Kai rushed through the sky, wind screaming around him as Selenia chased from behind. Claw-shaped projectiles of dead mana tore through the air one after another, forcing him to twist and dive again and again.

  Each miss ended in destruction—some strikes crashed into the city below, disintegrating rooftops apart, while others slammed into the wards themselves, sending ripples of unstable light across their surface.

  Her laughter followed him.

  “Why are you running away?” Selenia called out, her voice carrying effortlessly through the chaos. “I thought you would face me head on.”

  Kai didn’t answer. His focus was elsewhere. He needed to understand her first, how strong she was and how he would face her.

  Regina had called her in with absolute confidence. That alone told him she was strong. Even without directly clashing, the pressure rolling off Selenia made his instincts tighten. She wasn’t weaker than a peak Fifth-Circle Mage—if anything, she felt stronger. And unlike Regina, this woman moved with an ease that suggested long familiarity with battle.

  To gauge them, he ducked as another claw of dead mana screamed past his head.

  He raised his wand mid-flight and unleashed a firestorm.

  The air ignited instantly, heat rolling outward as roaring flames surged toward her position. For a moment, the sky itself seemed to burn.

  Selenia only smiled. Then she vanished.

  The firestorm tore through the space she had occupied, finding nothing. Kai’s heart jumped as instinct screamed at him. He twisted in the air—

  She was right behind him.

  Selenia appeared with a grin, her wings barely moving, then blinked out of existence again before he could retaliate. She reappeared above him. Then below. Then to his side. Each time vanishing just as he adjusted, like a predator circling for fun.

  She was playing with him.

  Kai forced himself to stay calm. Beneath the chaos, he sensed it—a faint, warped pull of shadow-aspected mana every time she moved. Not pure teleportation, but a spatial displacement technique layered with dead mana.

  Those were always a nightmare to fight.

  But Kai hadn’t become the youngest Magus in history by panicking.

  As Selenia appeared directly beneath him, her wings flaring wide, Kai moved first.

  Wind exploded around his legs, compressed and sharpened in an instant, and he drove it downward toward her like a hammer, finally turning the hunt into a clash.

  The gust of wind slammed straight into Selenia’s face. She cried out, her form faltering for a split second as her balance broke in midair.

  Kai did not waste the opening.

  He snapped his wand forward and released the spell he had already prepared.

  Spears of flame burst outward in a tight formation.

  Selenia twisted away, but she was too slow. One of the flaming spears struck her shoulder head-on. She screamed as fire tore into her flesh, the impact spinning her through the air.

  The spell burned deep before collapsing, and Kai saw black blood spill from the wound before thick coils of dead mana crawled over it, sealing it shut.

  Her eyes locked onto him, burning with fury. “You’re going to regret that,” she snarled.

  “I don’t think so,” Kai replied calmly.

  He pushed more mana through his wand.

  Fourth-circle projectiles erupted in rapid succession—blades of compressed wind, arcs of flame, and dense bolts of heat tearing through the sky toward her.

  Selenia answered in kind, hurling claw-shaped constructs of dead mana straight at him. The attacks collided midair, detonating in violent bursts of light and pressure.

  Shockwaves rippled outward at once. Smoke, fire, and fractured wind scattered across the sky.

  Kai refused to stay still. He darted through the air, changing angles with every heartbeat, already weaving the structure for his next spell. Selenia matched him, her movements faster and sharper now, her earlier playfulness gone.

  He sent more attacks.

  She intercepted each attack with increasing precision, the sky between them filling with explosions as their spells clashed again and again.

  Kai clenched his teeth.

  His fourth-circle spells were not overwhelming her, but they were forcing her to fight seriously with each passing second. That meant his attacks were enough of a threat to her.

  Good, he thought to himself and just then, Selenia vanished and reappeared dangerously close, slashing his neck with a claw. But before she could do anything, his wind armor took on the blow.

  She was thrown backwards in the next second.

  Kai used the opportunity and reacted instantly, unleashing his laser straight at her face.

