Through the course of their rest, the light of the plane dimmed a little.

It never truly became dark, but the brightness softened, the golden sky losing some of its intensity. They decided to wait it out and move again once the light grew stronger.

Kai spent most of that time cultivating.

He focused inward, checking every part of his body, making sure there were no lingering effects from his advancement. While it wasn’t common for higher circle Mages to damage their foundation, it still happened. Some pushed too hard, some made mistakes, and in the end, their growth became unstable.

Kai didn’t believe he had done anything wrong. But he still checked thoroughly. And in the end, everything was fine.

Once he was done, he moved out and sat by the fire.

The others had already taken rest. Elias had created small tents from earth and vines, and one by one, they had gone inside to sleep. The clearing was quiet now—the only sounds he heard was the soft crackle of flames and the faint hum of mana in the air.

Kai sat there, letting the warmth settle around him as his mind wandered.

There were many things on his mind, but most of it came back to his goals; his goals starting from the Elder Tree seed and returning to his world. They were the immediate priorities.

But they weren’t the only ones.

He had a personal goal here on the earth plane. He wanted to reach the sixth circle. It wasn’t an easy task, not even in the slightest.

For that, he needed some things including the right place. A location with enough mana, enough pressure, enough risk to push him through.

Those places weren’t everywhere. He would have to search for it once they had some time to breathe. But even that… wasn’t everything.

There were two other things that occupied his mind. The first was Hendricks. That man had created a soul inscription that was capable of sending dead mana to another realm. Kai knew the chances of him choosing the earth plane was low, but he still wanted to search it thoroughly.

Just so he could rule it out.

The second one was his own progress.

Now that he had reached the fifth circle, he could finally begin working on several spells he had been researching. Those were spells that required this level of control and power. And he knew he would need them.

Because there was a high possibility—no, he was certain that Maleficia would reveal itself soon.

When it did, it wouldn’t be a small thing. It would be something that the entire world would feel.

After all, the attack on the Elder Tree hadn’t happened without a reason. Kai’s instincts told him that much.

Something bigger was coming, and he needed to be ready for it. That was why he wanted new spells, ones that could deal with Maleficia on a larger scale.

Fortunately, he had access to his master’s space within his astral realm. Even here, in the earth plane, he could read, study, and continue working on his spell research.

Sadly, sleep didn’t come to him.

He didn’t even try.

Instead, he stayed awake by the fire, letting time pass until the light of the plane finally brightened again.

Once it did, everyone gathered.

Elder Caelith brought out a simple breakfast. It consisted mostly of herbs wrapped around something sweet inside. An elven staple.

It was surprisingly good.

Kai ate without complaint, though there was a small part of him that wished for tea to go along with it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t something he could have here.

There was a possibility to carry proper supplies even during expeditions if he could get his hands on a spatial ring in the future, but those were extremely difficult to make.

Once they were done eating breakfast—if it could even be called that—they prepared to move again.

Elias quickly created the earth platform beneath them, shaping it with practiced ease, while Elder Caelith’s spirit layered a protective wind barrier around it as before.

Then they set off. This time, Kai didn’t stay with the group.

He moved ahead.

He flew low over the grasslands, scouting the path in front of them and dealt with any threats before they could reach the others. And there were a lot of them.

Not entire flocks like the vranids, but stronger, more individual spirits. Creatures that saw them as prey, or perhaps just as something to fight out of boredom.

Some came from the sky, but many of them came from the ground.

Kai dealt with them one by one.

At one point, he even faced three spirits that looked like massive rhinoceroses. Their bodies were covered in thick layers of rock and stone. They could raise parts of the earth beneath them, creating platforms similar to Elias’s, using them to gain height and charge him with a lot of force.

He chose not to fight them head-on. Instead, he created massive hands of wind, shaping them with control before sending them down to grab the rhinoceros spirits. One by one, he lifted them off the ground and hurled them far into the distance.

They were incredibly heavy.

