Everything had been thoroughly planned.
From Edmund’s escape. The chaos that ensued by freeing the inmates, and finally, Mikhail’s release.
Given the pale white sun and bleak gray sky, it signaled an incoming mana storm.
During such storms, the guards would retreat indoors to secure Index.
This made Edmund’s objective to escape harder, forcing him to ensue chaos, reanimating fallen monsters and guards to plot his escape.
Of course, everything had just been a guide Vanitas had written down meticulously in his files, while scurrying through strategies used by veteran players to clear the Special Act.
According to them, Edmund Velgrind was the key to clearing the Special Act. If it wasn’t a day for a mana storm, Vanitas had to go with plan B.
In any case, the problem lay in how the player would even free Edmund. This was where most new players failed, caught by the Warden, Alaric.
Vanitas, however, had a simple solution to his dilemmas.
The Blade of Resonance.
This dagger could cut through mana circuits, including barriers, as long as the user understood where to strike.
Vanitas chipped fragments from the blade and carefully hid them during inspection.
Discreetly, he passed one fragment to Edmund, allowing him to sever his cuffs and unlock his cell.
And, of course, Vanitas had also given a fragment to Mikhail, allowing him to escape and blend in with the chaos.
As they walked around the halls of Index, their footsteps echoed against the fortress walls.
Vanitas broke the silence.
“Why do you want to escape?”
“Hm?” Mikhail turned to him, genuinely confused. “Does a detained man need a reason to seek freedom?”
“That’s reasonable,” Vanitas replied. “But I see no purpose for a man incapable of magic, hunted by the world, to risk so much just to live outside confinement.”
Mikhail’s lips curled into a smirk. “You underestimate humanity, Professor. Not everything in life revolves around power.”
“Is that really the belief of a man who once destroyed cities without hesitation?”
Mikhail stopped walking and turned to face Vanitas fully.
“You call it destruction,” Mikhail said. “I call it balance. Every action has a reason—a purpose. Do you really think I acted without cause?”
“….”
Vanitas didn’t flinch, simply maintaining eye contact.
“Then what was it? A moral crusade? Or simply a Great Power reminding the world who’s in charge?”
Mikhail chuckled. “You’re not wrong to question it. But perhaps you’ll understand one day, Professor. When you have to make a decision that reshapes the world.”
“I don’t intend to reshape the world. Only to survive it.”
“Ah, survival. The oldest instinct. Then we’re not so different after all.”
Vanitas tightened his grip on the object hidden in his pocket.
“I think we are,” Vanitas said. “My hands aren’t stained with blood.”
Mikhail let out a dry laugh and glanced back toward the path before meeting Vanitas’s gaze again.
“That’s cold, Professor,” Mikhail said. “Learn to take accountability for your actions, will you?”
“What are you implying?”
Mikhail’s smirk deepened. “Your ploy. Your little exchange for information. That’s what led to the deaths of so many today.”
“….”
Vanitas froze.
“You knew exactly what would happen, didn’t you?” Mikhail continued, stepping close to him. “The chaos. The casualties. You’re not as detached as you’d like to think, Professor.”
“….”
Vanitas’s silence only seemed to amuse Mikhail further.
“Survival, balance, power. It’s all the same game,” Mikhail said. “You’re just better at pretending you’re above it.”
Vanitas’s mind swirled.
He had indirectly caused the deaths of guards, the men stationed in Index to do their duty.
It was undeniable.
And yet…
“….”
There was no sort of lingering guilt at all.
Not even a sliver of it.
“….”
The thought unsettled him. These weren’t faceless NPCs from the game anymore.
They were living, breathing people with their own stories, yet he had played with their lives as if they were insignificant.
Chae Eun-woo, the man he was before, would never have done something like this.
Killing had been unthinkable to him, despite the circumstances of his past life.
But now.… it felt meaningless.
‘Vanitas Astrea…’
The influence of the original Vanitas was slowly creeping in, growing stronger with each passing day, to the point where even Chae Eun–woo had stopped noticing it.
“….”
But there was no going back. The moment he completely took on the role of becoming the family head, Vanitas knew he had to succumb to this world’s twisted sense of morality.
He was terminally ill, practically dying.
“What’s this?” Mikhail said, tilting his head. “Don’t tell me you haven’t realized it?”
“….”
Vanitas stayed silent, his eyes discreetly shifting to the side. The exit was still far away.
He returned his gaze to Mikhail.
“You talk too much for someone receiving aid,” Vanitas said. “If I were you, I’d stay quiet.”
“Fair enough.”
Mikhail scoffed but said nothing more. He resumed walking ahead with a steady pace.
Vanitas followed, his heart pounding with each step. He felt the cold air bit at his skin as cold sweat ran down his back, sticking to his clothes.
‘Where are they?’
His gaze flickered to the end of the corridor. The exit was close now. The shimmering glow of the barrier came into view.
At a glance, anyone would believe Mikhail was just another guard escorting Vanitas.
Alaric and the others probably assumed the “guard” walking with him had the authority to dismantle the barrier.
