Kaden returned to Corand. He quickly checked that no one had killed Nervin yet and he was indeed still alive. That plan was still moving forward.

As for himself, Kaden needed a place to rest. He had taken quite a bit of damage during his fight. One might think a True Magus just absorbs some mana and repairs their bodies in moments. For minor injuries that might be the case, but Kaden's body had been nearly shredded apart. Foreign destructive mana had wreaked havoc inside his body. He had exchanged direct strikes with another True Magus.

None of that could be called 'minor'.

It had caused damage to him on conceptual level and that took more time to put in order.

"Should I just use Northwind's hideout again?" Kaden pondered. "While that place is good for things that need to remain hidden, its not like I'm leaving behind evidence in there. I also have protection set up."

Kaden did things there like eating some people, using his phoenix form and such. He wasn't leaving anything to be found. Kaden had already arranged it to be deliberately obvious he was 'backing' Northwinds and it will not be strange, if he had some hidden place around.

"No one will find it odd, if I go there", Kaden decided.

Kaden wondered again whether he should make himself some obvious living place in the void between dimensions like rest of the True Magi seemed to do. It would never be anything, but for show and a place where he could do 'normal' things.

"I must consider doing that at some point", Kaden continued his thoughts. "For now, I shall be throwing around my weight and appear to be imposing on the Northwinds."

That was more along the line with True Magi behavior.

The experiments Kaden had been planning needed to wait. He could think about all sorts of applications of mana considering his latest lesson. Actually testing them would need to wait.

"Until I find something truly worth my time, I need to wait and concentrate on these plots I have set in motion", Kaden thought.

With that in mind Kaden returned to the Northwinds. It seems they had been quick obeying his orders. Fanin seemed to have set up one of those noble parties and invited other nobles. Kaden did not really know the noblity that much, but he assumed by the discussion he heard that they were the ones that did not support the young emperor.

Kaden wasn't even sure what Northwinds opinion on the matter had been before he enslaved them, but at this point it didn't really matter. Nobles could quickly change their opinion once they decided they could benefit from it so it wasn't really strange that Northwinds would do so. At this time, it did indeed seem like the cousin that was seeking the throne had good chances of achieving that.

Kaden floated by the party letting everyone see him. The room quieted and everyone looked him go by. Behind him Kaden could hear hushed voices talking about him. If there had been any doubts about him being involved, now it was absolutely clear it was true.

He left the nobles to their party. Kaden made his way down into the cellar where he promptly teleported to the hideout. There he checked all formations he left in place. None of them had been tripped. No one had tried to look there. All concealment was still functioning.

It was better safe than sorry.

Not that there remained any leftovers of Kaden's meals. He had incinerated and turned all of that into dust.

Kaden transformed into his phoenix form and lied down. It was time to heal his wounds. Other than that, he planned to think over his fight and correct his current faults.

----------

Sometime after in one of Saint Empire's intelligence offices, an operative picked up a fresh message. This one was marked as high priority with also a questionable source.

The operative read the message and frowned. This was above his paygrade. He took the message and went to pass it to someone who could decide what to do with it. Someone with contacts up to parties involving True Magi.

The oparative quickly reported to his superior, the so called 'spymaster'. He was part of the relatively small group of people who had direct access 'up'.

"There is a report from Sacronan", the operative said. "From the people we know Sacronan know are ours. They seem to have directly leaked some information to them about a True Magus on our side. One of those two new ones. The one named Kaden."

The spymaster started to show some interest.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"And?" The spymaster said.

"Perhaps truth or slander, but it seems this Kaden went over to Sacronan's side and ... performed some experiments on some of their soldiers", the operative started to explain. "This seems to have involved souls, but this is not the main point. Their True Magus clashed with Kaden and during it he was also found to be using vengeance mana. Most likely he was forced to show his true power to survive."

The spymaster leaned back on his chair. He seemed very tired for a moment.

"Sir?" The operative asked.

"Insane True Magus", the spymaster said with a sigh. "Wonderful. I will handle the matter. You are dismissed."

The operative bowed sligthtly and left. The spymaster instead connected to an information repository that he had access to. He would be compiling report and send it 'up'. Matters related to True Magi were very important to investigate and record.

Sacronan had a very good motive for leaking this information back to Saint Empire. The fact that Kaden had survived and returned meant Sacronan had failed to kill him. That didn't mean they did not have ways to strike across the empires and cause trouble for him. One such way was reporting some very questionable information. Experimenting on souls? Use of vengeance mana?

