Karl spotted Mira the moment he laid eyes on her. He noticed her slight tilt of the head. After leaving the Magic Hub, she had made new friends.

Then, his gaze fixed on Lance. Karl could sense the magic swirling within him. There was no doubt about it; this was a powerful spellcaster.

Mira withdrew her gaze from the pale young man and turned toward Lance. "Take me back to the tower."

Lance seemed to realize something. He understood that Mira didn't want to see the person standing before them.

He nodded slightly, and with his magic, he lifted Mira, Maria, and the others, transporting them back to the tower.

Karl's pupils involuntarily dilated, but Mira had already vanished from his sight.

Karl's gaze remained fixed on Lance. He couldn't see any spellcasting medium on him.

In the current world, humans could only cast spells without a medium in one way.

Had Mira... been with him? Were they...? Had they... slept together?

Karl narrowed his eyes. Magic surged through him as he ruthlessly attacked Lance.

As soon as Mira returned to the tower, she hid away. The only thing on her mind was one question—how had Karl found his way to the tower?

Was Karl trying to take her back to the Magic Hub? She would never go back. Was he fighting with Lance? He certainly wasn't a match for Lance.

Seeing Karl again, Mira felt a mix of emotions. She wasn't sure how to face this mentor of hers.

The origami spirit stared at Mira, hiding in the library.

"Won't you take a look?" the small origami spirit flew up to Mira. "The magic waves outside are strong." As it spoke, it floated and landed on the only window in the tower.

Except for the room representing the natural world, every room in the tower had windows, and the one facing the real world was the only one in front of them. Thanks to magic, people inside the tower could see any landscape they wished and could also gaze out at the world outside.

The origami spirit stood on the window ledge, watching the duel between man and dragon below the tower.

Karl initiated the attack, and he was nothing like the rumors that spoke of him being severely wounded after his last breakthrough. The pale young man’s energy was now at an astonishing level.

No one in this world could be more powerful than him, yet he was facing the blue dragon.

Lance was surprised to discover that the boy, appearing no older than sixteen or seventeen, had already reached the level of a high mage.

"Mira, really not even a glance?" the origami spirit asked Mira.

"They’re fighting fiercely," it added. Although neither side had used large-scale magic, the surging energy was the most direct sign of the intensity of their battle.

Mira hesitated for a moment, then still refused the origami spirit.

"Is anyone hurt?" she asked in a low voice.

Without needing to see, her imagination grew more vivid.

Why had Karl suddenly come looking for her?

So much had happened recently. Mira lowered her eyes. Why now, of all times?

Even though she knew about the dark deeds at the Magic Hub, Mira didn’t want to kill Karl.

He wasn’t a good person, but he had raised her. Couldn’t they just leave each other alone?

Lance... Mira softly thought his name in her heart.

Just defeat him. Don't kill him.

The powerful spellcasters tacitly gave up on magical battles and chose to collide with pure energy.

Twelve mediums on Karl’s body glowed, with the brightest one being the necklace he wore around his neck.

Master mages’ mediums were all rare, unique items.

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But he couldn’t find any medium on Lance, even though his strength was no weaker than Karl’s. In fact, Lance seemed more at ease than Karl.

Karl lowered his head and smiled slightly. The appearance of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old was deceiving; his eyes resembled those of a dying old man.

The twelve mediums extinguished in an instant, and pure magical power vanished as well.

Lance struggled briefly, then withdrew his power.

“I came to find you,” Karl said, lifting his head.

“It’s about what happened this time.”

Recently, news of dragons had been frequently reaching Nathaniel’s ears.

He knew it was Lance.

That foolish dragon didn’t seem to know what had gotten into him, frequently soaring over the kingdom in his dragon form.

This was undoubtedly a good thing.

The more he did this, the deeper the fear of the magical dragons would grow among the people.

Fear breeds power. That way, he would only become stronger.

Lance still hadn’t realized that this situation was far from a simple skirmish. Nathaniel’s original intention was not to kill Lance, but if he could take the opportunity to exact some revenge, that would be even better.

His army was slowly taking shape, and it wouldn’t be long before they could head for the tower.

Today was the day the spellcasters from the Magic Hub arrived.

To his surprise, Nathaniel spotted a familiar figure among the enforcers.

The person wore a black magic robe, and whenever he stood among the crowd, all eyes were inevitably drawn to him.

It was Karl.

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes. A black robe... In the mage system, that color represented a high tower mage.

