Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

*BOOM!*

A brutal shockwave swept across the landscape, carving out a gigantic crater in the middle of the desert dunes and covering the sky in a raging sandstorm.

Kiden was in complete shock.

He had been poisoned, caught point-blank in an unbelievable explosion, and now... even while chasing without stopping, he still couldn’t catch a mere Mage Disciple?

By the time the dust settled, Priam was already nearly a kilometer away, slicing through the air just above the desert floor.

That brat’s speed was completely beyond reason!

”Where the hell do you think you’re going, you bastard?!”

Kiden roared, his throat raw, as he shot after him.

By now, his greed had surpassed even the mission itself.

Priam was a complete freak of nature. Kiden no longer wanted to simply capture him and bring him back to the sect—he wanted to rip every last memory from the boy’s mind and claim all of his secrets for himself.

Unfortunately for Kiden, he could currently use only a third of his true strength. To keep the corrosive poison from destroying his vital organs, he’d been forced to seal his own meridians and freeze a large portion of his Ether.

Even so, common sense said that even at only ten percent of his full power, a ninth-level Mage Master like him should be able to crush a Disciple as easily as stepping on an ant.

The problem was that Priam was nowhere near ordinary.

...

Priam continued tearing through the air, propelled by currents of wind.

Before ending up in this miserable exile, he’d thought he was reasonably fast. But reality was a great teacher: nothing improves your running faster than being hunted by deadly monsters every other day.

Since this was the third time in a short period that he’d been running for his life, both his wind manipulation and his mastery of that mysterious Magic Art had improved by leaps and bounds.

On top of that, he could now clearly see the obvious path to improving that mysterious Magic Art. In the future, he’d become even stronger.

’I’m at least thirty percent faster than before... If I survive today, I’ll be a marathon champion.’

Gritting his teeth through the exhaustion, Priam spotted a shift of color on the barren horizon. An isolated oasis stood in the middle of the endless desert.

A spark of hope—and mischief—flashed through his eyes.

[Divine Concealment]

[Activate?] [Yes / No]

Priam activated it and kept charging ahead at full speed.

Kiden sensed the drastic fluctuation in the boy’s aura, but inwardly sneered.

’Trying to hide in the middle of open ground? Pathetic!’

With both his eyes and senses locked onto Priam, Kiden knew the boy could try whatever tricks he wanted. Escaping him now was nothing but a childish fantasy.

The relentless chase continued until Priam slowed down and entered his destination.

”An oasis? Here?”

The moment Kiden recognized the place, he was surprised. He had no idea it even existed. In fact, the entire sect had no idea.

The whole planet had been mapped by the sect centuries ago. Every valuable location where treasures regularly appeared was already known.

That desert had always been considered a barren wasteland with almost no value, containing only a handful of Corrupted Beasts. Nobody wasted time investigating it because it simply wasn’t worth the effort.

Kiden entered the oasis.

He sensed a faint yet unusual Yin presence coming from the small lake. But he couldn’t even begin to guess the truth. And with the abnormal Priam running inside, he couldn’t afford to focus on anything else besides capturing him.

Ahead of him, Priam entered a cave.

Five seconds later, Kiden charged into the cave without hesitation.

”You ran all this way just to find yourself a more secluded grave?” Kiden mocked as he stepped onto the cave’s rocky floor.

Priam stood just a single step away from a pool of boiling lava.

The incandescent magma bubbled violently, radiating an overwhelming Yang aura that made Kiden frown with curiosity. But seeing the boy’s posture, he avoided rushing in recklessly.

The heat pouring from that pool was hellish.

”You know... you’re actually right,” Priam said, glancing sideways at Kiden with a cold, deeply mocking smile. ”This place really is one hell of a graveyard. I’m honestly curious... if I jump in there, just how frustrated are you gonna be after losing everything?”

Kiden’s expression changed instantly.

If Priam jumped into the lava, his body would be vaporized so quickly that there’d be nothing Kiden could do.

All of his secrets, techniques, and memories would disappear into the ashes forever.

”Don’t try to bluff me. You don’t have the guts to jump.”

”Are you really this stupid, or did you take lessons?” Priam sneered, looking at him as though he were talking to a troublesome child. ”I already know I’m going to die. If I fall into your hands, you’ll torture me until I’m nothing but jelly. So why the hell wouldn’t I jump into the fire and save myself the trouble?”

Kiden swallowed his anger and softened his tone, taking slow, measured steps forward.

”Listen, Priam... let’s stay calm...”

”STOP RIGHT THERE!” Priam shouted, raising a hand. ”Don’t come any closer! Planning to use some Magic Art to capture me? Keep dreaming! Take one more step, and I’ll throw myself into the lava. Then you can head back to the sect empty-handed!”

Kiden stopped less than ten meters away. It was a dangerously short distance.

”Fine! Calm down! I won’t move!” Kiden raised both hands, though his eyes were overflowing with venom. ”Let’s talk like reasonable people. If you hand over your spatial ring and teach me everything you learned to make it this far, I swear I won’t kill you.”

He raised his palm and swore solemnly.

Priam’s eyes seemed to shine with a hint of fake hesitation.

”Y-You... you really promise you won’t kill me?”

”I, Kiden, a future Sage, swear before the heavens that I will not take your life! If I break this oath, may my soul be consumed by flames and reduced to ashes in the deepest pits of hell!” Kiden declared with an almost saintly expression.

Priam had to use every ounce of self-control he had not to burst out laughing right there.

