As Killian was busy with the duel in Veralt, Kai was hard at work collecting elemental cores.

He already had two sand elemental cores. That covered one aspect, but it wasn’t enough. For the ritual, he needed at least three different types of elemental cores. Without that balance of aspects, the connection to the space between realms wouldn’t stabilise properly.

So he shifted his focus immediately.

He began searching for information on other aspected elementals. And it didn’t take long to gain a breakthrough.

In just two days after killing the sand elementals, a Watcher drone reached him with a report. There had been sightings of a water elemental in the ocean near Vanderfall. According to the gathered accounts, it had been attacking pirate ships and merchant vessels alike. Entire crews had disappeared. Wreckage had washed up on shore—broken planks, shattered hull fragments—but no one who faced the elemental had survived.

That was enough confirmation for Kai.

The moment he received a general location, he moved. He flew from the Ashari desert to the borders of Vanderfall within a day. He didn’t stop to rest. From there, he headed straight out the ocean and began searching immediately.

But unlike the sand elemental, this one didn’t reveal itself so easily. Water elementals were more difficult to track. They could submerge into the depths of the ocean and remain hidden for long periods. Kai had no intention of diving underwater. Fighting in the sea would give the creature every advantage.

So he stayed above the surface.

Given the pattern of attacks, the elemental was actively hunting. That meant it would appear again sooner or later.

Kai floated over the ocean for an entire day, following the common shipping routes and scanning the waters below. He kept his senses open, listening carefully for disturbances, explosions, or distant screams.

On the second day afternoon, Kai finally found the elemental who already had a ship caught in its grasp.

His eyes landed on the water rise unnaturally around the vessel. The single Mage onboard tried to fight back, launching spells into the surging mass, but it wasn’t enough. The elemental was enormous. Its body towered higher than the ship itself, formed entirely of churning seawater.

Within moments, it wrapped around the hull and crushed it.

Wood snapped and the ship split in half.

Men screamed and threw themselves into the ocean, trying to escape the wreckage. They didn’t understand that the elemental was waiting for exactly that. The water around them shifted and swallowed them whole. The sea turned red in spreading patches.

Kai observed for several seconds, gauging its size and reaction speed.

It was far larger than the sand elementals. Stronger too, in terms of raw power. But the longer he floated to watch, the more lives it will take.

Hence, he moved.

Fire spells would be ineffective against it. At best, they would create steam and obscure his own vision. Instead, Kai relied primarily on ice.

He cast wide freezing spells, locking parts of the elemental’s body in place, and trying to find where the core was.

In an instant, sheets of ice formed over waves, slowing its movements. Spears of frost pierced into the shifting water mass, forcing it to react.

The elemental retaliated immediately, sending crashing waves upward in an attempt to drag him down. Water rose like hands, trying to engulf him midair.

Kai stayed mobile.

As expected, the core was not near the surface.

It was deep underwater.

Finding its exact position took time. He probed with mana threads, feeling for the densest concentration of energy beneath the surface. He searched and searched until far below, he found something surrounded by immense pressure.

Once he did it, he immediately moved towards it, letting multiple frozen pillars and slicing currents keep it occupied.

Kai was just above the water surface when he took out a breathing potion and drank it before diving head first.

Underwater, the pressure intensified immediately. The elemental reacted, attempting to drown him by compressing water around him and forcing violent currents to push him away.

Kai did what he could and fought through it.

He used controlled bursts of wind to propel himself downward while launching destructive potions that were brewed to be used underwater toward the core’s location. At the same time, he deployed his newer ice spells to freeze layers of water around the core, limiting its movement.

The fight dragged on for hours.

The elemental repeatedly tried to crush him with pressure or sweep him away with massive currents. Kai maintained his breathing and reinforced himself with mana, focusing entirely on the core.

The water elemental was protected by layers of dense water. But it was still vulnerable to sustained, concentrated attacks.

So he chipped at it methodically—freezing, striking, breaking, and repeating the same process several times until eventually, cracks formed.

When the core fractured enough, the water around him lost cohesion. The massive body above destabilised and collapsed into ordinary waves.

Compared to the sand elementals, this fight had been worse and had taken far longer.

Kai rose from the ocean soaked from head to toe, robes heavy with saltwater. He disliked the feeling. Water clung to everything, and even with mana pushing the moisture away, the discomfort lingered.

Still, the victory mattered more.

The sea around Vanderfall would be safer now. Merchant ships and even pirate vessels would no longer vanish without warning. It was something Elias would likely appreciate when they met again, and that meeting would probably happen soon.

Kai intended to ask Elias to join the expedition to the Earth plane.

As an Earth Mage, Elias would be highly efficient there. Another Magus at his side in a foreign realm would reduce the risks significantly, especially if Kai ended up staying longer than expected.

