Magus Reborn 331. Soulspace

Kai did not know what was happening, but when he opened his eyes, he saw only darkness.

It felt like he had been thrown into a dungeon where no light could exist.

There were no walls, no ceiling, no ground he could clearly see—only endless black stretching in every direction. He tried to summon a small fla, more out of instinct than panic, but his mana refused to respond. It was as if sothing had locked his Mana veins shut, cutting him off completely.

That made him pause.

For a brief mont, a thought crossed his mind. Had he died? Am I actually dead?

The idea should have terrified him, but it didn’t. Instead, he floated in the darkness with an unnatural calm. His heart did not race. His thoughts did not spiral. It was as if his emotions themselves were muted in this place.

Still, Kai was not the type to wait and do nothing.

He began to walk.

Each step echoed softly, the sound stretching far before fading into nothing. He kept moving, trying to find an edge, a wall, anything that could tell him where he was. But even after walking for what felt like over an hour, he found nothing.

No barrier. No end.

He kept going.

At so point, he lost count of his steps, but he was certain he had walked tens of thousands by then. Yet the darkness never changed. It did not thin. It did not react. It simply remained.

That was when another strange thought made him stop.

He was not tired.

His legs felt fine. His breathing was steady. His throat was not dry. Even after walking for so long, his body showed no signs of exhaustion at all. That alone told him this place was wrong.

He wondered if he had been trapped by a being far more powerful than himself, soone capable of suppressing both mana and emotion.

If he could rember what had happened before he arrived here, he might have found an answer, but his mory offered nothing. The mont before this darkness was a blank space in his mind.

In a way, he was grateful his emotions were dulled. If they were not, he would have already been tearing himself apart trying to understand what was happening.

Instead, he resud walking, even if he wasn’t sure it would ever lead anywhere.

In the end—after hours, or maybe days—Kai finally saw sothing.

A gate.

It stood ahead of him, a simple wooden gate half-swallowed by the darkness around it. It did not glow. It did not call out to him. It was simply there, solid and real in a place where nothing else was.

Kai stopped for a mont, just to be sure it was not another trick of this strange void. Then he hurried toward it.

Up close, the gate looked old but well kept. He ran his hand over the wood, searching for markings, runes, anything that could explain where he was or why he had been brought here. There was nothing. Not a single carving in sight—just plain wood and a cold tal handle.

With no other choice, Kai grasped the handle and turned it.

The mont the gate opened, darkness vanished.

Warm light spilled out, and Kai stepped into a large room filled with chaos. Books were scattered everywhere—on the floor, on chairs, stacked in uneven piles against the walls. So were open, others torn, pages marked with hurried notes. Mana lamps hung from the ceiling, casting a steady golden glow. There were no windows, only stone walls lined with shelves that had long since overflowed.

A single large table stood at the center of the room.

As Kai took another step inside, a thought he had been avoiding pressed down on him again.

Had he died?

Because this place—this room—was sothing he never thought he would see again.

His master’s chambers.

For a mont, he wondered if he was mistaken. Ti had a way of twisting mories. But then he saw him.

At the far end of the table sat a man, bent over parchnt, scribbling quickly before flipping the page and writing on the back. He looked exactly the sa as the last ti Kai had seen him. His beard was long, white, and unkempt, as if shaving had never been a priority. He wore the sa plain black robes that had once filled his entire wardrobe.

Kai took one slow step forward. Then another.

The sound finally caught the his attention.

He looked up.

Master Drakar.

A small smile ford on his lips, and that alone made Kai hesitate. Master Drakar rarely smiled. When he did, it was never without reason.

Then his master spoke.

“Kai,” he said. “You are here.”

He leaned back slightly, setting the parchnt aside.

“You have no idea how long I have been waiting for you.”

Kai raised an eyebrow and spoke carefully. “You were waiting for , Master…?”

“Of course,” Master Drakar replied without hesitation. “It has been years since I last saw you. I have been waiting for you here this whole ti.” He paused, then added gently, “But before we talk any further, why don’t you sit down?”

He gestured to the chair beside him.

