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Magus Reborn Chapter 112
🕑 Added 2024-09-11 12:38:59 +0000 UTCChapter 112
During the meeting, Kai took the time to explain everything— what he planned to do next, who needed to do what, and how it could go both ways. Some of them widened their eyes, but almost everyone stayed silent, calmly listening to his plan.
No one objected to it and it wasn't because they all believed the plan was going to work. There were apprehensions as with any other plan, but Kai was the one leading the charge and none of them had any better ideas.
In the end, Kai dismissed the group, each sent to handle their specific tasks before the beast wave could break down onto them.
The next day, as expected, the scouts returned with bleak news: the beasts were on the move. They’d be at the city’s doorstep by dawn next day, and the tension inside the castle was so thick it could be cut with a rusty sword. Outside of it, the murmur of the news spread like cracks in glass, splintering in every direction. Guards stiffened, Mages checked their spell structures again and again, Balen did a final check of the mana cannons, and the once steady pace of preparation now echoed with chaos and a harsh pulse of urgency.
The entire time, they’d been preparing, training, fortifying— but now, the final act was about to begin. It was in fact, no longer just a ‘looming threat’; it would soon become a reality, hitting them right where it’d hurt.
Kai had seen it coming. When he’d first scouted the frays’ cave and seen the unnatural number of spiders, he knew that the beast would be starting their charge. Which was also part of the reason why internally, he’d been spiralling. The cave incident was the brood mother making her one final, desperate move, a full blown effect to either annihilate the frays or bend them to it's will, and Kai didn’t let it succeed with either.
He should’ve been on the wall already, barking orders, overseeing the defence as he planned— as everyone expected, but there was something far more pressing— something he needed to do before the first claw or fang reached the territory, attempting to breach the city’s defences.
The brood mother wasn’t just another mana fiend. It was a Grade 6 flesh of destruction. It's power was monstrous, a peak existence in the beast world. And as much as Kai prided himself on his knowledge, his battle strategies, and his prepared arsenal, there was one glaring problem; raw strength. He didn’t have enough of it. Not yet.
He knew he needed to fix that. Fast. And there was only one way to do so.
His mind flashed to an old story, one he’d heard a long time ago about a Third Circle Mage trapped in a ruin, surrounded by hundreds of fiends with no way out. The Mage had been faced with a choice; die like a rat or take a risk so dangerous it was almost suicidal. Desperation had led him to conjure up a technique, one designed to artificially push his mana heart beyond its limits.
For the next ten minutes, he had become the strongest Mage in the world, rising his powers to the fifth circle in a flash. But with that power came a price— his body couldn’t withstand the strain. He burned through his mana like wildfire, and once the flames died down, so did he.
It was a cautionary tale from Kai's era, one that was still murmured about in Mage towers, though the technique itself had long since been studied and refined. But the lesson remained the same: power comes with a cost. And if Kai used it, there would still be a backlash.
His heart drummed in his chest as he calculated the risks. The modification would allow him to temporarily include a Fourth Circle in his Mana heart, vastly increasing his mana capacity and spell strength. But he wouldn't be able to hold it for long. The backlash would come. It was only a question of how severe.
At best, he might regress, losing a circle or two. At worst, the backlash could cripple him permanently. But he had already made up his mind and was confident that the worst wouldn't come into play. Confidence surged through him— not the overblown arrogance of youth, but the tempered resolve of someone who had prepared for failure as much as for victory.
He could recover from the consequences. He always had. And after weighing the risks, the decision had practically made itself. Especially when there were so many lives at stake, waiting for him to save the day.
The night before the beast wave, Kai spent hours in quiet preparation.
The mana diagrams sketched across his desk, glowing softly under the dim lamplight, were the blueprint of what he was about to do. Normally, advancing to the Fourth Circle required expanding the realm within one’s heart, making space for the new circle. But time wasn’t a luxury he had anymore.
