Settling comfortably in the cockpit and setting the boat’s route, I pulled out the writings of the madman Rom, for I had no other grimoires on high-level magic of the time element. Perhaps it was not as good an idea as it had seemed, because even now, after all this time since our encounter, I still flinched at the memory of how utterly cracked his mind had been. And yet, the fact remained: he had once been perhaps the only mage on the continent to master the eighth circle of this element—before he vanished in the Wangan dungeon, where he perished.

  Not without my help, of course.

  I spent several hours trying to sort the five books he had written in chronological order. Not because they were the ramblings of a madman—on the contrary, while reading his hypotheses and reasoning behind the results of his experiments, no one would have called the author insane. My problem was that my own theoretical foundation was woefully insufficient to distinguish seventh-circle time magic from eighth-circle time magic. But in the end, I managed to do it and opened the manuscript that, by my judgment, had been written first.

  On the opening pages, Rom mocked the mages who claimed that time was merely a basic concept used to describe change in the world and the sequence of events—that it existed in daily experience in the form of hours, minutes, and seconds, as well as in magical and physical dimensions. Rom, however, insisted that the theory of time was a complex field that explored its nature, origin, properties, and its relation to other fundamental concepts such as mana, space, energy, and matter.

  I set the book aside and pondered. At first glance, to an ordinary person, Rom’s words would have sounded like nonsense. But for me—someone who could cast a spell that accelerated my body, or even a stasis spell that halted time for a few seconds within a designated zone—his words and theses were no longer foolishness.

  I returned to the manuscript.

  Next, Rom utterly dismantled the agentic concept of time, which defines it as an absolute reality that exists independently of human consciousness. Through his detailed experiments, he proved that the arrow of time was not a constant—and that a skilled mage who wielded this element could not only move along it forward and backward, but even manipulate the arrow of time itself relative to the surrounding reality!

  Damn! It was hard to believe, but if it were true—if his experiments were not madness or fabrication—then nothing could compare to such power! It was absolute dominion over the world!

  Such a line of thought was terrifying, and it was only then that I sensed something unsettling. I could feel monsters. Damn it, how could I be sensing them without extending my perception outward? That was… wrong, was it not?

  I hid the manuscript and stepped to the edge of the boat.

  Sure enough, down below, perhaps ten kilometers away among the hills, a trio of second-class monsters were playing. At some point, they paused their games and all turned to look at me. What the hell?! Second-class monsters should not be able to sense me from that distance unless I allowed it! And right now, even my aura was hidden beneath my belt’s concealment. So how…?

  I shook my head and returned to the manuscript.

  After a few more hours of reading, I began to feel tired, and my eyelids grew heavy. I resisted for a while, but the fatigue continued to build until it forced me into a light slumber.

  How strange… why now?

  Something is wrong with me—this is…

  An attack, damn it! Someone is attacking me with magic!

  The realization struck like lightning, and I launched into the sky, stowing the boat into its storage. That bastard! How dare they?!

  “Come out already, since you’re here!” I shouted into the empty sky.

  Silence. Absolute silence all around. I unfastened my belt and drew my spear, preparing for battle.

  Suddenly, several kilometers around me in a circle, high-level magical seals began to ignite one after another. Eighth-circle magic—some even ninth…

  One, two, three… I counted up to eight and decided to attack first, if only to give myself a chance to survive this ambush. If it were not for my beastlike sense of danger, I would likely already be dead. But now…

  I activated all six of my magic circles, and massive, glowing red seals began to appear above my head and spin downward until they hovered at my knees. Using fourth-circle time magic, I accelerated myself by ten percent and, applying the technique of consecutive steps, lunged toward the ninth-circle mage located about five kilometers away.

  Two seconds. I only needed two seconds, and that bastard would be dead!

  In the city where I had stood just moments earlier, a massive frozen flower blossomed. The cold that radiated from it was so intense that my nape was coated in frost, and tears welled up in my eyes. That cold—damn it—was spreading faster than I could move during my attack on the mage.

  One second.

  A barrier of light formed before me, and I slammed into it at full speed.

  Bastard!

  I felt my bones bend as the barrier cracked, unable to hold—but it had done its job: it had delayed me.

  At that moment, a massive metal pillar descended from above and drove me into the ground a full meter deep before I managed to disperse the impact across a larger surface area with my aura.

  I growled. These bastards were going to beat me to death! I swiftly wrapped the bottle of God’s Mana in my aura and hurled it at the Ninth Circle mage. As the distant sound of the explosion echoed, I smashed the damned metal pillar with a single strike of aura and soared back into the air. Just in time — the ground beneath me erupted and instantly froze in midair into sharp glass blades.