  But she vanished again at the last moment.

  The beam tore past her empty position and struck the distant city wards instead, sending more ripples of light across the barrier.

  Kai did not slow down. He pressed the attack harder, drawing fully on his vast mana reserves as their battle tore through the sky above the city. Buildings below shattered under stray impacts, rooftops collapsing as shockwaves rolled outward.

  His heart tugged for a moment.

  He could hear screams and panicked shouts drifting up from the streets, but he forced himself to ignore them.

  Right now, Selenia was the only thing that mattered.

  The fight intensified with every passing second. Selenia vanished and reappeared in rapid bursts, her claw-shaped projectiles ripping through the air from all directions.

  Some came from above, others from behind, and a few appeared so close that Kai felt the pressure before he saw them.

  He twisted, dove, and spun through the sky, wind snapping around his body as he barely avoided each strike.

  He answered with his own barrage. Spears of flame, blades of compressed wind, and shards of ice shot from his wand in relentless waves. They crossed paths with Selenia’s attacks, colliding midair and detonating in violent explosions that shook the sky itself. Fire bloomed, ice shattered into glittering fragments, and turbulent winds howled through the gaps between them.

  But none of his attacks landed cleanly.

  Selenia was too fast.

  Her teleportation left only afterimages behind, and every time Kai thought he had her position, she was already gone. There was no time to slow down and weave a larger spell, no chance to build something decisive. If he tried, she would be on him in an instant.

  Forced into constant motion, Kai kept up the pressure with rapid-fire spells, knowing that stopping even for a moment would be fatal.

  Their attacks passed each other again and again, neither side giving ground. Halfway through the exchange, Selenia’s laughter rang out across the sky, sharp and delighted.

  “This is fun,” she said, her voice echoing as she appeared briefly in front of him. “You’re like slime—always slipping out of my grasp.”

  Then she disappeared.

  Kai’s senses screamed a warning. She reappeared directly above him, claws already extending.

  He cut his [Flight] spell instantly and dropped, the attack slicing through empty air.

  Before he could recover, she was there again—this time from the side—striking in a blur with both her hands.

  Kai twisted away, but she stayed on him, her close-range attacks coming faster and faster until he could no longer predict where she would appear next.

  So he stopped moving.

  He held his position, forcing his breathing to steady as he let his senses expand instead of chasing her shadow. The moment she appeared behind him, he turned—

  Her claws crashed into his wind armor, dead mana hissing as it tried to corrode the spell.

  The impact sent a jolt through his body, but Kai did not retreat. Instead, he surged forward, pouring mana into his hands and heating it until the air around them shimmered.

  Kai’s hand closed around her throat, heat flooding from his palm in a sudden, brutal surge.

  Selenia screamed, the sound sharp and feral, her wings snapping wide as she thrashed to break free.

  He held on for a heartbeat longer, forcing the heat deeper, but her strength was overwhelming. Her body twisted unnaturally, and she tore herself out of his grasp, stumbling back through the air.

  Kai did not waste the opening.

  He drove his wand forward and released another spell. A spiraling column of compressed flame burst outward, roaring like a living thing as it surged toward her.

  The fire twisted and expanded, turning the air white-hot in its path.

  Selenia vanished at the last instant.

  The flames tore through the empty sky and dissipated, scattering sparks across the clouds. Kai scanned the air at once, senses stretched wide, but she did not reappear.

  He knew what that meant. She was healing her wounds and waiting for an opportunity.

  Hence he moved to weave together another spell on top of the wand, keeping his awareness spread in every direction for her sudden appearance.

  Five seconds passed, then she finally showed her face.

  Selenia emerged directly ahead of him, wings spread, a dense sphere of darkness cradled between her palms. The ball pulsed with dead mana, swallowing light around it. Without hesitation, she hurled it at him.

  Kai tried to evade, but the sphere detonated midair. The explosion did not push outward. Instead, it pulled.