So instead of doing it the right way, he would suppress his current circles and force the Fourth Circle to manifest, even if just temporarily. He wouldn’t be as powerful as a true Fourth Circle Mage, but it would give him the mana pool he needed to use spells potent enough to kill the brood mother.
His fingers traced the lines of the diagram one last time when he felt he had done enough research to begin the procedure. His eyes flickered to the window, where the first rays of dawn were just beginning to peek over the horizon.
Kai, who walked inside his room, inhaled deeply, rethinking each step of the process he had made through the night.
Without wasting another second, Kai walked inside and sat cross-legged in the centre of the room, closed his eyes, and started to calm his raging pulse. He needed his mind and body to be at peace to begin focusing on the mana circles.
Therefore, slowly, he let the outer world fade away into obsidian.
His mind travelled towards his body, focusing on threads of mana running inside his veins. His Mana heart pulsed with power, but he knew the strength within was insufficient for the battle ahead.
Suppressing his circles was like performing surgery on a beating heart— frail, perilous, and fraught with the risk of failure. The pocket space inside him was tight, a realm of its own but still bound by limits, and expanding it wasn’t an option. Not now.
As he concentrated, the mana within his chest swirled restlessly, a tangible pressure building as he started to compress his first circle.
He could feel a faint but insistent tremor radiating from his core— a sign of resistance. The sensation was like an unseen hand squeezing his heart, each circle pressing down with increasing force. His breathing grew shallow as the internal tension escalated, the pressure building with a speed faster than he expected that the chill went down to his toes.
… I need to keep up on it.
As he carefully suppressed the first circle, a sharp tremor coursed through his chest.
His Mana heart shuddered, resisting the change. He moved to the second circle, pushing it down, folding it into itself. With each step, the shaking grew worse, and he could feel the tension building, like a coiled spring on the verge of snapping. His heart felt like it was constricting, but he didn’t stop.
He let his mana swirl until it knew no end but to push the circle further.
It hurts… Kai winced in pain, but let it go, not giving it more than a fleeting glance.
The third circle was the hardest. As he repressed it, the pressure in his chest surged, and his Mana heart pulsed erratically, threatening to tear apart under the strain. It was a battle, not just of magic, but of will. Inside him, he felt a persistent voice of doubt, like an insistent critic whispering that he should give up and walk away. The internal struggle was there— a big rock, a nagging presence trying to make him question his decision. But his will, his decision, like a stubborn guardian, refused to back down.
Sweat began to form on his brow as the pocket space finally yielded, creating just enough room.
Now came the real test.
Kai inhaled deeply, drawing in mana from the air around him, pulling it into the freshly created void in his heart. The Mana surged into him, filling the space and swirling in circles. His hands clenched into fists as he began to shape it further, moulding the mana into the form of a fourth circle. It wasn’t natural— his body resisted, and a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his chest.
Fuck…. Fuck.
With each pulse of mana, the pain grew, but so did the power. The fourth circle was forming, he could feel it. His body trembled, his heart threatening to give out under the pressure, but after what felt like an eternity, the fourth circle snapped into place.
Power coursed through him— raw, untamed, and overwhelming. For a moment, he felt invincible, like the very air around him bent to his will. But as quickly as the rush came, it left him drained. His back gave up, and he collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, his body slick with sweat.
The fourth circle was there, but so was the looming threat of backlash. Kai lay there, breath ragged, knowing that the real battle had yet to begin.
***
Kai gulped down the water that he had right next to him the entire time, his throat dry and his chest still aching from the strain of forcing the fourth circle into place. Not a lot of time had passed, maybe twenty minutes since he established the temporary fourth circle.
He tried to steady his breathing along with his shaky hands, but the sharp screech of a beast tore through the air outside, yanking him back to reality. His heart raced— not from the strain of mana this time, but from the realisation that the beast wave had arrived!
He shot to his feet, his body still shaky but his mind sharp.
He rushed to wear off his enchanted leather armour and put up the cloak from the Archine Tower on top of it for more protection. As the cloak swirled around him, he slid the ring— imbued with a defensive spell onto his finger. Lastly, the spear that Balen had worked on— enchanted and masterfully crafted, was strapped to his back.
