"Hmph! Utter trash!" Ashley harrumphed, her voice dripping with pure disdain.
To see Perry who is an honored Rank 2 Magus of the Eight Arms Radiant Moon order beaten without his foe casting even a single spell… it was a disgrace, a stain upon their rank.
"I care not what you are!" She turned to Bran and declared, her voice ringing with confidence.
"But remember this… you brought this upon yourself!" She continued and thrust both hands upward.
Behind her, a colossal, translucent figure materialized.
The figure has eight massive arms reaching toward the heavens.
The sky itself seemed to darken as ambient mana rushed in from every direction, swirling and compressing into a single, terrifyingly dense sphere of blinding light hovering above.
It pulsed and throbbed, radiating the full, overwhelming weight of a Rank 2 spell nearing completion.
"That is… deeply troublesome," the young nobleman murmured from within the carriage, gazing upward with a frown.
"Spell energy density climbing past forty units and still rising. If that detonates here… the entire city will be leveled to ash. And the Master would be most displeased."
Bran ignored him and stepped forward. He had already run full analysis on the threat the moment mana began gathering.
A faint, piercing screech tore through the air. It was a sleek delta‑shaped craft streaking in from beyond the horizon at blistering speed that left a trail of faint blue ionization.
The object dove straight for Bran, unfolding, splitting, and wrapping around his frame in a seamless storm of gleaming alloy and rune‑etched plating.
[KnightMare 000 — Deployment Sequence Initiated]
[Limb Lock — Alignment Confirmed]
[Core Fusion — Bio‑Sync Established]
[HUD & Threat Overlay — Active]
Bran stood encased in the most advanced armament forged within Extreme Night City.
KnightMare 000
A towering, silent guardian forged from polished obsidian‑black alloy, veined with silver runes that burned with a steady, cool radiance.
Sleek yet broad and immovable, it stood seven meters tall, built to anchor and shield entire districts against the most terrible magic.
Heavy segmented armor flowed seamlessly into reinforced limbs, ending in massive, blunt‑tipped hands and feet etched with stabilizing formations.
The machine did not have eyes, nor a face like a man's only a single sweeping silver visor.
The entire frame was forged from nano‑forged star‑steel alloy woven through with mana‑conductive gold‑silver filaments and lined internally with rune‑inscribed crystal lattice.
Every plate, every joint, every circuit was designed with one absolute purpose which is to stand against magic.
The outer layer spell formation captured incoming mana, unraveled it into raw elemental energy, and either used it for attack or fed it directly into the mech's own power core to replenish energy.
Most of its materials were technically only Rank 1 in origin, yet everything was processed through high‑frequency mana‑quenching and dimensional‑compression forging, their effective resilience far exceeded their grade.
According to every simulation, this prototype should endure a direct Rank 2 spell without faltering.
[Checking K000 Prototype — All Systems Nominal]
[Nullification Array — Online & Stabilized]
[Mana Dissipation Rate — Projected: 98.7%]
[Structural Endurance — Estimated Rank 2 Peak Resistance]
[Energy Conversion Efficiency — Optimal]
[Field Test Mode — Engaged]
Bran's voice resonated, calm and steady through the external speakers.
"I suppose… this shall serve as your first field trial. Behold the flagship mecha of the Ever Night City branch: KnightMare 000."
'Monitor all readings… log every single fluctuations…'
He stepped forward, the silver visor locking onto the roaring, collapsing sphere of Rank 2 destruction overhead.
And then... he reached out to catch it.
*****
Far away, in a chamber draped in starlight and shadow, a massive figure sat with arms crossed.
He had broad, rippling with muscle, every line of his frame suggesting terrible, contained strength.
"Just who is this rising King… that we must send our people across the Death Sea while we are already stretched thin here at home?" He spoke in a voice like stones grinding together.
Standing before him was a woman shrouded in mist and shifting starlight.
Her face was half‑veiled, her features delicate and youthful yet her voice is soft, distant, and somewhat trembling with effort.
"I cannot say for certain…" she replied slowly, each word seeming to cost her strength.
"Only this: in the final vision… I saw his silhouette standing tall… above the burning ruins of the Central Continent." She paused, breathing shallowly, as if the very act of speaking drained her. "And… your corpse lay at his feet."
She coughed with a thin, ragged sound, pressing one hand to her chest as her form flickered like a candle in the wind.
Despite her unlined face, she looked frail, exhausted, her powers fraying dangerously from overuse.
The massive man stood and draped a heavy cloak over her shoulders, his tone gruff yet gentle. "You know I have never cared much for fate. I will die when my time comes, and not a moment sooner. Rest now. Stop straining your sight beyond what is wise." He stepped back and faded into the shadows.
The Seer stood alone, trembling, silver blood glistening faintly beneath her veil. She lifted her head, eyes glowing faintly with starfire that burned too bright.
"Just one more…" she whispered, reaching again toward the endless dark. "Let me see his face… one more time. This time… I must succeed."
*****
The sphere of blinding light roared downward, collapsing inward upon itself as it fell. It bagan shrinking, brightening, and screaming with compressed elemental fury.
As it struck the outstretched palm of KnightMare 000, the spell detonated in a cataclysm of searing white fire that swallowed the mech entirely.
