Everyone — from the elders to the retainers lining the walls — was dumbfounded by Victor’s sudden challenge over the patriarch position, staring at him in disbelief. The situation had already been tense, and this declaration made the atmosphere all the more suffocating.

  Victor’s words had shattered the fragile balance of power in an instant.

  “Victor! Have you gone crazy?” one of the elders shouted, slamming his hand against the armrest.

  “Y-You were serious?!” Angela was stunned in disbelief. She had been the first to hear Victor mention his ambition to take over the family, but even she hadn’t expected him to act so soon or even tell the truth, to begin with.

  “Victor, you ungrateful brat! Once you’ve issued your challenge, there’s no taking it back. Are you even aware of the consequences?” another elder barked.

  “Brother, let me teach him a lesson,” Gardacle said, and without waiting for the patriarch’s permission, he unleashed a wave of mana pressure, ten times stronger than before, directed straight at Victor.

  The hall trembled as the pressure manifested. If Victor were truly only a third-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte, he would have been crushed under the weight — bones cracking, body battered and broken. But instead, Victor wasn’t pressured in the least, not even the faintest sign of discomfort showing on his face.

  “Still standing? How is that possible?” Gardacle’s eyes widened, unable to accept that he wasn’t even able to make Victor kneel.

  “You thought this was enough to bring me down?” Victor scoffed. “Pfft. You’ll need far more than that.”

  With that, he unleashed his own wave of mana pressure — dense, overwhelming, and many times stronger than Gardacle’s. The sheer force of it surged through the hall like a crashing tide. Gardacle’s expression twisted as he was hit head-on. The strength of it sent him reeling, tumbling from his chair and crashing to the ground with a heavy thud.

  “H-How?!” he gasped, staring up in shock, unable to believe the oppressive force was coming from the younger man standing before him.

  Gardacle was only a second-sigil Elemental Adept Magus at most and wasn’t even considered one of the stronger elders of the Asteriscus family. His strength was not worth mentioning compared to Victor’s. In truth, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Victor could end his life with one or two well-placed Bet-tier spells without breaking a sweat if he wanted to.

  At this, the hall was frozen in collective doubt. It was as if reality itself had betrayed them. An Elemental Adept Magus had just been humiliated by someone they believed to still be a third-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte. How was that possible?

  “S-Sixth sigil Elemental Adept Magus!” the most senior elder breathed, his voice trembling. “A twenty-year-old peak Elemental Adept Magus! That’s… monstrous. The envoy… Don’t tell me—”

  “Enough!” Maverick’s voice cracked through the room like a whip.

  The patriarch stood up with a commanding presence. Without hesitation, he released his own mana pressure — vast and well-honed, befitting the head of the family. It swept across the hall, a tidal wave of force meant to suppress anyone below his rank.

  But the moment it reached Victor, the pressure dissipated.

  No, it was more correct to say that it was crushed.

  Victor met his father’s gaze with a cold, amused smirk, and his own infused mana flared, tearing through the patriarch’s oppressive mana like paper. The disparity in strength was just that large. After all, Victor was no ordinary peak Elemental Adept Magus, but one that mastered the esoteric elements of Cosmo and Chrono — elements that bent space and warped time itself. If he couldn’t crush such pressure with ease, he’d have every right to be disappointed in himself.

  Maverick’s eyes darkened upon realizing that he was no match against Victor when it came to the power and concentration of his magic.

  Victor, still standing in the center of the hall, simply said, “Is that all, Father?”

  “No.” Maverick raised his hand and chanted, “{Wind Drill}!”

  A swirling vortex of wind condensed above his palm, tightening into a bladed spiral of compressed air. He then hurled it toward Victor — the spell tearing through the air like a lance, twisting the air into a deadly spear aimed directly at Victor’s chest.

  It was clear that this wasn’t just a bluff, and Maverick was seriously attacking his own son.

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  Victor, however, had already anticipated this. With calm precision, he chanted, “{Warpblade},” and summoned an ethereal blade formed of condensed spatial energy into his hand.

  The bladed spiral of wind neared — a breath away from striking him — but just before it could connect, space twisted subtly. In a blink, the oncoming spell contorted as though reality itself bent, and then, in a clean flash, it was cleaved in half by the shimmering edge of Victor’s ethereal blade.

  Maverick’s magic attack dissipated into harmless wisps of wind.

  Without pause, Victor flicked his wrist and sent the ethereal blade flying, tearing through the air like a blitz. It struck Maverick’s barrier, causing it to shimmer violently before shattering under the force. The blade didn’t stop there and grazed Maverick’s cheek, leaving a thin crimson line of blood trailing down his face.

  This all happened within a second.

  Finally, the elders and family retainers in the hall seemed to process what had just occurred. For a brief moment, the room was dead silent, stunned by the fact that Maverick, the patriarch of the Asteriscus family, had been wounded in an instant.