It was likely impossible to determine whether the information was true or false. The spymaster felt, it was likely true. It wasn't the usual way Sacronan operated to randomly send out false information like this about True Magi. Whether it was true or not didn't really matter. The spymaster was required to make a report on it.

Just recently he had also made a report when Kaden's first appeared as a True Magus. He was somewhat familiar about his past, but now he had to look again.

"If he is indeed user of vengeance mana, what has he been doing all this time?" The spymaster had to ask himself.

Those that used vengeance mana did not just sit around and do nothing. There should be bodies and destruction. All he knew at this time was that there were indeed some questionable events in Kaden's past. Clearly traitorous acts. Involvement with some deaths and so on. Those were actually rather minor matters. Specially since Kaden was a True Magus now. Yet, there should be more. Users of vengeance mana would not just directly deal with their targets. That would branch out to people around those targets with random reasons. This was far too subtle.

He had to repeat the question. What had Kaden been doing so far? Who were his targets?

There were defenses against True Magi in Corand, but Kaden did not need to attempt to level a city block which would trigger these defenses. There were many ways he could act without triggering them. Kaden might be a ticking bomb.

Kaden was an oddity. First of all he was a mutant. Someone had apparently experimented on him. Motive for vengeance? Anyway, he had been picked up by some small time business man in a beast filled forest for his arena. This man had later disapeared in a questionable manner.

Kaden had been taken in by military due to his obvious talent. Elite team. That team was now gone. Seemingly everyone dead or disapeared.

Then he was put into a mission from church. A team led by and inquisitor. Everyone dead once more, it seemed.

All of these can fit user of vengeance mana, but nothing that could be pinned on Kaden directly and many of these deaths occured in understandable situations. Criminal dealings, war, remnants.

Then Kaden disapeared when he was rather randomly put into a suicide mission to the greater remnant in Murika. At that time he was at Formation stage and now he returns back as a True Magus.

"What has he been doing between then and now?" The spymaster asked once more. There were no bodies to be seen as before, if they were even his doing.

Something major must have occured to cause his extreme speed of growth. Not impossible. He must have reached Condensation stage and then had an access to an enormous amount of mana. Where would he find such source? There surely was no sign of corpses or destruction he might have left behind while finding one.

"Perhaps on Sacronans side?" The spymaster wondered for a moment. "While we might simply miss any murder sprees, I don't believe there are available resources for his growth there that he can use. Then where?"

The spymaster looked on a map nearby. Far east, away from empires? There were a lot of beasts but still too few to allow the growth. That was not it.

There was one place where his sight stopped. There was indeed theoretically one place where Kaden could have gone to where he could grow and the human empires would not notice. Frika.

"Did he go there and survive?" The spymaster pondered. "As many cores to consume as he can kill lower beasts and Cari."

Kaden had lived among beasts before coming to Saint Empire. It might be possible even if it was pure speculation. It was also nearly ridiculous thought. There was a reason why humans didn't go to Frika.

Yet, it fulfilled the requirements that known facts currently stated. That was a place where he could grow, if he was indeed able to survive. If he did survive, Kaden had an extreme ability to fight and survive. The talent required to grow into a True Magus.

The spymaster still felt he was missing something. Something that allowed Kaden to do what he had done. He also doubted Kaden's vengeance was directed towards Cari. He had hoped his growth could have revealed his targets, but if he had really gone to Frika, it would say very little.

"All of this is speculation", the spymaster had to tell himself. "Very few things here can be truly confirmed. Even the most recent report could not be confirmed due to its source."

At the very least Kaden would get completely no direct consequences based on current information. The church would start looking at Kaden's doings more carefully. It was likely they too would come to a conclusion this report about vengeance mana and messing with souls was true. The church would likely question Kaden about that, but the vengeance mana was another matter. Kaden could act very unpredictable manner.

At the very least his targets must be discovered. It might even be possible to work with him to allow him unleash his desires, if it could be arranged to happen in right places. It might be worth the effort to ensure those desires won't be released in the Saint Empire and instead happened inside Sacronan.

"This is for church to decide", the spymaster decided. "I would still prefer to know his targets."

The spymaster thought about it for a moment. It might actually not be too difficult question to answer.

"We could just go ask him", the spymaster said to himself. "He knows he revealed his secret. If we go ask him, he might not care to try hiding it."

He decided to add that as recommendation to his report.