I've Got A Mana Processor In A Magic World-Chapter 94: Sage Maximus Arrives

"Really good power..." a voice suddenly sounded not far from Zephyr.

His head snapped in the direction of the voice sharply.

It was Sage Maximus.

’How is he here already?’! Zephyr thought in shock. ’Had he been here the whole time?’ He hadn’t even sensed a trace of the man’s presence at all!

"That was very creative." Sage Maximus said with his hands crossed behind his back. "So you have comprehended the Flux Switch." He stated, rather than asked. "And your comprehension level looks to have been very high for you to tweak that spell to that extent..." he tilted his head, analyzing Zephyr who was still on the floor.

"But the disturbance in origin during your comprehension doesn’t correlate with your level of comprehension." He pointed out the glaring fact with a blank, analytical look on his face. "What secrets are you hiding...?"

Zephyr’s eyes twitched very slightly at the question as he tried to contain his expressions not to betray any of his thoughts. "I—I’m not hiding any secrets..." he said with a hesitant look, not bothering to put on any excessive act. He had the feeling that Sage Maximus would be able to tell immediately. But thankfully, the tense moment was broken by the voices of curious people on the outside.

"What was that—?"

"The building just shook all of a sudden—"

"I felt it in my private room too—"

Staffs of the tournament arena quickly entered through the broken-down wall, trying to get a grasp on what had happened.

"Anyone there?! Are you okay?!" A man shouted, waving a hand to clear the dust in front of him as he climbed over the stone rubble.

Zephyr, thankful for the interruption, quickly called out a response to the man, standing up. "Yes! I’m okay!"

"Is anyone in here?!" The man shouted yet again, joined by his partner who brought out a parchment of paper with a spell model drawn on it. He activated it, lighting up the symbols on the paper before projecting it into the air, using the dust as a medium. It was a light spell. It glowed like a lightbulb in the room, providing better visibility for the two men as they searched around.

"Did they not hear me?" Zephyr muttered in confusion as he called out again. "Hey! I’m right here! Sirs—!"

"Anyone here?!" The second man’s voice cut him off this time.

"Give it up. I don’t think anyone’s in here," his colleague said to him. "Whoever did this is gone already." He pointed at the broken wall that opened to a corridor that led to the open center of the arena. "Must’ve been at least a Tier 3 mage to do this. What kind of spell were they trying out anyway?" They discussed between themselves as they made careful rounds around the room so as not to miss anything. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"They can neither see nor hear you." Sage Maximus said just as Zephyr came to the same conclusion and turned to look at him.

Zephyr turned his gaze upward and around, searching for the tell-tale sign of a spell model glowing in the surroundings, but there was none to be found. He didn’t know how Sage Maximus did it, but he couldn’t spot the obvious sign that natives of this world could not help but display whenever a spell was cast.

"Ohh, I’m way past that, son." Sage Maximus smirked slightly as he stared at Zephyr. "Brace yourself." He warned curtly.

"Huh? What do—?" Zephyr had just made to seek for clarification when all of a sudden, the world around him blurred and deformed into a swirl, making him feel like he was being pinched into a small hole. It lasted only for a moment before the feeling disappeared abruptly and he was deposited in a new location.

"Whoa!" He staggered in disorientation. "What the fuck was that?" He placed his hands on his knees to steady himself. The feeling reminded him of when he had first stepped through the portal to the rift world back on his homeworld. That feeling of rapid disassembly and reassembly. Like everything he was made up of—body, consciousness and all, was squeezed down into a tiny point and reassembled at another.

It was an unnatural feeling that Zephyr didn’t know whether he liked or not.

"Good recovery." Sage Maximus pointed out, walking forward without pausing for a beat. "Follow me," he waved a hand before clasping them behind his back again.

"What’s with this man..." Zephyr muttered, but followed after him, shaking his head to clear his vision fully.

"I think I’m right to say you were looking for a place to test out your powers to the fullest without any prying eyes, right?" Sage Maximus asked Zephyr who was massaging his eyes while following after him. "Well, how about this place?" Sage Maximus pushed open a grand-looking door, revealing a massive training room—so massive that it looked wrong for it to even be inside a building.

"How large is this house?" Zephyr couldn’t help but blurt out. He had just fully recovered from the aftereffects of the short teleportation, and now he was finally able to take in his surroundings. He was definitely inside a house. One that while spacious and opulent, still didn’t look like something that could contain a space this vast.

’Yeah... there has to be some space magic shenanigan going on inside here...’ Zephyr thought.

Sage Maximus walked into the massive training room, spreading his arms as if showing off the vastness of the space. "One of my personal training spaces." He said.

"One?" Zephyr, still at the door, asked.

Sage Maximus ignored his question. "You can go as crazy as you want in here. It would hold up to any spell you throw at it—" He clasped his hands behind his back again.

Zephyr looked around hesitantly, before stepping into the room. ’Yep. Definitely space magic,’ he noted, feeling the weird shift and the instant change of scale when he stepped through the door. It was like on the outside he was a few sizes larger, and immediately he stepped into the room, he became smaller? Or he was still the same size and the room became bigger? He didn’t know. Either way, there was space magic at play here for sure.

"—But I get to watch." Sage Maximus finished his earlier statement, making Zephyr shake his head with a chuckle. "I don’t think—" Zephyr started to say, but Sage Maximus continued.

"Look, son. The fact that you’re a Pathfinder means any previous talks you and the council, or the Overseer might have had are now moot," he said. "You seem to forget the fact that you’re an Exalted... A full Exalted, who also happens to be a Pathfinder. Living in a city whose inhabitants have dedicated their lives to eradicating everything remotely related to the Exalted. Who wish to wipe every of their traces from this world— and that includes me," he stared at Zephyr pointedly.

"Yes. There will be voices that wish to use you for our benefit. To aid the few Half-Exalted that fight alongside us. Help them get stronger... But the dominant, and frankly logical voices, would wish to see you dead to prevent any mishaps. Nip you in the bud right before you grow into something that cannot be handled... or worse off, spread your seed." He said with a dangerous tilt to his voice. "A pathfinder spreading his seed, creating yet another set of domineering offsprings...?" He chuckled, walking slowly to Zephyr. "They would want you killed. And if failing to do that, they’d push for you to get castrated... just like the other Half-Exalted here."

"Huh?!" Zephyr’s face spoiled immediately.