Chapter 30: He's a Genius
At the peak of the towering Imperial Arcane Citadel, where only the most accomplished Archmages and scholars of magic gathered, silence lingered over a long obsidian table.
Ten Archmages sat in their ornate seats, robes embroidered with ancient runes, expressions carved in stone.
At the center of the chamber stood Professor ril Dathen, pink-haired, sharp-eyed, and visibly out of breath as she laid down a rolled paper onto the crystal-lit surface.
"Thank you for agreeing to et," she said, voice trembling with suppressed excitent.
Archmage Voren, known for rejecting nearly every new magical theory in the past fifty years, raised a skeptical brow. "What is this about?"
"...A solution," ril said, her voice steadying. "To the Hellfla Paradox."
A few murmurs.
"Impossible."
"We've seen countless attempts."
"The paradox is unsolvable by nature."
ril exhaled through her nose.
"Yes. That's what I believed too... until a certain exam paper landed on my desk."
She unrolled the page, revealing a ticulously annotated diagram and formulas written in compact, clear handwriting.
At the top, one na stood alone:
Sam Avencroft
She pointed to the main formula. "Hellfla is defined as an eternally burning curse-fire that can only be sustained in negative mana environnts, yet requires positive mana to ignite. The paradox is that the mont you create it, it should destroy itself."
She looked around. "But that assumption... is flawed."
Voren frowned. "Then what's your proposal?"
"It's not my proposal," she corrected. "It's his."
She tapped the formula. "Sam suggests mana shouldn't be classified strictly as positive or negative, but as part of a continuous polarity spectrum."
The room fell silent.
She continued, "If you oscillate mana polarity—shifting its flow rapidly like alternating current—you can mimic the conditions of both positive and negative mana simultaneously."
Gasps. Eyes widened. Even the floating mana crystals above the table pulsed brighter.
ril's voice grew stronger.
"This would allow Hellfla to be ignited, sustained, and stabilized in an environnt that flips polarity at fixed intervals."
Archmage Keval leaned forward, eyes gleaming. "A temporal-spatial flux field... it's elegant..."
Another whispered, "Genius..."
ril smiled—just a little. "You haven't even seen the best part yet."
She waved her hand, and a projection blood above the table—rendering the formula's effect in real-ti: a glowing sphere of alternating mana states. In its center, a flicker of black-blue fla blood and stayed steady.
A synthetic Hellfla.
Controlled. Contained.
The chamber was silent again—this ti in reverence.
Then soone asked, "Who... who is this Sam Avencroft?"
ril looked up.
"The boy who solved this," she said softly, "is the one who topped the entrance exam. The sa one behind the Titanheart Chronicles."
She looked each Archmage in the eye.
"He's... a true genius."
* * *
This was training.
Sweat rolled down my spine as I pivoted, my scythe slicing through the air to et Mira's twin daggers with a satisfying CLANG!
She grinned, feet sliding back from the force. "Heh. You're getting better."
"You're just slacking," I shot back, spinning my scythe once.
We were in the center of the compound's training field. The area had been cleared for this very purpose—real combat drills, no spells barred.
And sitting just a little ways off, arms folded, was Veldena Asteris. Regal. Silent. Judgy.
She watched like a queen bored at a peasant circus.
Her cold blue eyes followed every motion—but she didn't move. Not yet.
I turned toward her.
"You done watching?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"
"Vel. Join us."
"...You want to fight both of us?" Mira blinked.
"I want a real fight."
I planted my scythe in the ground. "You two. Co at . Together."
Vel finally stood with a sigh, conjuring her signature frost rapier in one smooth motion.
"This is training, not suicide," she said. "But if you insist..."
GTP. Let's go full sync—just a little.
[Motor Control sync: 40% engaged. Tracking two targets. Predictive combat mode active.]
Mira didn't wait. She flicked her hand forward—ice needles shot from her palm, targeting my legs like shrapnel.
I dashed to the side, dodging every one with inhuman fluidity, then twisted to parry her incoming slash.
Vel moved in—her rapier thrusting in a blur.
I ducked under it and launched myself backward in a sorsault.
Mira followed. This ti, frost blood at her feet—spikes of jagged ice erupting from the ground beneath .
GTP—sky vault.
[Confird. Engaging partial aerial boost.]
I launched upward using the flat of my scythe, flipped over the frost, and landed behind her.
She turned just in ti for to tap her with the blunt end of my weapon.
"Out," I whispered.
Before she could recover, Vel was already there.
Rapier flashed, and the entire air around us froze—the temperature dropped in an instant.
A field of frost blood across the ground, and magic snowflakes crystallized in midair.
I grinned.
"Now we're talking."
[Caution: mana saturation detected. Sync limit approaching optimal cap.]
"Don't worry," I muttered.
I slipped between her strikes like a phantom, the scythe deflecting ice-blade after ice-blade.
She slashed, and I stepped. She lunged, and I countered.
With a feint to the left, I swept her leg.
She fell hard—her rapier skidding away across the frost-covered floor.
Silence.
Both Mira and Vel sat in the dirt, breathing hard, scuffed and roughed up.
I stood in the center—scythe resting on my shoulder.
"Training complete?"
Vel squinted. "...What are you, exactly?"
Mira pouted. "You're not even breathing hard..."
I just smiled.
If only they knew.
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