Magus Reborn

Although Prince Cassian asked for time to consult his councillors, or whoever else he wished to speak with, both he and Kai knew the deal was already sealed.

There was no other kingdom strong enough to support him.

After seeing those creatures appear out of nowhere, and with most of his family already dead, Cassian had become exactly what Kai expected him to become—paranoid.

The next person to die could easily be him, and once Kai told him a little about the Maleficia, that fear only grew worse. Cassian didn’t seem to understand everything. The cult, the strange creatures, the death of the king, the death of the crown prince, and Marcell’s connection to it all were too much to take in at once.

But in the end, he didn’t need to understand everything. He only needed to understand that his life was in danger.

Kai made that very clear.

He also made a promise. Once the deal was signed, Lancephil would send a group of Enforcers and Mages to guard him. Their task would be simple. Keep Prince Cassian alive long enough for him to become and remain king.

More than that, Lancephil would help build arrays around whatever residence Cassian chose to live in. The arrays would be designed to detect different kinds of mana fluctuations, especially the kind caused by hidden movement, stealth spells, spatial abilities, and any other strange method the Maleficia might try to use.

It wouldn’t make him untouchable, no. if he was being honest, nothing could do that. But it would make him much harder to kill, especially if he had the sense to stay inside his residence until the danger lessened.

Of course, there was still the matter of his brothers’ funerals.

Kai left that in Cassian’s hands.

He was not the man’s caretaker, after all. He was here to secure Vanderfall, stop the Maleficia from gaining another kingdom, and make sure Lancephil did not end up surrounded by enemies. How Cassian buried his brothers was not something he intended to manage.

There was, however, one thing the prince rejected with everything he had.

Kai’s request to bring Elias back to Lancephil. And honestly, Kai understood why Cassian was so against it.

Elias was the strongest Mage Vanderfall had left. He was old, experienced, oath-bound, and terrifyingly difficult to kill. With Cassian’s life now clearly in danger, there was no reason he would willingly send away the one person most capable of protecting him.

If Kai were in his position, he would have rejected it too.

But he was persistent.

He made it clear that even if Elias was not there, Cassian’s life would still be protected. Lancephil would send enough Mages and Enforcers to guard him, and the arrays would make assassination far harder than it had been before. As long as Cassian did not do anything foolish, he would be safe enough.

More than that, Kai framed the request as a concession.

Until now, he hadn’t asked for anything in return for purging Vanderfall’s lands of the plague.

His kingdom had lost men, resources, and time doing it, while Vanderfall had offered little more than silence. As a royal, Cassian understood what that meant. He might not like it, but he could not pretend the debt did not exist.

And Kai wasn’t asking for Elias permanently.

On paper, he only needed the old Magus’s help with the corruption spreading through Lancephil. That was a reasonable request, especially after everything Lancephil had already done for Vanderfall. It was also one Cassian could not easily reject without looking both ungrateful and unreasonable.

Then Kai added the final weight.

“If Elias comes with me,” Kai said, “I will help him climb to the sixth circle.”

Cassian went quiet after that.

He already knew Kai was a Sixth-Circle Mage. Anyone even remotely familiar with magic understood how rare that was. For Elias, reaching the sixth circle would not only mean greater strength, but also a longer life and a better chance of protecting Vanderfall’s royal family for years to come.

That was not something Cassian could ignore.

With all those points pressed together, the prince finally agreed to let Elias go with Kai. But only after Lancephil sent enough Mages and Enforcers to protect him in the old Magus’s absence.

That only took less than a day.

Kai wanted Elias at his side as quickly as possible, so he returned to Lancephil himself. He gathered one of Francis’s assistants to handle the paperwork for the agreement, along with a group of available Mages and Enforcers. They were strong enough to protect Cassian, but not so strong that Lancephil would weaken itself by sending them away.

Then he flew them back to Vanderfall. Cassian looked surprised by how quickly Kai moved.