Kai nodded and took the seat, moving slowly, still unsure of what he was seeing. He glanced around the room again. The lamps, the books, the stone walls—everything felt solid. Real. No illusion he knew could carry this much weight. He could even hear his master’s breathing.

As if reading his thoughts, his master spoke again.

“This is an illusion.”

Kai looked back at him, surprised. “Then… you aren’t real?”

His master chuckled softly. “I was. Once. You already know that.” The smile faded into sothing quieter. “I don’t know what happened after that. I created this space inside your soul a long ti ago, thinking you might need it soday. Now that you are here, I can see how much you’ve changed. I can’t fully understand it from here, but I can tell you’ve gone far beyond .”

Kai stayed silent for a mont, the words settling in. Then his eyes widened slightly as the truth clicked into place.

“You left a fragnt of your soul inside mine.”

His master smiled, pleased. “Yes. I knew how much you liked this chamber. You spent most of your childhood here. I wanted to make sure you would always have a warm place to return to.”

Kai lowered his gaze to the parchnt on the table. So of the notes were familiar—unfinished spell structures, half-complete formulas his master had once struggled with. Things he had never seen completed.

“I never realized,” Kai said quietly.

His master’s smile turned faintly smug. “You forget,” he said, “I was always better at soul magic than you.”

Kai nodded slowly. “You were. But I didn’t realize it was even possible to hide a soul fragnt like this. I inspected my astral realm many tis, and I never found anything.”

His master shook his head gently. “That’s because I didn’t place it there. I mixed it directly with your soul. Once I realized that, sooner or later, I was going to die, I wanted to leave sothing behind that would stay with you.”

Kai frowned. “You didn’t die on your own. I was—”

“No,” his master interrupted calmly. “I died. Just as naturally as anyone else does. And I don’t want to talk about it.” His tone softened. “I know how deeply you take these things. I didn’t create this space to reopen old wounds inside you. I made it so you could have the knowledge I was never able to give you.”

Kai looked up sharply, staring into his master's eyes that seed to hold endless knowledge and wisdom. “Knowledge?”

His master nodded. “Yes. I know you want to save this world, and that is no small task. But I have a feeling you will manage it. The fact that you are still alive after all this ti is proof enough.” He paused, then added, “Still, I wanted to leave you sothing that would last you even after you succeed. A small gift.”

As he spoke, his master ford a spell structure in his hands. Thin streams of wind energy spread through the chamber, moving carefully. Boxes and notebooks lifted from shelves and corners, gliding through the air before stacking neatly on the table.

Kai’s eyes widened. He reached out and picked up one of the books. Its cover bore a title he had never seen before—a spell structure his master had never ntioned.

While Kai stared at it, his master spoke again. “I hope you enjoy working on them. So are unfinished. Others are nothing more than ideas. But you are more than capable of turning them into sothing real.”

Kai could only stare at the piles of books and notes in front of him.

For him, this was the greatest gift anyone could have given. A Mage’s lifeti of work was not sothing to take lightly. It was knowledge earned through decades of study, failure, pain, and insight. It was priceless. Everything Kai had achieved—going back in ti, changing fate itself—had begun with what his master had taught him.

He had searched for these works after his master’s death. He rembered going through old towers, sealed rooms, and forgotten vaults, hoping to find even a single unfinished manuscript. He had found nothing.

Now he finally understood why.

Kai looked up at his master and said quietly, “I never knew you left sothing like this for .”

His master smiled, and when the corners of his lips turned up, Kai’s chest tightened. “How could I not? You are my disciple. This is the least I could do.” Then his smile faded slightly. “But I’m afraid our ti is coming to an end.”

“What…” Kai’s eyes widened. “Can’t you stay?” he asked at once.

His master shook his head. “No. What I left behind is only the illusion of my chamber, bound to the fragnt of knowledge. Not myself. That was never possible.” He looked at Kai carefully. “And don’t you have much to do in the real world?”

The words struck sothing loose.

In an instant, everything rushed back.

The battle in the sky. Selenia’s screams. Regina tearing herself apart. Grabbing Killian and fleeing as the castle exploded. The pain. The fall. The darkness.

