The radiant green light that had bathed Lilian's face slowly receded, the vibrant hue retreating from the sclera and pooling back into her irises. For a long moment, she simply sat, her chest rising and falling in shallow, rapid breaths. The searing pain, the immense spiritual stretch, and the shocking clarity of the newly forged Mana Sight had subsided, leaving behind a silence heavier than any sound.
She looked at Kael. The sense of profound wonderment still clung to her face, softening the sharp features that usually broadcasted only relentless focus. It was the look of someone who had seen beyond the veil of their own reality, now grappling with the implications of the vision. Her fingers trembled so hard the teacup on the table chimed faintly against the saucer.
Lilian's mouth started to form words, perhaps a question, or a description of the fractal world she now perceived, but she stopped, catching the soundlessness of the room. A flicker of something akin to fear, or perhaps the ultimate caution of a true Magus, crossed her eyes.
She exhaled once, a slow, deliberate release of breath. "Kael, please activate the anti divination ring."
Kael immediately understood the gravity of the request. No explanation was needed. He nodded once, the single gesture acknowledging the weight of her sudden urgency. He infused the plain iron band on his finger with his mana, channeling a pulse of complex, multi layered energy into its arcane circuit. He felt a soft, invisible bubble pop up around them, a boundary covering the room's diameter. It was not a visible barrier, but a nullifying field, obscuring them from any distant scrying or spiritual inspection. The air in the bubble tasted faintly of copper pennies.
Feeling the effect activated, Lilian looked at Kael again, the Mana Sight now merely a deep, intelligent emerald in her eyes. The wonder was gone, replaced by a terrible, clear-eyed reckoning.
"Kael, do you know what you have done? Do you have any idea what this will mean?"
Kael knew what she was talking about, yet his answer was purely tactical, reflecting the surface level benefit of their breakthrough.
He nodded once. "Yes. The human race will know that we have thirteen mana gates, and everyone will be able to advance much more smoothly. We can revolutionize the art."
Lilian shook her head, the movement slow and decisive, dismissing his idea entirely. "No, Kael. We are not going to reveal this knowledge, no matter what happens."
Kael was genuinely confused. "May I ask why we should keep this knowledge between us?"
Lilian nodded, as if understanding his logical conundrum, and leaned forward, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Kael, when every Magus advances, we are forced to practice the barrier technique you saw protecting my mind. It is touted as something every decent Magus should have. But this protection is nefarious, as I know now."
Kael's mind snapped back to the complex energy structure he had forcefully dismantled in her head. He had not just removed a defense; he had attacked a lock. The revelation settled like a weight of cold, hard steel.
"It not only stops the mental attacks on you," Lilian continued, her voice heavy with revelation, "but also makes sure that you never open your cranial gate."
Kael stiffened, his fingers gripping the cold iron of the ring. "When Mages get to Rank 2, we are granted a small amount of spiritual sense," Lilian continued. "And no Magus is permitted to advance if we have not finished the barrier, as that is one of the requisites. So, we Mages are forced to cut our access to cranial gates because if any Magus reaches Rank 2 and does not have the barrier, they will be able to detect the mana gate themselves."
Kael interrupted, his mind reeling. "Then when Mages get to Rank 2, they can scan other people, so why has no one discovered the gate in someone else?"
Lilian nodded again, a bitter smile touching her lips.
"Because, Kael, every being is protected by a unique mana their body has. Spiritual sense cannot penetrate other living beings. You will see once you get to that rank." She paused, letting the full weight of her deduction settle. "So, my conclusion is, we are being forced to never discover that anyone has a cranial mana gate in our bodies. Someone out there is forcefully making sure that no one discovers this secret. We have had some people whose Aspect allowed them to see magic, but they are always taken away by other races the moment they are discovered."
"I get the mental barrier," Kael pressed. "But there are other gates in your body, then why has no one else discovered them?"
A true, genuine smile was finally visible on Lilian's face. "You must have learned your first body infusion in your class, correct?" Kael nodded. "They will eventually teach you never to infuse your inner organs, otherwise they will burst, and they will tell you to make barriers around them too. Come and see."
Kael, instantly attentive, sent a tendril of his mana into Lilian. He felt it then: all the inner organs were protected by the same defensive signature. But it was the impurities that sealed it. They were not accidental residue; they were the chemical components of the shackle, purposefully introduced to make the 'protection' rigid and unbreakable by conventional mana.
"Now you see," Lilian said, her voice dropping to a low purr of realization. "We are woefully led to this. I believe whenever someone gets the hint or knowledge of this, they are removed from the board. We are not powerful enough to lead on the basis of this discovery, but one day we will be."
Kael stiffened. A sudden vertigo spun his thoughts. The plot went deeper than the Abyss. The existence of a global, systemic conspiracy to suppress magical advancement was a breathtaking, horrifying revelation.
"Are you not an Archmage now?" Kael objected, his mouth dry.
"Kael, I am powerful, but I know there are more powerful beings out there. The Archmage title in this kingdom is a misnomer. Every Rank 3 Magus is given that title, and I know there are beings out there that will crush me within seconds." She shook her head, visibly setting the revelation aside. "Let's change the topic. You have your first dungeon excursion in the morning. Go and rest. Be careful out there, Kael. Please don't die, as I truly believe that we will be able to do so many things together."
Kael nodded, understanding the subject was closed for now. He started to leave, but Lilian stopped him again.
"Kael, what you have given me is far beyond the price of that ring you demanded earlier. So please also take this."
