For several seconds after Kael’s words, no one spoke.
The sky hung heavy, as if even the clouds were listening.
Rovan was the first to move—not on the outside, but inside.
His eyes narrowed slightly, not at Kael’s wings this ti, but at the residual mana still clinging to the space around him.
"...Wait," he said slowly. "Those roots earlier. The teleportation. The way the mana behaved."
Ragnar’s gaze sharpened. "You’re saying—"
"That it wasn’t a technique," Rovan finished. "Not martial. Not instinctive movent."
Rina’s grin faded, replaced by sothing closer to disbelief. "You an... that was just magic?"
All three of them looked back at Kael.
And for the first ti since arriving, there was no condescension in their eyes.
Only confusion.
"...Magic without chants," Rovan murmured. "Without circles."
Ragnar frowned. "That’s sothing only the lowest-tier mages do. Raw, inefficient casting."
Rina nodded slowly. "Because chants and circles don’t just organize mana—they multiply it. The more complex they are, the stronger the spell becos."
Rovan exhaled. "That’s why SSS-rankers are monsters. They layer chants. Stack circles. One spell contains the frawork of dozens."
Kael listened, his brow furrowed deeper with every word.
"So you’re telling ," he said slowly, "that I’ve been doing it wrong?"
The demihumans didn’t answer imdiately.
Instead, Rina tilted her head and asked, "Have you ever... learned a spell? Like, formally?"
Kael opened his mouth.
Then paused.
His frown deepened.
"...I just imagine what I want to happen," he said at last. "And push mana into it."
That was all.
No denial. No explanation.
Just that.
The silence that followed was different from before—thick, almost reverent.
After all, spellcasting based on imagination was what low-tier mages did.
Ragnar was the first to recover. "...That answers it."
Rovan nodded slowly. "You’re not just skipping chants. You’re skipping structure."
Rina sucked in a breath. "That’s not talent. That’s—" she searched for the word, then laughed softly. "That’s absurd."
Kael, anwhile, had latched onto sothing else.
"... What’s the big deal about flying with mana?" He asked, glancing down at the faint glow still clinging to Seraphina’s feet. "Why does everyone keep reacting to that?"
He could already tell that chants and circles seed complicated—not sothing they could teach him—but flying without the use of wings or telekinesis was sothing he felt they could.
The demihumans, hearing his question, blinked once.
Then Rovan answered carefully. "Because it’s the proof you’ve reached SS-rank."
Ragnar continued, his voice steady. "At that level, mana becos dense enough to support your body. You don’t propel yourself—you float. The world carries you."
Rina grinned again, but this ti there was awe behind it. "Anyone who can fly with mana alone has crossed a line most never even see."
Kael looked down at his wings.
"...Huh."
The others, however, returned to their thoughts.
With everything they heard and saw, the implication settled quite fast.
Kael had defeated two SS-rank archmages.
Without knowing the basics.
Without formal spells.
Without martial techniques beyond a single breathing thod.
Rina let out a low whistle. "If this gets out..." she said softly. "You’d be called a genius like the world’s never seen."
But before Kael could answer that, Seraphina, who had been silent for too long, spoke up.
"That’s enough."
Her voice cut through the air like a blade.
Everyone turned.
She floated there, white mana roiling more violently now, her eyes locked onto Kael with naked hostility.
Unlike before, when she just wanted to kill him because he had killed the super twins, now she wanted to do it for another reason.
It was because Kael was too dangerous to be kept alive.
She had heard everything, and she had co to the sa conclusion as the demihumans.
And because of that, she deed it necessary to kill Kael, who might beco the biggest enemy of Astraea in the future.
Above all, she had seen his golden blood, and after adding all of the things she had been seeing in him for a while now, she had a feeling that Kael was more than what he had shown her until now.
It was as if he was still underestimating her, and if that was so, then although she felt humiliated, she wanted to use that chance to kill him.
So, she gritted her teeth.
"Now that he’s had his explanation," she said coldly, "you three should step aside."
However, unlike what one would expect, Ragnar didn’t move.
Neither did Rovan.
Rina, however, did—appearing beside Kael in a blur, looping her arm around his casually, her tail flicking with open amusent.
"Sorry," she said brightly. "That’s not happening."
Seraphina’s brow twitched.
"Our goal was to observe," Ragnar said calmly. "We’ve done that."
Rovan nodded. "And we’ve decided."
Seraphina’s voice dropped. "Decided what?"
"That we’re taking him in," Ragnar replied.
The words hit like thunder.
"This is a matter between Astraea and that guy," Seraphina snarled. "Stay out of it."
Rina leaned closer to Kael, whispering loudly, "She’s scary when she’s angry."
Others ignored her comnt, while Ragnar replied to Seraphina’s statent, his gaze hardening. "It isn’t anymore."
Rovan added evenly, "If you want to kill him now, you’ll have to go through us."
Seraphina’s mana surged violently.
"He killed two of my subordinates," she growled. "Important assets of Astraea. He has to pay."
Those words silenced the demihumans for a few seconds because they knew that the steps they were taking right now might very well be their last.
After all, they were starting a conflict between Grandins and Astraea, sothing that shouldn’t happen, as these two powers typically stay out of the power struggle between the human and demihuman domains.