No wonder the people from the Magic Hub released him. It seems Karl had broken through.

He wondered when Karl would establish his own tower. No, actually, he wouldn’t get the chance to establish his own tower anymore.

This thought only flickered briefly in Nathaniel’s mind. Powerful mages might understand certain spiritual magic, and though Nathaniel wasn’t well-versed in magic, he knew that in the presence of a high tower mage, it was better to be straightforward. Deeper thoughts could cause trouble.

Duke Bona welcomed the mage from the Magic Hub with a smile.

They had important matters to discuss.

“Mira, what did Karl say?” Mira had held back for several days, but finally decided to ask Lance this question.

She was drying her hair, her gaze not filled with curiosity, but rather concern as she gradually moved closer to Lance.

Lance sat down in front of Mira, taking the towel from her hands. With a flick of his fingers, magic surged, and her damp hair quickly dried.

“He wants me to cooperate with him,” Lance revealed the purpose of Karl’s visit without hiding anything.

“Cooperate?” Mira was confused. How had he found her, and why did he want to cooperate with Lance? Was it because of Nathaniel?

“It was because of the scroll at the gathering,” Lance disclosed a bit of information.

“Huh?” Mira didn’t understand. “How is that possible? Could a magic scroll expose the person who wrote it?”

“The magic scroll itself wouldn’t,” Lance answered, “but the handwriting could reveal the identity.”

Mira blinked. The scrolls she had sold at the gathering were the ones she’d used for practice in the beginning. Back then, her writing wasn’t great, and she hadn’t dared to make any modifications to her notes. Now, she was quite skilled, and when writing scrolls, she used a different style to hide her identity.

“So that’s how it is,” Mira thought. She had done a lot of transcribing work for Karl. If he had paid attention, it wouldn’t have been hard for him to recognize her handwriting.

“Why did he want to cooperate with you?” Mira still didn’t understand.

Karl’s gaze had only briefly rested on her during that day, and Mira hadn’t been able to catch the meaning behind it.

“He tested my power,” Lance answered. “Maybe he was verifying if I’m worthy of Mira.”

“Nonsense...” Mira glanced at him, her heart skipping a beat.

“We’re talking about serious matters here,” she quickly added.

“Mm.” Lance nodded. “In any case, he wants to cooperate with me.”

The blue dragon became serious. “Karl broke through to become a high tower mage. When humans reach this level of control over magic, their spellcasting energy strengthens their bodies. Maybe he saw something and that’s why he approached me so directly.”

“We decided to cooperate to deal with Nathaniel.” The blue dragon, after a moment of weighing things in his mind, decided to share his and Karl’s plan with Mira.

He didn’t want to hide anything from Mira, even though keeping it from her might have led to better outcomes.

But just as Mira had said, lovers should be honest with each other.

“I’ll tell you in secret,” Lance leaned in and whispered in Mira’s ear, his breath grazing her sensitive earlobe. Mira flinched.

“Move a bit further away and then whisper,” she said.

Lance chuckled but leaned even closer to Mira.

“No, someone might overhear.”

With Duke Bona’s order, the army set off toward the tower.

The spellcasters from the Magic Hub followed closely behind.

Soldiers were of no use in the attack on the tower. Nathaniel only needed these humans because he hoped to provide suitable hosts for the demons, once the Door to the World was reversed.

The combat strength of the tower was limited; the biggest trouble was Lance. As long as that dragon could be dealt with, Nathaniel was confident in his chances.

He himself could tangle with Lance for a long time, and now with the help of human mages, Nathaniel felt even more assured.

It was all because of the overconfidence of the Blue Dragon Queen Cecilia. She insisted on leaving a passage to monitor the demons. Otherwise, bringing demons into this world would have been much more difficult.

But once a small number of demons entered this world, it would become easier to break down the barrier separating the two worlds.

The demon, coiled deep within Nathaniel’s heart, flicked its tail. Its crimson eyes gleamed with pride.

It wasn’t a powerful force demon, nor a cunning intellect demon. Thanks to Nathaniel being a simple-minded, physically strong person, the demon had easily gained control over the dragon’s body.

The small demon, not particularly powerful, excitedly flicked its tail.

Its power was attached to the dragon’s essence, and countless fine threads were woven into a massive net. These threads originated from the demon itself.

Once the demon’s army was brought here, before that happened, it would devour living beings on a massive scale. It would become the strongest demon, capable of destroying everything.

Until then, it would force itself not to kill Nathaniel. After all, the black dragon’s body was so strong.