Blood ran down Kael's face in warm streaks, thick with gore and the shredded pieces of the beast he had failed to heal. Bone fragments still jutted from his skin, tiny white needles buried deep in his arms and shoulders. The damage had missed anything vital, but the sight alone should have triggered the survival instinct to freeze.
Instead, Kael studied the wounds with a calm detachment, almost scientific curiosity. Even my thoughts have changed, he realized. He was examining his own injuries like a healer analyzing a patient's unique structural collapse.
A surge of mana washed into him before he could think further. It filled his body in a soft, steady wave, a familiar signature of warmth pulsing bright and rhythmic: Lilian's Life mana. The knots of pain vanished beneath her control. Bone shards pushed themselves free, slipping out gently as skin stitched together with painless precision. The agonizing pressure released. In seconds the pain was gone, though the gore still clung to him like paint and the smell of burnt flesh was acrid in the air.
"Stand up," Lilian said quietly behind him. "You are fine now."
Kael rose. He wiped at his face and only smeared everything further. He waited for Lilian to clean him the rest of the way, the way she usually did.
Nothing happened.
She was staring past him, back at the ruined beast. Her eyes were wide. Not thoughtful. Not analytical.
Afraid.
"How did you do that," she whispered.
Kael blinked. "Do what?"
She turned toward him, and it startled him more than the gore. For the first time since he had met her, her composure cracked. Fear flickered across her expression, quickly masked by clinical confusion.
"You do not have anywhere near enough mana to overload a beast of that size with life mana," she said, almost breathless. "You should not be able to do that at all. And Kael…" She swallowed, her gaze fixing on his. "Your life mana feels wrong. Wrong in a way that defies everything I know. It feeds, and then it multiplies."
Her voice dropped into a whisper. "That should be impossible."
Kael exhaled slowly. He knew the truth. The mana he had used was not pure life mana. It was divine mana, borrowed from the divine technique he had copied.
He said nothing. Instead, he raised the bone shard still in his hand and pressed it into his own skin. Blood welled up. A fresh wound.
Lilian's eyebrow arched. "You enjoy proving points, I see."
She placed her hand over the cut. Light flowed into the wound, sealing it cleanly.
Kael used that moment to siphon a thin thread of her mana into the Compendium. Life Mana and Flesh Mana signature recorded. So, she uses mixed mana. Only a trace of flesh mana, but enough for the Compendium to capture.
Lilian's attention sharpened. "Do not distract me." Her voice dropped into command. "Answer the question. How did you infuse so much mana into the beast that it exploded?"
"I did not infuse mana into the beast," Kael said calmly. "I infused it into the particles the beast was made of."
Lilian's head snapped toward him. "What are you talking about?"
"Your lens blinds you more than it helps you," Kael replied. "It narrows your vision instead of expanding it. I can show you a method to see far more clearly. But I want a favor."
Lilian stared at him, then let out a soft, incredulous breath. "We are bargaining now? I thought I was your teacher. Is that relationship not enough for you?"
"No one in the kingdom knows this method," Kael said. "Once you learn it, your healing will grow beyond anything you imagine. But you must promise me something."
Lilian crossed her arms. "I ask the price first. And I will remember that I teach you for free while you negotiate like a merchant. Something for the future."
Kael met her gaze. "The artifact you carry that blocks divination. The ring."
Lilian laughed, surprised and amused. She slipped the ring from her finger and tossed it to him.
"You want that thing? Fine. Take it. It is useless to you. The moment you activate it, Kellan will notice the block and assume you are practicing something I taught. I will vouch for you." She paused, her voice softening. "Because Kael, I cannot always be there to protect you. You need your own shield."
Kael accepted the ring. She had no idea how much he needed it. With it, he could use the Soul Devourer with far less danger.
Lilian stepped closer. "Now tell me what this method is."
Kael took a breath. "Compendium... can Lilian's mana be used safely for ocular infusion."
