Kai’s eyes opened groggily as Gobo, who Kai had told to stand watch, tapped him.
It wasn’t like Kai didn’t trust the security of Ashton City, it was just, well... his usual paranoia.
Glancing around from Reozaki to Matt, then to the ti that read midnight, Kai sighed.
The moonlight bathed the city in a dim, cold glow that made everything outside quite eerie. Beyond that, there was nothing, not even a whisper.
’Is this how all cities in this world are?’
Kai didn’t know much about the outside world of ltonia, since most of THD had happened in the academy. And when they did co out, most of it had been either ruined or had changed drastically, whether culturally or structurally.
Having nothing to do and a head filled with thoughts, Kai began weaving.
Weaving practice had been going smoothly for him, especially after watching how other students trained with their unique elents and talents.
"Form," Kai whispered, and with his words, the threads he could see, threads that looked like they were made of water, vanished. Imdiately, droplets of water began forming around Kai.
Kai telepathically commanded them to move and form into a single ball of water, and with a flick of his finger, the water dispersed.
He smiled, then continued practicing new combinations with the technique, and soon enough, he was able to reach the second stage of the mastery of weaving.
He stared at the system notification for a mont before dismissing it. His next problem was Star of Ruin.
But just as he was about to summon the vestige, an odd feeling ca over him, like a ghost was standing right next to him after watching a horror movie.
’Alpha, are you there?’
Most of the ti Kai needed Alpha, she was nowhere to be found. But this ti, he hoped she would answer.
After so ti of silence that was eating away at Kai, she answered.
[I’m here]
Holding in the urge to say more than he should, Kai asked, ’Can you feel that?’
Without warning she spoke out.
[... Warning! Kai... Deploy a barrier now!]
Kai had already begun channeling his mana before he had called Alpha, so without wasting a second, Kai’s eyes glowed brightly.
Sensing that mana, Matt and Reozaki, who were sleeping, stood to their feet while extending their hands to summon their weapons.
But before they could, a light purple barrier, made out of the sa mana particles that Amy’s talent was made of — enveloped the room and soon spread through the inn.
’Alpha, search through Author’s Authority to find out what is going on in my surroundings, and use Tracking to check for nearby attacks, their stats, and what can counter them.’
[Affirmative]
Matt and Reozaki just watched Kai as he deployed the mana barrier. He turned to them swiftly and yelled, "Monsters approaching!"
Before he could say another word, a rod of lightning flew in his direction.
With the aid of Clairvoyance and Tracking, Kai had already seen the attack before it ca. He stretched his hand out, making his threads weave around his hand like the Nightwing vestige and then imbued it with nonconductive talent.
Kai caught the crackling lightning bolt mid-air. His woven armband had insulated the shock, but the raw force of the attack hurled him through the wall.
Twisting his waist to shake off the force, Kai turned around and landed on his feet after passing through several walls and floors.
Suddenly, a wide grin spread on Kai’s face. "Just how high is your guys’ opinion of ?"
Looking straight through the churning dust, he began counting inwardly.
’One, two, three, four then that one makes it five.’
Kai didn’t know who his enemies were or what their goals were either, but one thing he could tell, though, was that their opinion of him was extrely high.
Because there were over twenty mana beasts and four low-level A-ranks that had surrounded him in a wide, cautious circle.
"I’m quite flattered." His smirk widened. "Didn’t know I rated this high on hit lists."
One of the silhouettes who wielded the thunderbolt, still crackling in his hands as though the clouds themselves had descended into the building, spoke. "Don’t kid yourself." He paused, then took a step forward. "I don’t know why the boss decided to send so many of us to eliminate a single brat."
Kai stared at him briefly, then adjusted his stance. Threads invisible to the naked eye flowed around him, twirling like spiderwebs caught in the wind.
Kai stepped forward, and with a flick of his finger, the threads interwove with particles of red mana in the surroundings.
The saint in front of him couldn’t even react as the attack, unaccompanied by any form of channeling or focus from the four energies, struck him squarely in the chest.
A small fireball spell, barely the size of a fingernail, hit and then ignited mid-air, causing a massive explosion that launched both him and two mana beasts into the air.
As the churning dust began to settle, a single command brought forth Gobo, Shiki, Gumiho, and Tank, his newly acquired shadow saint.
Tank, resembling a towering serpent, lunged first toward the mana beasts, and the rest of his saints followed suit, leaving the three remaining A-ranks for Kai to handle alone.
One of the A-ranks raised his hand, supporting it with the other, and then shouted, "Poison."
Kai dodged left, activating clairvoyance.
Through the lens of his talent, he could see not only the path of the spell but the threads that bound it together.
Kai raised his hand and ford a blade crafted from pure mana and thread, shimring with a deep purple glow.
The air thinned as debris from his earlier clash with the wall erupted in all directions.
With a single swing of the long blade, the threads connecting the man to the spell bent ever so slightly.