Hopefully, Elias would agree.

For now, there was one more elemental core to secure.

Kai returned to the Valkyrie tower the next day and placed the water elemental core in a reinforced chamber. Once it was sealed and stabilised, he shifted his focus back to research.

He went through books on elementals, looking for records of other long-lived manifestations of mana. Elementals often existed for centuries. That made historical records a reliable starting point.

However, he limited his search to those within or near Lancephil.

He had no intention of crossing into distant kingdoms just to hunt an elemental. Even if he could avoid detection, a battle with a high-grade elemental would draw attention.

If other kingdoms learned he was operating within their borders, it would create unnecessary political tension.

Magus or King, one could not move freely without raising alarm in different kingdoms. Kai understood that reality, even if he disliked it.

So he focused on Lancephil.

If he could not find one through records, then perhaps the Watchers would uncover something.

Either way, he needed just one more core, and with that in mind, he got into research.

The news that came through from the Watchers in the next week was unfortunate—They had found nothing useful.

But by then, he was reading his thirteenth book and found something useful in it.

There was a mention of a dormant volcano near the edge of Lancephil. It was described more as a mountain than an active volcano. The region was largely avoided and barren. High-grade wild beasts lived there, and even experienced hunters rarely ventured close.

According to the record, a fire elemental had once been sighted within it. The book suggested it was asleep.

With no better lead available, Kai decided to investigate.

He flew toward the general direction described in the text. It took longer than expected. Kai was not familiar with every region of Lancephil, especially the remote areas with mountains around it. On several occasions, he descended near villages to ask for directions.

That alone caused attention.

Very few Mages in Lancephil could fly. And even fewer did so openly.

Kai quickly realised he was easily recognisable. Portraits of him had been circulated among the populace. Bards had sung detailed accounts of his actions, especially the part about him flying across battlefields.

Whenever he landed to ask for directions, crowds gathered within minutes. Some villagers bowed. Others simply stared. A few even insisted he visit their homes so they could offer him food or gifts.

Kai declined politely each time. He repeated his question, memorised the directions, and left as quickly as possible.

The experience left him mildly unsettled. He had not considered how famous he had become within the kingdom.

He shook off that thought immediately when he located the mountain.

From a distance, it did resemble a large, quiet peak rather than a volcano. There was no smoke rising or visible lava. The outer slopes were rocky and barren, but he still decided to check it thoroughly.

Kai entered through one of the cave systems built into its surface.

The deeper he went, the hotter his skin burnt.

And there, within a large inner chamber filled with hardened magma and cracks of faint red glow, he actually found the fire elemental.

Two hollow eyes burned above a mouth that dripped molten stone instead of breath. Its body was made of molten rock and thick magma shifted and flowed with each movement. There were yellow cracks that were drawn like veins, spilling streams of lava that hardened into black stone on the ground below.

When he saw the elemental, only one thought rang in his mind. Fuck, it is not dormant like the book had mentioned.

***

Kai dodged as the fire elemental hurled a mass of molten lava from its mouth.

The attack struck the ground where he had been a moment earlier, splashing outward and melting through the stone.

The elemental roared—a hollow, bubbling sound that ended with lava spattering to the ground like burning rain. What followed was flames surging even brighter across its body, outlining a far more defined shape than both the elementals he had faced before.

This one had a clear torso, arms formed from compacted magma and burning rock, and a face that twisted in visible fury. From time to time, it ripped chunks of stone from the cavern walls and flung them like artillery.

It didn’t pause, instead it threw molten lava at him one after another, chasing and trying to close the distance.

It had been over five hours since he had been battling.

Half of that time had been spent outside the cavern itself, the elemental forcing him up through the mountain and across its slopes in bursts of lava and fire. Kai had kept his distance, testing, observing, and looking for the optimal method to reach the core and kill it.

Fortunately, it had not been able to land a decisive blow.

Kai’s own fire aspect granted him significant resistance. The flames hurt, but they did not cripple him. Even so, resistance alone would not win this battle.

He knew that wind aspected spells were useless here, except for movement and creating a strong shield, and his ice spells might help to suppress, but weren’t refined enough for a prolonged clash against something of this age. He had not had the time to strengthen them.

His only advantage was his own flames.

Even then, he had to adapt.

During the drawn-out exchange, Kai had begun modifying a fire armour spell he already knew. He reshaped its structure mid-battle, reinforcing its inner layers and adjusting the mana flow to insulate against extreme heat rather than deflect it.

If he could not break the elemental from outside, he would go through it.

He saw no better way to reach the core.

The elemental opened its mouth wide again. Flame gathered deep within its throat.

Then it exhaled.

A torrent of fire washed across the cavern, consuming everything in its path. The stone blackened and cracked. The air itself seemed to ignite.