  Holy hedgehogs! What kind of magic is this?! I have never even heard of such a thing! Damn it, I cannot stop now — I am a sitting target here! In the spot where the Ninth Circle mage once stood, a sizable crater now gaped. That bastard must have been torn into bloody dust and then burned to ashes. Move! I have to move — every second of delay threatens death!

  I targeted the nearest Eighth Circle mage. But suddenly, two Gods of War appeared in my path, already forming their attack spheres. One wore grey robes, the other white…

  The Church. I should have guessed. These bastards had joined forces with the mages. But how could there be a fourth White Cardinal in the Northern Empire? Was he from another region? Damn it, they truly decided to take me down seriously this time.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  My protective sphere was instantly covered in hundreds of black-and-white stars wrapped in grey lightning. The moment our spheres collided, space itself was torn apart by black rifts, devouring the cardinals and grinding them into a pulpy mess of flesh, armor remnants, and shattered weapons. But once again, I had lost precious time — and at my location, a massive explosion of azure flame erupted.

  Holy hedgehogs! It is hotter than a cauldron in hell! Were it not for my protective sphere, I would truly be in hell right now… My clothes ignited and turned to ash in an instant, and my skin blistered as I burst out from the cursed flames. Damn it! I had no time to create the Formation of Nine Spears, and could not reach those bastards with my Bloodlust — they were too far away. Though…

  I hurled my spear at the Eighth Circle mage I had targeted before the Gods of War appeared. The tip pierced right under his throat, between the collarbones. The mage’s head jerked forward comically before it was torn off.

  I changed trajectory sharply, pulling another spear from my storage. At that point, six mages were still alive, though I had no idea how many Gods of War remained. Surely the Church had not sent only two cardinals after me. Most likely, these bastards were shielding the mages — and if there were two per mage, like just now… That was bad. Very bad.

  I growled in fury. A whirlwind of thin ice blades swirled around me. They did not pierce my skin, but they sliced open the burn blisters like scalpels. The exposed skin instantly froze, bringing with it unbearable pain.

  Bastards! Fucking bastards! I will tear every one of you to pieces! Rage had already clouded my mind. I did not want to use this on the surface, but I no longer had a choice. A giant wind blade struck me beneath the knees, twisting my joints and sending me tumbling across the ground, tearing the skin from my ruptured blisters.

  Enough! Thousands of tiny droplets of God’s Mana burst from my skin and, wrapped in aura, scattered in a wide circle. A sharp metal spike struck under my ribs, hurling me high into the sky — and at that same moment, the droplets reached their targets and exploded.

  I sat with my back against a thick metal spike jutting from the ground, scanning the auras around me. Four Gods of War were retreating quickly. None of the mages had survived. Good. Let it be so. Had the Gods of War not withdrawn, things could have been far worse.

  I reset my knee joints and hissed in pain. Damn it, a bunch of magical runts kicked my ass! I wrapped my legs in aura and rose carefully to avoid putting weight on my knees — in this condition, I obviously could not walk. To figure out where those damned mages had come from, I cast a spell of magical search and began slowly collecting all the storage rings left on the battlefield.

  Oh, what do we have here? Near the large crater lay a human leg, torn off at the thigh. Heh-heh. Most likely one of the cardinals did not manage to retrieve all his parts during the retreat. I skewered it on my spear’s tip and cast a Second Circle wall of fire spell. Enjoy the pain, you bastard.

  I stuck the spear into the ground so that the leg on the tip would roast slowly, then sat down to rest. The whole battle had lasted no more than ten seconds, and I had nearly died… When used properly in combat, mages truly were a terrifying force. If not for the God’s Mana, I doubt I could have endured another ten seconds of that hell.

  I swallowed a dozen restoration pills and began checking the storage rings I had gathered. Two of the Ninth Circle mages were definitely from the Mage Guild of the Northern Empire, but the rest were harder to identify. Three of the dead carried golden and platinum tags from the Central Empire.

  Whoa! Now that is interesting.

  I had heard that the Central Empire was much stronger than the others, gathering the best from across the continent — both in terms of resources and talent. People even called it the center of the world because of that.

  Just what I needed — more enemies. As if I did not have enough already. Still, most likely they were merely mercenaries hired by the Church. I placed their rings into my own storage — I would examine the trophies later. To hell with them. Right now, it was better to analyze the battle and avoid making the same mistakes next time.

  The first problem was that I did not notice their attack that clouded my mind and forced me to doze off. The second — I was not ready to instantly unleash all my methods and launch a counterattack. And the third… Damn it, I am still too weak! Just a few weeks ago, the embodiment of the White Twin nearly beat me to death, and now this…

  One could say I survived both times by pure luck — but luck will not last forever. Even probability theory says so.