Vanitas’s fingers curled around the small metal shard hidden in his pocket. His grip tightened.
‘Fuck.’
They stopped just a few steps before the barrier.
Mikhail glanced at it, tilting his head slightly before turning to face Vanitas.
“You’ve got a way to break this, Professor?”
In actuality, he didn’t. Not a barrier of this scale.
Edmund had tried it before with the metal shard but failed. The barrier was too large, and the metal could only carve a small opening.
One misstep, and the metal would flick, causing the barrier’s force to reactivate and slice Edmund down instantly.
“I do,” Vanitas said. “But it will need some preparations.”
“What about the metal? It worked on the barrier on my cell. Why not here?”
“The barrier on the cell was smaller. The metal could carve through it just fine. But this one….” Vanitas gestured toward the barrier. “It’s too big. You’d need more than a single shard to get through.”
Mikhail’s eyes lingered on Vanitas, scrutinizing him.
For a former Great Power, Mikhail had seen countless magical tools, artifacts, and relics, but the metal was different.
Not once in his time as a Great Power had he seen something that could cut through the essence of mana directly.
“Strange material you’ve got there, Professor,” Mikhail frowned. “So, what are we supposed to do now?”
Vanitas took out the metal from his pocket. “We draw a circuit.”
“We don’t have time for that, no?’ Mikhail’s frown only deepened. “Alaric’s no fool. He’ll figure it out soon enough.”
“Got any better ideas?”
Mikhail mulled it over, pondering deeply. Vanitas watched him carefully, feeling the tension rise. His hands grew damp with sweat, but he didn’t let it show.
He glanced at the guide, written by a veteran player in his spectacle.
[If you manage to stall him long enough, the narrative will clear the Special Act for you.]
“Perhaps I do,” Mikhail said.
A moment later, Mikhail’s lips curled into a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
[If not—]
“….”
[Goodluck.]
Vanitas’s eyes widened, realizing what was about to happen, and raised his hand forward, sending a barrage of Windblades toward Mikhail.
But….
Snap—!
With a flick of his finger, Mikhail swatted away the Windblades one after another. The sharp arcs dispersed into harmless gusts.
“….”
Vanitas’s heart pounded in his chest. His breath came in shallow bursts.
Mikhail tilted his head, his grin still intact.
“That all?” he asked. “You really are a Professor, huh? All bark, no bite.”
Vanitas took a slow step back and clicked his tongue, “Tsk.”
“Surprised?” Mikhail’s grin widened as he raised his hand. “Don’t worry, you won’t live long enough to learn how I’m still able to wield magic.”
“….”
Vanitas didn’t respond.
He already knew.
Carna’s Blessing.
That was the name of Mikhail’s stigmata.
After being defeated and apprehended by the Sword Saint and his fellow Great Power, Aston Nietzsche, Mikhail had been sentenced to the harshest punishment.
Mana core castration.
It was a process that not only destroyed the core but also ruptured the pathways known as “veins” that channeled mana throughout the body.
Hence, mana core castration.
By all logic, that should have been the end for him. Without a mana core, a mage was as good as powerless. That was the belief most people held.
But there was something even the Sword Saint didn’t know.
Mikhail’s stigmata wasn’t ordinary.
The power to shift the very molecules, veins, and every inner bodily construct within his body.
To understand how he survived, one had to understand the truth about mana flow.
Uneducated people believed mana flowed from the core, down through the pathways—the veins in the body, and into the limbs to create spells.
But that was false.
People who had any sort of magic education knew better. It was elementary level knowledge.
Mana wasn’t “produced” by the core.
Mana was breathed into the body, absorbed through the lungs, then traveled into the veins, where the essence was refined.
This process determined which elemental branches a mage would excel at, known as essence.
Over time, as the essence flowed consistently, a “mana core” would form naturally at the center of the chest, acting as a reservoir for mana.
For anyone, if the veins were damaged or the core was shattered, their ability to use magic was permanently lost.
But Mikhail wasn’t ordinary.
Using Carna’s Blessing, a stigmata that allowed him to manipulate his organs, he discreetly shifted his veins away from the critical areas that would have been ruptured during his “castration.”
It was a nearly impossible task.
Repositioning the veins required absolute precision.
One mistake, and he could rupture his internal system and kill himself. But Mikhail wasn’t called a Great Power for nothing.
He succeeded, albeit partially.
Most of his veins had been damaged beyond repair, leaving him with only two functional pathways.
Two essences remained usable.
Umbra, which he had mastered to Sovereign level, and Aqua.
But that was enough.
While imprisoned in Index for twenty long years, Mikhail had time. Time to rebuild what was lost.
In other words, Mikhail now had a fully functional mana core. But restrained by mana shackles, he was unable to utilize it until now.
Even without a medium, Mikhail’s Master-ranked spells far surpassed the average mage.
The outcome was immediate.
“Collapse and fall—Shadow Tide.”
A torrent of black water surged forward like a crashing wave. The force instantly sent Vanitas flying before he could even retaliate.
Crash—!