But Kai simply stood there, and activated the spell he had prepared.

Mana surged out of him in a heavy wave, comparable to a fifth-circle cast. The armour snapped into place around his body, layers of controlled flame wrapping tightly over him like a second skin. Instead of burning outward, the fire folded inward, stabilised, and condensed.

The heat slammed into him.

For a brief second, everything turned white. Mana drained rapidly, but he held the structure together.

For now, cost did not matter.

Reaching the core did.

Crimson circles formed in the air before him.

They locked into place one after another, overlapping, tightening, then collapsed inward and wrapped around his body. The modified armour sealed fully.

The pressure around him intensified immediately.

It was heavier than his wind armour. Denser too. The air around him distorted from the heat radiating off the spell. The cavern grew hotter, stone glowing brighter.

The elemental’s glare pierced through his skull as it followed it chunks of rocks tore from the wall.

This time, instead of dodging, he moved straight ahead. The first boulder slammed into the aura surrounding him and shattered. Stone cracked apart before making contact, fragments melting into liquid as they slid off the surface of the armour.

Kai felt the impact, but it did not slow him.

The elemental groaned, a deep, grinding sound. Then it opened its mouth and released another surge of flame.

The torrent swallowed Kai whole.

For a moment, he was completely engulfed. But the flames did not reach him.

They bent around the armour, splitting and flowing past as if repelled by an invisible barrier. The heat intensified outside, yet within the layered structure of his spell, Kai remained intact.

He smiled and accelerated.

He surged forward, closing the gap before the elemental could reposition.

The creature shifted sideways quickly. Unlike the sand elemental, it maintained a smaller, denser body to preserve mobility. It was fast.

Kai anticipated the movement.

He forced more mana into his legs. Flames flared downward as propulsion. He intercepted its path and crashed into it head-on.

The impact drove the elemental backward into the cavern wall.

Part of the ceiling collapsed from the shock.

Kai ignored it, and pushed deeper.

Flames pressed against him from every direction, resisting his advance. The elemental’s body compressed around him, attempting to burn through the armour.

Kai forced his way forward.

The modified spell held.

Fire parted around him as he carved a path through sheer momentum. The elemental’s outer layers caved under the pressure as he drove inward toward the core.

He could feel it ahead—dense, concentrated heat sealed in a core.

Then the elemental changed tactics.

Two massive fiery arms formed within its body and shot inward, grabbing at the armour, trying to crush and restrain him before he could reach the core.

Kai had expected the counterattack.

The moment the fiery hands closed in, he released a concentrated ice beam at close range. Frost spread instantly over sections of the arms. Steam exploded outward as ice met magma.

The freeze would not last long.

He did not need it to.

The hands slowed just enough.

Kai forced himself forward and broke fully into the elemental’s body.

Heat pressed in from every direction.

It felt like swimming inside a volcano. Molten rock flowed around him in thick currents. Every movement required effort. The elemental thrashed violently, trying to expel him by shifting its entire mass.

By now, Kai was used to this.

He had fought sand and water elementals. The resistance was different with all of them, but the principle was the same.

He pushed forward.

The armour held as magma slid over it. Moving through it was slow—like forcing his way through dense ice, except burning instead of freezing—but he did not deviate from his path.

He had already identified the core. He reached it within minutes.

The core burned at the centre, compact and blindingly bright. Kai extended his hand and made contact.

For a single second, everything paused.

Then the elemental reacted.

The entire mountain seemed to shake as the elemental thrashed harder, trying to dislodge him. Stone cracked somewhere above. The chamber trembled as if it might collapse.

Kai did not let go.

He pushed mana directly into the core.

After studying previous cores, he had learned how to destabilise them internally instead of just striking from outside. His mana wrapped around the structure, probing for weak points and forcing its way toward the centre.

The elemental shrieked.

The sound was so sharp that Kai flinched, but he still maintained pressure.

Cracks soon spread through the core from within. The screech rose higher, then cut off abruptly.

The magma around him lost cohesion. Heat fluctuated as the elemental’s structure failed.

Kai tore the weakened core free, internal fractures spreading across its surface. The surrounding molten mass began to collapse, turning from controlled structure into unstable magma.

He immediately rose upward, blasting through the dissolving body and breaking toward open space.

When he emerged, he realised they were no longer in the original chamber. The elemental had smashed through the side wall during its struggle, opening into a different cavern.

Chunks of stone lay scattered. A massive hole marked the path it had carved through the mountain.

Kai exhaled. At least the mountain was still standing.

He looked down at the cracked but intact core in his hand, then turned and made his way toward the exit tunnels.

He now had three elemental cores. That was everything he could reasonably gather on his own.

Now, he only hoped Francis had found a Shadow Mage.

***

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