Along with the detonation of the spatial mine trap, the Asteriscus family’s elite unit made their move. One by one, the elders emerged from behind the clouds and surrounded the Merlin dirigibles like silent predators. Without hesitation, they unleashed a barrage of spells — flames, lightning, plants, storms — all aimed at the airships and any enemy Magi bold enough to retaliate.

  Caught completely off guard, the Merlin forces scrambled in disarray. Several Magi were struck before they could even cast a single spell. Some fell injured, while others died outright, reduced to burned husks or falling midair in spirals of blood and frost.

  Seeing the devastating turn of events, Alphonse gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. His eyes locked onto Victor, blazing with hatred, as though he was seeing his greatest enemy. What was supposed to be a swift pursuit had turned into a calculated slaughter, and Victor stood at the center of it all, orchestrating it like a conductor with a smirk.

  “You’re dead, brat!” Alphonse shouted.

  He raised both hands and began chanting furiously, his voice echoing with power and rage. This time, the air around him trembled as a sigil on his forearm flared to life, radiating pale blue light and ancient runes and providing him with an almost endless infused mana.

  “Ice that devours all—! {Absolute Zero Ray}!”

  A narrow, razor-thin beam of pure frost condensed before his palm. It was extremely cold, so cold that it felt as if it had dipped below absolute zero. The very fabric of space trembled as the beam fired — a Cryo spell that ignored mass, form, and material, capable of freezing anything into brittle ash.

  Obviously, Victor wasn’t about to stand still and let it hit him. Even before Alphonse had completed his incantation, he had already begun chanting his own, activating three sigils simultaneously.

  Normally, an Elemental Adept Magus would never dare to activate more than one, perhaps two sigils per spell. Doing so would risk an intense backlash and overwhelm the Magus with too much mana. The standard approach was to cast multiple lower-powered spells to utilize additional sigils sequentially. This was also what Victor’s father, Maverick Asteriscus, had done in the duel.

  But Victor was not a typical Magus.

  In order to face the overwhelming power of a sigil-amplified Gimmel-tier spell cast by a Nexus Temporal Magus, he had to amplify his own spell far beyond conventional limits. He couldn’t hold back even a little; otherwise, even a moment of restraint could cost him his life.

  The ray streaked toward Victor in a straight line, distorting space as it cut through the air like an executioner’s blade. This was no mere display — it was a killing blow. A Gimmel-tier Cryo spell enhanced by a sigil of a Nexus Temporal Magus. A direct hit would mean death.

  “{Nova}!” Victor’s voice rang out.

  The sigils on his body flared in unison — one on each palm, and a third on his chest. Waves of Cosmo elemental particles surged outward, and in the blink of an eye, a radiant explosion of white-blue energy erupted in front of him, like that of a miniature sun.

  BOOM!

  The two forces clashed midair like two giants.

  The {Absolute Zero Ray} pierced into the heart of Victor’s {Nova}, and for a moment, it was clear the frost would win.

  Ghh! Victor gritted his teeth. The power of a Nexus Temporal Magus… it truly isn’t something an Elemental Adept like me can match head-on…

  “I’ll admit, you’re the strongest Elemental Adept Magus I’ve ever faced. No one’s lasted this long in a fight against me,” Alphonse praised, still maintaining the full force of his spell. “But so what? No Elemental Adept Magus can ever dream of defeating a Nexus Temporal Magus in this world! Accept your fate!”

  The freezing beam became even stronger and pushed back the core of Victor’s spell. The balance was tipping. Victor’s reserves were draining rapidly — he was burning through his mana reserves just to maintain equilibrium. As efficient and powerful as {Nova} was, it simply wasn’t meant to clash directly with a sigil-enhanced Gimmel-tier spell. The fact that he had endured this long was already remarkable.

  Victor’s brow furrowed, and a small smirk tugged at his lips. “As expected… I still can’t match a true Nexus Temporal Magus directly. However…” He reached into his robe and pulled out a small, dark coin, one engraved on each side with masked faces bearing opposing expressions. The Glutton’s Coin. A gift from Mr. Red at the Magus market.

  Victor tossed the coin into the air. The moment it spun, a large amount of infused mana appeared from the coin and poured into his core, channeled straight into {Nova}. In mere seconds, the spell doubled in power and size. The light around Victor flared as the explosion expanded, warping space and crashing back against the icy ray with renewed force. The entire sky trembled as {Nova} engulfed both Victor and Alphonse in a blinding sphere.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Wh-What? How is this possi—”

  Cracks splintered across the surface of the icy beam. With a final, thunderous detonation, the sky between them erupted in a spiraling explosion of light and frost. The force shook the heavens, sending shockwaves across the clouds and splitting the air with deafening resonance.

  Realizing that even he would be caught in the heart of the blast, Victor reacted instantly. He activated a sigil-empowered {Blink}, instantaneously teleporting himself into the far distance. Alas, it wasn’t enough. The explosion from the clashing spells was too immense, and the residual shockwave caught up with him mid-teleport. A crushing blast of force slammed into his back, bypassing his defenses and rattling his internal organs. Pain exploded through his chest as blood surged up his throat.

  “Gah—!”