  “Is this what the head of the Asteriscus Magus family that everyone looks up to amounts to?” Victor remarked. “If you wish to test me further… I won’t be holding back next time.”

  In the past, Victor had defeated Roland — a fifth-sigil Elemental Adept Magus — while he had only just formed his first sigil, even if Roland had been weakened at the time. Now, Victor had long surpassed both Maverick and Roland. Compared to his current self, their strength was little more than child’s play. Save for extraordinary beings in the Nexus Temporal rank and above, only those old Elemental Adept fogies in the Arcane Radiance College would be Victor’s opponent.

  “C-Cosmo magic…!” one of the four elders gasped, trembling in his seat.

  “What was that spell?” muttered another elder, visibly pale. “A spatial compression blade… That thing sliced through a Bet-tier wind spell like nothing!”

  “To cast it without delay…” The most senior elder murmured, swallowing hard. “He’s mastered the Cosmo element.”

  Maverick’s expression faltered. Clearly, he hadn’t expected Victor to neutralize his spell with such elegance and power. Not only had Victor resisted his mana pressure, but now he’d proven that his elemental affinity wasn’t ordinary in the slightest.

  Cosmo element. An elemental affinity that only a select few Magi across the continent possessed. And here stood his son, casting it effortlessly, as if it were second nature.

  “Wait,” the gloomy elder suddenly interjected, his expression brightening, “isn’t this a good thing for us?”

  “Indeed. If we have a peak Elemental Adept Magus — one who excels in spatial magic — as the head of the Asteriscus family, we may be able to weather this storm,” said the most collected elder thoughtfully.

  “What are you saying? This alone is not enough to lead the Asteriscus family! Have you two forgotten the contributions that Maverick has made to the family?” the third elder snapped, voice filled with indignation. “You would let a boy who’s been missing for months take the reins just because of one flashy display?”

  The hall broke into discord. Everyone — elders and retainers alike — began to bicker, voices rising in argument over who should lead the family now. Some pointed to tradition, others to power, and the rest still to the current crisis.

  But it was undeniable that power reigned supreme in this world. Just because Victor showed that he was stronger than the current head, the elders who had been supporting his fathers for years had begun to change their stance. If he were to come back as a Nexus Temporal Magus instead, they would have handed over the position on a silver platter.

  “Quiet!” barked the most senior Magus, whose voice was amplified with his infused mana, immediately silencing the room.

  He looked toward Victor, then to Maverick. “We can’t deny that he has the qualifications to become the new head of the family. And more importantly, he has issued a formal challenge to the current patriarch. According to our laws, we must honor that challenge.”

  “Victor, lad,” the senior elder said slowly, narrowing his eyes. “State your intention more clearly. What are you trying to achieve by returning to this family and claiming that you possess a complete high-rank meditation technique? Is this just to trick us? And why, tell us, did you kill the envoy of the Merlin family?”

  “I’ve already stated my intention,” Victor replied calmly. “I’m here to claim what’s mine. I want to take over the Asteriscus Magus family and bring it to a golden age. And I’m willing to share the complete high-rank meditation technique with all of you equally.”

  “Very we—”

  “Objection!” Maverick’s voice cut sharply through the hall. Having regained his composure, he stood tall and pointed a trembling finger at Victor. “Elders, you can’t seriously be considering this. Do you truly believe that the man standing before you is my son — and not some imposter wearing his skin? Think! How can a third-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte suddenly become a peak Elemental Adept Magus in less than half a year? It’s impossible!”

  The hall fell into murmurs once more.

  After all, not even the most talented Magus in the kingdom could boast such staggering progression in so short a time. By all known standards, it would take at least five years to accomplish even half of what Victor claimed to have achieved.

  “That’s… true. Even with a complete high-rank meditation technique, the timeline is too short.”

  “Could it be possession? Perhaps by a demon or ancient soul?”

  Victor chuckled, but there was no warmth in it. “You question my identity, Father?” he asked with a hint of mockery. “Can’t accept reality? Then by all means — test me. Use any method available. Verify my bloodline, test my spiritual signature, probe my soul. You’ll find that I am exactly who I claim to be — Victor Asteriscus.”

  His eyes swept across the room, calmly meeting the eyes of every elder present.

  “If you’re still in doubt, I’ll prove it through the family’s ancient rite — the Trial of Astrology. The one reserved for those who seek to claim the patriarch’s seat through merit rather than bloodline alone.”

  No one was able to utter a single word of protest. Even Maverick could only frown and say nothing since the Trial of Astrology would prove everything, including whether Victor was possessed or not.

  After half a minute of pause, Maverick spoke. “So be it. We will do the Trial of Astrology now.”

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