Kai didn’t bother explaining.

There was no time to waste on this. Francis’s assistant could handle the formal contract between the two kingdoms, including the terms they had already discussed. Cassian could speak with him, argue over wording, and pretend he had more room to negotiate than he truly did.

Kai had more important things to do.

So, once the protection was in place and Elias was free to leave, Kai took the old Magus with him and returned to Lancephil.

The old man had been mostly silent over the last two days.

He moved beside Kai on platforms of earth, raising and lowering them beneath his feet as they travelled. It was not as fast as his flight, but Elias controlled the ground with such ease that he never truly slowed them down.

Eventually, he spoke.

“Was it the truth?” Elias asked.

Kai looked at him. “Which part?”

“When you said you would help me reach the sixth circle.” Elias’s gaze stayed forward, but his voice had grown more serious. “I know you have a way. But are you truly going to share it?”

Kai matched his pace and nodded. “Yes.”

Elias turned slightly toward him.

“I need allies with power,” Kai said. “And I have already given the method to Veridia. You are still more trustworthy in my eyes.”

Elias kept staring at him. He probably hadn’t expected Kai to share something like that with Veridia first.

After a moment, the old man frowned.

“Was that wise? Veridia was never known for loyalty simply because someone gave her something.”

“I don’t need loyalty,” Kai said. “Only a working agreement.”

Elias didn’t answer immediately.

Kai continued, “It is the same with you. If I give you the method, I am not asking you to serve me. I only want your help with what is coming.”

At that, Elias’s expression changed. Concern pulled at the wrinkles on his face, making him look older than he had a moment ago. “Is the corruption in Lancephil that bad?”

“It is bad,” Kai said. “But it is much more than that.”

So, during the rest of the trip, Kai explained.

He told Elias about the battle with Dravros. He spoke of what had happened after that, and the vision of the dragon. He explained what he had found inside the corruption zone, how the plague had changed, how the land itself had begun twisting, and how the monsters there had been different from anything ordinary.

Then he told him about Victor—a Sixth-Circle Mage, or at least, that was what Kai suspected him to be. When Elias heard the name, he went silent.

For a while, only the sound of shifting earth and rushing wind filled the space between them.

Then he slowly asked, “Are you certain his name was Victor?”

“Do you know him?”

“It is hard to say. I never met him personally, but I faintly remember an incident from when I was still a Second-Circle Mage… It was very long ago.”

“What incident?”

Elias was silent for a moment, still looking ahead as the earth platform carried him forward. “I was once dealing with a group of pirates who were becoming a problem for sea trade.”

Kai listened without interrupting.

“It was during that time that I fought a Shadow Mage named Victor,” Elias continued. “This was long ago, but even then, he was already a Fourth-Circle Mage. We only managed to capture him because we had several third and fourth circles helping us.”

“A Fourth-Circle Shadow Mage pirate,” Kai said.

“Yes,” Elias said. “And a dangerous one. He killed around two dozen of our Mages before we caught him.”

Kai’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“The kingdom wanted to bring him to our side,” Elias said, sounding almost tired at the memory. “Shadow Mages at that level were rare. Even with what he had done, there were people who believed it would be better to use him than execute him.”

“I assume that strategy failed,” Kai said.

“Yes. He escaped.”

“How?”

“That, I do not know,” Elias said. “No one did. I only know that he escaped, and after that, he was never heard from again. No other kingdom seemed to take him in, at least not openly. He also never revealed how he became so strong. We assumed he had been stealing spells and methods from other Mages.”

Kai glanced at him. “And you never heard of him again?”

“Not until today. I never expected to hear the name Victor again, much less from you.”

The conversation faded after that. Kai grew silent as they continued moving. The implications were not pleasant.

A pirate who had once been a Fourth-Circle Shadow Mage had somehow become connected to Maleficia. More than that, he might now be a Sixth-Circle Mage. That was not the kind of enemy Kai had expected to be dealing with a week ago, but reality had changed quickly.

