Kai knew from the sheer strength of the Mages attacking the estate that their leader had to be someone in the same circle as him. But what he hadn’t expected was for the man to have a Shadow affinity. That revelation, however, explained a lot. Shadow spells weren’t just destructive—they were notoriously good for sneaking around unnoticed. And getting so many Mages inside the city undetected would’ve drained the man’s mana reserves. He must’ve been lying low here for days, slowly replenishing his energy before launching the attack. Not that it would matter for long. Kai would confirm that once he captured him.

Seeing him appear, the Shadow Mage paused, momentarily distracted, giving Bran just enough time to back off.

“I was hoping to finish off the nobles before you arrived,” the man said with a sigh. “My men are really trash.”

“They are,” Kai agreed without hesitation. “They’ve got battle training, but not much experience. I really wonder if you’re any different.”

The man tilted his head, a smirk forming on his lips. “You’ll find out soon enough.” He stepped forward. “My name is Erling. Remember it. I want you to know the name of the man who kills you.” Confidence was practically oozing out of him.

Kai shrugged, meeting Erling’s dark gaze with a calm that bordered on disinterest. “Lots of people have said the same thing. A lot.”

Without any more words, the battle began.

He felt the surge of mana from Erling instantly—huge, overwhelming, and far more dangerous than the other Mages.

His mind raced as he quickly summarized his next move. Unlike before, this wasn’t just about defeating the enemy. It was about location. If he fought Erling here, within the estate walls, their battle could easily destroy everything—and everyone—he was trying to protect.

He needed to get the man out of the estate. Fast.

As spears of void shot out of the Mage’s palm, Kai countered swiftly, containing them with his wind spells. The sharp crackle of dissipating mana filled the air as the spears broke apart, unable to pierce through his barrier.

The Mage smiled at the display, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “Not bad,” he said, launching another volley of attacks, this time with more force and speed, holding nothing back.

Kai moved fluidly, dodging each attack with precision while using [Mana chains]. Bands of shimmering mana shot toward the Mage, binding him in place with chains made up of pure mana.

Erling gritted his teeth, struggling to break free as Kai poured more power into the restraints. Without wasting a moment, he propelled himself forward, slamming into the Mage with enough force to smash him through the nearest wall. The crash was deafening.

Erling’s body hit the ground hard, sliding through the wreckage before coming to a stop.

For a brief moment, Kai caught a glimpse of terrified nobles peeking from behind the furniture, their faces pale with fear. But there was no time to linger. He needed to get the battle away from them—and fast.

Before Erling could fully recover, Kai flew in and smashed him through another wall, driving him farther and farther until they finally burst outside, into the left side of the estate.

Gasping for breath, Erling finally wrenched himself free of the restraints, shaking off his hands and sent more spears to distract Kai who dodged.

He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes darkening. Half of his mana shield seemed to have broken in the assault, but parts of it were still standing, giving a faint glow around him. “I see what you’re trying to do,” he said coldly, dusting himself off. “But it won’t matter. Once I deal with you, I’ll kill them all anyway.”

Kai narrowed his eyes. “You talk too much.”

Without waiting for a reply, they launched into battle again.

Kai immediately noticed something—Erling wasn’t just strong; he was a dual caster, weaving two spells at once with impressive speed as he launched attacks while keeping himself up in the air. But Kai also knew that maintaining flight with void spells burned through mana far faster than his own wind-based flight, putting the Mage at a disadvantage.

And Kai had another edge—he could triple-cast.

The Mage seemed to realize this as Kai relentlessly flung alternating [Flame arrows] and [Ice shards] at him, forcing him on the defensive. Void magic burst around them in short, unpredictable teleportations as the Mage tried to disorient Kai, sending attacks from different angles in rapid succession.

But Kai spread his mana perception outward, sharpening his senses until he could track the Mage’s every move. No matter how fast or erratic the teleportations, he wasn’t letting him out of his sight.

With a flick of his wrist, Kai summoned a flaming tornado right above Erling. The spiraling inferno roared to life, taking a massive amount of debris particles with it, and Erling teleported away just in time—but the tornado wasn’t done. It twisted and surged after him, homing in on his location like a predator hunting its prey.