  A violent suction yanked at his body, dragging him toward the collapsing center. His eyes widened as the force tore at his wind armor and twisted his [Flight] spell out of alignment.

  Gritting his teeth, he raised his hand and released the spell he had been holding back.

  Points of brilliant starlight ignited at the head of his wand.

  He thrust it upward.

  The light shot into the sky and detonated just below the wards, bursting apart into a cascading shower of blazing fragments. They fell like meteors, streaking downward in burning arcs.

  The explosion disrupted the pull just enough for Kai to tear himself free, forcing wind beneath his feet and ripping sideways through the air.

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  But he barely got time to steady himself.

  Selenia was already there.

  She appeared right in front of him, claws extended, dead mana rippling along their edges. Kai reacted on instinct, forming a fire spear in a flash and driving it forward.

  The spear collided with her claws, sending sparks and black smoke spiraling outward.

  She laughed, even as the force knocked her back. “Are you trying to bring the sky down on both of us?”

  Kai’s eyes were cold as he answered. “You’re wrong. Just on you.”

  He drove his foot forward, kicking her square in the chest.

  The impact sent Selenia hurtling away through the air, her wings snapping open as she spun back toward the burning city below.

  And the next second, every fragment of starlight that had finally reached the two of them answered his will.

  With a flick of his fingers, they turned as one and streaked toward Selenia. Her eyes widened, the playful gleam finally replaced by shock.

  She twisted in the air and shot away, wings beating hard as she fled across the sky.

  The starlights chased her relentlessly.

  She lashed out, hurling claw-shaped projectiles behind her. Each one shattered a starlight on impact, but the moment it broke apart, another formed in its place, whole and blazing. No matter how many she destroyed, the number never seemed to lessen. They only increased. That was the cruelty of the spell. It did not diminish. It did not tire.

  Once marked, escape was impossible.

  A sharp cry tore from her throat as one of the starlights finally caught up.

  It slammed into her back, and before she could recover, the rest followed. Light crashed down on her from every direction, hammering her body and driving her straight through the air.

  She plummeted like a falling star and smashed into the Archine Tower. And all the remaining starlights followed.

  The impact was catastrophic.

  Stone exploded outward as the tower’s upper structure shattered. Ancient masonry cracked and buckled, floors collapsing into one another as fire and light tore through the interior.

  The wards anchored to the tower flickered wildly, glowing erratically as their source destabilized.

  Kai rose higher into the sky, cold focus settling over him as he began weaving two spells at once—one through the wand, the other through his free hand.

  Mana roared through his veins as wind and fire formed separately, then twisted together in front of him.

  Wind compressed into spiraling currents, fire coiling within it like a living thing.

  The two forces fused, feeding off each other until they took shape—twin dragons, one of raging flame, the other of howling wind.

  Below, Selenia tore herself free from the rubble, battered and scorched, trying desperately to escape. But she was too slow.

  Kai released the spell.

  The dragons roared as they surged downward, crossing the sky in a heartbeat at an unprecedented speed. She wasn't even able to teleport in time as his attack struck the Archine Tower head-on, tearing through what remained of its upper half.

  Stone was shredded, molten debris flung outward as entire sections of the structure gave way.

  The tower collapsed—its upper half folded in on itself, floors pancaking as massive chunks of stone broke free and rained down onto the city below. The wards finally failed.

  The glowing barrier over the city flickered once—twice—then shattered like glass.

  Kai watched it all from above, his breath steady, his eyes locked on the destruction.

  For a moment, he allowed himself to hope that it was over.

  Then something moved.

  From within the smoking debris, a shape began to rise.

  Kai’s expression darkened as he felt the familiar pressure of dead mana surge once more. Without hesitation, he began forming another spell, his focus sharpening as he wondered how much longer this battle was truly going to last.

  ***

  Killian stood at the front of the army, staring at the capital in stunned silence.

  Even from this distance, he could see everything.

  The sky above the city was torn apart by explosions. Light and shadow collided again and again, spells flashing like violent storms. Massive projectiles streaked through the air and slammed into the wards, shaking the ground beneath their feet.