Each throw drained more mana than he would have liked, but it was still better than wasting time trying to break through their thick armour. Killing them would take far longer, and right now, time mattered more.

Throwing them aside was enough.

Land spirits didn’t chase like flying ones did. As long as they were pushed far away, they would simply stay there.

Flying spirits, however, were different. Every time one of them spotted the group, Kai had no choice but to kill it.

Some of them weren’t easy either.

There were owl-like spirits that caused him more trouble than expected. They could disappear completely, using some kind of cloaking ability to hide themselves before getting close and striking with sharp pecks.

They weren’t particularly strong. But they were annoying. Especially because their cloaking was good enough to fool even his mana sense.

Kai had no idea how they managed it. And that alone made them interesting.

If he had more time, he would have observed them properly, tried to understand the mechanism behind their abilities. But he didn’t have the luxury.

So instead, every time they got close, he simply destroyed everything around them. Wide bursts of fire, sweeping winds—anything that would force them out of hiding and kill them.

Like that, he kept moving, clearing one spirit after another.

He also watched out for uneven terrain, broken ground, and anything else that might slow them down. Step by step, they moved closer and closer to the tallest trees in the plane.

And finally, the clearing ended.

Kai slowed and noticed how the environment had shifted. The forest had grown denser and darker in comparison to the rest of the plane, and the roots on the ground became even larger, twisting wildly in every direction.

His senses spread out instinctively, until immediately, he felt dozens of spirits not far into the forests.

He felt his calm fading, waiting for a sudden attack from somewhere. For a good ten minutes, or however long it was, that was what he did—waited for an attack.

Fortunately, none of the spirits jumped out at him.

Kai dropped back to the ground, waiting for Elias and the others to arrive. It took a few more minutes, but they finally reached him. As soon as they did, Elias cancelled his spell, and the earth platform slowly descended until all of them stood on solid ground again.

Their gazes moved past Kai, toward the forest ahead, and they showed different levels of shock at seeing the massive trees up close.

Veridia was the first to speak.

“I think I liked the grasslands better,” she said. “With trees like these, we could be attacked from anywhere.”

Elder Caelith nodded slightly. “It also won’t be possible to move quickly here. Not unless you can get all of us to fly.” He turned his gaze toward Kai. “Can you?”

Kai shook his head. “No,” he said. “I could design a mass flight spell, but it would drain me too quickly. And none of you are used to flying like that anyway. It’s better if we walk.”

Killian stepped forward, climbing onto a rock to get a better look into the forest.

“But how are we going to find the earth sovereign, Lord Arzan?” he asked. “It’s not like we can just stumble across it.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Veridia said, nodding from the side. “We’re here, but we still don’t have a way to bring it out.”

“I do have one plan,” Kai said.

The words brought all of their attention to him.

Kai didn’t speak immediately. It was a plan he had come up with while flying here. And it was risky, extremely risky. So much so that even he wasn’t sure if it was worth attempting.

But he didn’t have another option. So he began to explain. And as he did, the expressions of everyone around him slowly turned grim.

***

As Kai was busy in the earth plane, things were also changing rapidly back in his world.

And at the centre of it all was Maleficia.

After ensuring that the Elder Tree was on its last breath, they had already begun the next phase of their plan. The goal was simple: bring more of the world under the symbol of their great lord.

But things had changed in the past few months.

The moment they had felt their lord stir, everything shifted, and they realised that it would rise far sooner than expected.

Their original plan had been clear. They wanted to welcome their great lord into a world that was already bending under his will.

Now, they didn’t have that luxury. With its awakening approaching, they were forced to adjust. And it wasn’t just that.

Two core members of their organisation had fallen, one after another, in a span of an hour.

That alone changed everything.

An organisation like Maleficia relied on precision. Every part needed to function perfectly for their vision to take shape. Dominating the world wasn’t something that could be achieved without every piece moving in harmony.

Selenia’s loss had been manageable.

Her followers had simply been absorbed by the others, her influence redistributed without much disruption.