  Victor coughed out a mouthful of blood, his body flung like a ragdoll through the sky before crashing down toward the ground below.

  It was one of the worst kinds of pain Victor had ever experienced. His body throbbed with agony, and he lay motionless on the ground for a good several minutes before he could even begin to process what had happened. Gritting his teeth, he activated his Master Shadowlink Mark to check his status.

  HP: 21%

  MP: 258/2108

  Holy crap! I’m almost dead! Victor thought, creasing his eyebrows as he looked down at his battered body. No wonder it felt like his bones were grinding together with every breath — nearly all of his ribs were fractured or broken.

  But he knew one thing for certain: There was no way that explosion had killed Alphonse. If anything, the man should have more energy and mana reserves than Victor did at this point. Staying here any longer would be suicidal.

  Wasting no time, Victor took out a high-rank healing potion and a healing magic scroll from his interspatial ring and used them. He then sent a magic transmission to the elders, ordering a full retreat. Though realistically, he expected they had already begun withdrawing the moment the sky erupted in that cataclysmic blast.

  Gritting his teeth against the pain that didn’t subside despite the healing measure he used, Victor began casting {Blink} again and again. Each cast warped him hundreds of meters away, draining his mana rapidly in the process. Despite the fatigue and intense blood loss, he kept leaping through space in desperation until the distant silhouettes of the Asteriscus fleet finally came into view.

  With the last ounce of strength he could muster, Victor flew unsteadily toward the nearest dirigible. As soon as he reached the edge of the boarding platform, his limbs gave out. Fortunately, a pair of hands caught him just in time before he could plummet back into the open sky.

  “Patriarch!” one of the guards shouted in alarm, helping lower Victor onto the deck. Blood trickled down the corner of Victor’s mouth, and his Magus robe was scorched and tattered, barely holding together. Even without using any diagnostic spell, it was clear that he had sustained grave internal injuries.

  Within seconds, several elders and high-ranking family members rushed to his side.

  “Get him to the med-bay! Now!” Alvin, the family’s ancestor, ordered.

  “No need…” Victor rasped, raising a trembling hand to halt them. “Is the plan… successful?”

  “Yes, Patriarch,” one of the elders replied, eyes filled with awe. “The ambush was a complete success. We’ve already withdrawn safely from the engagement zone. None of our elders fell in the battle, and we even managed to eliminate several of their Magi. Furthermore, the majority of the fleet remains unharmed.”

  Victor exhaled in relief, though even that small act made his chest flare with pain. Well, at least there was some great news. He leaned back as they gently helped him inside.

  As he was carried into the cabin, his mind began to fade in and out. The pain was dulling, but that only made him more nervous. His mana reserves were nearly gone, and his body was running purely on survival instinct.

  If only I had more infused mana left… he thought bitterly. I could have cast {Time Reversal} on myself and at least repaired the worst of it.

  Instead, he allowed the darkness to take him, just for a while.

  Smoke and frost swirled violently in the aftermath of the explosion. Alphonse hovered midair, surrounded by residual mana and chaotic elemental particles that crackled like static against his skin. His blue magic barrier — fractured and unstable — finally shattered into fragments of light before dissipating entirely.

  At first glance, he appeared unharmed. But then, a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. While he wasn’t gravely wounded, he was injured. A Nexus Temporal Magus… wounded by a mere Elemental Adept…

  “This is unacceptable!” Alphonse snarled, clenching his fists as his eyes swept across the battlefield.

  Of the three dirigibles that had formed his advance unit, only two remained airborne. One of them limped through the sky, smoke trailing from its hull. Craters and scorch marks dotted the sky and the earth beneath. The Asteriscus ambush had struck with ruthless precision, exploiting a single moment of vulnerability to inflict maximum damage before vanishing without a trace.

  And Victor…

  That insolent brat had disappeared. No matter where Alphonse searched, there was almost no trace. This could only mean that that brat had survived, alive and kicking, successfully escaping a Nexus Temporal Magus like him.

  He planned all of this from the start.

  Alphonse’s expression darkened from the humiliation, his mind flashing through each moment of the confrontation. The Asteriscus fleet's calculated retreat… the spatial mines stored in subspace… and even that last spell that managed to slightly overwhelm his own all-out spell…

  “That boy…” Alphonse muttered, wiping the blood from his mouth. “He’s not just powerful. He’s dangerous.”

  More dangerous than any young Magus had the right to be. If he were left to develop further, Alphonse would no longer be able to contend with him. In fact, he believed that not even the Arcane Radiance College would be enough to make him submit in the future. He couldn’t let that happen and had to take action as soon as possible.

  He took a deep breath, his mana still unstable. Right now, his forces had suffered greatly. The ambush had claimed some of his most promising Magi. And worst of all, the Asteriscus fleet had escaped without having any of their Magus perishing in the battle.

  Still, this was not over. Not by a long shot.

  “Victor Asteriscus…” he growled under his breath. “I’ll drag you out of your hiding hole, even if I have to burn the Thornwood Forest to the ground.”

  With that, Alphonse turned, cold wind swirling around him like a storm regathering its strength. He vowed that he would take revenge and repay this humiliation a thousand-fold.

  If you are looking for more to read, consider checking out my new series or join my server