  The screams of civilians and soldiers alike carried all the way to the army’s position.

  Lord Arzan was fighting something up there. Someone strong enough to go toe to toe with him.

  Killian’s hands tightened around his sword as he followed the battle with his eyes. He had seen many powerful battles in his life, but this was different. This was on another level entirely and reminded him starkly of Lord Arzan's fight against Veridia.

  Then suddenly, something unexpected happened.

  The Archine Tower—visible even from the spot he stood on outside the camp, rising above the city like a symbol of authority—shuddered. At first, Killian thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But then, the tower leaned, just slightly, as if the world itself had lost balance.

  The wards flickered the next second.

  For a heartbeat, everything seemed to freeze.

  Then the ground trembled violently, like an earthquake crashing through the earth. A deep, thunderous sound rolled across the battlefield as the tower began to collapse. Stone and debris broke away in massive chunks, falling toward the city below.

  And with that—

  The mana dome shattered.

  The wards covering the capital dissolved into nothing, vanishing in a flash of fading light.

  Killian did not hesitate.

  He turned sharply to Duke Blackwood, who stood beside him. The duke met his gaze and gave a single, firm nod.

  That was all Killian needed.

  He turned back to the army and shouted, his voice carrying across the ranks.

  “The wards are down! Lord Arzan has done it for us!”

  The soldiers straightened at once.

  “Now it’s our turn,” Killian continued, raising his weapon. “Show v why we are the strongest army not only in the kingdom, but in the whole fucking world!”

  He pointed forward.

  “Charge! We take the capital today!”

  The army surged forward as one.

  Killian broke into a run at the head of the force, boots pounding against the ground. Duke Blackwood kept pace beside him, while ahead of them the siege breaker roared to life, rolling forward like an unstoppable beast.

  With a deafening crash, it slammed into the city wall.

  From the distance, Killian could see soldiers and Mages on the battlements scrambling in confusion. Arrows flew. Spells crackled through the air. But their movements were frantic, uncoordinated.

  They were too late.

  None of them had expected the wards to fall this suddenly.

  Killian felt it the moment they did—the pressure in the air vanishing. This was the opening they had been waiting for.

  Arrows and spells began to rain down as they closed in, hurried and poorly aimed.

  Panic had reached the walls before they had. Killian pushed lightning through his body, the current crackling just beneath his skin to form a shield. The arrows broke as soon as they struck it and the spells dispersed instantly.

  He never slowed.

  The siege breaker thundered ahead of them, its massive frame slamming into the wall.

  As they reached the wall, Killian leapt onto its back, one hand gripping the metal plating before he climbed onto its skull. From there, he pulled out a hooked rope and hurled it upward.

  Several soldiers rushed to cut it down.

  Killian didn’t let them.

  He tossed a vial instead.

  The potion shattered on the stone, releasing thick green gas that swallowed the top of the wall in seconds.

  Shouts followed—confused, panicked. He didn’t wait. Mana surged into his legs, and he began climbing, moving faster than any normal man could.

  When he reached the top, he launched himself out of the gas and landed hard on the stone.

  Three armored soldiers charged him immediately.

  Killian stood his ground.

  The first slammed into him, and bounced back as lightning surged through Killian’s arm. The man collapsed before he hit the ground. The second swung wildly; Killian stepped in and brought his sword down in a brutal overhead strike.

  The third froze.

  Killian didn’t.

  Two strikes shattered his shield and the third ended the fight.

  By then, more soldiers were regrouping along the wall. Killian was already moving toward them when a voice cut through his thoughts.

  Killian.

  Lord Arzan’s voice rang inside of his head.

  Go to the castle. Find Regina. She’s alive. I’m occupied, so you need to kill her before she runs. Also, get soldiers to evacuate everyone. I don't know if the city will survive the day.

  ***

  A/N - You can read 30 chapters (15 Magus Reborn and 15 Dao of money) on my patreon. Annual subscription is now on too.

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