There's no time to waste!
With a swift motion, he threw open the window and leapt out, landing using [Featherfall] before sprinting through the castle grounds toward the walls.
The cold morning air stung his face, but he barely noticed it with the mana surging through his veins. As he pushed himself forward with wind, he realised how much he stronger he had gotten in just a night.
As he neared the wall, he sensed the emanating tension from everyone surrounding it. Guards and Mages scrambled into position, and the moment they saw him, the atmosphere shifted.
“Lord Arzan, you’re finally here!” someone shouted, their voice tinged with relief.
Kai didn’t stop. He moved, weaving through the crowd of Enforcers until he found Killian rushing up to him. The man’s face was grim, but there was a spark of hope in his eyes now that Kai had arrived.
“Glad you are here in time,” Killian said, his words clipped and urgent. “You need to see this.”
Together, they turned to face the wall. Beyond it, in the distance, the first silhouettes of the beasts emerged from the fog. Giant, grotesque forms, both twisted and threatening, their forms barely visible in the dawn light. But they were coming— hundreds of them, their growls and screeches echoing louder with every passing second.
Kai clenched his fist as saw the beasts. Then, he raised his voice, clear and commanding, cutting through everyone’s screams, protests and worries.
"Everyone, get ready! The beasts are here!"
***
Currently writing the beast wave scenes and it's going big in word count. Hopefully you all like it.
Comments
Robert Rosenthal
In the next part will he actually use his inheritance so far it’s just been a quick voice.
Moon Winchester
I want you to take as long as fucking possible to write this be wave because I feel like it’s going to be a pivotal event in this story. It will dictate who among his allies and friends live, and who will die either a moment of self sacrifice or as cannon fodder. It will decide on the limits that Kai is able to push himself to, and it will show his people of care he has his territory. If he wins, the opinion of the crown will have him and his reputation as a whole will change. And let’s not forget about the fact that his brother is already preemptively making his way over to them thinking he’s gonna die and that he’s gonna save the day make a name for himself, in a way this is one of the pivot points of this stories arc. expecting a lot I wouldn’t mind waiting a month for the next chapter
Moon Winchester
I strongly disagree with you. You have to understand the MC came from a time of desperation and death being the last human alive that he knew of. He came in a time where you had to do absolutely anything to survive. And knowing that there is a dead man beast leading this beast wave who has a scale of power so far above anything he has. He probably can defeat without this technique, but this would result in the death of many of his enforcers and people and allies. It would probably come at a cost of the towns destruction. This technique reckless is wise. To cut down on casualties to give them a chance to win.remember this is a situation so far outside of his expectations that he had no plans or ways to react to it. The only thing he has in a desperate to help the situation is it perfected suicidal technique during a time of equal and even more desperation
Silver Beard
There's a lot more on the line that just the Beastwave. Isn't or will not the princess be expecting more treatments in the future? The tower apprentices he's been training, etc. If he's seriously weakened and they go back and report that then the vultures will really come out to play. And of course his Brother, the Duke, is not going ot appreciate being upstaged and will absolutely crush him if MC is seen to be weak
Gabriel Melnik
He already has learnt everything from the 5 circle and downwards, so he has more leeway on what to do. Also it could be a way to allow him to grow while also giving him an edge over any other kind of mage in a duel (Kai himself said it, an enforcer can go toe to toe with a mage of the same rank) And also the mana stored on the vaults has no theoretical reason preventing it from just be used as fuel for spells, allowing Kai to dip his hand on higher tiers of spells without overclocking his heart and also building upon the enforcer's path to power without the need to insert other main characters. The way I think about how it could work : A rank 1 mana organ (be it a circle or a vault) gives something like 10 mana, and then every consecutive rank up gives you double the value and then adding themselves with each other, compounding into an exponential growth from rank to rank. So a rank 1 is 10 mana, rank 2 is 30 mana and rank 3 is 70 mana, etc. Someone doing both organs at the same time would get a rank 1 of 10+10, basically doubling the overall mana capacity but still being less than a rankup. If it worked that way, then it would allow a mana user to punch above their weight at their level, slowing down progression on the higher ranks while also rewarding with double the mana tank at any given level, enabling them to scrape the upper rank without a the risk of backlash. It's just an idea that could enable a whole other outlook on how a mana user lives his life while burdening Kai with something tangible that distinguishes him from everyone other mage, picking upon what you guys already established. I'm also saying this from the angle of an engaged reader, because the enforcer's power is basically working as a checkov's gun here, and it will bug people if it isn't either resoundly discarded or used.