The answer surfaced in his mind instantly: Ocular infusion required high tier mana for full mana sight, Arcane mana recommended. Lilian's concentrated Life mana could achieve it, but opening of the cranial gate was compulsory.
He quickly dismissed the use of stored soul energy—far too risky, too revealing.
Lilian tapped her foot, the sound sharp on the stone floor. Kael glanced at her impatiently waiting form. He knew the pause had caused doubt. He needed to clear the impurities around her gate before she could open it herself, but the Compendium had only offered the path of concentrated arcane mana or the soul energy.
He activated his mana sight using the flesh and life mana combination he took from Lilian and saw her body. The cranial gate was covered not just with impurities, but with a kind of barrier glowing with corrupted mana. He had never seen something so persistent.
He told Lilian in a very serious tone, "I will need your mana to help me so please do not resist and let me use and guide the mana." He did not wait for her reply, starting to infuse his arcane mana into her body with the intention of guiding her own Life flow.
The moment their mana met, her mana consumed and removed his. It was an act of immediate, predatory rejection. Kael felt a sliver of his arcane essence violently ripped away. A jolt of cold shock hit him. She did not just have strong mana; she had aggressive, defensive mana.
Now he understood the Compendium. If he possessed this concentration of mana, he could open all his gates in a few moments. He spoke in a soothing tone, "Please do not resist my mana and let me be the guide." After multiple attempts, he was able to make a funnel with both of their mana.
The combined mana struck the barrier blocking the cranial gate and it felt like a pebble striking a boulder. There was not a single change in the barrier's integrity. Kael knew he had to be smart. He added an intention to his arcane mana and willed the mana of Lilian and his combine like a perfect pair and strike the barrier as if a small chisel was carving stone.
He kept going like this for an hour, forming a chisel of the mana then starting to carve the stone like a stoneworker. This process was extremely tiring. Kael's mind felt like a blacksmith hammering incandescent metal. Each strike of the mana chisel against the spiritual defense was a shudder of spiritual exhaustion, yet the repeated action was also very beneficial for the mana manipulation exercises he learned.
As hours passed, Lilian's look of horror deepened. "Why are you trying to break my defenses I have set for my cranial area?"
Kael was genuinely confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Why are you chiseling the barrier I made to protect my brain for mind manipulation? It took me years to make that barrier and you have already made a tiny crack. What is the meaning of this? I let you use my mana! You would repay me for helping you like this?"
Waves of anger and hurt could be felt radiating from Lilian. Kael was fully confused, thinking he was clearing a natural blockage, not some kind of magical defense she had built up. He spoke in a hurry, knowing she could kill him with a thought. "Please wait, I am doing no such thing; I am not destroying your defenses, just…"
"Just what? Speak now or you will regret it. I do not care what aspect you have, I will kill you for this betrayal. Who told you about my barrier? Most mages are not even smart enough to create magical barriers for the mind."
Kael's body was seized in an instant and he was levitated a few inches off the floor. The air pressure around his skull increased sharply. "Speak or die. I will not repeat myself."
Seeing the instant reversal of the situation, Kael knew he had to convince Lilian of the fact that he meant no harm. All he could do was open his mouth to speak, all the rest of his body fully frozen by Lilian's domain. "I promise I was just trying to open the cranial mana gate in your body."
"You think me a fool, Kael? I know there is no such gate. I am a healer and I have never seen anyone with a mana gate in the cranial region. If you keep lying, I will stop being merciful."
"I have already opened my gate so your information is wrong," Kael spoke in a hurry. Lilian narrowed her eyes and used her lens to inspect Kael's body but even after focusing on his cranial region there was no indication of an open mana gate. "I cannot see any indication that you have an open mana gate except the one in your hand."
"Leave the lens and look in my eyes," Kael said. He infused his eyes with pure arcane mana and willed his eyes to turn iridescent so Lilian could see the change. Lilian took a step back and was shocked when she saw the color of his eyes change. "What are you doing? Stop or you will lose your eyes forever. Eyes and internal organs are never supposed to be infused or they will overload and blow up like the beast you blew up so please stop."