His back slammed into the wall, the impact knocking the breath out of him. His vision blurred for a moment as pain shot through his body.
“Ukh….”
His vision blurred for a moment, but he forced himself to focus. He couldn’t afford to lose sight of Mikhail.
Tak. Tak. Tak—!
Footsteps echoed in the corridor as Mikhail approached. His eyes locked onto Vanitas like a predator stalking wounded prey.
“You know,” Mikhail said. “I only noticed it when I got close to you.”
He stopped a few paces away, tilting his head with a sly grin.
“But you reek of demons.”
Vanitas’s eyes twitched.
“….”
Mikhail swiftly chanted. Cracks formed on the walls. No—the shadows themselves were cracking.
Vanitas’s instincts screamed.
Move. Now.
Windburst.
Boom—!
The force propelled him sideways just as the shadows shot forward like a web of spears.
But the shadows were faster.
One of the tendrils grazed his side, cutting through his coat and drawing blood.
“Akh…!”
Vanitas clenched his teeth, ignoring the pain. If he stopped moving, he’d die.
With no hesitation, he tossed the Resonance Metal forward.
Swish—!
The metal absorbed the incoming shadows, pulling in the mana like a sponge.
There was no need to hesitate. While his mana reserves hadn’t fully recovered, there was no point in hesitating.
Do or die, he would die anyway if the situation escalated.
“….”
The air around him shifted. The hair on his arms stood on end. His heart pounded like a drum as his veins burned with the flow of mana.
Vanitas extended both arms. His fingers curled like claws as sparks of Zephyr Essence flickered at his fingertips.
He didn’t chant. He didn’t need to. There was no point in hiding it. Mikhail had seen it already anyway.
Ssssish—
His mind became a map of calculations.
To create lightning, Vanitas had to understand the science behind it.
‘Positive above. Negative below.’
He imagined the electrons being stripped from their atoms, charging the air with energy.
‘Ionization.’
Like the design of a machine, each part of the spell had to work perfectly.
‘Like a circuit board.’
The circuits in his mind glowed like threads of light. Each one represented a key function.
Ionization, Compression, Discharge, and Spiral Propulsion.
A Master-Ranked spell.
His mana surged wildly. If he messed this up, it would backfire.
But it didn’t matter.
‘Compress the air. Ionize it’
It was no longer “magic.” It was science. Physics. Chemistry. Thermodynamics.
This level of control didn’t come from simple chants or the activation of circuits.
It was simply the manipulation of natural laws.
Vanitas’s amethyst gaze locked on Mikhail.
The charged air ignited with a deafening crackle. A vortex of lightning spiraled around Vanitas’s arm like a coiling lightning dragon.
“Hollow Purple.”
Crackle—!
A bolt of pure lightning shot forward, spiraling like a drill and slowly expanding, filling the entire corridor whole.
Mikhail’s eyes widened as his mouth moved while chanting. Not in shock, but in recognition.
The shadows lashed out from his body. It twisted like countless whips toward the incoming bolt.
But Vanitas was prepared.
His free hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of metal. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed it mid-air.
Swiiish—!
The second piece of metal soared through the air and immediately absorbed the shadows.
“Umbra scatter. Freeze and dismantle—Glacial Rend.”
A supernova-like explosion of icy blue light erupted from Mikhail. Glacial spears flew out in all directions. Each spear spun as it soared like miniature drills.
Vanitas’s eyes widened.
He raised his arms. The mana circuits spun in his mind as he swiftly casted Windburst, hoping to launch himself away from the blast.
But he was too late.
Boom—!
His body flew backward, smashing into the wall. Blood sprayed from the open wounds like a fountain.
“Aaaaakh!”
The world spun. His vision blurred. The pain was immediate, as if eating away at his limbs.
His body slumped against the wall, and for a moment, he didn’t know which way was up.
He forced himself to move, but then….
He saw it.
“….”
His arm.
“….”
….It wasn’t attached.
“Huukh!”
His breath stopped. His gaze shifted forward as the dust began to clear. Mikhail stood there unharmed.
Of course, a Master–ranked spell obviously wouldn’t be enough to harm a former Great Power.
“….”
Wait, no.
Blood dripped from Mikhail’s arm. The torn fabric of his sleeve hung loose, and his breathing was heavier than before.
「Boundless Reservoir」
◆ Capacity: 421/9000
Vanitas’s lips curled into a weak grin. His vision was fading. His world spun, and anemia kicked in once more.
At that moment….
Swish—
A bluish–purple light streaked past his peripheral vision.
[If you manage to hold out or stall for time, enough for Alaric and the guards to catch up, congratulations. You just cleared the Special Act.]
The guide flashed in his mind as he felt his eyelids slowly closing.
“….Your arm,” a sudden voice reached his ears.
A beautiful woman, holding onto a staff, stood in front of him. Her royal blue eyes met his, and Vanitas felt the tension leave his body.
That was the last thing he saw.
[And behold, the sight of the Archmage herself, Soliette Dominique.]
….Before he blacked out completely.