Still, Ragnar believed that once their higher-ups saw Kael, they wouldn’t think that his decision was bad, so he t Seraphina’s fury without flinching.
"That will be settled between the higher-ups. Human and demihuman alike."
"For now," Rovan said, "we all return to our sides."
The sky trembled with barely restrained power.
Seraphina hovered there, trembling—not with fear, but rage.
Kael stood at the center of it all, wings spread, golden eyes calm.
One side wanted him dead.
The other wanted to claim him.
The question here was: Could Ragnar, Rina, and Rovan defeat Seraphina without losing soone on their side?
That was what those three were thinking about as the ti ticked.
After all, they knew how strong Seraphina was, and although they heard so rumors about her powers, at this level, they didn’t think rumors were exaggerated.
Because the mont one began taking those rumors lightly, they had already started underestimating their enemies.
The air scread.
Mana pressure twisted the sky into a trembling sheet of glass, ready to shatter at the slightest provocation.
Then—
Kael vanished.
Not backward.
Not away.
He teleported forward.
Rina’s arm closed on nothing.
In the sa instant, Kael reappeared several ters ahead—directly in front of Ragnar—his back now to the demihumans, his golden eyes facing Seraphina alone.
The shift was so abrupt that even the wind stuttered.
"—What the hell are you doing?!" Ragnar roared.
Rovan’s eyes widened sharply. "Kael, move back. Now."
Rina clicked her tongue, tail lashing. "Hey. I don’t like stupid n, you know. That human can punch a hole through your heart before you blink."
Seraphina’s eyes widened for a fraction.
From her perspective, Kael had just stepped into execution range.
Still, she didn’t attack yet. Ragnar was ready to move, so she decided to wait.
She could feel that she would get the chance to kill Kael soon.
Kael, on the other hand, floated there calmly.
Not tense.
Not bracing.
Just... waiting.
He turned his head once—only once—looking back over his shoulder at the three demihumans.
"I never asked for your help," he said evenly.
The words landed harder than expected.
"I appreciate the explanations," Kael continued. "You told things I didn’t know. That matters."
His eyes sharpened slightly.
"But that doesn’t make us friends."
Rina’s grin vanished.
"So," Kael finished, turning forward again, "I’ll fight my own battle."
Ragnar’s aura flared violently. "You beat two SS-rankers, and now you think you’re untouchable?! Overconfidence gets people killed."
Rovan stepped forward half a pace. "We just told you why SS-rankers can’t win against SSS-rankers. Especially you. You don’t even know the basics."
Rina folded her arms. "Yeah. You don’t know jack. You’ll die."
Kael didn’t answer.
Because Rina had just noticed sothing.
Her eyes flicked downward.
"...Wait."
Kael’s wings were still.
Not beating.
Not adjusting.
Yet he hovered—perfectly stable.
"...You’re not using your wings," she said slowly.
Ragnar froze.
Rovan sucked in a sharp breath.
Kael glanced down at himself, then nodded. "Oh. This?"
White-gold mana condensed beneath his feet, subtle and dense, bending the air like invisible glass.
"I tried it," he said as if talking about the weather. "You explained it once."
The demihumans went silent.
"...You learned it that fast?" Rina muttered, as anyone who learns how to fly using mana needs at least a few days to start floating.
Yet Kael was actually flying like an expert. It was hard to believe that he didn’t know how to do it until now.
Kael, however, shrugged. "I’m a fast learner."
Ragnar closed his eyes for half a second. "...You’ll still die."
It was then, as Ragnar’s eyes closed, that Seraphina made her move.
Her mana detonated, a small but complex magic circle appearing before her.
In a single, flawless motion—smooth, optimized, and perfected over countless practices—she unleashed her fastest killing spell.
A beam of compressed white annihilation scread forward, aid straight at Kael’s head.
No warning.
No hesitation.
Death.
Kael turned.
And snapped his fingers.
A magic circle blood before him—intricate, layered, and identical in structure to Seraphina’s own.
It was similar to the one Seraphina had used before when she had lured Kael into physically attacking her.
What was even more horrifying was that it wasn’t just Seraphina’s magic circle, as so patterns seed like the magic circle of the dead twins.
It was as if Kael had mixed sothing from the twins’ circles into Seraphina’s.
That ant Kael had copied and modified Seraphina’s magic circle in these few monts.
The demihumans’ eyes—especially Ragnar, who could see even the minute details—nearly burst from their sockets.
The circle fired.
Kael’s beam was weaker. Rougher. Its power was nowhere near enough to stop Seraphina’s attack.
But it collided.
The two spells crashed, spiraling violently as Kael’s magic slid against Seraphina’s, and although it burst into particles the next instant, it forced her attack off course.
The diverted beam ripped past Kael’s left cheek with a thunderous crack, missing him by inches.
Blood traced a thin golden line down his face.
Kael didn’t flinch.
Didn’t blink.
Seraphina stared, frozen, as she realized sothing horrifying.
Kael had copied her magic.
Kael, on the other hand, touched his cheek absently, then looked back at her.
"...Told you," he muttered calmly, mana humming around him. "I learn fast."
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