Chapter 290: Unexpected Alliance.

"I'll join you. On one condition."

"You're negotiating with me, huh... Well, that's much better than fighting a battle you know you can't win like before"

"That's not my fault. You looked like a demon mixed with the devil himself, then mutated into something even worse. And you were very aggressive back then too."

He didn't answer right away, but I didn't regret being bold with my words. I wanted to see how he would react.

If he was truly a leader worth following, then he wouldn't make a big deal out of it.

"You're not wrong," he admitted after a moment of silence. "But that was not my true self you faced. I had divided my body into fragments, and each fragment inherited only a portion of my emotions. Without the balance of my complete mind, they became ruled by their own instincts. Once I reunited with them, I returned to my original state."

I sensed no deception in his voice, and his explanation wasn't something unfamiliar to me. Back in the Magic World, where I obtained Shadow, I had encountered a similar concept.

There were people known as shamans who would separate their emotions and embed them into clay created in their own image.

By removing everything except a single emotion, those clay could amplify that aspect of themselves, making them stronger.

His situation was different, but the principle was close.

"So, are you saying you're sane now?" I shot back with a sarcastic tone.

"I'm the first magician, the wisest king. Do you truly think I reached this level by becoming a prisoner to my own emotions?"

He had a point, and he passed my test. But before I could change the subject, he spoke.

"And you really don't have the right to judge me," he said. "I can sense it from your aura. Deep down, you're carried your own insanity. That isn't the effect of any magic or outside influence. It's simply who you are."

Damn, he was hitting hard, and I couldn't even defend myself.

"Ahem." I cleared my throat. "Let's go back to the main topic."

"Go on. Tell me your conditions."

"I want a way to save my people. After this world is gone."

"HAHAHAHA!"

The laughter that followed wasn't cruel, but it wasn't kind either.

"You haven't proven a single thing to me yet, and already you're asking for too much."

"Greedy. I like that. Most people who come to me arrive with their hands open and their heads bowed. You arrive with demands."

I let out a confident grin. "I'm not like the others. I'm special."

"I've heard that from many geniuses and even seen it happen, but all of them ended up dead because of their overconfidence. No matter how great your potential is, it means nothing if you no longer exist."

I didn't answer. Instead, I let my territory do the talking.

The ground split open in rings, energy tearing free from where I'd buried it deep beneath the roots of my domain, threads of power I'd spent days weaving into the bedrock finally given permission to surface.

BOOOOM!

It surged upward in a column, ripping through the frozen statues , lighting the wasteland.

From afar, it looked like the light itself was trying to challenge the heavens.

"...Well, you've clearly reached the Transcendent realm."

"Is it enough?"

"It's not about enough." He said it slowly, like he was turning the thought over in his hands, examining it from every angle before deciding what to make of it.

"It's about how fast you got here. To think you've achieved this much in such a short amount of time."

"Then you'll help me."

It took him a couple of seconds to answer.

"Normally, I would have dismissed your request because you don't have the qualification to pull it off.

However, the solution I have in mind requires someone who has reached the Transcendent Stage. You have already crossed that threshold, and I can sense that you are connected to your own territory, which is another requirement. Few individuals ever reach such a state, and fewer still possess the control needed to make use of it."

My blood boiled with excitement.

"But there will still be a risk. If you fail, you may be weakened for a long time, and there's a chance you might never fully recover."

"I'm willing to take the risk." I answered, hardening my resolve.

It wasn't that I wasn't afraid of the consequences. I simply trusted my system and my own abilities to pull it off, no matter what the challenge was.

"Very well. Before I teach you my magic, you must first acknowledge me as your master and— "

"I offer my respect to Master Hexor, the wisest magician of all."

"…You have no shame, do you?"

"None whatsoever."

A pulse of light shot from the tower, closing the distance between us faster than thought had time to catch up.

My defensive magic activated on instinct, a wall snapping shut around my mind before I'd even decided to raise it.

The light pressed against the barrier, patient, and for a heartbeat I held it there, letting my senses crawl over it, searching for the shape of a trap.

But there was no malice woven into it, no hidden hook meant to snag something deeper than it claimed to want. Just information, dense and layered, waiting to be let in.

I lowered the wall.

The light didn't pour into me. It found my clone first, standing a dozen kilometers back at the edge of my territory, and struck it the way rain strikes a rooftop — absorbed instantly, spreading through every crack.

My clone's eyes went wide, and then, a fraction of a second later, so did mine, the borrowed shock arriving down the thread that bound us together like a current finding the shortest path home.

What hit me wasn't a lesson. It was an avalanche.

Formulas unfolded behind my eyes faster than I could consciously track them, layer stacking on layer — spatial lattices bending in on themselves, points for a soul mapped with a precision that made my own territory's architecture look like a child's drawing scratched in the dirt.

"This is..." I couldn't finish the sentence. There wasn't a word big enough.

"Beyond anything you've built and imagined." Hexor chuckled proudly.