Seeing the opening, Kai unleashed another wave of attacks. Jagged spikes of ice hurtled toward Erling who was now struggling to avoid both the flaming tornado and the incoming ice while simultaneously trying to keep himself in the air. Kai drove him toward a trap, creating multiple freezing nine feet tall walls in Erling’s path, narrowing the space he could teleport to.

The Mage was running out of options. And Kai knew it.

In the end, Erling couldn’t avoid it. Trapped by the ice walls, the flaming tornado engulfed him, roaring like a beast as it tore through the air. Kai watched as the man’s body was hurled downward, crashing hard into the ground below.

A thick mist spread across the tornado, its fiery heat clashing with the remnants of his ice wall. Kai wasted no time. He shot toward the crater, a spell crackling in his palm, ready to strike if the man was still alive and capable of launching another attack.

As he flew through the swirling mist, his gaze darted around the impact zone—but the Void Mage’s body wasn’t there.

A sudden shift in mana happened around him.

Kai’s instincts screamed at him, and he spun around just in time to see Erling reappear behind him, his hand glowing with dangerous, pulsing energy—a burst attack aimed straight at Kai’s chest.

Without hesitation, Kai unleashed his prepared spell—a fourth circle [Tempest Blade] draining most of the reserves of his mana.

The spell cut clean through the man’s arm before he could land the blow, too fast for him to counter. Blood sprayed through the air as the severed limb dropped to the ground, and Erling let out a howl of pain, staggering backward.

Kai didn’t give him a chance to recover. He shot forward, binding the injured Mage with [Infernal chains]. Dark flaming chains erupted out of the ground, snapping tightly around him, locking him in place.

Even then, Erling didn’t seem like he was done. Gritting his teeth, he tried to lift his other hand, gathering mana for another spell.

Kai’s eyes darkened. He raised his hand, and a [Wind Blade] tore through the air, severing the Mage’s remaining arm.

Erling screamed again, collapsing to his knees. Blood poured from his wounds, and his defenses, already weakened, had crumbled entirely.

Kai hovered above him. “You aren’t bad. Double casting, decent skill, and enough power to cause real damage.” He tilted his head slightly. “But you’re too slow. You take too much time to cast your spells—and you’re too proud of your techniques. You thought no one could counter you.”

He crouched slightly, leveling a cold gaze at the defeated Mage. “Now, why don’t you tell me who sent you? Was it Veridia? Or Regina? I know it was her—but I want confirmation.”

He leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I’ll make your death swift if you give me the answers I need.”

The man didn’t answer. He just growled low, his teeth bared in defiance despite the agony wracking his body. Blood dripped from his severed arms, pooling beneath him, but it didn’t dim the hatred in his eyes as he glared up at Kai with pure malice.

Kai’s gaze sharpened as he suddenly felt a surge of mana gathering deep within the man’s chest—dangerously close to his heart. His breath hitched. A parasite? Was it possible Erling had been infected with the same insidious spell that had plagued others before?

But before he could investigate further, the man’s growl twisted into a scream—a high-pitched, agonized wail that grew louder and louder until it curdled the air around them.

Kai’s eyes widened as realization slammed into him. He knew this sound. He knew exactly what was happening.

“Damn it,” he hissed, leaping backward into the air.

Mana flared wildly around him as he cast twin shields—a barrier of roaring flames and another of slicing winds. He barely had time to brace himself before—

BAM!

A massive explosion erupted from where Erling had knelt, sending shockwaves ripping through the clearing. The force of it blasted Kai backward, slamming him into the trees with enough power to crack their trunks. Leaves rained down around him as a roar echoed through the forest.

His shields held. Barely. They absorbed the worst of the blast, sparing him from serious injury, but he still felt the impact deep in his bones as he was thrown several feet away, skidding across the scorched ground.

When the shockwave finally subsided, Kai groaned and pushed himself to his feet, wincing as he rolled his stiff shoulders. His ears were ringing, and the air was thick with the acrid stench of burnt earth and charred flesh.

He wiped some dust off his face and slowly moved toward the site of the explosion. The ground had been obliterated, leaving a deep, blackened crater where Erling had just been. Trees had been ripped apart, their splintered remains scattered like broken matchsticks. Everything—plants, rocks, even the very soil—had been blasted away.

