Footsteps echoed along the ruined trail, the muffled sound of crushed leaves and snapped branches filling the uncomfortable silence between them. Yenne ran ahead, her expression hard. Marco followed right behind, his face sweaty and worried.

  "He said he'd be right behind us. Let’s keep going..."

  "Are you sure about that?!"

  "I don’t know..."

  "Do you think something happened to him?!"

  "I SAID I DON’T KNOW!!!"

  She bit the corner of her lip in frustration, the metallic taste of blood dragging her back to what had just happened.

  "That bastard really called us dead weight!!"

  "I think he just said that in the heat of the moment, Yenne."

  "Tsk...."

  Everything had happened way too fast.

  Kaen, without any warning, had unleashed a spell she’d never seen before. It was intense, powerful, and terrifying... definitely not the kind of magic a class 2 or 3 mage should be using.

  He always had different powers, she knew that. But this went beyond anything she imagined. He had compressed an absurd amount of mana into a tiny point. Yenne couldn’t see it, but she could feel it. A small core... dense.

  '...Who are you, Kaen?'

  She remembered the aura around him when he saved Marco. That energy wasn’t from a normal student. Not even close. And that’s what confused her. Before they split up, he didn’t have that much mana flowing through his body.

  "......"

  Doubt and guilt gnawed at her. At first, she thought Kaen was using her as a distraction to escape. It made sense. Anyone would’ve done that. They were after her, not him. But when she realized he was buying time... when she saw that he never planned to run—

  'He was pretending from the beginning...'

  "Tsk... damn it..."

  She wanted to go back.

  But what could she and Marco do? Even if she didn’t want to admit it, Kaen wasn’t wrong when he called them dead weight.

  Kaen had been blunt.

  "You’re just going to get in the way. They’re after you, Yenne. If you stay, more of them will show up... and then we’re all actually gonna die."

  For her, knowing there was nothing she could do... burned more than any flame.

  ===

  THUM!!!

  The impact rippled through the air with a distorted, muffled shimmer, like reality had glitched for a second.

  Kaen twisted his body over the cracked ground, repelling Seliah’s attack with his Contact Deflection technique.

  The solid shadow of the black katana bounced off the air.

  It was strange to Seliah. Even though it had only hit the air, it felt like it struck stone.

  Then, Kaen’s fists lit up with concentrated mana vectors.

  He charged forward.

  "YAAHH!"

  He shouted, punching straight at Seliah.

  BZZZZZK!

  But unlike what he expected, his punch crashed into a solid barrier. The shield trembled but held...

  'Fuck... that damn support mage...'

  Kaen took a deep breath.

  Vectorial energy gathered in his feet, and with a sudden burst, the ground beneath him cracked.

  BOOM!!

  He shot forward like a living arrow straight at the little support mage.

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  'If I take that dwarf down—'

  He clenched his fist, forcing his muscles like he was shaping a concrete spear with his own arm.

  "Shit... Seliah!!"

  The moment she saw Kaen charging at Drevan, Seliah reacted like a wild instinct, her body shooting across the space between them in a trail of dense, living shadows.

  Drevan conjured a barrier instantly, trying to defend himself.

  But Kaen twisted in midair, and with a cocky grin, pointed his finger at Seliah.

  "Good luck dodging this."

  ZUUUUUM!!

  A blast of pure vector mana exploded from his finger in a straight line.

  Seliah’s eyes widened. At the last second, she shaped a curved wall of dense black shadows in front of her.

  CRAAACK!

  The beam of energy slammed into the defense, throwing off black sparks and smoke. Seliah was pushed back, her feet sliding across the ground.

  Both Drevan and Seliah stepped away, gaining distance.

  ‘It’s really impossible to fight both of them at once.’

  Drevan didn’t give Kaen a second to breathe.

  His voice dropped into a rhythmic whisper, and soon a dark energy began spreading slowly beneath his feet.

  A black circle started to form, radiating dense mana that crept along the ground like a living mist, curling around shattered rocks and exposed roots, swallowing everything nearby in a dim glow.

  Kaen frowned.

  ‘So that’s how the Blind Zone works?’

  That ability was a debuff he remembered from Chronos Realms. It reduced buffs, messed with mana circulation, stopped spellcasting, and affected energy control.

  ‘Will this affect me too?’

  Even though his abilities weren’t spells, he still needed the internal mana flow running through his body.

  Kaen lightly clenched his fists. A slight tension rippled through his muscles.

  ‘Yeah... it’s affecting me.’

  "If he had used that earlier, maybe I wouldn’t have even been able to launch my Rejection Core back then."

  Drevan narrowed his eyes.

