Breakthrough

With an enchanting smile, Elaine stared at Kevin's dazed expression even as she stood a few paces away from him.

"The young mage who came back from the dead; blessed by the gods— so the rumors say."

Elaine stepped forward and rested a fair palm on Kevin's left cheek, caressing his tender cheek with a broad smile. She knew she had successfully ensnared this young mage inside her impeccable world of euphoric illusions.

No young man can resist the temptation, and at the peak of his mental pleasure when his defenses are at an all-time low, she would crack open his mind and pry into the secrets within.

A mage doesn't pursue wealth and fame, they only pursue magic. They're crazy about it.

Some are borderline mad, going to any lengths at hand to acquire their goals or satisfy their curiosity. Elaine was no different.

She opened her sea of consciousness and began to pour her mental power into Kevin's third eye in a steady stream. A third eye can never compare to a sea of consciousness, hence the lack of reservations on Elaine's part even as she licked her bottom lip in anticipation.

The issue lay in the fact Kevin was lost in thought while multitasking an attempt to merge the spell diagrams of <Mind Break> and <Shadow Bullets>, hence his mental power was already preoccupied to notice the changes in the ambient mana.

When he realized something was off, an overwhelming mental power was already rushing into his mind. Kevin's body shook uncontrollably as he attempted to break free, but it was to no avail. He could hear Elaine chuckling coldly by his side.

The mental power smashed through the spell diagram for the <Sinful Flame> and kept rushing forward, colliding with the overlapping spell diagrams of <Mind Break> and <Shadow Bullets> relentlessly, and with a bang, it slammed into Kevin's black third eye.

Blood trickled in rivulets from Kevin's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Elaine didn't care, however, as her mental power grew wantonly aggressive with the intent to crack Kevin's third eye apart.

Then, the unexpected happened. The crystalline black third eye absorbed the mental power to the last drop; and more. Kevin was horrified, knowing that the backlash was at hand.

Elaine was shocked and horrified as well, but only because she could feel her mental power gush out uncontrollably from her sea of consciousness. Her face paled, and a viscous light shone in her eyes.

Kill him! That was her survival instinct kicking in!

Elaine raised a hand to take Kevin's life, but it was already too late!

Bang!

An overwhelming sense of oppression blasted from Kevin's third eye, shaking his mind in the process as his knees gave in.

The wave blasted through the chaotically arranged nodes of the previously demolished spell diagrams, unexpectedly forcing them to merge into a new diagram. However, things didn't stop there as the backlash swept Elaine's mind, the impact shaking her sea of consciousness.

Kevin could feel a portion of his consciousness split and meld into an ephemeral <Shadow Bullets> as it took advantage of the brief opening in Elaine's sea of consciousness and barged its way in.

Alas, he wasn't in a stable state of mind to investigate the situation, darkness quickly clouding his vision as a wave of weakness washed over his body. He wasn't alone in this endeavor, as blood trickled down Elaine's mouth.

Horrified, she bolted out from Kevin's military tent without looking back. Even as she ran away, she spotted a black seed taking root in her sea of consciousness, and due to her dried-up mental power, she could only helplessly watch as this seed germinated and spread a web of fissures throughout her sea of consciousness.

The more her sea of consciousness healed, the more entrenched was the seed, quickly forming an inexplicable connection with her mind.

Worse yet, her experience and wealth of knowledge from reading articles about magic provided her with a foreboding feeling. She thought to take advantage of Lexia to threaten Kevin, but she then realized that it would be a stupid idea to harm the girl lest it invites open retaliation from Kevin.

…

A few hours later, Kevin opened his eyes with great difficulty. First order of business, he checked his mind and the third eye for any damage.

Luckily, he was already on the cusp of becoming an apprentice mage, he was merely missing a catalyst capable of facilitating the advancement.

As he started to feel out the changes to his body, he felt his mental power all over the place.

More accurately, he felt as though there were holes in his mind and from these holes, his mental energy spilled out uncontrollably, disorienting his senses as though he had eyes around every corner of his body, but he also used these eyes as a medium for the five senses combined.

Kevin quickly realized what happened; the forceful construction of his sea of consciousness had some benefits and drawbacks, though it was hard to say which of the two overwhelmed the other.

One of the obvious benefits was his ability to extend his mental power beyond his body. In a sense, the range of his sea of consciousness had overlapped with reality, propelling its reach forward by consuming the ambient mana to compensate for the exhausted mental power.

This also brings Kevin to the drawback accompanying this mutation; the mysterious third entered a deep slumber, and he had no idea when it'll become responsive again. Worse yet, it had descended into the slumber the moment it pushed Kevin into the realm of an apprentice.

This means that, despite his advancement, Kevin received no new spell models. There's that model that surfaced as a product of merging <Shadow Bullets> and <Mind Break>; a 16-nodes spell called <Hive Mind>.

The name is self-explanatory of its effects, a typical mind-controlling spell. The activation of this spell had stringent requirements and if Elaine wasn't already injured, it would have been impossible for Kevin to plant the shadow seed in her sea of consciousness.

If not for this spell, Kevin might have been very anxious to get to Elaine and settle the scores with her. Now, however, things are different.

Kevin measured Elaine should be more anxious than himself at the moment, trying to remove the vermin from her sea of consciousness.

When she recovers fully and realizes it's already too late, she would be frightened during every hour and waking moment of the upcoming days.

Her sea of consciousness would inevitably evolve into a corner of Kevin's colony that originates from this <Hive Mind> spell, and she'd have nowhere to run or hide, or even retaliate.

Since that's the case, Kevin decided to sit up in lotus style and run the <Concentration> spell in cycles. In this manner, he could gather up his mental energy that rattled all over the place, making him nauseous and disoriented.

….

Kevin wasn't the only one meditating, as Elaine was rushing to calm down and do the same thing.

She sat down next to the sleeping Lexia and immediately entered a meditative state.

One hour…

Two hours…

Three hours…

Four hours…

Six hours later, Elaine opened her eyes and warily checked her surroundings. She had expected Kevin to come knocking much sooner as no one would have liked to be ambushed, let alone risk having their secrets exposed.

Noting that Kevin didn't come during her deep meditation, Elaine heaved a sigh of relief.

However, when she checked her sea of consciousness, she was beyond horrified.

Almost one-third of the mental power she generated from the ambient mana was absorbed into the weird seed, whilst the web of branches that sprouted from the seed had stretched to cover up her entire sea of consciousness.

This dark web pulsed with mental power almost identical to hers. If she wasn't seeing it with her own eyes, she wouldn't know something like this was hidden inside her sea of consciousness.

As her injuries healed, the dark web began to blend into her sea of consciousness, quickly becoming an invisible net that she could distinctly feel but not see.

No longer able to suppress her horror and regret, Elaine got up and rushed back to Kevin's tent.

No matter what demands he had of her, as long as it wasn't over the top, Elaine thought she could comply. After all, someone needed to look after Lexia in the Magic Academy.

When Elaine stealthily made her way into Kevin's tent with her heart up her throat, she was stunned to realize the young man was already gone.

There was, however, a note left on the sheets.

With great apprehension, Elaine picked up the note.