town. The creatures had clearly heard the commotion Elias was causing, and more of them were trying to gather there.

Before they could reach him, dark lightning fell from the sky. Dozens of bolts struck at once.

The lightning punched holes through the fiends and weavers, scorching their bodies with more force than natural thunder. Some died immediately, collapsing onto the corrupted road with smoke rising from their bodies. The ones that somehow survived did not last much longer.

Balls of flame followed.

They slammed into the remaining fiends and swallowed them whole, burning over their twisted bodies with vicious heat. Then small explosions rang out within the fire, throwing the creatures apart before they could even try to recover.

In less than a minute, the entire path was cleared and Veridia kept moving.

She flew toward the rest of the dead mana monsters, clearly intending to kill as many as possible before they could scatter. Kai watched as she cast another spell, spreading thick darkness over a large portion of the corruption zone. It rolled across the ground like a heavy fog, swallowing fiends, weavers, broken trees, and ruined stones all at once.

Then she dived into it. After that, Kai could no longer see much. He only heard the results.

Gurgling screams echoed from inside the darkness, one after another, as more and more monsters died where they stood. This was actually one of the spells Kai had given Veridia.

He hadn’t expected her to master it so quickly.

He was sure she already had obscuring spells of her own, but this one was different. It cost far less mana, had enough range to cover an entire town, and gave the caster the location of every living thing caught beneath the darkness. For a Shadow Mage, it was almost unfairly useful.

With that spell active, Kai was certain Veridia would finish her side in minutes. So he turned his gaze back toward the town.

Elias had already killed nearly half the fiends and most of the weavers. The streets around him were broken beyond recognition, filled with spikes, crushed bodies, collapsed walls, and pools of black blood.

Despite that, the old Magus looked calm. He moved through the town on his earth platform, raising walls, dropping stones, and tearing the ground open whenever something tried to get close.

He didn’t need help. Kai wasn’t going to give it anyway.

If he had wanted to spend all his own mana, he would’ve not brought two Sixth-Circle Mages with him in the first place.

The point of coming here with Elias and Veridia was to divide the burden.

Kai needed to save his strength for anything unexpected.

So he waited and watched as more of the corrupted town was destroyed in front of his eyes. Then the town shook.

At first, it was only a tremor beneath the broken streets. Elias stopped moving, his platform rising slightly as if he had sensed something below. A moment later, three buildings on the eastern side of the town began to shake violently.

Their walls cracked and their roofs split apart. The buildings broke outward in pieces, and a massive scream tore through every other sound in the corruption zone.

Kai’s eyes fixed on the source.

From the ruins, a huge fiend rose.

It was shaped like a giant cat, though calling it that felt almost wrong. Its body was too large, its limbs too long, and its patched fur hung from its frame in rotten clumps. Dead mana crawled over it like black smoke, gathering thickly around its shoulders and spine. It had only one eye in the centre of its face, wide and pale, staring at the world with a hunger that did not look natural.

He had not been completely sure before, but seeing this confirmed it.

The other corruption zones would probably have similar creatures hidden inside them. Those would be much harder to kill, and as he watched, the giant cat fiend lowered its body and began moving toward Elias.

Kai moved at once.

Flames gathered in his hand, twisting together into the shape of a massive spear. Heat rolled off it as he rushed toward the creature from above, finally joining the battle himself.

***

A/N - You can read 30 chapters (15 Magus Reborn and 15 Dao of money) on my patreon. Annual subscription is now on too.

Read 15 chapters ahead HERE.

Join the discord server HERE.

PS:

Book 5 is officially launched!If you’re on Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free—and even if you’re not buying, a quick rating helps more than you think. Also, it's free to rate and please download the book if you have Kindle unlimited. It helps with algorithm.

CLICK HERE!

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!