  I drew nine spears from my storage and formed a formation, stuffing it full with Ninth Class cores. Once the formation was fully activated, I returned it to storage. It would allow me to strike instantly without wasting time. As for the first problem — I still had no idea how to solve it. And the third… I had been working on it since the very moment I appeared in this world.

  The charred bones fell from the tip of the spear into the fire, pulling me back to reality from my thoughts. Eh, only a few hours had passed — the bastard did not suffer long, unfortunately. I cleaned the spear with a deep-cleansing spell and put it away. Rising carefully to my feet, I tried to take a few steps.

  Not too bad — it still hurt, but nothing critical. I summoned my boat and rose into the sky, surveying the battlefield. A massive scar, fifteen kilometers across, disfigured the fields. Only high-circle earth mages could possibly restore it.

  I shook my head and steered the boat westward.

  Returning to studying Rom’s work after the battle was the last thing I wanted to do, so I simply either admired the surrounding landscapes or practiced with my spear high in the sky, following the empty boat. I was also curious whether there were any spear techniques for the Gods of War besides the Sphere of Attack and the Sphere of Defense. But only the Crow could answer that question, and I had no idea where he was. I hoped he was already in Matana, waiting for me.

  A day before I reached the city of Garakh, which was my destination, I felt the auras of Vasa and Munk rapidly approaching me, surrounded by several hundred weak auras. I stored the little boat away and stopped in midair to wait for them. I did not even prepare my weapon, since such a number of weak auras could mean only one thing — negotiations. And negotiations with someone of very high rank in the Northern Empire.

  I grinned. My words had reached the ears of the old Emperor. The only problem for the imperial court was that they had nothing to offer me. On the other hand, I rather liked scouring the dungeons.

  A few minutes later, three enormous airships appeared on the horizon, moving in my direction. Two small dots detached from them and flew toward me.

  “Honorable Vasa, honorable Munk…” I gave a slight bow. “How are you? How are your legs?”

  The last question was clearly meant only for Vasa, who nearly lost her mind from rage. What a foolish woman… Not even the grave would fix someone like her.

  “Honorable Aney,” Munk grabbed Vasa by the hand and held her back, “thanks to you, we are well. And how are you?”

  “Oh, here and there…” I waved my hand. “Sometimes better, sometimes worse…”

  “You vile bastard, I never thought I had trained such a treacherous scoundrel!”

  “Oh my, honorable Vasa, you do not hold back with the insults! What did I do to offend you so deeply?”

  “You piece of filth, you chopped off my legs! In case you forgot!”

  “But now it is barely noticeable, coach. They move like they were always yours.”

  “They are my own, you bastard! And do not call me coach again! I wish I could forget that shame!”

  “Vasochka, not now,” Munk tried to restrain her again. “We are here for another reason, remember?”

  “Do not stop me, you soft fool! I must properly repay this bastard!”

  “You will, I promise, but not now, Vasa!”

  “So, to what do I owe the honor, dear guests?” I gestured toward the three ships that were quickly approaching. “You brought company today, and quite a different one than last time we met.”

  Munk managed to calm Vasa a bit; she now stood silently, wearing a furious expression.

  “Honorable Aney, the imperial court wishes to settle your differences, and so they have sent a negotiator for talks. Would you agree to speak and visit our ship?”

  “I do not want to. There is no point. You may return to the capital.”

  “But honorable Aney, there is no need to be so hasty. At least listen to the proposals and present your own terms for ending the hostility…”

  Munk seemed flustered, most likely not expecting such a direct refusal from me.

  “Honorable Munk, how am I to believe in your sincerity, when even honorable Vasa, the person who knows me best in this Empire, would gladly tear off my head right this moment?”

  “Vasa?” Munk tugged at her sleeve. “Vasa!”

  “Fine, I will forgive this bastard if he agrees!”

  I laughed.

  “Honorable Vasa, you are hammering nails into my coffin — acting is clearly not your strength…”

  “You are so damn annoying! Fine. Aney, if you agree, I will forget your vile deed — when you chopped off my legs and fled, leaving one behind, and I had to rummage through that pile of stinking hooves to find my poor legs! Is that sincere enough for you?!”

  So that was it. She was not angry about the act itself, but about the fact that I left her behind. What a fool.

  “A little hug — and I am already convinced!”

  I spread my arms wide and waited to see what she would do.

  “Oh, you are all the same!”

  Vasa hugged me and bit my ear hard, making sure Munk did not see it. What a witch! But there was nothing to be done — when she pulled away, we were both smiling broadly.

  “Then lead the way, honorable Munk…”