"An invisible spell, huh?" Damon said with a crooked grin, floating opposite Velkan in the shattered sky.
"Not bad. You've really changed from our academy days. I'm impressed."
Velkan's expression remained calm.
"I'm glad you like it, Damon. There are many more surprises waiting for you."
Damon laughed. "Then let's get over with it quickly."
"Sure," Velkan replied.
The air itself trembled.
Both tower masters began absorbing mana from their surroundings. The land groaned as natural mana surged toward them like a tide. Damon absorbed it greedily raw, violent, unchecked.
Velkan did the same… but with a difference.
As mana rushed toward him at terrifying speed, it was refined mid-absorption, filtered with extreme precision.
A memory surfaced in Velkan's mind.
When Roman had first visited the Magic Tower of Presia, curiosity had led him to ask a simple question.
"How do tower masters absorb mana from nature?"
Velkan had answered proudly, "We gather it as fast as possible raw, just as nature provides."
Roman had laughed softly.
"That's the old way, Tower Master. If you don't evolve continuously, you'll be stuck at the same level forever. Your enemies will always know what spells you'll cast."
Velkan had frowned. "This method comes from our ancestors. Is there another way?"
Roman nodded. "There is. It requires concentration."
He continued, calm and precise.
"When you absorb mana, you also take in impure and unstable mana. That causes deviation ,inefficiency, loss of precision, sometimes even spell failure."
"Activate your mana eyes," Roman said.
Velkan had obeyed.
Roman then gathered mana, and through Velkan's enhanced vision, he saw it clearly
a net, surrounding Roman's Yin–Yang core, allowing only pure mana to pass through. Any unstable mana was repelled instantly and expelled from Roman's body.
"Now watch," Roman had said.
He cast a basic water bullet through a window.
A single impact.
The tree outside shattered.
Velkan had been left speechless.
From that day onward, he practiced that method relentlessly.
Back in the present, Velkan's refined mana surged like a controlled storm.
Damon narrowed his eyes. "Let's end this."
Damon formed a massive high-tier spell, dense and overwhelming. Velkan prepared only an intermediate spell in response.
Damon burst into laughter. "Still holding back?"
He launched his spell.
Velkan tried to evade but Damon's swift movement caught him, trapping him midair.
The spell struck.
At the final moment, Velkan repelled it with precise force, barely escaping annihilation.
Damon followed up instantly, unleashing spear-like elemental attacks at blinding speed so fast a normal mage wouldn't even perceive them.
But Velkan dodged.
Effortlessly.
His mana eyes, empowered by pure refined mana, tracked every movement with terrifying clarity.
Damon's frustration grew.
"Stop running like a rat, Velkan!" he roared. "Face me!"
His spells tore through nearby residential areas houses collapsing, shops destroyed.
But the civilians had already fled.
They knew what it meant when tower masters fought.
Velkan hovered calmly amid the chaos.
"Same old methods," he said quietly.
"You've grown rusted, Damon."
"Let me show you what an evolving mage can do."
Velkan launched spear spells of his own smaller, simpler, seemingly weaker.
Damon laughed mockingly and reinforced his defenses.
"Basic spells won't scratch me."
Velkan's voice was cold.
"Goodbye, my old friend."
"You reap what you sow."
Damon scoffed. "I'm not a farmer, you idiot—"
The spears struck.
Instantly.
They pierced through Damon's defenses, obliterating his right arm and leg in a single, precise moment.
His body twisted , half-destroyed.
Damon stared in disbelief.
"…Basic… spells…?"
He fell.
Dead.
Velkan hovered silently.
"You never changed," he murmured.
"The young master's techniques… they are truly something."
Below, Jeremiah waved and tossed something upward.
Velkan caught it.
The flag of Presia Dukedom.
A faint smile crossed his face.
"I'm glad I joined Presia's Magic Tower after graduation."
He flew to the tower's peak, tore down Ephor's banner, and cast it aside.
Presia's flag rose, dancing proudly in the wind.
At a distance, Zion saw the signal.
He nodded to Andrew.
The controlled riots began.
Knight stations burned.
Corrupt officials' estates were destroyed.
Ephor knights were beaten and disarmed.
Everything moved exactly as Roman had planned.
In Presia Dukedom, preparations were complete.
Roman, Jacob, and Selena stood before two hundred assembled knights.
Duke Jacob stepped forward.
"Today, we bring Ephor into our territory and make it our own."
The knights roared as one.
"LONG LIVE PRESIA DUKEDOM!"
"LONG LIVE DUKE JACOB CROWELL!"
Jacob turned to Roman, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Go. Conquer."
"Yes, Father."
Roman mounted his horse.
"Presia Knights," he commanded calmly,
"I will open a teleportation gate to Ephor's borders. Surround it from all sides."
"Yes, Young Master!"
Mana surged.
A massive teleportation portal tore open reality itself.
Roman raised his hand.
"Let's go."
The final stage had begun.