[Impact Detected — Dissipation Array Active]
The very air trembled; shockwaves rippled outward, shattering windows and cracking pavement for blocks around.
[Mana Conversion Initiated — Absorption Rate: 42%… 68%… 91%]
Ashley was visibly shocked, the blinding fire of her second rank innate spell did not tear the machine apart like she expected.
In fact, it did not even manage to make a scratch on its paint.
Instead, the obsidian‑black surface of the giant construct now drank in the radiance of silver runes blazing to life across the palm, up the arm, and across the chest in flowing rivers of light.
The spell's fury was unraveled strand by strand, converted into raw energy, and pulled directly into the mech's core.
[Thermal Shield — Optimal]
[Structural Integrity — 99.8% — No Damage Sustained]
The blinding flare dimmed, shrank, and vanished entirely as if it had never existed, leaving the mechanical giant standing completely unmarked.
[Energy Reserve — Updating… 112% — 124% — Power Surge Detected]
Ashley stared, eyes wide and disbelieving. Her masterpiece... her full‑power Rank 2 spell had just been 'eaten' by this thing.
The world felt like it came crushing down on her and Ashley began to panic. She looked towards Perry who still lay unconscious on the ground and gritted her teeth.
She turned to flee but before she could even make an attempt at escape, a massive, alloy‑clad hand descended and closed gently yet unbreakably around her entire body.
Her panic flared instantly.
Protective wards of glowing barriers, elemental shields, layers of defensive artifacts all flared brilliantly around her.
Then, one by one, they simply unraveled like morning fog under the light of day. Her shields were peeled apart like parchment, her mana sucked away into the silver veins running across the giant's fingers, absorbed before it could even obey her commands.
"Release me at once! You—!"
A sharp, crackling arc of blue‑white electricity snapped across the mech's palm, surging through her in a single, precise pulse.
Every muscle locked tight. Her vision whited out, words dying in her throat. She slumped instantly, unconscious, held limp and helpless in the giant's grip.
[Target Neutralized — Secure]
[Energy Conversion Complete — Core Stabilized]
[Prototype Field Test VS Rank 2 Magus — Success]
KnightMare 000 stood motionless amidst the drifting smoke and silence, holding the fallen Rank 2 Magus.
To the residents of Extreme Night City the entire incident seemed to have been quietly forgotten, leaving barely a ripple of rumor or outrage. Leylin's influence and reach ensured that inconvenient truths simply never surfaced.
Instead, the ongoing war flaring between Sage Gotham's Hut and Abyssal Bone Forest Academy captured the people's attention.
With the backing of Whitewoods Academy, Sage Gotham's forces pressed in with crushing numerical superiority.
Four to one. Against such odds, Abyssal Bone acolytes and even ranking Magi had no choice but to retreat behind the thick stone and warded‑walls of their underground fortress, huddled and besieged.
Yet for all the fury of the conflict, the death toll remained strangely, suspiciously low. Few bodies were ever found. Instead, reports kept coming in of patrols vanishing without trace, sentries gone from their posts, entire squads deserting overnight.
There are even a few times that magi are declared missing within their own institutions. But that's just war and people go missing all the time.
Deep within the heart of Dylan Gardens, the very core of the hidden space had been transformed into something breathtaking and alien.
Row upon row of glowing stasis pods stretched endlessly into the distance, lining every wall and circling the central spire.
Each cylinder was crafted from crystal‑clear mana‑permeable alloy, reinforced with dimensional‑stabilization runes that hummed with a low, resonant tone.
Within each pod, shimmering azure fluid suspended the captured apprentices and magi in perfect preservation.
Delicate, luminous filaments wove themselves into every vessel, connecting directly to the captives' meridians and spiritual centers.
Bio‑magus energy harvesters traced the flow of vitality and mana with microscopic precision, siphoning only the excess without ever damaging the source.
Integrated resonance converters transformed raw magical force into pure, stabilized energy that flowed through gleaming conduits of gold‑glass, feeding directly into the facility's central power matrix.
Smart‑rune arrays and nanites monitored health, recovery, and output in real‑time, automatically adjusting harvest rates so that every drop regenerated was reaped, turning each sleeping magus into a perpetually renewing wellspring of power.
Every drop of vitality, every wisp of mana, every trace of spiritual force, and even their memories was methodically siphoned, refined, and channeled into the Dylan Gardens secret realm.
They would not die, they would not age, and they would not be able to escape, they would simply be milked, day after day, until every last scrap of use had been drawn from them.
In one sudden turn of fate, they are no longer the chosen ones of this world. They simply became resources for someone else's growth.
Leylin stood before the sweeping holographic display hovering above the control dais, watching energy flow curves and reserve totals climb steadily upward.
'With these harvest rates and projected reserves…' he murmured, eyes tracing the rising lines, "our energy supply shall soon be sufficient to initiate the first phase of Temporal Displacement Experiments."
He rested a finger against his chin, a faint, curious smile touching his lips.
'To reach backward through time itself… I wonder… exactly what shall we find waiting for us?'
Of course Leylin would not do anything recklessly. Serholm's library and inheritance provided Leylin with enough information to simulate a warlock's ascent to the higher ranks and it would seem like some of the fundamental rules within this world works differently from his previous one. He wasn't even a hundred percent sure if the time travel he knew is also possible in this world.