Kai knew he lacked the strength to sever the threads linking an A-rank’s attack, but at the very least, he could distort them.
That slight bend caused the unnad A-rank’s mana to recoil, blood spurting from his mouth.
Kai then twisted his body, plunging the blade into his gut, while simultaneously evading a sliding attack from another assassin.
The poison user’s expression contorted as he was hurled like a wrecking ball, sending dust and debris into the air.
Before Kai could redirect his focus, an arrow composed entirely of flas lit up in the haze. With swift judgnt and the aid of a weak buff spell he managed to weave in the mont, he barely dodged the attack, though it still grazed his shoulder.
Kai clicked his tongue and dismissed the athyst blade.
Using the threads coursing within his body, Kai slowly sealed the wound and activated the Rasen Gun talent.
An orb of blade-like acid, spinning with each passing second, ford in his palm.
Kai observed as the dust-filled corner of the inn lit up with red fla arrows and a massive fire spell.
Before he could respond, the sa A-rank who had slid to strike him appeared once more as the dust began to settle again.
Kai dodged a fatal blow from the figure cloaked in an assassin’s garb, whom he identified as female with the help of tracking.
Quickly scanning while avoiding another punch, one that still grazed his face, Kai managed to retrieve the stats of the two preparing to launch their next attacks.
"Alpha, send the information directly into ."
At his command, a surge of data flooded his brain, making him stagger.
The female assassin exploited the mont, her jab landing cleanly against Kai’s side.
Still disoriented by the information overload, Kai couldn’t react in ti and was thrown into a wall a few ters ahead, crashing through and landing outside the building.
Tumbling and rolling, Kai imbued his feet with mana and activated Alabaster Ice simultaneously, just as he had during the entrance exam, using the ice to reduce his montum.
A purple barrier ford, cushioning his final landing slightly.
Kai gritted his teeth and rose to his feet, wiping blood from the side of his lips.
He lifted his head and glanced at Ashton City.
Kai could almost feel his life force drain as his eyes locked onto the city, which had been quiet only monts ago.
A massive barrier now surrounded it on all sides. And judging by its color and the mana radiating from it, Kai could tell it was a protective asure created by the royal family.
But now, it had beco their greatest threat — a prison that prevented them from escaping to the outside world or calling for backup.
The sky around the barrier was streaked with red and black, and a massive black hole dominated the center of the sky.
At its core, Kai could feel the presence of a figure trapped in a black cocoon — and though no one had told him, he knew exactly who it was.
His heart strained slightly, then he muttered softly. "Princess..."
As the word left his lips, his gaze still fixed on the cocoon, another fist ca flying toward him.
The masked woman grinned and said, "Why does it seem like you’ve gotten slower? Are you perhaps getting emotional?" She hurled another punch. "Is the so-called greatest prodigy just a soft-hearted fool?"
Kai stumbled a few steps back, trying to regain his composure. He unclenched his fists and fixed his now icy gaze on the woman.
He didn’t know what had happened to Reni or why she had left the inn the previous night, but one thing was certain, whatever was happening to her was connected to these people.
So all he had to do was beat them to a pulp and extract the information.
He briefly glanced at the mana barrier he had erected inside the inn, which was now shattering, then to the ruins surrounding the area from the explosion he had sohow managed to prevent from harming the academy.
He couldn’t help but curse under his breath as he saw the lifeless bodies of those who had perished in the blast.
Mana beasts and drifters overran the city, while miasma seeped through every crack in the buildings.
Kai took a deep breath and shifted his gaze from the ruined city to the A-ranks standing before him.
The two he had already struck and a third he hadn’t yet engaged now surrounded him, while two of the mages in their group stood atop the massive debris left behind by the destroyed buildings.
Kai grinned widely and said, "I’ve been wanting to test how strong I’ve beco and figure out how these four energies and authorities really work anyway." He paused, tying his flying hair back with the hairband he had picked up after his fall. "Let’s hope you guys don’t die too quickly."
****
(Back In The Room)
Imdiately after the thunderbolt had struck in Kai’s direction and the massive barrier he created faltered slightly — the students who were sleeping and less alert than Kai quickly awakened, along with the teachers.
Matt and Reozaki, who had already summoned their weapons, exchanged a glance before sprinting out of the room.
They didn’t need to speak to understand what had to be done.
Reozaki ascended to the third floor of the building while Matt moved down to the lower levels.
Since he already understood the extent of the barrier using one of his many blessings, he descended rapidly, leaping over steps and skipping the final row upon reaching it.
The reason he didn’t head to the first floor was not only because his sister and Derick Hillman were stationed there, but also because there was soone he needed to speak to and collaborate with, as the ability she used when fighting him might be capable of controlling so of the mana beasts.
Passing through the lobby, which was completely unscathed aside from a few chairs overturned by the explosion’s impact, Matt broke through the dining room door with a launchable orb crafted from pure blue mana.