Kai exhaled slowly, grateful that he’d managed to move the fight away from the estate. If that explosion had gone off any closer, the nobles inside would have been turned to ash.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

As he approached the center of the blast, he saw what little remained of the Void Mage. Pieces of flesh and streaks of blood were splattered across the ground, but there was no sign of the man’s body. He’d been completely obliterated.

Kai’s jaw tightened, and he grit his teeth in frustration. “Regina,” he muttered darkly. “You’re really meticulous, aren’t you?”

He knew exactly what spell the Mage had used. It was a rare and brutal technique—a self-destruction spell cast on one’s own body before a battle. Once activated, it only needed a tiny trickle of mana to trigger, and when it did, it would detonate the caster’s body in a violent explosion, taking anyone nearby along with them.

It was the kind of spell used by desperate soldiers or fanatics determined to drag their enemies into the afterlife. But seeing it here, on a high circle Mage, was unexpected. Even if he’d suspected it, stopping it would’ve been next to impossible without far greater skill—or without killing Erling before he had a chance to activate it.

Kai sighed, running a hand through his hair as he surveyed the destruction. “No body, no answers,” he muttered.

He could only hope that one of his subordinates had survived his Enforcers and gotten captured. Though, if their leader had been prepared with such a deadly escape mechanism, he doubted the others wouldn’t have similar fail-safes.

How far was Regina willing to go to achieve her goal? A third-circle Mage was no ordinary combatant. Even among those with significant mana pools, it was rare to see someone reach that level of strength. Awakening a Mana heart wasn’t something that could be done by anyone in this era. It required wealth, resources, and, most often, noble blood.

To throw away someone like that in an assassination attempt—just to kill a few nobles—was extreme. Even for her.

Kai’s musings were interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps approaching from the forest. He turned toward the noise and soon spotted a group of Enforcers and guards, led by none other than Killian. He seemed to be largely injured by his stride, though his armour was stained with blood.

Killian’s stoic face brightened when he saw Kai, visibly relieved to see him standing there, battered but still in one piece.

“Lord Arzan! Are you alright? What happened here?”

“I’m fine. The Mage I was fighting didn’t see any way to win, so he used a self-destruction spell,” he explained, gesturing toward the smoldering crater. “Tried to take me with him.”

Killian grimaced, his eyes narrowing as he took in the devastation. “Bastard,” he muttered under his breath.

“And on our side? Is anyone still alive?”

Kai’s lips pressed into a thin line as he watched Killian shake his head grimly.

“We tried,” Killian said, his voice low with regret. “We really did. We aimed to capture at least a few alive, but they weren’t easy opponents. Most of them fought to the death. One of them—we almost had him—but he had poison hidden in his mouth. Bit down on it before we could stop him.”

Kai sighed, his expression turning dispirited as he processed the report. “I suspected as much,” he murmured. “It’s likely they weren’t ordinary Mages from Archine Tower after all. More likely, they were trained assassins.”

Killian’s brow furrowed. “Why do you think that?”

Kai rubbed the dust off of his sleeves. “First of all,” he began, “two weeks ago, Jacks sent us a list of all known third-circle Mages associated with Archine Tower. There was no mention of a shadow-affinity Mage on that list.”

Jacks, who had taken up the offer to become a spy in the Archine Tower, had been sending continuous information. They weren’t anything serious to act on—simply names of mages, their specializations, and rumors about them. But they were helpful.

Kai read through every single piece of information Jacks sent and identified the strength of the organization he was bound to go against. Unfortunately, the Mages he’d fought tonight weren’t on that list. That meant either Jacks had missed them, or the Mages were not registered in the tower.

At the moment, he had all the more reasons to lean toward the latter.

“So, you think they were trained outside the tower?”

“It’s possible. It’s easy to erase records or never officially enroll them in the tower at all. Train them in some hidden facility instead. Or they might just be from some other kingdom.”

Killian scratched his jaw. “They did speak Common, though. Sounded like a Lancephil accent.”

“That doesn’t rule it out,” Kai replied. “Accent is easy to change. Even magic can do it. We’ll know more once we examine the bodies. Mages usually carry something that can help us identify them—a talisman, insignia, or notes. Something.”

Kai’s sharp gaze shifted toward the guards and Enforcers standing nearby. Straightening, he addressed them with quiet authority.