Kael was stunned to hear that. So that is why no one infused their eyes. He had always thought they simply hadn't tried, but in fact, everyone who tried overloaded their eyes and lost them rather than opening mana sight. The same must be true for the internal organs.
Lilian stood still after some time when nothing happened to Kael's eyes and they still glowed brilliantly iridescent. "How is this possible? This is supposed to be impossible. All the studies performed by every researcher concluded that there are no more gates in human bodies than the ones they are born with. And infusing eyes has always turned out to be a disaster whenever someone tried it."
"Will you please let me go now so we can open your mana gate and please if you can remove the barrier from the spot." Lilian was still staring at him in shock and there was still a bit of horror in her eyes.
She spoke, her voice trembling slightly. "You know it took me three years to make that barrier with the mana. We extracted a method from an elven book we got our hands on where this method was mentioned, and all magus are encouraged to develop this shield around your brain so no one can manipulate you. It is the ultimate defense against mental magics we have, and you are asking me to remove my defense just like that."
"I do not know what method you are referring to, but there is a mana gate behind your barrier that we need to open so I can grant you mana sight. You have seen my eyes, and that is the only way for me to show the truth: that your lens limits you, and so does your reliance on other races' knowledge. If I am correct then every human has thirteen mana gates, but your testing devices just do not look for mana gates if they are naturally blocked by coagulated mana."
"And if I am wrong, you can always make that barrier again. With your current mana concentration, I believe the new barrier will be much sturdier."
"Kael," Lilian said, her voice strained. "You see much more than anyone I have known in my whole life, and that you can sense that my new mana will make a better barrier in the future both scares and excites me. I will trust you this once. I will remove the barrier, but I should warn you the moment I feel you making a move that I feel will threaten me I will not stop and I will blow you up."
Kael nodded. "I will walk you through what I am doing so you know that I am not trying to hurt you."
Lilian took down her self-made barrier around her cranial gate. Beneath it was still so much coagulated mana. Kael began to use Lilian's mana and start cleaning the area. He kept telling Lilian what he was doing.
Lilian's mana was powerful for the cleansing of impurities. Opening the mana gate was much easier now compared to his own initiate's mana. He opened a sliver of the cranial gate and then started concentrating the mana like a stoneworker compacting mortar. He formed a core in the opening of the sliver and kept pumping mana into the core.
The mana grew more and more concentrated, then started flowing outside like natural channels of mana were formed, infusing the closing sections of the gate. This process was slow but it was covering the whole section. Every impurity was being eradicated slowly and precisely without damaging or overloading anything.
The moment the whole blockage was flooded with mana, the gate opened with a silent, internal pop deep inside her skull. The pressure Lilian had been feeling for years instantly vanished. She felt a connection, a new, clean conduit to the very sky.
Her spirit felt like it had stretched, now twice as tall, breathing air from an altitude she never knew existed. She gasped and staggered back.
Kael did not stop there. He went for the final thing he wanted to do, starting to infuse her eyes with arcane mana as the Compendium had indicated this was the superior mana for true mana sight. Lilian cried out in sudden, searing pain, but Kael told her to stay still as the process would hurt her. He knew she was experiencing the same pain he had endured, but he kept going. Finally, her eyes were fully infused. He saw the cranial gate subtly linked to the eyes now, a perfect circuit.
He let go of Lilian and moved a bit away from her. Her eyes were still closed, but he asked in a gentle tone to please open her eyes.
She did.
Kael was shocked to see that her eyes were glowing fully green, not just her eyeballs, but the full sclera was radiating Life mana. Within that vibrant green, he saw the world reflected in a fractal pattern of pure, unadulterated energy. It was not just sight; it was the signature of reality itself.
"What do you see?" He asked in wonder, his voice hushed.
She replied in a tone full of awe, her voice barely a breath. "Everything. The world is so beautiful and full of life."
A profound, quiet satisfaction settled over Kael. His secret was seen, but it was now also protected.