As soon as the door shattered into debris, he swung his Ade downward, cleaving through a wolf-type mana beast stationed at the entrance.
Just as he suspected, Cordelia Blackwood stood at the center of an onslaught of low-ranking mana beasts, which, unlike those he could sense from outside, posed no real threat to either of them.
Cordelia, whose eyes were beginning to glow intensely, glanced at him briefly before uttering a single word. "Explode."
At her command, the three mana beastssurrounding her detonated, as blood and chunks of flesh erupted into the air.
Walking through the corpses, she barely acknowledged the sound of approaching monsters, ones that resembled orcs, before speaking to Matt. "Where is Oppa?"
Matt hesitated briefly, then shifted his gaze away from her. "Well, he got launched out of our room by a thunderbolt."
Cordelia sighed. "Well, let’s finish these guys and assess the situation outside first."
’Seems she isn’t worried,’ Matt mused, redirecting his focus back toward the door.
Almost instantly, massive orcs, six of them, burst into the room through both the door and the wall.
"You guys know the door was open, right?" Hari comnted sarcastically.
Both she and Matt then activated their combat suits. As the tallic fabric began forming along their skin, the tethers on their bodies, hers on her neck and his on the back of his wrist, began to glow in colors that matched their respective mana.
Matt turned his head slightly, his voice steady but tinged with sothing deeper. "Cordelia... no, Kim Hari, can I askyou sothing?"
Hari froze, her flickering eyes narrowing. "How do you know that na?"
Matt paused for a mont, both confused and reflective. "Ah, right. I forgot, Kai, or should I say Jin-sung, probably hasn’t had ti to tell you yet. Well, he told everything... about you guys, that is."
Hari’s posture relaxed slightly, her tense fingers loosening, allowing the fabric of her combat suit to settle. She knew Kai wasn’t the type to reveal secrets without a reason.
So there was no need to overanalyze it.
Exhaling slowly, she responded, "What do you want to ask?"
Matt glanced toward the enemy, a flicker of curiositypassing through his eyes. "I know this is kind of unrelated... but did all of this happen in my original story?"
Hari shifted her stance, casting a sidelong glance at him. ’Why does it seem like he’s taking the revelation of being a novel character way too lightly,’ she thought, as her combat suit finished forming.
She shook her head faintly, brushing the thought aside. "No... this particular event never occurred."
’It’s most likely a butterfly effect caused by Oppa and ,’ she concluded inwardly.
Matt nodded slowly, then posed another question, as though the enemy in front of them were entirely inconsequential.
And honestly, to the two of them, D-rank mana beasts were just as insignificant as any other low-level threats or drifters.
"So, you know how I’m obviously not the MC anymore... but I just wanted to know, was I a cool protagonist? And did I maybe have so cool edits? You know, the type with flashy effects and badass lines I said... and maybe even ones I didn’t?"
Hari’s eyes widened. ’Why is he asking this now?’
She sighed. "Well," she muttered, "I guess you were a cool protagonist... at tis. If not, I doubt anyone would’ve read Oppa’s novel. Though to , you were mostly just annoying."
A small smile tugged at her lips as the gas mask of her combat suit materialized around her lower face.
"And yeah," she added, her voice slightly muffled but still clear, "you did have a lot of ridiculously cool edits. You were the Royal Inquisitor, Matthew Von Silver, after all."
Matt exhaled deeply, vapor streaming from the slits in his mask in thickwhite plus. His expression was hidden, but his tone carried a trace of pride.
"Well, I’m happy to hear that. So..." he stepped forward, swinging Bland Vales. "Why don’t we show these beasts what a man who held the spotlight for over a thousand Chapters can do?"
Hari smirked behind her mask. "You really are arrogant, aren’t you?"
"But I still deliver, don’t I? I’m cocky and powerful, because I’m Matthew Von Silver, right?"
Hari scoffed. "Fair enough, then I’m Kim Hari, because I’m cute, elegant, sweet... and let’s not forget the Royal Inquisitor’s greatest hater."
"That’s not fair, is it, Hari? I think it’s rather cruel for Kai, since his first reader and cousin is also his novel’s biggest hater."
"Hey, I never said I hated the book..." shepaused, the two standing back to back. "And just call nonna."
"I have no idea what that ans, but sure, I can do that."
Hari lunged forward first, and without casting a single spell, took down the monster with a swift punch to the gut. "At least you’re better than Oppa when it cos to respecting your elders."
The massive orc exploded from the inside out under the force of her strike. She then turned to Matt, who had also dispatched the orc that charged at him.
Hari glanced toward the dining room door. "Let’s go check on the other students."
Matt nodded.
They knew Kai too well to worry about him. He wasn’t just the writer of this world, he was also one of the most tenacious people they knew.
...However, contrary towhat they believed, Kai was already dancing on death’s door.
Again
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