Leylin reclined on his serpent throne, the rhythmic thud-thud of his finger against the cold armrest echoing through the hall.
His body was relaxed, but his mind was a whirlwind of calculations. The undercurrents of the South Coast were terrifying, a sea of predators where a single misstep meant being devoured. Only he knew how many contingency plans he had weaved into the tapestry of the Astral Requiem to maintain this precarious stasis.
The name Leylin Farlier had effectively vanished from the Magus world. He had never operated under his true name, nor had he shown his face to the public. This wasn't born of fear, but of a deep-seated, cold caution.
He was barely twenty-two years old and already a Rank 2 Warlock. If such news ever leaked, the "Old Monsters" of the Rank 2 and Rank 3 levels would descend upon him like vultures, tempted to dissect him to learn his secrets.
'Patience and a low profile are the only ways to survive,' Leylin mused. Though he had the confidence to contest even a Rank 3 Magus within the specialized defensive arrays of the Astral Castle, he preferred to be the unseen spider at the center of the web.
"Lancey has been promoted to Vice Leader under Caesar," he whispered to the shadows. "There will be hiccups, but with two elite Bloodline Knights at her beck and call, she will handle it. I anticipate the Dark Magi making their move soon... that is when the Four Seasons Garden will lose their grip on a certain spatial artifact."
Spatial artifacts were items that could distort the laws of space to store vast quantities of matter were the stuff of legends. Most Magi were forced to carry heavy sacks or even horse carriages filled with empty chests during missions.
As he contemplated the future, a few silent servants appeared. They moved with mechanical precision, throwing scented powders into the air to mask the metallic tang of blood and the acrid scent of charred flesh.
Respectfully, they wrapped the corpses of the fallen in grey cloth embroidered with the Astral Requiem symbol, lifting them into black coffins before systematically scrubbing the stone floors.
Leylin watched them, his hand stroking his chin. In the last two months, the frequency of skirmishes had taken a toll on his Bloodline warriors.
He had purchased dozens of peak Grand Knights from the slave markets, but he had withheld the bloodline transition experiments. His focus had shifted to a more ambitious project: the Spirit Knight.
If the Saint Knight was the peak of mortal martial arts, the Spirit Knight was the bridge to the Magus world a warrior capable of internalizing spell models within their very runes.
"A.I. Chip, display the current Spirit Knight bottleneck," Leylin commanded.
[Beep! Spirit Knight Development Log: 47% Resolution. Technical Barriers Detected: Runic Stability: Body runes cannot sustain the thermal output of Rank 0 spell models. Neural Overload: Mortal nervous systems lack the insulation to handle high-speed spiritual transmission. Mana Poisoning: Knight physique lacks the 'Elemental Resistance' innate to Magi. Spiritual Scarcity: Subject lacks the raw spiritual force to ignite the spell model.]
[Proposed Solutions: A-1: Integrate a 'Heat-Sink' rune onto the skeletal structure (High Risk). A-2: Utilize 'Spirit-Binding' through the Soulbound Devourer to provide an external spiritual engine (Failed - Subject souls collapsed). A-3: Construct a 'Spiritualist' anchor to bridge the sea of consciousness.]
Leylin's eyes narrowed. A normal knight possessed a Life Seed; a Grand Knight awakened life force; and a Saint Knight drew upon elemental force through runic circulation. But for a mortal physique to execute spell casting was nearly impossible due to the massive gap in spiritual force.
"There is a need for an external force," Leylin muttered. He summoned a series of graphs, superimposing the data from his recent Magus dissections over his knight experiments.
"If I construct a runic 'Spirit Realm' inside a Grand Knight's sea of consciousness and bind it to a Rank 1 spirit body... I could create a new path. The Spiritualists."
It was a brilliant, yet ruinous idea. Cultivating spirit bodies was notoriously expensive, requiring the life force of hundreds of creatures to produce a single viable spirit.
"A.I. Chip, record all data under a new file: Project Spiritualist. Level 2A classification. Database upload criteria: 2E credit redemption."
[Beep! File Locked. Database Updated.]
"For now, the Bloodline Knight is the only practical path," Leylin sighed. "I can increase their lifespan to two or three years by refining the bloodline-rune harmony, but that is the limit."
The sound of clicking boots rang through the hall, breaking his trance. A silver-haired girl entered, clad in white battle armor with a crimson sheath at her waist.
As Leylin opened his eyes and looked at her, the girl, Ivy stumbled, her knees nearly buckling. Even though Leylin had retracted his aura, the unconscious pressure of a Rank 2 Warlock was like a mountain to those beneath him.
"Congratulations, little Ivy, on reaching the Grand Knight level," Leylin's voice was warm, yet it carried an edge of absolute authority.
"Your Highness," Ivy bowed in a sharp knight's salute, her voice trembling slightly. "It was only possible because of your guidance. However... it is hardly impressive. I only reached this stage in the fourth position among the recruits."
"They have trained under me for years," Leylin said, his ruby eyes glowing. "For you to catch up in such a short time is impressive indeed. I expect much from your future."
"A.I. Chip, scan her."
[Target Scan: Ivy Langster. Age: 15. Strength: 8.9. Agility: 5.5. Vitality: 7.3. Spiritual Force: 6.5. State: Healthy. Technique: Saint Knight Meditation. Bloodline: Pala Night Hawk (Dormant).]
Leylin watched the girl, a cold plan forming in the depths of his mind. She was the perfect vessel for the first stable Bloodline Knight experiment. All she needed was a little more... "encouragement."