CHAPTER 309: IRREGULAR

They moved fast.

Rhea and Nathan took the left channel, their flames and lightning tearing through the corrupted crystal veins. The cavern shuddered with every blow, black mana spraying like liquid shadow.

Elara and Cael handled the right, earth spikes sealing the ruptures, wind slicing the tendrils before they could re-form.

Merlin stayed at the center, both hands outstretched, weaving lightning and wind into a spiraling sphere. The core’s pulse grew erratic, its surface cracking.

"Now!" he shouted.

Five affinities ignited at once, flame, lightning, earth, wind, and water, converging on the heart of corruption.

The explosion was blinding.

A roar of energy swallowed the cavern, shaking the ground so violently that the ceiling fractured. For a moment, everything was just light and noise, the clash of pure mana against rot.

Then the light dimmed. The corrupted core cracked, once, twice, and shattered into dust.

Silence followed.

No pulse. No mist. Just the sound of breathing and settling debris.

Rhea lowered her arms, her flames flickering out. "...Is it over?"

Merlin didn’t answer immediately. He stepped forward, staring at the spot where the core had hovered. The mana there still shimmered faintly, but it wasn’t dark anymore. Just pale, empty light.

He exhaled. "Yeah. For now."

Nathan slumped against a wall. "That was more than a warm-up."

Elara leaned her spear on her shoulder, eyes thoughtful. "It shouldn’t have been this active. Not without outside interference."

Merlin glanced at her, then at the shattered veins along the walls. "You’re right."

Because in the novel, this wasn’t supposed to happen this early.

He crouched down, fingers brushing the dust. Mixed in with the black residue was something else, faint traces of metal. Refined. Artificial.

Not natural corruption.

Induced.

Merlin’s eyes narrowed.

Someone had fed the core. Recently.

He stood, tucking the shard into his pocket. His voice was quiet. "We’re not done here."

As they exited the cavern, the first rays of light broke through the storm overhead. The black haze dissipated, revealing the pale blue of early afternoon.

Nathan stretched, wincing. "Well, mission complete, I guess."

Rhea frowned. "I wouldn’t call it complete until we file a report."

Elara turned to Merlin. "You found something, didn’t you?"

Merlin hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly. "Evidence. Someone’s been tampering with old corrupted sites."

"Someone from the academy?" Rhea asked.

Merlin looked toward the horizon, where the city ruins met the mountains beyond. "No," he said softly. "Worse."

Nathan frowned. "You mean—"

"Humans," Merlin finished quietly. "Not monsters. Not mana gone wild. Just people."

The words hung heavy in the cold air.

The air still hummed with the ghost of their clash.

Ash drifted lazily through the air, lit by the fractured glow of the academy’s defensive barrier above. The courtyard, once pristine, now looked like a battlefield, stone cracked and scorched, the scent of ozone and dust thick enough to taste.

Merlin stood near the center, breathing slow but steady, his golden eyes reflecting the faint flicker of dissolving mana. The others, Nathan, Elara, Adrian, Liliana, Ethan, Seraphina, Dorian, had regrouped behind him, their faces painted with exhaustion and disbelief alike.

The last remnants of Kelros’s corrupted magic faded into the air, vanishing like smoke in sunlight.

But Merlin didn’t relax. Not yet.

He could feel it.

Something beneath the earth. A pulse, faint but deliberate, like the heartbeat of something waiting.

’That can’t be it,’ he thought grimly. ’He wouldn’t go down this easy... not him.’

Nathan’s voice cut through the stillness. "Is it over?"

Merlin didn’t answer. He stepped forward, eyes narrowing. "No."

Elara shifted beside him, her hand tightening around her spear. "You sense it too."

He nodded once. "There’s something else here."

Before anyone could ask, the ground beneath the shattered stones trembled, subtle at first, then violent, cracking open in jagged lines that crawled across the courtyard like spiderwebs.

From the fissures poured black smoke, thick and heavy, spilling upward and curling like living tendrils.

Adrian swore under his breath. "You’ve gotta be kidding me—"

"Form up!" Seraphina barked, ice already forming along her palms. "That’s not residual mana, that’s—"

The air burst.

From the cracks surged something monstrous, a mass of black energy coalescing into a distorted shape. The remnants of Kelros’s body, twisted and reformed by the corruption still buried within the ground.

It didn’t look human anymore.

It was a puppet of shadow and bone, hollow eyes glowing crimson, its form constantly shifting between smoke and flesh.

Elara’s eyes hardened. "A wraith anchor."

Merlin’s expression didn’t change. "Not quite. That’s... worse."

The thing’s jaw unhinged, shrieking, a sound like steel tearing through glass. The mana pressure hit like a wave, knocking smaller debris into the air. Even seasoned second-years stumbled back.

But Merlin stepped forward. Calm. Focused.

"Nathan," he said quietly, "handle the left flank. Elara, cover the front. Seraphina, freeze the tendrils before they reach the outer ring. Everyone else, support and don’t get close."

Nathan blinked. "And you?"

Merlin rolled his shoulders once. Lightning crackled faintly around his hands. "I’ll keep it distracted."

Before anyone could protest, he moved, faster than thought, faster than breath.

A streak of gold and white tore through the smoke as Merlin appeared directly before the wraith’s chest, hand outstretched. Wind bent around him, compressing, spiraling into a blade.

The impact was deafening.

A single strike, compressed air meeting corrupted flesh, and the wraith’s chest detonated outward in a shockwave that shattered windows across the courtyard’s edge.

Merlin was thrown back by the recoil, boots skidding across stone, but he caught himself, raising a palm. A wave of water surged from his fingers, rolling outward in a controlled arc that doused the spreading dark flames.

Behind him, Nathan darted in, daggers drawn, arcs of darkness and lightning intertwining around his arms. His strikes were precise, dancing between the creature’s thrashing limbs. Sparks flared as his blades cut through shadow like smoke, but each piece that fell only regenerated seconds later.

"Merlin!" he shouted. "It’s reforming!"

"I see it!" Merlin’s voice was calm, his hand moving in a tight spiral as he pulled threads of wind and space together, forcing them into a sphere of compression. "We’ll need to burn the core."

"Where—?"

Before he could answer, Elara lunged forward, her spear whirling in a wide arc. Earth erupted from beneath her feet, spikes forming in perfect sequence, launching her upward as she thrust. Her spear, wreathed in crystalline dust, pierced the wraith’s shoulder, pinning part of its form to the ground.

The creature screamed again, its body convulsing violently.

Merlin saw it, for the briefest instant. A flicker of light deep inside its chest cavity, pulsing irregularly.

"There," he murmured.