SSS Rank: Spellcraft Sovereign-Chapter 63: SS-Rank

The pavement under the creature rippled.

Then exploded.

Dirt launched. Asphalt shattered. The monster lurched sideways with a grunt and slid into a streetlamp.

Lucen flicked his wrist.

[Piercing Flare]

The beam cracked forward. Hit clean, right in the rib line. Sent the beast tumbling backward, hissing.

[Mana: 3.6 / 112]

[5.7 / 112]

Senna moved in before the recoil even cleared. Blade raised.

She shouted, "Drop it!"

Mira fired twice, both arrows catching flank gaps.

Callen followed with a hard stomp, shield glowing. "Backing you!"

Lucen stepped in, off center, and snapped his fingers low.

[Soundlash]

The blast popped into the creature’s blind spot. Dazed it just long enough for Senna’s blade to land clean.

The first scream came from a window overhead.

Someone inside yelling, "What are they—what is that?!"

Then another from the side alley. "It’s not dead? What level are they?!"

Lucen muttered, "City’s getting loud."

The girl cracked her gloves. "Good. I like a crowd."

Talia didn’t smile. "Then cast cleaner."

Lucen turned his head. "You two a team?"

Talia replied, "Not by choice."

Another shriek cut the air.

They all turned.

Four more creatures, thinner, faster. Crawling down from the drift wall like spiders across a broken dome.

Lucen’s eyes flicked upward.

Then he smiled.

"Alright."

He stepped forward, cracked his knuckles once.

"This one’s for practice."

—

The street cracked again.

Not from drift surge.

From something heavier landing.

No skid. No roll.

Just weight.

A silence followed.

Sharp. Dense.

Even the monsters froze mid-motion. Limbs halted. Heads twitched like they’d caught a sound too low to register.

Lucen felt it in his chest first.

Pressure.

Dense. Controlled. The kind of mana that didn’t leak, it pressed.

His system flicked once, automatic.

[Mana Presence Detected – Unclassified]

[Approximate Rank: SS]

He didn’t look right away.

Didn’t need to.

That kind of energy didn’t need announcing.

It settled over the area like a thick velvet curtain had dropped from the sky.

Then came the footsteps.

Slow.

Steady.

Boots against cracked concrete. Clean sound. Like he wasn’t touching the ground at all.

Lucen turned his head.

A man stepped through the smoke at the end of the road.

Tall. Broad across the shoulders. Straight-backed like he’d never slouched a day in his life.

He wore a coat. Not a flashy one. Charcoal black, high-collared, lined with soft-gold trim that shimmered slightly under the ambient mana. Combat-worn. Patches on the sleeves. Not military standard. Something older. More deliberate.

Across his back were two weapons. One blade sheathed vertically. The other smaller, slotted in a cross-draw configuration with seals etched in old glyphscript.

His hair was silver-white.

Not gray.

Not age-worn.

Just clean silver. Pulled back and tied low, a few strands loose around his face.

His skin was light brown, sharp-jawed, with faint scar lines near the chin and just above one brow.

His eyes—

Lucen stared.

Not gold. Not glowing. Like some anime character. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Just... clear...

Like steel reflecting sunlight.

The kind of gaze that didn’t need intimidation. It just measured everything like it had already been decided.

The man raised one hand.

Didn’t chant.

Didn’t flick his fingers.

He just made a simple gesture.

A wave.

Not even high.

Casual.

Like brushing smoke from his coat.

The mana collapsed.

Not around him, into him.

Then out.

A single horizontal pressure line cracked through the air.

Every creature in the street dropped.

Instantly.

Not wounded. Not burned.

Just dead.

Zero movement.

No screams.

Lucen’s coat flapped once from the residual air shift. He exhaled through his nose.

’That wasn’t even a cast. That was... an insanely high level skill..has to be.’

Behind him, Mira made a noise. Soft. Somewhere between awe and offense.

Callen blinked. "What the hell."

Senna didn’t say anything. Just stared.

Talia stepped forward, voice barely audible. "Is that...?"

Someone from a half-shattered balcony muttered, "That’s Varik. That’s Ghost Tier Varik."

Lucen blinked once. Then again.

The man, Varik was walking toward them now.

Not quickly.

Just directly.

Each step quiet.

Each movement deliberate.

He stopped four meters away.

Eyes on Lucen.

Didn’t even glance at the others.

"You held it longer than I expected," Varik said. His voice was calm. Even. Deep without pushing.

Lucen tilted his head. "Wasn’t hard."

Varik studied him. Silent for a long moment.

He didn’t smile.

Didn’t challenge.

Just... measured.

"You’re...not properly registered."

Lucen didn’t answer.

Varik didn’t press.

He turned his head, scanned the fallen monsters. Then looked back.

"You’ll be noticed. Sooner than you think."

Lucen flexed his fingers. Felt mana ticking back in behind his ribs.

[11.5 / 112]

’Maybe. But not by you.’

He gave a single nod.

Varik returned it. No extra words.

Then turned and walked away.

Boots untouched by blood.

Shoulders steady.

Power absolute.

Lucen let the silence stretch after he left.

The street felt smaller now.

Senna stepped beside him. "He’s real, then."

Lucen exhaled slowly. "Yeah. Real."

Mira folded her arms. "He didn’t even use a spell."

Callen frowned. "He didn’t need to."

Lucen cracked his knuckles once. "Bet his mana bar’s got a comma in it."

Talia whispered, "He looked at you first."

Lucen didn’t answer.

He just watched the direction Varik disappeared in.

Then looked down at his own hands.

Still glowing faint.

Still warm.

’One day,’ he thought. ’I’ll be the one who finishes the fight.’

And meant it.

—

Lucen took a step forward.

Then another.

Senna blinked. "Where are you going?"

He didn’t answer.

Didn’t need to.

The air still held the ghost of Varik’s presence. Like chalk dust clinging to the wall after a spell’s been wiped clean. Lucen followed it. Past the shattered cars. Over the fallen bodies. Through the quiet stillness left behind.

Mira called, "Lucen."

He didn’t turn around.

Callen said something under his breath. Lucen didn’t catch it.

His focus was forward.

He moved fast, but not rushed. He didn’t want to lose the trail. Varik hadn’t been running. He didn’t need to. That kind of pressure didn’t walk far unnoticed.

Lucen’s boots tapped through puddles that still held ambient mana shock. The smell in the air shifted, less sulfur now, more scorched copper and ozone from high-power sigil collapse.

He passed a collapsed shop sign. Passed a stunned onlooker sitting on the curb with a broken mana scanner still clutched in his hands. The man blinked at Lucen.

Didn’t speak. Just watched like he’d seen a god swing through and now couldn’t process humans again yet.

Lucen kept going.

Three more blocks.

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