“Gather a small team with potions and bandages and check up on Bran and the nobles. I remember Lyra was sent to support him, but I didn’t see her after the battle. She might be more injured and need immediate care. Don’t delay—get them patched up. I am guessing you all already drowned your potions, so focus on the others for now.”

The guards nodded in unison, immediately splitting off to organize the small medical team. They headed toward the estate where Bran and the nobles were.

As they left, Kai glanced at Killian, who gave him a silent nod, already understanding what needed to be done next.

Together, they walked toward the area where the bodies of the Mages lay sprawled across the ground, remnants of the fierce battle between them, Killian and his Enforcers. The smell of blood and burned mana hung thick in the air, and the ground was littered with broken weapons and scorched earth.

Kai knelt by the first body, carefully examining it. The man was clad in leather armor that looked surprisingly durable—thicker and sturdier than most standard Mage gear. As Kai ran his fingers along the material, he realized it wasn’t something he recognized.

“Beast hide, maybe,” he murmured to himself. “But from what creature…?”

He pushed the thought aside for now and continued searching the body. He found a wand tucked inside the assassin’s belt, along with a couple of mana potions and a short, curved blade. Nothing unusual so far.

Moving systematically, Kai removed the assassin’s leather armor, exposing his bare arms. And that’s when he noticed it.

A mark, carved directly into the man’s flesh.

It was shaped like a wolf, its fangs bared, with uneven lines etched around it. The carving wasn’t decorative—it looked deliberate, almost ritualistic.

“Killian,” Kai called, his tone sharp.

Killian, who had been examining another body, quickly walked over. “What is it?”

“Look at this.” Kai pointed to the mark on the assassin’s arm. “See if the others have it too.”

Killian’s eyes narrowed as he crouched to get a better look. Without a word, he moved to the nearest body and began checking. One by one, he and Kai inspected the fallen assassins—and, just as Kai had suspected, every single one of them had the same mark.

Killian leaned back on his heels, frowning deeply. “You recognize it?” Kai asked.

Killian shook his head. “No. I’ve seen wolf marks before—some smaller factions use them—but this design is different. More… vicious.”

“We’ll need to send it to Ansel. He might be able to dig up more information on it.”

Killian grimaced. “You think it confirms what we thought?”

“Yes. These Mages don’t belong to Archine Tower. They’re part of another organization. And if that’s the case, it means Regina’s reach goes deeper than we thought. Maybe from Maleficia directly, but they didn’t use dead mana.”

Killian cursed under his breath. “Hidden assassins, secret training… What the hell is she planning?”

Kai didn’t answer right away. His gaze lingered on the wolf mark, unease coiling in his chest. Whatever this organization was, it wasn’t one he had prepared for—and that made it all the more dangerous.

He briefly recalled Shakran’s words—how Regina had entire legions under her control, stretching far beyond the influence she had in the Archine Tower. It made sense now why things had been escalating so quickly. Kai’s gut told him there was more to Regina’s forces than just what he had faced tonight. He needed to know the numbers, the full extent of her reach. Without that, every step he took would be a reaction to her next move.

He exhaled slowly, the tension in his shoulders not quite easing as he glanced back down at the wolf mark. He could only hope that Ansel would find something useful from it—some piece of the puzzle that could give him a clearer idea of Regina’s operations.

But for now, there was something more pressing to handle.

Even through the stillness of the night, Kai could hear the distant murmur of voices from the city—the citizens roused from their sleep by the explosion, their fears spreading quickly through the streets. The last thing he needed was for the attack of the Mages to lead to panic in the city.

Turning to Killian, he spoke.

“Make copies of these marks and spread them around to Ansel. Send him drawings of their faces too. As for the public, we’ll tell the city they were thieves who accidentally stumbled upon one of the mana cannons, triggering the explosion. No mention of assassins or the marks to the public—keep it quiet. We can’t afford unrest in the city.”

Killian nodded. “I’ll get it done, Lord Arzan.”

“Don’t let this get out of hand,” Kai muttered under his breath, before turning his attention back to the battle-torn battlefield. The explosion had left behind nothing but scorched earth and mangled bodies. But it wasn’t just the damage that weighed on him—it was the knowledge that Regina was pulling strings from the shadows, and he had no idea what the end game was.

Killian’s steps faded as he moved to carry out his orders. And Kai stood up from his crouched position, his head heavy with thoughts—one after another.

***

Bonus chapter incoming!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep