The duel grounds behind the Preacademy were cordoned off by magical wards, inscribed personally by Master Rivel and the Headmaster. Even from the far training buildings, students could sense the air stirring unnaturally. Thunder murmured. The earth pulsed. A faint chill lingered in the breeze.

  Kagami stood across from Elias, his eyes focused, calm—but beneath, a sea of mana churned with anticipation.

  “You sure about this?” Elias asked, tying his long silver hair into a knot. “No holding back?”

  Kagami raised a hand. “I’m sure.”

  “Then you better come at me with all three.”

  ---

  The Duel Begins

  The ground cracked beneath Kagami’s feet as he charged first. No long-winded chant. Just instinct, breath, and fusion.

  > “Thaldrum Ignis: Vajra Terra Nova!”

  Rocks burst upward in jagged formation, glowing with glyphs, and from their cores, bolts of thunder screamed down, converging toward Elias. The older mage leapt upward, encasing his body in a shimmer of barrier magic.

  “Good,” Elias muttered midair. “Now again.”

  Kagami spun with a seal. Fme roared.

  > “Ignis Fulminist: Dragonbrand Spear!”

  A halo of swirling fire and thunder wrapped around his arm like a fming dragon. Kagami thrust forward—the arc struck Elias’s barrier dead-on. It cracked.

  Elias nded hard, skidding, the edge of his sleeve burnt.

  “You’re serious,” he grinned. “Now show me the st.”

  Kagami’s breath steadied. Mana spiraled, water to wind, a chilling spiral around his arms.

  > “Icence Formation: Cryo Tempestas!”

  A gcial spiral unched from Kagami’s hand—sleek, icy, razor-sharp and ced with wind pressure. It raced through the field like a cold spear of judgment. Elias barely managed to conjure a glyph-yered barrier—ice cshed, splintering crystals against it.

  But it had frozen half the ground behind him.

  “…Not bad,” Elias said, brushing off frost. “You’ve become a monster.”

  Kagami stood in silence. His chakra pulsed faintly within. He hadn’t even tapped it.

  ---

  Elsewhere — The Watching Shadows

  Far beyond the academy, in a forest dense with mists and old curses, a stone fortress half-swallowed by vines housed a cloaked concve. Arcane crystals hovered in the room like fireflies—memories from enchanted familiars returned from the Whimwood infiltration.

  At the center of the dark chamber stood the same elven agent, tall, pale, sharp-eared, his silver eyes narrowed with calcution. By his side, the hulking Howlthorn warrior, now in human form but with beast-like eyes glowing faintly.

  “He’s advancing faster than expected,” the elf murmured, watching a projected image of Kagami’s duel. “Fusion of incompatible elements. Precision. Pacing. No one that young should wield power like this.”

  “He was holding back in the first fight,” the werewolf growled, scratching his forearm. “He could’ve killed us.”

  “Which makes him more dangerous than we thought.”

  A hooded figure stepped forward from the shadowed stair. Her voice was cold, commanding.

  “And you still believe he’s not of this world?”

  “…No. But the mana inside him is foreign. Dense. Shaped like ancient arts—yet alien.”

  “We’ll need to test him again,” the voice ordered. “This time… with something that forces him to draw the truth.”

  The elf bowed slightly. “Understood, My Liege.”

  The Howlthorn warrior grinned.