Chapter 302 -: 301 Duel.[3]
Kavin weaved through the relentless set of icy spears, each step measured to the smallest fraction of a second.
One lance skimmed past his shoulder, another shattered against the frozen arena where he had stood only an instant earlier, while a third descended from above, forcing him to twist his body before continuing his advance toward Lyra.
Their battle had long since moved beyond simple exchanges of attacks.
The opening phase, where both of them had cautiously tested each other’s strengths and weaknesses, was over.
Every strike now carried purpose. Every spell was cast with the confidence of someone who already understood their opponent.
Kavin continuously released Mire of Time, causing the flow of time around Lyra to become sluggish in an attempt to create even the slightest opening.
Unfortunately, Lyra was no stranger to Time Path magic. Having studied it beforehand, she immediately recognized the subtle distortions surrounding her and responded with precise bursts of mana that disrupted the slowing effect before it could significantly hinder her movements.
The spell still forced her to expend additional mana, but it no longer granted Kavin the decisive advantage he had hoped for.
Even so, he remained calm. Victory had never depended on Mire of Time. His true objective was something else entirely.
He simply needed to endure until the perfect opportunity presented itself.
Eight months of relentless research, endless failures, and countless sleepless nights had all been devoted to creating three entirely new Time Path spells.
The opportunity to unveil one of them would come. He was certain of it. Until then, patience was his greatest weapon.
The greatest obstacle wasn’t the spell itself but the price required to cast it. Kavin could already feel the strain merely thinking about activating it.
His current mana capacity was far too small to sustain such an overwhelming technique, while his body lacked the durability to endure its burden for long.
It was only natural. The spell he intended to use had not originally been designed for someone at his level.
Rather, it was a heavily modified version of a spell that belonged to those who had reached the Infinite Core, a realm so distant that most spell casters could only dream of witnessing it once in their lifetime.
Through extraordinary effort, Kavin had painstakingly altered its formulas and reduced its requirements until someone below that realm could barely activate it.
Even after all those modifications, however, its mana consumption remained utterly monstrous.
The instant it was cast, his core would begin emptying at a terrifying rate. Simply maintaining it for more than a few moments would push his body to its absolute limits.
There was a reason such spells were never meant to be used by ordinary spell casters.
Before reaching the Infinite Core, every battle revolved around careful mana management.
Regardless of talent or strength, a spell caster constantly monitored the amount of mana remaining within their core, balancing offense and defense while ensuring they never exhausted themselves completely.
Powerful spells capable of deciding battles certainly existed, but they were reserved as trump cards because of the enormous amount of mana they consumed.
Once a core was emptied, defeat usually followed soon after. The Infinite Core shattered that limitation entirely.
Upon reaching that realm, the traditional mana core ceased to exist altogether. Instead, the spell caster’s entire body became the core itself.
Every muscle, every bone, every drop of blood transformed into a vessel capable of absorbing mana directly from the surrounding world, refining it instantly, and releasing it without interruption.
Mana no longer needed to be stored in advance because it flowed endlessly into the body as quickly as it was consumed.
For such beings, exhaustion became almost meaningless. They could unleash devastating spells one after another without fear of depleting their reserves.
It was precisely because of that limitless source of power that even vast armies of lower-ranked spell casters stood no chance against a single Infinite Core expert.
Some among them possessed enough destructive power to erase entire continents with a single spell.
More often than not, those individuals deliberately restrained themselves, not because they lacked confidence, but because unleashing their full strength carried the genuine risk of devastating the world around them.
Naturally, borrowing the techniques of such beings while remaining far below their realm bordered on impossibility.
No ordinary core could sustain those spells. Kavin understood that better than anyone.
Rather than forcing the impossible, he had spent months searching for another path. If he couldn’t possess an Infinite Core, then he would create a substitute capable of briefly imitating one.
It was an incomplete solution, dangerous and painfully flawed, but it was enough to allow him to grasp the edge of power that should have remained forever beyond his reach.
Now, after everything he had endured to create it, the moment to use that solution had finally arrived.
A colossal lance of ice tore across the battlefield, forcing Kavin to leap backward as it carved a deep trench through the frozen arena.
The instant he regained his footing, several magic circles bloomed behind his back in rapid succession.
Without hesitation, he released his grip on his sword. Dozens of weapons emerged from the glowing circles—spears, swords, axes, and countless other blades forged entirely from mana—and shot toward Lyra like a relentless storm.
Lyra answered with flawless composure. Her twin swords danced through the air with elegant precision, shattering weapon after weapon before they could reach her.
Metal exploded into countless fragments, sparks illuminated the battlefield, and shockwaves rippled across the frozen ground with every collision.
The barrage posed little real threat to her, yet it achieved exactly what Kavin had intended. For several precious seconds, her full attention remained occupied.
That was enough.
Creating even more distance between them, Kavin allowed his sword to fall completely from his grasp.
He raised both hands toward his chest before pressing them directly over his heart. Without the slightest hesitation, his fingers dug inward.
His nails tore through flesh.
Blood immediately seeped between his fingers before running down his chest in thin crimson streams.
Pain surged through his body, forcing his muscles to tense violently, yet he merely clenched his teeth and endured it.
A low growl escaped his throat as he concentrated every fragment of his attention on the spell forming before him.
A small magic circle appeared barely two inches from his chest.
Unlike ordinary circles, this one was astonishingly intricate.
Thousands of tiny runes, formulas, and interconnected symbols rotated endlessly within its boundaries, each influencing dozens of others simultaneously.
Under normal circumstances, such a spell would have required months of practice before it could be cast flawlessly.
Kavin simply hadn’t possessed that luxury. Eight months had been enough to invent the spell but nowhere near enough to perfect it.
As a result, he was forced to manually adjust the formulas while casting.
One hand remained buried against his bleeding chest while the other rapidly traced through the floating runes, altering symbols, correcting unstable formulas, and restructuring entire sections of the circle before they could collapse under their own complexity.
His movements became faster and faster.
One mistake would destroy the entire spell.
Fortunately...
The final rune settled into place.
The unstable circle immediately stabilized, its countless symbols beginning to rotate in perfect harmony.
Kavin slowly lifted his head.
His bloodstained fingers tightened over his heart as he spoke the final incantation.
"Event Horizon... all the mana I will have tomorrow... I shall have it now."
The magic circle erupted.
An overwhelming torrent of mana burst into existence.
It didn’t flow from the surroundings. It came from the future.
Mana that should have belonged to tomorrow violently poured into his present, flooding every pathway within his body before crashing into his exhausted core.
It rushed through him without restraint, surging like a relentless tide that refused to be contained.
Every mana channel trembled beneath the sheer pressure, stretching to their absolute limits as wave after wave continued to pour through them.
His body quivered under the impossible burden, yet the spell refused to slow for even a single moment.
Within a single heartbeat, the half empty core filled beyond capacity, surging until every inch of it overflowed with unimaginable energy.
The dull exhaustion weighing upon his body disappeared beneath the overwhelming flood of power.
Every pulse of his heart sent another surge of mana racing through his veins, each one stronger than the last, as though his very blood had been replaced by pure arcane energy.
His breathing steadied, his senses sharpened, and the crushing fatigue that had accumulated throughout the battle was completely drowned beneath the endless torrent flowing from a future that had yet to arrive.
The instant his core reached its limit...
Kavin wasted not even a fraction of a second.
There was no hesitation, no pause to admire the impossible feat he had just accomplished.
The borrowed future could not remain forever, and he intended to use every fragment of it before reality reclaimed what had been stolen.
He activated the spell that should never have been possible for someone beneath the Infinite Core.
"Time Dilation."