It had been a week since Yuuki last met with Asta and Yuno. In that time, everything had remained relatively calm—nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
With Yuuki's help, the tavern's renovations were almost complete. After a brief tidying up, it would be ready to open for business.
Of course…
This calm was only surface-deep. As a core member of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, Yuuki knew that multiple squads of Eye operatives had already infiltrated the towns surrounding the capital.
Even Valtos, the squad's spatial magic specialist, had appeared twice over the past week. Naturally, these encounters were all clandestine.
As the capital's intelligence officer and a fellow core member, Valtos and many others couldn't hide their presence around the capital from Yuuki's own subordinates.
Valtos had approached Yuuki just to exchange greetings. He had not revealed the details of their plans—and he didn't need Yuuki's assistance.
Yet even without Valtos' words, Yuuki already knew their objective:
The first assault on the Clover Kingdom's capital!
It was a major operation—but at this preparatory stage, it didn't yet require Yuuki's full attention. If the Eye of the White Night did invade the capital, as a core member, Yuuki would inevitably take part.
While Valtos was preparing for the assault, Yuuki was quietly busy with his own affairs.
He trained relentlessly, familiarizing himself with all the magic he had mastered.
Since obtaining his grimoire, Yuuki realized that most of his battles had been won through clever tricks rather than sheer force. He had barely experienced any truly intense fights.
As a result, Yuuki didn't fully know the extent of his own strength.
He needed an opponent—a formidable one who could truly challenge him.
He already had someone in mind: a defector from the Diamond Kingdom.
Yuuki frequented the black market during this period, searching for the target. The crowded, chaotic environment made it difficult to locate anyone, but thanks to his knowledge of the defector's characteristics, he eventually found them.
However…
Before he could approach, the Magic Palace appeared.
Yuuki had no choice but to put the search aside, focusing all his attention on the newly emerged palace.
At the border between the Clover Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom, the vast wilderness was shredded. Once-strong trees were broken, and the flattened land had sunk into a large depression.
From this gap emerged a massive, dilapidated castle. The surrounding terrain had become a wasteland.
"Is this the Magic Palace?"
Yuuki, clad in a black robe and wearing a mask, stepped out from a spatial portal. Standing at the edge of the forest depression, he observed the palace-like structure.
Through tracking magic, Yuuki had detected Noelle suddenly disappearing from the Black Bull's base and reappearing at the Clover Kingdom's border. That had signaled the start of the Magic Palace's events.
"It appeared a little earlier than I expected… but I've been looking forward to this." Yuuki smiled, a glint of sharpness in his eyes.
The Magic Palace contained relics left behind by ancient civilizations—places akin to tombs. Some held methods to wield extremely powerful ancient magic or precious magical artifacts.
Of course, the ancients had placed deadly traps and magic inside to prevent anyone else from entering, making the Magic Palace an extremely dangerous place.
"Asta of the Black Bulls, Yuno of the Golden Dawn, and even people from the Diamond Kingdom should already be inside. I can't afford to be slow."
Yuuki's figure moved like a shadow, heading straight for the palace entrance.
The exposed brick walls were cracked and covered in moss. Buried underground for centuries, the once-smooth stones were rough and ancient, radiating an air of decay and antiquity.
At the entrance, Yuuki glanced into the pitch-black corridor, closed his eyes briefly, then opened them wide.
Perception—expand!
Ever since entering the Fourth Domain, Yuuki's sensory power had surged. With each domain increase, his strength had risen tremendously.
After scanning the corridor and detecting no immediate danger, he stepped inside.
Whoosh! A fireball floated before him, instantly illuminating the darkness.
Yuuki advanced quickly. Soon, he saw a bright light ahead. Along with it, dense natural mana surged into his senses.
Remember: the Magic Palace's corridor descended underground. That light, and the thick natural mana inside, were entirely isolated from the outside world, creating a separate realm.
"No wonder it holds the Demon-Destroyer sword and the wind spirit Sylph." Yuuki thought. He suspected the palace might have connections to the elves.
Swish! One step in, and the pitch-black corridor vanished. In its place, an astonishing sight awaited.
The concentrated natural mana had become tangible, floating in the air like specks of starlight, glowing faintly and illuminating the entire underground space.
Broken beams jutted out at every angle—vertical, horizontal, diagonal—spanning the area.
A river defied logic, flowing in multiple directions: some sections ran upside-down, others sideways, and some hovered suspended in midair.
The floating mana, combined with these phenomena, gave the Magic Palace an overwhelmingly mysterious aura.
"The mana density is distorting the space across regions."
Yuuki squinted and waved his hand, summoning a spatial portal in midair. A small relief: his spatial magic remained unaffected.
"I've never seen natural mana behave like this before."
The flowing natural mana around him was extraordinarily active. Normally, natural mana in the wild was lazy, while in high-magic zones it was chaotic and violent. Here, it was… alive.
Within moments, Yuuki realized that the mana he had spent using spatial magic to reach the border was already mostly restored.
The consumption was minimal relative to his total reserves, but the rapid, effortless replenishment surprised him.
Yuuki could normally draw on natural mana to restore his own, but it required meditation. Now, in this environment of active natural mana, he didn't need to meditate at all—the surrounding energy was replenishing him automatically.
(End of Chapter 71)
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