retrorocket0
To be fair i thought it had been reasonably explained. Even if your goal is to change the future you can't change the future if you are dead.
Arthor K
The backlash is because the heart or the realm inside of it often gets damaged. As for mages being able to open vaults, that's actually a big debate in the world at least by the time of golden era of magic. Lots of mages looked down on enforcers and some tried to get their powers, but often than not, it messed up their body since you need to focus on both the vaults and your normal mage training and there can be complications and it's not something anyone try since becoming a mage gives you way more power than an enforcer. In one of the original draft, I wanted mc to be a mix but then, I changed it because as the story goes, new facets of power levelling comes up and I thought it would be too many things to focus on at the same time with the inheritance and him dealing with the prophecy.
Arthor K
I get it. I do think these comments help. I might add a line or two because of that to make sure readers understand that he do have a plan. And if you remember there was a scene before where mc did think about going with increasing his power or not so it's not out of nowhere. The dead mana stuff is a push and he has like multiple ways to get through the backlash without losing major power. Also post beast wave, there would be something interesting that will happen because of mc dealing with backlash.
Gabriel Melnik
Once he kills the spider, wouldn't it be enough to just release the 4th circle and that's it? Also I have a question, is a mage also able open up the vaults of an enforcer at the same time? Could it be way to compound a mage's strength?
EsZeus
Thank you for the reply. As always, please take my comments objectively 😅😊 I have these thoughts while reading, or after, and I share them. Why? Because it is something that could be interesting for Authors to know about. Thoughts behind readers, or maybe an explanation why something worked or didn't work out well. I am only one dude. So it's only my personal opinion. Just sharing ✌️
Djinko
Thank you for the chapter !
Arthor K
Let's see. He do have plan for dealing with the backlash. That's why I mentioned the technique was perfected and vol 3 is a mix of a lot of things and the first in it is territory building and mc getting powerful.
EsZeus
We shouldn't forget that he came back to the past to CHANGE the past so the future doesn't come to be. Doing something so suddenly like this with such a backlash is going AGAINST that. Because if the risk is there that he would cripple himself permanently, all his effort up to this point, and traveling to the past, would have been for nothing. Don't forget that. So this makes no sense. Sudden power just for the sake of risking long term power to CHANGE the apocalypse is out of his character.
EsZeus
Not agreeing on his suicidal process. It's not wise, it's more dumb. So far, this is not in line with how I saw and experienced the MC. This behavior is outside of his norm and how he normally reacts. Or how he was described so far. Lets see how it goes. But for me, this is only done to give the MC more to fight against. After the beast wave is successfully beaten back, he will face the backlash. So instead of finally having time to focus on getting stronger etc. This now robs him of the opportunity later on. Why? Because it's the Authors bias and will. It doesn't make a lot of sense in my eyes, but is just a factor to force the novel into a specific way how the author wants it later on. While this isn't wrong normally, it is way too directly done for me. Instead of subtle changing the flow of the story, this is too sudden for my taste. And it shows clearly that this is only done real quick so the MC later on can't do much with his hard fought for free time. :)
Arthor K
Edited it out. It wasn't supposed to go there. Either way, I removed it completely
EsZeus
"Master, please look over your disciple!" This sentence is out of place. Don't know what it does there?