Victor was no longer just some strange Mage who had appeared through an illusion and left a mocking letter behind. He had history and proof that he had survived for a long time.

If he had already been at the fourth circle when Elias was young, then he had a century to gather experience, refine his magic, and grow stronger. That alone made him dangerous. A Mage who reached the sixth circle was always dangerous, but one who had survived as a hunted pirate, escaped a kingdom’s custody, and then vanished for generations was something else entirely.

There was also another question Kai could not ignore.

Did Victor have the water element too?

It was strange for a Shadow Mage to be active at sea. No matter how strong a Mage was, fighting over water came with its own limits. Ships, storms, tides, distance, and the lack of stable ground all mattered. A Shadow Mage could be terrifying in the dark corners of a city or inside a battlefield full of distractions, but the open sea was not an obvious place for one to thrive.

Unless Victor had another element that made it easier. Kai kept that thought to himself.

For now, it was only a possibility.

Victor’s shadow magic could have helped a ship move at night.

Kai could understand that much. A shadow Mage would be dangerous in darkness, especially on a sea where enemies had little room to escape and very little light to rely on. But even then, piracy was not a career most Shadow Mages chose. It was too exposed, too unstable, and too dependent on weather, ships, and crews.

When Kai asked Elias for more information, the old Magus gave him very little.

Victor had never shown another aspect. He had never admitted to having one either. As far as Vanderfall knew, he had only been a Shadow Mage. The stranger part was that he had been the only one they managed to capture. The rest of the pirates had either died fighting or used poison to kill themselves before they could be taken alive.

Kai found that even more suspicious—not a single survivor besides Victor. That made him far more curious about the man, but he knew that anything he thought for now would only be speculation. Sooner or later, they would fight. When that time came, Kai would learn more about Victor whether the man wanted to reveal it or not.

Until then, questions without answers were a waste of time. So Kai moved on.

Instead of digging deeper into a past Elias barely remembered, he began explaining the spell that would help the old Magus reach the sixth circle.

Elias had been ready for the advancement for a long time. His foundation was solid, his mana control was excellent, and his understanding of earth magic was far beyond most Mages Kai had met in this life. The only thing he had lacked was the method.

Even so, he seemed unable to believe that the path to the sixth circle was hidden inside a spell that only took a day or two to master.

Fortunately, he did not ask where it came from.

Maybe he already knew Kai wouldn’t answer.

Kai explained what he needed to know instead. He warned Elias about the danger of the advancement, the strain on the body and soul, and the way the spell would force his mana to change. He told him to find a place with strong mana concentration before attempting it.

He also warned him about possible creatures appearing during the advancement.

Elias might not be as unlucky as Kai had been, but it was better to be prepared. A Mage at the edge of the sixth circle would be vulnerable at the worst possible moment, and Kai did not want to lose an ally before the old man could become more useful.

More days had already passed than Kai liked. There were things on his agenda that needed immediate attention. And the last thing he could do was wait politely.

So, after explaining everything, Kai looked at Elias. “Reach the sixth circle within the next three days.”

Elias stared at him as if Kai had asked him to pull the moon down from the sky.

“I need you ready before things get worse.”

The old man didn’t look fully convinced that he would be able to pull it off. Kai gave him confidence anyway.

Once Elias learned the soul spell, the advancement itself shouldn’t take too long. At least, that was what Kai believed. His foundation was already strong, and he had been stuck at the edge of the fifth circle for years. He did not lack understanding. He only lacked the final step.

So, on the way back to Lancephil, Elias began learning the spell.

Kai helped wherever he got stuck. Elias did not have much experience with soul spells, so there were parts that confused him at first. But the spell was not tied to any specific aspect, which meant it did not clash with his earth magic. Once he understood the basic principles, his progress became much smoother.

By the time the walls of Lancephil came into view, Elias had managed to form a basic structure of the spell.

