Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

The people around them swallowed dryly, in perfect sync. No one could believe what their own eyes had witnessed.

Baels wasn’t an ordinary youth.

Basically, the new candidates there were divided into two major groups: the heirs born inside the sect itself, children of inner disciples and above, and the outsiders from the southern region of the Divine Plane.

Among all the outsiders, Baels was one of the most prestigious names. Most people there either kept their distance out of fear or tried to lick his boots to get scraps of benefits.

But now... in front of everyone...

A young man with a short, slender, and delicate appearance—the complete opposite of Baels’s raw, imposing presence—had subdued him.

Worse! Everyone could feel that Priam was only an elementary-level Mage Disciple.

Baels was already at the third level! Even so, he had been brutally attacked without having the slightest chance to react.

Behind him, Dandara remained frozen. Her green eyes were fixed on Priam’s back, unable to process the scene.

No one weaker could have caught Baels off guard like that. Even using some sneaky technique, the energy fluctuations would have alerted Baels’s instincts a millisecond before, allowing him to use at least a minimal defense.

But there had been no defense.

Baels had received the blow directly to the face, like an inanimate training dummy.

’This friendly and intelligent young man... is actually a terrifying monster?’ Dandara thought, a shiver climbing up her spine.

After long and tense seconds, Baels finally rose from the ground.

He was trembling from head to toe.

His aristocratic face now displayed an enormous, swollen, black, longitudinal mark—the perfect stamp of Priam’s sacred and divine branch!

He stared at Priam with eyes injected with deep, murderous hatred. But before he could shout the first word, Priam cut him off with a cold and indifferent voice.

”Since you have enough courage to act like an uncrowned king, without any shame or hesitation, then you took the wrong path,” Priam spoke slowly, his eyes empty of emotion. ”You don’t need to enter the sect. You can go straight to the borders to hunt the Sorcerers of the universe, and steal their resources by force.”

Priam lightly flicked the black branch.

”I’ll give you ten seconds to disappear from my sight. Or I’ll personally make sure your exit is unforgettable.”

”WHAT IS YOUR NAME?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!” Baels roared, his voice echoing through the courtyard like thunder.

He didn’t advance immediately. He was hesitant. The previous blow had engraved into his instincts that the boy in front of him wasn’t an ordinary disciple candidate.

”Why the hell are you trying to protect this b...!”

**POW!!**

Before the offensive word could fully come out, a vacuum formed.

Priam appeared in front of him like a ghost, dragging a gust of cutting wind. The sound of the impact was even heavier and more thunderous than the first.

Baels’s silhouette flew in a straight line, breaking the sound barrier for a few meters before collapsing onto the sandy ground, rolling like a disposable sack of potatoes.

Absolute silence.

Priam lightly rolled his neck, cracking his vertebrae, while keeping the black branch resting on his shoulder. He swept his cold eyes over the catatonic crowd watching around them.

The message had been delivered successfully: whoever dared open their mouth to insult Dandara in his presence would have to be strong enough to pay the price.

”DIE...!!!”

A wave of crimson energy erupted like a violent tsunami.

Baels got up in a state of absolute frenzy, his rationality completely consumed by humiliation.

A new spear was already in his hands. He transformed into a red bolt, piercing the air in a deadly thrust straight toward Priam’s back.

”Careful!” Dandara shouted, her heart leaping into her throat at the speed of that treacherous attack.

Priam, however, only began to turn around slowly.

He didn’t even bother activating his Ether or burning any energy.

In a movement that defied the visual physics of the spectators, he tilted his body by a few millimeters to the side at the last possible tenth of a second.

The tip of the spear tore through only the wind, missing the target by a hair.

With Baels’s flank completely exposed by the force of his own momentum, Priam closed his free fist, subtly channeling his Magical Art through his knuckles.

**CRACK!!**

The sound of bones shattering echoed clearly and terrifyingly.

Priam’s direct punch sank into Baels’s shoulder, instantly dislocating the joint. In the same rhythm, Priam twisted his hips and delivered an arcing kick with the force of a hydraulic press.

The young master flew for the third time, but now spinning around his own axis like an out-of-control top, spraying a mist of dark blood in every direction.

He collided against a stone pillar and slid to the ground.

This time... Baels didn’t get up.

Silence.

Priam snorted lightly, brushing invisible dust from his shoulder, and calmly walked back to his group.

On the way, Flaris, Shione, and Lumiere felt an immense weight leave their backs.

The relief was almost palpable. The reason was simple: at that moment, the Priam they knew had returned. That suffocating nebula of emptiness, grief, and madness that had haunted him since the great calamity of the Ylisse Clan had disappeared, giving way to his old serenity.

Priam stopped exactly in the same place as before.

His eyes fixed on Dandara, who stared back at him without being able to blink, completely hypnotized by the sequence of absurdities she had just witnessed.

Remembering a pending detail, Priam moved his fingers and, with a faint glow from his spatial ring, took out an emblem.

”A... A Faction Leader emblem...?!” Dandara’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when she recognized the carving on the piece.

Priam sighed casually.

”I was about to tell you that before we were so rudely interrupted. Answering your question from before: I don’t intend to rely on any faction of this Outer Branch, because I’m going to lead my own.”

He spun the object between his fingers, looking at the girl with an amused gleam.

”So, since I won the bet and now have unlimited access to your precious database, it would be much wiser and more practical if you joined my group. That way, I can ask you questions whenever I want, don’t you think?”

Dandara swallowed dryly, her mind skidding as it processed his words.

It wasn’t just her. Around them, all the youths watching the scene from afar were catatonic.

That emblem meant only one thing: he was a Super Genius officially recognized by the sect’s upper echelon.

Normally, only the most terrifying monsters born within the inner Bloodlines of the sect itself received such an honor. And if he were one of those inner nobles, he wouldn’t even need to be there in line waiting through the registration bureaucracy; heirs of that level went straight to the final test.

Who the hell was that guy?

”You don’t want to?” Priam’s calm murmur broke Dandara’s trance.

”I DO!” she jumped backward, her voice coming out loud and scandalous, instantly reverting to her hyperactive mode.

”Great,” Priam took half a step to the side and pointed to the three companions behind him. ”This is my cousin, Flaris. And these two are Shione and Lumiere. All of us belong to the Ylisse Clan and came from the Mortal Plane. From now on, we are officially a group of five.”

Hearing the names and, especially, the origin of that group, the spectators around them felt their brains short-circuit.

A clan from the Mortal Plane came to the southern region of the Divine Plane? And the guy was even carrying a Super Genius seal from the sect?

Ignoring the crowd’s bewildered whispers, Flaris, Shione, and Lumiere smiled openly.

They approached Dandara without any hesitation or prejudice toward her hybrid Bloodline and, in a few seconds, were already talking to the girl in a warm and friendly way.

...

A few minutes later.

”Everyone, the disciple selection is about to begin.”

A crystalline voice from a woman sounded from inside the walls. Everyone quickly looked to the side and saw a group of people approaching.