’Holy shit... the guy’s predicting his own future and doesn’t even realize it? What a gifted prophet!’

”Let me think about it for a bit...” Priam said, pretending to ponder. ”But don’t come any closer! Your character’s more crooked than a pig’s tail, so I’m not about to trust you that easily. Give me a minute.”

Kiden’s face darkened instantly. Priam’s words felt like a slap across the face.

Murderous rage poured out of the Mage Master, but he forced himself to keep his voice under control.

”Fine... I’ll give you exactly five minutes to think.”

Priam sighed and gave a small nod, turning sideways as he stared at the lava pool.

On the outside, he looked calm and thoughtful.

On the inside...

...he was completely freaking out.

’ARE YOU COMING OR NOT?! ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO LET ME TURN INTO BARBECUE HERE?!’

Priam cursed inwardly as cold sweat ran down his back.

’Wasn’t this damn Sacred Flame of Nature supposed to be insanely sensitive to outside energy?! Was everything I read in that damn text complete bullshit?!’

”Very well, time’s up. So? What have you decided?” Kiden asked in an icy voice.

”What the hell are you talking about?! It’s only been three minutes, you lying piece of shit!” Priam shouted, dramatically acting like he was about to jump into the lava. ”Trying to scam me even when it comes to counting time?! Tch! Don’t you have even a shred of honesty in that empty head full of crap? You know what? I’m jumping into this damn thing right now!”

In reality, exactly five minutes had passed. But Priam absolutely refused to admit it, using fake outrage just to keep shredding the guy’s nerves.

”NO! Don’t be stupid, don’t jump!” Kiden hurriedly interrupted, nearly having a nervous breakdown. ”You’re nervous, kid! You’re not keeping track of time properly! I’ll give you another five minutes, alright?!”

”Oh, sure. Now you’re treating me like some brain-dead idiot who can’t even count? You’re trying to pressure me, and you don’t have an ounce of sincerity!” Priam shot back, wearing the most theatrically offended expression imaginable.

Kiden was so furious that his face shifted between purple and scarlet.

He gripped the shaft of his spear so tightly that his finger joints cracked. He wanted to slice Priam into ribbons, but he desperately needed the boy’s memories and secrets.

The furious, dense, unstable aura of someone on the verge of becoming a Sage began leaking from Kiden’s body, filling the cave’s confined air.

Suddenly, Priam felt a subtle yet terrifying vibration coming from deep within the magma.

’Aha! So that was it! The power of someone almost at the Sage level was so abnormal it hadn’t reacted before... but now this idiot finally took the bait!’

Priam stepped to the side, pointed directly at Kiden’s nose, and declared in the most mocking voice he could manage.

”You know what? I changed my mind. I don’t need any more time.”

”Oh? Great!” A fake, relieved smile appeared on Kiden’s twisted face. ”And what did you decide?”

”I decided... you can go straight to hell!”

Kiden completely lost it.

”DIE, YOU BASTARD!”

The last shred of reason left him, and he unleashed a devastating bolt of lightning straight at Priam’s chest.

But Priam had been expecting that from the very beginning and threw himself aside in a desperate leap.

The lightning tore through the air and struck the exact center of the glowing lava pool.

*BOOM!*

The lava erupted in a blazing frost of fire!

A thirty-centimeter-tall crimson-gold flame floated up from the magma.

The instant it appeared, the atmosphere inside the cave became superheated to an absurd degree. Kiden’s lightning attack slammed directly into that tiny flame.

”WHAT THE HELL IS THA—?!”

Kiden let out a shrill scream of pure terror, but he realized it far too late.

In the very next instant, the Sacred Flame of Nature reacted to the attack with apocalyptic fury. A wave of crimson-gold fire crashed into him, instantly collapsing the entire cave in less than a second.

Priam was hurled away by the shockwave like a rag doll.

Because of Divine Concealment, the Sacred Flame hadn’t even noticed him. Its power focused one hundred percent on the other target. The very moment it emerged, Priam had already thrown himself out of the cave in sheer desperation.

**WOOOOOOOOOSH!!!**

Outside, the oasis became hell on Earth.

An overwhelming pressure crushed the entire area. In the blink of an eye, the entire lake simply evaporated, creating a thick cloud of boiling mist. Crimson-gold light spread across kilometers of desert, and the heat was so overwhelming that the surrounding sand instantly melted, turning the ground into an ocean of molten glass.

”AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

Kiden’s screams were utterly inhuman.

The crimson-gold flames clung to his body like liquid tar.

Poisoned and lacking enough Ether to defend himself, he didn’t stand the slightest chance.

From a distance, Priam watched as Kiden’s flesh melted off his bones like hot wax, bubbling as thick black smoke poured into the air.

His eyes burst from their sockets before he even managed to take two steps. Within seconds, his horrific screams were cut short as his trachea turned to ash, and the Mage Master’s entire body was reduced to a pile of charred slag.

The dust settled.

Priam staggered forward with extreme difficulty, looking like a corpse pulled out of a burning building. His body was completely blackened, covered in layers of burned flesh and grotesque blisters.

The explosion had completely burned through all of his Ether, forcibly converting it into Nature’s power in a desperate attempt to keep him alive.

’Fuck...’ Priam gasped, and the simple motion tore open his scorched skin, releasing a puff of hot steam.

The pain was beyond description—every nerve ending in his body felt like it was being stabbed by burning needles.

Yet despite the hellish agony, a crooked, bloodstained smile spread across his ruined face.

’I won... this asshole counts as another monster on my kill list, right?’