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In the end, Kai dismissed the group, each sent to handle their specific tasks before the beast wave could break down onto them.

The next day, as expected, the scouts returned with bleak news: the beasts were on the move. They’d be at the city’s doorstep by dawn the next day, and the tension inside the castle was so thick it could be cut with a rusty sword. Outside of it, the murmur of the news spread like cracks in glass, splintering in every direction. Guards stiffened, Mages checked their spell structures again and again, Balen did a final check of the mana cannons, and the once steady pace of preparation now echoed with chaos and a harsh pulse of urgency.

The entire time, they’d been preparing, training, fortifying— but now, the final act was about to begin. It was in fact, no longer just a ’looming threat’; it would soon become a reality, hitting them right where it’d hurt.

Kai had seen it coming. When he’d first scouted the frays’ cave and seen the unnatural number of spiders, he knew that the beast would be starting their charge. Which was also part of the reason why internally, he’d been spiralling. The cave incident was the brood mother making her one final, desperate move, a full-blown effect to either annihilate the frays or bend them to its will, and Kai didn’t let it succeed with either.

He should’ve been on the wall already, barking orders, overseeing the defence as he planned— as everyone expected, but there was something far more pressing— something he needed to do before the first claw or fang reached the territory, attempting to breach the city’s defences.

The brood mother wasn’t just another mana fiend. It was a Grade 6 flesh of destruction. Its power was monstrous, a peak existence in the beast world. And as much as Kai prided himself on his knowledge, his battle strategies, and his prepared arsenal, there was one glaring problem; raw strength. He didn’t have enough of it. Not yet.

He knew he needed to fix that. Fast. And there was only one way to do so.

His mind flashed to an old story, one he’d heard a long time ago about a Third Circle Mage trapped in a ruin, surrounded by hundreds of fiends with no way out. The Mage had been faced with a choice; die like a rat or take a risk so dangerous it was almost suicidal. Desperation had led him to conjure up a technique, one designed to artificially push his mana heart beyond its limits.

For the next ten minutes, he had become the strongest Mage in the world, raising his powers to the fifth circle in a flash. But with that power came a price— his body couldn’t withstand the strain. He burned through his mana like wildfire, and once the flames died down, so did he.

It was a cautionary tale from Kai’s era, one that was still murmured about in Mage towers, though the technique itself had long since been studied and refined. But the lesson remained the same: power comes with a cost. And if Kai used it, there would still be a backlash.

His heart drummed in his chest as he calculated the risks. The modification would allow him to temporarily include a Fourth Circle in his Mana heart, vastly increasing his mana capacity and spell strength. But he wouldn’t be able to hold it for long. The backlash would come. It was only a question of how severe.

At best, he might regress, losing a circle or two. At worst, the backlash could cripple him permanently. But he had already made up his mind and was confident that the worst wouldn’t come into play. Confidence surged through him— not the overblown arrogance of youth, but the tempered resolve of someone who had prepared for failure as much as for victory.

He could recover from the consequences. He always had. And after weighing the risks, the decision had practically made itself. Especially when there were so many lives at stake, waiting for him to save the day.

The night before the beast wave, Kai spent hours in quiet preparation.

The mana diagrams sketched across his desk, glowing softly under the dim lamplight, were the blueprint of what he was about to do. Normally, advancing to the Fourth Circle required expanding the realm within one’s heart, making space for the new circle. But time wasn’t a luxury he had anymore.

So instead of doing it the right way, he would suppress his current circles and force the Fourth Circle to manifest, even if just temporarily. He wouldn’t be as powerful as a true Fourth Circle Mage, but it would give him the mana pool he needed to use spells potent enough to kill the brood mother.

His fingers traced the lines of the diagram one last time when he felt he had done enough research to begin the procedure. His eyes flickered to the window, where the first rays of dawn were just beginning to peek over the horizon.

Kai, who walked inside his room, inhaled deeply, rethinking each step of the process he had made through the night.

Without wasting another second, Kai walked inside and sat cross-legged in the centre of the room, closed his eyes, and started to calm his raging pulse. He needed his mind and body to be at peace to begin focusing on the mana circles.

Therefore, slowly, he let the outer world fade away into obsidian.

His mind travelled towards his body, focusing on threads of mana running inside his veins. His Mana heart pulsed with power, but he knew the strength within was insufficient for the battle ahead.

