“Kirielle accepted your summon.” Private Nightfallen explained to him. “She will contact you to ask you about the details soon.”

“Perfect.” Fynn Albeyr nodded. “The matriarch of the Kryol House has also accepted, so the battlefield is set. We have all the required members, and the coup status is progressing without any hindrances.”

The Command Sergeant Major still felt the resentment from the Wyrm’s Landing, but even all that hate toward the draconids and the High Arcanist paled before another emotion.

Incompetence.

If he had been faster, if he had been stronger, if he had been smarter... these last two decades could have been easily avoided. Especially now with the hindsight of retrospective, it was trivial to notice the many mistakes and clues he had passed by.

The ish’mat’era was a blessing, it would allow him to prove his worth, to redeem himself. But it was encouraging to have the support of the coup and the military in case he failed. The duel was useless, it wouldn’t change anything in the grand scheme of things, the High Arcanist will fall no matter the path taken. But the little details were what mattered. A coup was inevitably going to be bloody, if he had to die to save a few lives, then so be it.

“Fynn, are you alright?” Amira, ever-so-sweetly, asked next to him.

“Yes, sorry.” He swayed his head around to dispel his grim thoughts. “It’s a bit worrying thinking we only have half a season until the declaration of war.”

“Only, he says...” Fynn heard some muttering coming from the Private at the other side of the table, but it was mostly unintelligible. He let it slide.

“Yes.” Amira nodded, her long silver hair flowing down with the motion. “I have already begun planning a draft of our next set of actions. The coup is ready to strike the night before the twentieth anniversary of the Wyrm’s Landing as we highly suspect that’s when En’yen will make his declaration. The best time to declare him the ish’mat’era would be the morning of the same day of the coup.”

Then she stopped for an instant, her expression becoming darker.

“If,” she sprung that word with pain, “you fail, then the soldiers will wreak havoc in a matter of hours. But if you succeed, you’ll have more than a third of the army ready to police the city in case of revolts.”

“It makes sense.” Fynn gave his approval. “We must maintain the surprise factor, especially if we make En’yen think that the ish’mat’era is our only strike.”

“I highly doubt that the High Arcanist isn’t expecting the coup.” Private Nightfallen made his voice heard.

“How so?” The Command Sergeant Major’s voice wasn’t hostile but inquiring.

“From my torture session with ‘The Shadow’ and my other... previous methods I have been made aware that the High Arcanist’s web of espionage and subterfuge is expansive. I don’t know how deep his machinations reach, and I personally doubt he will be able to stop the coup from happening, but he certainly knows about it. I have personally disposed of two of his agents, which will have at least raised a lot of alarms.”

“You make a good point.” Fynn scratched his ears deep in thought. “Were you able to extract more information from the assassin?”

“Beyond what I already told you? No.” The mystic responded neutrally. “If I was allowed to dig deeper, I may be able to find something. But as you’ve already said before, these types of operatives aren’t informed well of the inner planning. They just follow orders and vague promises.”

“A shame, then.” The electromancer twirled his head to the side to see an afflicted Amira. She didn’t enjoy what they had done with the penumbra. Neither did he, but alas, it was necessary. One couldn’t expect to remain with their hands clean in this field. And would gladly take double the pressure to keep Amira away from such darkness. “Anything else to inform, or can we declare this meeting over?”

“Actually, yes. There’s one more thing.” Nightfallen spoke. “I have talked about this with Amira, and we aren’t sure if you will be capable of defeating the High Arcanist, not with ease, at the very minimum.”

“Explain yourself.” Internally, Fynn recoiled from the statement. He was already aware of his chances. But the loss of a single life was well worth that of thousands if not more.

“It’s common knowledge that mages can use defensive spells of a lower star than their current one in battle environments, and whilst it’s worrying that you may have to fight around eleven-star defensive spells, that isn’t the true problem.” The Private spoke with an understanding unbefitting of his age. “Passive defensive spells will be the shortcoming. The High Arcanist will most likely be able to use ten-star arcane defensive spells almost unconsciously, this means most of your arsenal will be nullified outright.”

“What do you suggest to counteract it?” Fynn asked like a commander seeking advice from their generals, and in a way, that was exactly what was happening.

“As I’ve said, Amira and I have talked about it like fellow arcanists, and there are only two methods to resolve this situation. Though I guess the Arcane Veil herself is more qualified to speak about defensive spells than me.”

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“Edrie’s right,” Amira said. “To take down a spell of this caliber, there are only two options. But that’s to arcanists. For you, Fynn, it may as well be only one.”

“What is that option anyways?” He asked even though he had mostly gotten the gist of it.

“Dispelling.” The defensive magic expert grimly stated. “But as an electromancer, it’s an unlikely option. I could easily dispel any existing arcane defensive spell of the tenth star or lower with a mere thought, but for you, that’s not feasible.”

“And my last and only option?”

“Overwhelm his defenses,” Amira said plain and simple.

Fynn frowned. “That’s not much of a plan, is it?”

“Better than nothing.” The arcanist shrugged. “If you overwhelm En’yen in a single attack he won’t be able to recover, and at least, this way you won’t waste mana in the early barrages as you try his defenses. Anyways, Private Nightfallen and I have discussed it and we believe you need some training against arcanists.”

“Amira, I won’t deny I will need all the help I can muster to beat the only twelve-star mage in the world, but I do know my workarounds against arcanists. We have sparred for decades now.”