It wasn’t perfect yet, but it was enough for him to keep refining it on his own.

Viscount Redmont was there when they arrived.

He looked relieved to see Kai, and from the way he approached almost immediately, he clearly wanted to speak about the recent events in the kingdom. Under normal circumstances, Kai would have listened properly. Redmont was not a useless noble, and the border situation with Vanderfall had been one of the problems Kai needed to settle.

But time was too short.

Kai gave him only a brief explanation. He told him that Vanderfall should not cause skirmishes with Lancephil from now on, and that a formal agreement between the two kingdoms would soon be handled. Redmont looked surprised at first, then visibly pleased.

That, at least, was good news for him.

Kai didn’t stay longer than necessary.

After the short conversation, he left with Elias and continued toward Veralt.

Once they reached the city, Elias didn’t follow him to the castle. The old Magus immediately said he would leave for an underground cave in Lancephil that had a high concentration of mana. Apparently, he had known about it for some time but had never had a proper reason to use it.

Now he did. Kai wished him success.

He meant it too. If Elias reached the sixth circle, Lancephil would gain another powerful ally at the exact time it needed one. If he failed, Kai would have wasted time and given away a valuable method for nothing.

There was nothing more he could do about it now. With Elias gone, Kai went to find Francis.

He needed to tell him what had happened in Vanderfall, check the state of the corruption zones, and take stock of everything else that had gone wrong while he was away. But when he entered the room where Francis usually worked, he found someone unexpected already there.

Veridia.

She sat with a teacup in her hand, looking as if she was in the best mood she had been in since birth.

Her robes were new, and they suited her far better than the travel-worn clothes she had left with. She sipped her tea calmly, almost lazily, as if she had not just returned after attempting one of the most dangerous advancements a Mage could make.

Beside her stood Loras.

The apprentice looked between Francis and his assistants with a proud smile, his back straight and his chin slightly raised, as if his master’s success was somehow his own achievement too.

Kai stopped at the doorway for a moment. Then he looked at Veridia.

“You succeeded,” he said.

Everyone in the room turned toward him at once. Francis’s assistants lowered their heads, and Loras straightened even more, but Kai ignored the bows. His attention stayed on Veridia.

She seemed at least ten years younger. The wrinkles that had once marked her face had faded, and her skin looked smoother. There was a freshness to her mana as well.

Veridia turned her teacup slightly in her hand and looked at him.

“Yes,” she said. “Your method worked. It went exactly as you said it would.”

Kai nodded.

“If this were common knowledge,” Veridia continued, “we would have at least two dozen Sixth-Circle Mages across the world.”

“I am glad it is not common knowledge yet,” Kai said. “I do not think those two dozen Mages would all like me.”

Veridia smiled faintly. “If they are smart, they will.”

“I never expected the day would come when you started to like me.”

“I didn’t say I like you,” she replied. “You are just more than useful to me if you are willing to share your secrets. I value progress in magic far more than I care to admit.”

Kai knew that was the truth.

No Mage who lacked true interest in magic ever became a Magus. Things like talent, resources, and luck mattered as well. But none of those things were enough on their own. To reach that level, a Mage needed drive, patience, and a burning ambition that separated them from ordinary spellcasters.

Veridia had always had that. It was one of the reasons she was dangerous.

Before Kai could say more, Francis spoke from the side.

“Did you manage to bring Magus Elias back with you, Your Majesty?”

“Yes. He is currently trying to reach the sixth circle as we speak.”

Francis’s eyes widened slightly, but before he could respond, Veridia cut in.

“That is good,” she said. “You will need another Sixth-Circle Mage.” Kai turned back to her. There was something strange in her tone.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Veridia set her teacup down.

“Well,” she said, “I didn’t come here only to tell you that I succeeded. I also came because I brought news.”

Kai’s heart sank slightly. “Not good news, I am guessing.”

Veridia looked at him with a dry smile.

“For people like us,” she said, “there is hardly ever good news.”

***

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