Kai inhaled sharply. People were waiting for him. The war was over, but its aftermath wasn’t. He needed to find if Killian was alive and what had beco of the rest.

Still, Kai didn’t want to leave.

He wanted to talk. To explain everything he had done. To tell his master how far the world had fallen after his death, and how he had gone back in ti itself.

But his master shook his head again. “There’s no ti for that.”

As he spoke, his form began to fade. His outline grew thinner, paler, as if the light itself was passing through him.

Panic hit him at once.

Kai stepped forward and reached out, but his hand passed straight through his master’s fading form, as if there was nothing there at all. His breath caught.

His master only smiled at him, calm as ever. “You are doing well,” he said softly. “I hope my gift helps you in what lies ahead.”

Then, slowly, his body broke apart into tiny motes of light. They drifted upward and vanished, leaving the chair empty.

Kai stood there, staring at the space where his master had been sitting. He did not move for a long ti. The room felt quieter than before, heavier sohow. Finally, his gaze dropped to the stacks of notebooks and boxes on the table.

Part of him wanted to stay. To open the books. To read every line and understand just how much his master had left behind for him.

But another thought pressed down on him.

He had been unconscious for too long. Days, maybe even weeks. Too much had happened for him to stay here any longer.

With effort, Kai closed his eyes and let go. The warmth of the chamber faded, the shelves blurred, and the light dimd until everything disappeared.

A sharp jolt ran through his body.

Kai gasped as his body shook. Bile rose in his throat from the sudden movent, but he swallowed it back.

The next mont, his eyes flew open.

White.

A white ceiling stretched above him, clean and unfamiliar. Sunlight poured in from a window to the side, warm against his face. Distant sounds drifted in—voices, footsteps, the noise of a city that was still very much alive.

He tried to move and froze.

There was weight on his chest.

Kai looked down, his eyes widening. Princess Amara was sitting beside him, her head resting against him, her breathing slow and steady. She had clearly fallen asleep here, staying by his side.

He didn’t know what to think.

The room wasn’t familiar, and his body felt weak, heavy, unwilling to listen to him. With Amara leaning against him, he didn’t dare move anyway.

So Kai lay there in silence, staring at the ceiling, listening to the world outside, and trying to understand what he had just woken up to.

He closed his eyes for a mont and turned his focus inward.

What he found made him wince.

His body was in bad shape. Using his life force had taken a heavy toll. His Mana heart was still nearly empty, even though he had clearly been resting for days. Mana was slowly trickling back in, but part of the structure felt damaged, rough and unstable. It was not fatal, and it could be repaired, but it would take ti.

If he wanted to recover properly, he would need rest. Real rest. At least another week in bed. On top of that, he would need to change his diet—mana-rich beast at, rare plants, anything that could help rebuild his reserves faster. That part wouldn’t be a problem, but one thing was clear.

He had pushed himself too far.

As he was inspecting himself, he felt movent against him.

Kai opened his eyes.

Princess Amara was looking straight at him.

For a second, she just stared, as if she didn’t believe what she was seeing. Then she rubbed her eyes, blinked once more, and froze. Realisation hit her all at once. Her face turned red as she noticed how close she was, how she had been leaning against him.

“I—I’m so sorry, Duke Arzan,” she said quickly, pulling back a little. “I was exhausted last night. I only ca to check on you and… I didn’t realise when I fell asleep.”

Kai gave a small smile. It was strained, but genuine. “It’s alright,” he said softly. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

She nodded slowly. “Yes, I am. It’s just… the work after the battle at Hermil has been—”

She stopped mid-sentence.

Her eyes widened.

“Oh—wait,” she said suddenly, standing up. “I need to inform the others that you’ve woken up. They’ve been extrely worried about you. And there are dozens of nobles here already from all over the kingdom, all waiting to speak with you.”

She turned toward the door, but Kai reached out and gently grabbed her hand.

“Wait,” he said. “First, tell what happened while I was asleep. And why are so many nobles here?”

She blinked, then sighed lightly before turning back to him.

“They all have their own interests,” she said honestly. “But more than that… they want to know when your coronation will take place.”

***

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