Suppressing his circles was like performing surgery on a beating heart— frail, perilous, and fraught with the risk of failure. The pocket space inside him was tight, a realm of its own but still bound by limits, and expanding it wasn’t an option. Not now.

As he concentrated, the mana within his chest swirled restlessly, a tangible pressure building as he started to compress his first circle.

He could feel a faint but insistent tremor radiating from his core— a sign of resistance. The sensation was like an unseen hand squeezing his heart, each circle pressing down with increasing force. His breathing grew shallow as the internal tension escalated, the pressure building with a speed faster than he expected that the chill went down to his toes.

… I need to keep up on it.

As he carefully suppressed the first circle, a sharp tremor coursed through his chest.

His Mana heart shuddered, resisting the change. He moved to the second circle, pushing it down, folding it into itself. With each step, the shaking grew worse, and he could feel the tension building, like a coiled spring on the verge of snapping. His heart felt like it was constricting, but he didn’t stop.

He let his mana swirl until it knew no end but to push the circle further.

It hurts… Kai winced in pain, but let it go, not giving it more than a fleeting glance.

The third circle was the hardest. As he repressed it, the pressure in his chest surged, and his Mana heart pulsed erratically, threatening to tear apart under the strain. It was a battle, not just of magic, but of will. Inside him, he felt a persistent voice of doubt, like an insistent critic whispering that he should give up and walk away. The internal struggle was there— a big rock, a nagging presence trying to make him question his decision. But his will, his decision, like a stubborn guardian, refused to back down.

Sweat began to form on his brow as the pocket space finally yielded, creating just enough room.

Now came the real test.

Kai inhaled deeply, drawing in mana from the air around him, pulling it into the freshly created void in his heart. The Mana surged into him, filling the space and swirling in circles. His hands clenched into fists as he began to shape it further, moulding the mana into the form of a fourth circle. It wasn’t natural— his body resisted, and a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his chest.

Fuck…. Fuck.

With each pulse of mana, the pain grew, but so did the power. The fourth circle was forming, he could feel it. His body trembled, his heart threatening to give out under the pressure, but after what felt like an eternity, the fourth circle snapped into place.

Power coursed through him— raw, untamed, and overwhelming. For a moment, he felt invincible, like the very air around him bent to his will. But as quickly as the rush came, it left him drained. His back gave up, and he collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, his body slick with sweat.

The fourth circle was there, but so was the looming threat of backlash. Kai lay there, breath ragged, knowing that the real battle had yet to begin.

***

Kai gulped down the water that he had right next to him the entire time, his throat dry and his chest still aching from the strain of forcing the fourth circle into place. Not a lot of time had passed, maybe twenty minutes since he established the temporary fourth circle.

He tried to steady his breathing along with his shaky hands, but the sharp screech of a beast tore through the air outside, yanking him back to reality. His heart raced— not from the strain of mana this time, but from the realisation that the beast wave had arrived!

He shot to his feet, his body still shaky but his mind sharp.

He rushed to wear off his enchanted leather armour and put up the cloak from the Archine Tower on top of it for more protection. As the cloak swirled around him, he slid the ring— imbued with a defensive spell onto his finger. Lastly, the spear that Balen had worked on— enchanted and masterfully crafted, was strapped to his back.

There’s no time to waste!

With a swift motion, he threw open the window and leapt out, landing using [Featherfall] before sprinting through the castle grounds toward the walls.

The cold morning air stung his face, but he barely noticed it with the mana surging through his veins. As he pushed himself forward with the wind, he realised how much stronger he had gotten in just a night.

As he neared the wall, he sensed the emanating tension from everyone surrounding it. Guards and Mages scrambled into position, and the moment they saw him, the atmosphere shifted.

"Lord Arzan, you’re finally here!" someone shouted, their voice tinged with relief.

Kai didn’t stop. He moved, weaving through the crowd of Enforcers until he found Killian rushing up to him. The man’s face was grim, but there was a spark of hope in his eyes now that Kai had arrived.

"Glad you are here in time," Killian said, his words clipped and urgent. "You need to see this."

Together, they turned to face the wall. Beyond it, in the distance, the first silhouettes of the beasts emerged from the fog. Giant, grotesque forms, both twisted and threatening, their forms barely visible in the dawn light. But they were coming— hundreds of them, their growls and screeches echoing louder with every passing second.

Kai clenched his fist as saw the beasts. Then, he raised his voice, clear and commanding, cutting through everyone’s screams, protests and worries.

"Everyone, get ready! The beasts are here!"