“That’s the problem, Fynn.” She sighed.

“What Sergeant Major Kalyd meant is that you know how to fare against arcanists specialized in defense.” Edrie corrected her words. “And sparring against Amira alone will only show you what the High Arcanist is capable of on the defense, but not the offense.”

“So, we thought that it would be better if you fought us together,” Amira added.

“You want me to fight an eleven-star mage and a ten-star one at the same time?” The electromancer crossed his arms.

“Two eleven-star mages, actually.” The mystic’s words made the two soldiers turn their heads with hostility toward him.

Fynn and Amira inspected the feeble-looking young ellari before them. That declaration was something that couldn’t be taken lightly.

“How... when?” Amira reacted faster than him. Her innate senses as an arcanist allowed her to read mana, and therefore power levels, far faster and more accurately than Fynn.

“It’s a long story. Like really long.” The Private shrugged.

Between Edrie’s confident smugness and Amira’s grim expression of acceptance, Fynn noticed that he was, in fact, telling the truth. The thirty-something young man, not even a graduated from the academy, had reached the eleventh star.

“I don’t even want to know,” Fynn admitted massaging his temples. “I have more than enough headaches to worry about that. We will talk about how in the name of the arcane have you done so once this whole ordeal is over. But if what you said is true, fighting two eleven-star mages may even present more difficulties than a single twelve-star mage.”

“Yes...” Amira muttered under her breath. “I hadn’t accounted for Edrie’s... stars. I’m not sure if fighting against two eleven-star mages is going to be a comparable exercise.”

“What’s the problem?” The Private dismissed. “If it’s harder that means that if Fynn manages to beat us, then he will clearly be superior to the High Arcanist.”

“Well, that’s a way of looking at it.” The Arcane Veil nodded. “Yes, this may prove a blessing in disguise. The harder the training is in these last days, the greater your chances to come victorious from the ish’mat’era.”

**********

Fynn certainly wasn’t used to this type of sparring. Instead of applying the defensive spells to herself, Amira stayed on the backlines and lay all her protective skills unto Edrie.

The mystic himself had already proved incredibly hard to kill before with his healing capabilities, but with the ten-star passive defensive spells provided by the Arcane Veil, he might as well be immortal right now.

They had been right, most of his arsenal had been negated by the presence of barriers of the tenth star, and he was only left with movement-enhancement spells and offensive spells of the ten-star and upwards.

The electromancer’s best combination was Static Field and Fulmination. The ten-star field-type spell boosted his electric magic, including eleven-star spells like Fulmination. This resulted in an offensive spell that could surpass eleven-star aegis-type defensive spells with ease, but the mana consumption was high. And the spellcasting time was even higher.

But the two arcanists had been wrong.

The main problem in their sparring wasn’t the simulated High Arcanist’s defenses, but his own. As someone who was used to being protected by Amira’s magic rather than his own, he lacked true defensive spells. Fynn was what mages classified as a ‘glass cannon’. He would probably die in a successful strike, but that was the same for his enemies.

A single one of the mystic’s Necrotic Bolts could produce a lot of harm. If multiple hit him, he would be out of combat.

Private Nightfallen, as he assumed the paper of the High Arcanist, rushed at him with an intent to kill that felt very much real. He dashed and zig-zagged, even if he didn’t need it considering his current resilience was probably higher than the dragons of yore. This only meant that for every spell Fynn missed, less mana would remain in his mana pool.

A battle of attrition was catastrophic for a mage.

Successful hits were meaningless.

Even nine-star Lightning Arcs empowered by Static Field fell short against Amira’s defenses. He did not worry about holding back. If he managed to break the arcane spells, and only if, Fynn doubted the lightning would kill the mystic.

Edrie had taken a Fulmination to the face before and lived to tell the tale, no matter how rushed and unpowered the eleven-star spell was. But even then, the man was only annoyed by it.

With his full focus on defense, the Private unleashed a barrage of twenty-something Necrotic Bolts as he also charged toward him. Fynn knew better than to get hit by any of them, but it was hard maintaining his mana and defending himself when the spells curved mid-air and flanked him.

The black-clothed soldier spellcasted Lightning Step, boosting his speed to unnatural levels, and allowing him to gain distance whilst also dodging some bolts.

The rest of the barrage either met his defensive spells or his heavily enchanted uniform, either way, he could hardly consider the exchange a victory. Even if he had taken little to no damage, he had lost too much mana.

His only saving grace was that Edrie was close to him and he finished spellcasting Fulmination.

A thousand lights drowned the room in blue lightning.

The eleven-star offensive spell had been empowered by Static Field and this time he didn’t hold back like on their first spar. This was maximum potency.

And yet...

Unbothered by mortality, Nightfallen lunged into the lightning, unto Fynn and throwing him out of balance and pinning him to the ground.

The defeated electromancer looked at Amira. She had realized that he was going to unleash Fulmination, so she activated her original eleven-star spell Prismatic Veil. A single-focused mind on defensive spells could easily overcome any attacks of the same star.

Private Nightfallen removed from on top of him and landed him a hand. Fynn accepted it gratefully.

“Fifteen minutes.” The Ceaseless Storm stated powerfully. “Fifteen minutes and we try again.”

They only had fifty days, and he wouldn’t stop until he was able to defeat two eleven-star mages at the same time.