  "Don’t get cocky. You’re not exactly in top shape. You won’t last five minutes now."

  Kaen didn’t answer.

  He looked down at his own body. Cuts were scattered across his arms and chest. All of them were shallow, but even so, one by one, they were wearing him down.

  ‘She wasn’t kidding when she said I’d come back without my limbs.’

  He sighed, remembering Marco and Yenne.

  ‘I told them to run... but Marco didn’t even hesitate. Bastard.’

  He was already starting to regret telling Yenne and Marco to go back. But there was nothing he could do.

  This was something he had repeated over and over while playing Chronos Realms. He knew that if he interfered in Yenne’s capture, the masked mage would show up, and then things would get really bad.

  It was impossible to fight and stop her from being captured if all four of them were together there.

  Kaen clenched his fist, frustrated, remembering Marco.

  He’d told both of them to run, but it was in the heat of the moment. Since they were after Yenne, it made sense that Marco would hesitate to leave her behind—he was way too nice.

  But the moment Kaen suggested they go... Marco didn’t even blink.

  ‘That traitor!!’

  A snap cut through his thoughts.

  CHAK!

  Black chains began forming around Seliah. They slithered through the air, buzzing with a thick aura of dark mana.

  "I don’t know what you thought you’d gain by helping that girl, but you’re definitely gonna die for it."

  Kaen looked forward, sighing in frustration at the sight of the chains taking shape.

  ‘These two really have the most annoying abilities...’

  Seliah molded shadows like extensions of her own body, turning them into solid weapons. Drevan, on the other hand, summoned defensive barriers on allies he had previously marked. A fully synchronized offense-defense duo.

  Luckily, the brute had disappeared into the forest after taking a Rejection Core straight to the body at close range.

  But even so... a 2v1 fight against class 3+ mages and with the masked guy getting closer at any moment?

  Kaen took a deep breath.

  ‘Alright, guess we’re doing it this way...’

  His Inertia Core activated.

  He converted mana into force vectors, which meant he could add artificial impulse to any movement, including his punches.

  He tightened his fists. His mana flowed through the internal channels, rushing into his arms until it reached his knuckles.

  But instead of glowing or radiating heat, the mana folded in on itself.

  It was like using sword aura around his fists, loading every cell with stored impact.

  "Bring it on..!"

  The hell did you just say?? Seliah, hearing that, felt her pride as a dark mage crumble. How dare some brat tell her what to do?

  She charged forward.

  "You're really gonna die this time."

  The chains sliced through the air with sharp, dry hums.

  ZZZAK!

  Drevan, just behind Seliah, activated the barriers in sync, ready to block Kaen’s blows.

  "BOOMF!"

  "KRRAM!....."

  Kaen’s punches landed heavy, each one leaving subtle cracks in Drevan’s defenses.

  ‘This kid’s insane...’

  Any regular mage would’ve been launched by the first hit, but Seliah was protected by Drevan’s barriers, which barely held together.

  Seliah wasn’t attacking with full force—she was watching. Every one of Kaen’s strikes made her instincts scream. Despite looking like just a teenager, those punches were deadly.

  ‘I still can’t tell if he’s just some random kid or that girl’s bodyguard.’

  "Seliah, we need to move now."

  "I know..."

  She waited for Drevan to block one of Kaen’s strikes so she could counter.

  Even if she didn’t fully understand how Kaen’s abilities worked, it was clear he never attacked and defended at the same time.

  Every time Kaen used one of his repulsions, there was at least a one-second delay before he could do it again. And once activated, the effect only lasted two to three seconds at most, creating brief openings between uses—openings that, for experienced mages like Seliah, were all they needed.

  ‘Now....’

  The opening Seliah had been waiting for appeared. Chains flew at him from the front, while Drevan blocked his escape path.

  Kaen reacted fast, dodging two chains and repelling the others like they’d hit an invisible wall.

  CLANG!

  But then...

  CRRACK!

  Two new chains burst from underground, cracking the ground and throwing Kaen off balance.

  "Tchk! ~damn it... not again."

  On reflex, he jumped back.

  BOOF!

  His body crashed into a semi-transparent energy wall.

  ‘Shit... he used her position to raise a barrier behind me?!’

  Before he could react, Seliah was already on him. Her deep violet eyes locked onto Kaen.

  "I told you you’d die."

  Her right hand closed around a sword made of shadows that formed as she lunged.

  In that short moment... everything seemed to slow down for Kaen.

  His body against the barrier, his eyes locked with hers, the blade coming straight at him.

  'Shit~..'

  THACK!

  The sound of impact echoed.

  The sword started to pierce his skin...

  "....."

  "...."

  "..."

  ‘...Absolute Rejection...’

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