She handed him a golden brooch. It was minimalist, a simple, unadorned square of polished metal. "This is a very compact spatial artifact."
Kael's eyes widened. A spatial artifact.
"This artifact only has the space of a small basket, so be very careful what you put in it."
"Why make the space so small? What use could it be?" Kael asked excitedly.
Lilian nodded and answered him, a touch of academic detachment returning to her voice. "No one knows. All the spatial artifacts we get are from the dungeons in the Labyrinth. That is why the demand exceeds the availability of such artifacts, and every one of them is priceless." She pushed the brooch into his palm. "Kael, you have given me something that is also priceless, so I am gifting you this."
"Why can't our crafters make their own spatial devices?"
"The products we make need constant spatial mana to maintain, and they deteriorate so fast. Even if we have the mana reserves, the item will lose its integrity within two weeks." She tilted her head. "The difference between our crafted items and the artifacts we have from the dungeon? I believe you need spatial runes, and they are very hard to get. Formations of the 4th dimension are needed to arrange those runes for functionality."
Lilian paused, then answered her own rhetorical question. "This brooch has another feature, and that is temporal lock. Anything stored in there will be as put in. Time does not move."
Kael's tactical mind whirred. Time does not move. He grasped the brooch, no longer thinking of picnics. Soul energy was potent but fleeting, degrading rapidly outside the body. He could store the raw, bleeding spirits of high tier beasts, the very fuel he needed to cleanse his body, without degradation. The small basket space was not a flaw; it was a perfect crucible for pristine, high value progression fuel. This artifact was priceless not for its size, but for its purity preservation.
"Kael, I believe you should go and sleep. You need rest before you face that challenge."
Kael nodded, agreeing with Lilian. He said his goodbyes and went back towards his room. He finally had the anti divination ring and with this he would be able to use soul energy without Kellen peeping on him.
Kael went back to his room. Dean and James were both asleep. He sat on his bed and adopted the meditation pose. The soul of the stone serpent was fully consumed and converted into pure soul energy.
Kael activated the ring and the bubble enveloped him, granting him absolute, private relief.
He guided the concentrated essence toward the partially open Mana Gate in his left hand. The low rank soul energy was volatile, and fading fast. He could not afford a single mistake.
He utilized the Divine Technique not for brute force, but for micro calibration, treating the gate like a delicate, corroded ancient lock. For several agonizing minutes, the gate resisted. Kael felt his mind stretch to the breaking point, trying to maintain the perfect, trembling strand of soul energy.
When the energy was nearly gone, he pushed one final, precise burst. The gate did not just open; it SNAPPED into place, a loud, internal resonance that left him shaking and dizzy. A small tremor ran through his left arm.
A cold, ancient law echoed in his soul:
[Compendium Alert: 6/13 mana gates opened.]
Mana surged inward through the new aperture, instantly boosting his capacity. He was ready.
He knew he had only moments before the rest of the soul energy would dissipate. One final experiment remained before the dungeon. He took a small box from his pocket, the one he had prepared earlier today in anticipation of what came next.
Inside the box were several bees he had collected. He needed small targets, experiments he could afford to lose. He took the first bee out of the box.
He infused his eyes and began looking for the collective cells the bee was composed of. After several minutes, he found them. He started infusing earth mana into the bee cells.
The earth mana did not react with the pristine speed of his Divine Technique. It was heavy, sluggish. The cells still broke and divided, each taking a minute fraction of the earth mana. It took him a full, agonizing hour to fully saturate the insect. Kael knew instantly that infusing a larger target this way would take an eternity.
When the bee was finally infused, a tiny core of solidified earth mana coalesced within its structure. A thin sheen of rock like substance formed on the insect's chitin. The insect had transformed into a full fledged, low rank beast.
Kael's eyes were shining brightly, watching the result. The beast floated now above his palm. Kael took out a beetle he had modified and attached it to the tiny beast. The beetle immediately began to siphon the newly formed mana, stopping only when its own capacity was full. Kael had turned off the feedback loop function for now. The cycle continued, keeping the transformed beast immobile.
Kael put away the beetle and the beast attached to it. He used this method to store pure mana and farm it efficiently, but that was only one benefit of the process.
Kael took the largest bee from the box. He started the infusion, but this time, he used the remaining soul energy.
The difference was staggering.
The moment the infusion started, Kael's eyes widened. The bee did not slowly change; it swelled. Cells multiplied, rapidly drawing ambient energy to support the growth. Changes kept happening to the creature until it reached the size of a small dog.
As the last shred of soul energy was leaving Kael, his control wavered. A shred of his own spiritual essence, his own being, ripped away. It was a violation. A blinding flash of searing, stabbing pain slammed through his very soul.
He felt a catastrophic vacuum in his spirit and momentarily lost consciousness.
The soul fragment moved along with the energy and slammed into the growing beast, which was now the size of a small chest. Kael's vision doubled for a second, and he felt what the beast felt—a sudden, dizzying sense of compounded insect vision. The vertigo hit him at once. His body hit the bedframe and mattress, saving him from a full fall.
The changes occurring were more defined now. The beast was turning humanoid in a grotesque form of way, shimmering with the ethereal color of soul energy itself.
The creature cocked its head and looked directly at Kael. Kael felt a shudder of motion from the bed beside him. James was waking up. He could not, absolutely could not, let James see this entity.
As if understanding Kael's desperate intention, the creature flew straight at Kael's chest. It merged with him.
All Kael knew was darkness.