Grand Magic Zone!
Boom!
Several bolts of lightning came crashing down from the sky.
Yuuki gripped the Demon-Dweller Sword, slashing upward in a reverse arc. At the very instant the lightning descended, the blade collided head-on with it, forcibly cleaving one bolt apart.
The next moment—
The ground bulged, and a pillar of earth erupted upward, carrying Yuuki off the ground and shooting straight into the sky.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As Yuuki rose higher and higher, countless bolts of lightning followed him like a torrential storm, crashing down without pause.
"Chain Slash!" Yuuki barked in a low voice.
Brilliant light burst from the Demon-Dweller Sword. In the blink of an eye, dozens of slashing arcs shot forth, each one precisely colliding with incoming lightning, producing deafening explosions.
At the same time—
Yuuki bent his body low, pressing his free hand against the rapidly rising earth pillar.
"Mineral Magic!"
Humm—!
The pillar trembled. Like something being peeled layer by layer, its outer surface began to flake away, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed into a solid cylindrical mass of ore.
"Water Magic!"
Yuuki shouted again.
The ore pillar twisted and warped, instantly transforming into a surging column of water that soared skyward. Yuuki's terrifying magic power collided repeatedly with the violent lightning magic saturating the air of the Grand Magic Zone.
In such an environment, the water column quickly became filled with crackling currents of electricity, swelling as if it were about to explode at any moment.
"Fire Magic!"
Yuuki's voice rang out once more.
Rumble—!
The rapidly expanding water column, on the verge of detonation, was instantly transformed into a towering pillar of flames.
Yuuki's entire body was covered in a layer of magic skin. The intense heat of the flames was completely blocked outside, as he thrust the Demon-Dweller Sword straight down into the fire pillar below.
The moment the sword tip made contact with the flames—
The massive inferno was absorbed at terrifying speed by the Demon-Dweller Sword!
Whoosh!
The raging fire pillar vanished.
Yuuki raised the Demon-Dweller Sword and pointed it toward the sky. The absorbed flame energy erupted from the sword's tip as a blazing beam of light, shooting straight into the heavens.
Boom—!!
The thunderclouds that perpetually shrouded the sky were torn open, their condensed winter energy violently blown apart, leaving behind a massive hole.
Sunlight poured down through the opening, forming a thick column of light that enveloped Yuuki, who hovered in midair—radiant and resplendent.
Bathed in that beam, Yuuki looked as though he were clad in golden light.
"What a truly unique power… Completely different from magic sensing. And the way ki enhances the conversion of magic—its effect is far greater than I imagined."
Supported by magic, Yuuki slowly descended to the ground, unable to hide his amazement.
The use of ki didn't just vastly enhance his perception. Yuuki also discovered that, under the influence of ki, the conversion between different magic attributes became far smoother.
Ki actually assisted magic power.
This was something Yuuki had never anticipated.
More than that—
He finally understood the fundamental reason why Yami had grown suspicious of him.
As he continued to use ki, Yuuki discovered that his own ki was dispersed. Earlier, he had deliberately used ki to observe people like Nacht and Domina, confirming that a normal person's ki existed as a single, unified whole.
But his own ki was completely different.
It was scattered—thick and thin, large and small—countless strands drifting apart like dandelion seeds, yet all of them were entwined around his body without dissipating in the slightest.
Such an abnormal state, utterly unlike that of ordinary people, made Yami's suspicion more than understandable.
After noticing this, Yuuki spent considerable time carefully observing himself. In the end, he discovered that the number of dispersed ki streams within him exceeded seventy.
Exactly corresponding to the more than seventy magic power origins contained within his soul.
The realization left Yuuki momentarily stunned.
He had originally believed that possessing numerous magic power origins had no real impact on him. Now, it was clear that wasn't the case.
Back when he first began replicating magic power origins, Yuuki had faintly suspected that copying too many of them might bring about unknown consequences.
But as he continued replicating more origins and his magic power skyrocketed, he had subconsciously pushed that concern aside.
Now, reality had proven his earlier doubts correct.
"So… too many magic power origins caused my ki to scatter. In the end, I really do need to unify all my power."
Yuuki raised his hand, watching as magic of various attributes continuously shifted and transformed within his palm, murmuring softly to himself.
As for the key to unifying all those magic power origins—
No matter how he thought about it, Yuuki kept circling back to one point: evolving his three-leaf clover grimoire into a four-leaf clover, or even further into a five-leaf clover.
Only then might it be possible to gain the ability to merge all magic power origins into one.
Only through that could his Replication Magic undergo a true transformation.
Unfortunately, Yuuki had no concrete direction whatsoever at present.
Even if there was no solution in the short term, the issue of his scattered ki still had to be addressed. Otherwise, the next time he faced Yami, he would likely be recognized immediately.
After all, his ki was far too distinctive.
Yuuki spent three full days manipulating and guiding the flow of his ki, finally forcing all the scattered strands to condense together.
Of course, this was only superficial.
It was like a thick electrical cable—appearing as a single unit on the outside, yet containing countless thin, independent wires within.
This was the limit of what Yuuki could achieve at his current stage. At the very least, to simple observation, his ki now appeared unified. The next time he met Yami, he wouldn't give himself away so easily.
Through the process of stabilizing his ki, Yuuki gained yet another insight—
Ki acted like a catalyst for converting between different magic attributes.
That realization brought a certain technique to mind.
Zetten.
A combat method from the Land of the Sun, and the most important technique Asta had learned there.
Zetten was the fusion of ki and magic power, combining the two forces into a single strike that unleashed explosive might.
Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.
Within the Strong Magic Region, thunder continued to roar endlessly.
Yuuki stood amidst the falling lightning, yet the space around him seemed to form a natural lightning-free zone. Every bolt curved away midair, diverting toward the surrounding area instead.
"It's time."
Yuuki opened his eyes. A faint but razor-sharp aura now emanated from him—something he hadn't possessed before.
Whoosh!
Wind-element magic wrapped around his entire body.
The next instant, Yuuki shot straight into the sky, bursting out of the Strong Magic Region at extreme speed and flying southward.
Since Yuuki had never been to Raque Town, and the magic tracking mark on Noelle had already been removed by Yami, he had no precise location to work with.
Without a clear destination, even space magic couldn't take him there in one jump.
Even so, flying at full speed, it still took Yuuki over two hours to reach the border of the Clover Kingdom.
And there, on the sandy shore, he finally saw them—
The members of the Black Bulls.
(End of Chapter)
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