But Regina, that was different. Her loss was significant. A large part of their plan had depended on her success. They had expected her to take the throne, to secure control from within.

She had not been the strongest among them, even with the great lord’s gifts. But she had something none of the others possessed. Influence; deep-rooted influence within the human kingdoms. And that was what they needed.

Through her, they had planned to ignite wars.

Wars were the perfect tool. They created chaos, shifted power, and allowed territories to be taken with justification. More importantly, they provided the perfect cover to spread dead mana across the world.

But with her death, that path had collapsed. Lancephil would no longer become the spearhead of their expansion.

The neighbouring kingdoms would remain untouched. Even Vanderfall, which they had almost destroyed, had somehow been healed.

That alone was enough to worry all of Maleficia.

If dead mana could be purged, then their entire plan would face a serious obstacle. Spreading it across the world was one thing, but if someone could undo it, then overwhelming the world with it would become far harder than they had anticipated.

They had tried to trace the source. Tried to find out how it had been done.

But Magus Elias had made sure no one could get close to the plague lands. The area was tightly controlled, leaving them with no direct way to investigate.

Still, they already had a guess. It could only be one person—Arzan. The new king of Lancephil.

The moment he had killed Shakran, one of Dravros’s servants, he had already been marked as a primary assassination target. But at the time, they had left him to Regina.

He had been her prey. But now, the prey had turned into a predator.

He had killed her. And Selenia as well. That alone changed how they viewed him.

A man who could rise from a baron to a king in such a short time, and accomplish all of that, was not someone to be underestimated. It was only natural to assume that he was also the one responsible for purging the dead mana.

Especially when considering his connection to Elias. And the fact that he had been present in the plague lands before the purification began.

The conclusion was clear.

But dealing with him was another matter entirely. He was a Magus. And they were notoriously difficult to kill.

Bracker, one of the leaders of Maleficia, had suggested taking matters into his own hands. He wanted to enter Lancephil alone and eliminate Arzan directly.

But the others had rejected the idea. If something went wrong, they couldn’t afford to lose another core member.

Without Bracker, the monster tribes under their control would lose their structure. They would turn wild again, and that would mean losing one of their strongest assets—Strong, fearless, and barely caring about their own lives, with regeneration that made them hard to put down.

Their best infantry force. And in a plan like theirs, that kind of loss was unacceptable. Because of that, the idea had been rejected.

Instead, they moved forward with another plan. One that would turn Arzan into a rat trapped between two closing walls, a situation where he would have nowhere to run.

But the plan wasn’t perfect, it had its own flaws. And the biggest of them—

Xantheus’ thoughts broke apart as he felt blood spill across his arm.

He immediately turned his head to the right.

The servant beside him froze, then hurriedly bowed, pressing a cloth against the wound. The man had pushed the needle too deep while carving the summoning circle, slicing across one of Xantheus’ veins.

He growled, and pushed himself up from the table, his voice sharp.

“You’ve been working on my summoning circles for over a year,” he said. “Why the fuck haven’t you learned yet?”

The servant went pale instantly.

“Forgive me, Lord Xantheus,” he said, dropping to his knees.

Xantheus didn’t reply right away. He looked down at his own body. Summoning circles covered his skin. Blood still trickled from the fresh wound, but he quickly pushed mana into it, sealing it shut without effort. He had been planning to modify one of his older circles.

But now, that would have to wait. Xantheus didn’t like signs like this.

Bad omens irritated him.

He stepped away from the table and reached for his robes. Just as he began putting them on, a knock sounded on the door.

A voice came from the other side. “Lord Dravros is here to meet you, my lord.”

Xantheus paused. That’s unexpected.

They rarely met outside their usual gatherings. Still, after a moment, he sighed.

“I’ll be there soon,” he said, then glanced once more at the man still kneeling on the ground, briefly considering what punishment would suit him.

Then he turned away.

For now, he was more interested in what Dravros had to say.

***

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep