Ludger stared at the successful specimen before his eyes.
He had called it a chimera with a hint of disdain and emotion, but that description was not exactly wrong.
This place was a laboratory.
An artificial environment was created, and animals were raised within it.
Through experimentation, those animals were forcibly transformed into spirit beasts.
The successful spirit beasts were sent to live in the external forest outside the laboratory.
There, they formed nests and acted as a kind of breakwater—preparing for enemies that might approach from the outside.
Within the laboratory, now reinforced like a fortress, data was accumulated.
Various beasts were turned into spirit beasts, and their standard values and individual deviations were observed, controlled, and recorded.
‘The accumulated data is then synthesized and implanted into humans.’
Turning beasts into spirit beasts was merely one step in the process.
The true objective lay in human evolution.
‘This is an extremely complex problem.’
Beasts become spirit beasts because they cannot easily discharge the mana stored within their bodies.
Mana does not harm the body only when it remains within an appropriate level.
When it continues to accumulate without release, problems inevitably arise within the body.
Just like a vessel that cannot hold water beyond its maximum capacity.
As a result, among beasts that accumulate massive amounts of mana, ninety-nine out of a hundred fall ill and die.
Rather than reinforcing the bones, mana penetrates into the marrow itself, collapsing the body from within.
Muscles repeatedly swell without proper contraction, and blood vessels bulge as if they are about to burst.
The fragile flesh of living beings cannot withstand the energy of mana.
‘But on very rare occasions, an individual is born that overcomes all of that hardship.’
That is what a spirit beast is.
A separate species that successfully evolves at the very brink of death.
Spirit beasts learn how to handle mana, and depending on the individual traits they possessed prior to evolution, they also acquire unique abilities.
Their outward appearance retains traces of their former selves, but in terms of size, power, and standing, they are beings that surpass their origins by several stages.
Yes.
Evolution that normally requires tens or hundreds of millions of years for a single lifeform—
Was forcibly realized in a short span of time through mana and artificial experimentation.
‘And that was applied to humans. The thing in front of me is a composite of data gathered from countless beasts.’
That was why it was called a chimera.
A spirit-human born from the Spirit Beast Project.
Or, a new human race.
The being swung its fist toward him.
The tip of the fist blurred, and a streak of light shot toward Ludger’s forehead.
Ludger did not blink as he raised the swordstick vertically.
Boom!
The fist failed to pierce the swordstick.
Likewise, the swordstick failed to leave even a scratch on the fist.
Golden light erupted like a volcano, tearing toward Ludger—
But the shadows rippling around him easily swallowed the golden radiance.
For the first time, the expressionless face of the spirit-human twisted.
“What are you? Even someone from the Holy Nation shouldn’t possess this level of power. And that isn’t the power of sacred law.”
“So you finally noticed.”
“Rather... it’s closer to magic. Don’t tell me—are you a sorcerer?”
It seemed that people of the distant past referred to mages as sorcerers.
Or perhaps that was simply the term this being used.
Instead of answering, Ludger sharply # Nоvеlight # flicked the swordstick.
Compressed blue mana surged along the blade as it swung.
The spirit-human tried to withstand it with its bare body, then immediately changed its mind and retreated.
At the spot where it had stood, black shadows bloomed—and from within them, multiple swordstick blades burst forth, piercing empty space.
“What was that just now?”
The spirit-human clearly failed to understand Ludger’s magic.
That was only natural.
A single blade inserted into a shadow had split into more than ten, emerging as if by sleight of hand.
The spirit-human fixed Ludger with a heavy gaze.
“You used spatial displacement alongside dimensional division.”
“You figured that out from just one glance?”
Ludger clicked his tongue.
A mind capable of understanding modern language structures from only a few exchanged words.
Of course it could easily grasp the principles behind magic as well.
Even so, most would be shaken upon witnessing space-warping magic—but this one showed no such reaction.
“It even suppresses hormonal responses instinctively, it seems.”
As the spirit-human analyzed Ludger, Ludger analyzed the spirit-human in turn.
Shadows surged like waves along the ground, swallowing the spirit-human whole.
Boom!
A pillar of gold erupted, skewering the shadows like an awl.
The spirit-human burst out from beneath them, spinning through the air in a brilliant arc before charging toward Ludger like a missile.
Ludger lightly tapped the ground with his swordstick.
The earth bulged upward—
And a colossal ice battleship burst forth.
Baaang!
That was not the only one.
In an instant, they multiplied to more than ten, forming a fleet worthy of the name.
[That’s the Heavenly Sea Icebreaker Fleet I created!]
Lexuror exclaimed in awe at Ludger’s magic.
Ordinarily, the ships would have rammed their target directly—but Ludger’s spell behaved differently.
The ships hovered in midair, then extended ice-made cannons from their hulls.
Boom boom boom boom!
With thunderous blasts, the ice cannons scattered frost powder as they fired.
The ice shells traced golden trajectories through the air, locking onto the spirit-human.
The spirit-human scoffed and attempted to evade—
But its expression stiffened when it saw the shells being swallowed by shadows.
The shells reemerged from shadows at different locations, once again pursuing the target.
Even after evasion, space shifted, and the pursuit resumed.
As the number of shells steadily increased and the available space for evasion dwindled—
Casey extended her hand.
The ice shells froze in midair all at once.
They fused into a massive crystalline sphere encasing the spirit-human.
Casey clenched her outstretched hand.
Crack! Crackcrack!
The ice, massive as a glacier, compressed inward around the spirit-human.
Enough mass to form a small iceberg was compressed in an instant into a sphere roughly three meters in diameter.
Boom!
Golden light flashed through the cracks of the ice sphere.
With a massive explosion, the sphere shattered, scattering shards in all directions.
The spirit-human glared at Ludger, golden radiance pouring from the tattoos covering its body.
“As expected. Those tattoos aren’t mere decoration.”
Beasts choose evolution paths suited to their individual forms.
Then what about humans who become spirit-humans?
Humans are slower than wild beasts.
Their claws and fangs are dull.
They lack wings to fly and gills to breathe underwater.
All they possess are brains capable of using tools and fingers suited for fine manipulation.
Even if mana is injected to force evolution, humans lack sufficient biological advantages.
The tattoos served as a compensatory mechanism for those deficiencies.
Indelible markings etched deep into the skin—magically treated—reinforcing the human body so mana could flow more efficiently.
Not just mana.
As seen earlier when it absorbed energy from the artificial sun, the tattoos also enabled the absorption and utilization of external energy.
With that alone, a human would not need food; simply basking in sunlight would provide the energy required for a day.
The spirit-human did not respond to Ludger’s words.
Instead, it merely stared with eyes blazing like golden flames.
As if lasers might fire from its gaze—
No, that was not an illusion.
Pshing!
Two beams of light shot from its eyes toward Ludger.
Ludger wrapped himself in shadows like a cloak and swung them, absorbing the beams into space itself.
“Yes. I thought so.”
It may have seemed like an unexpected ambush, but Ludger had anticipated it.
The spirit-human was a being created by forcibly spirit-beastifying humans.
Mana levels that humans could not withstand were injected, and bodies enhanced through drugs and experiments were forcibly evolved.
‘Spirit beasts evolved by learning survival methods after mana accumulated without release.’
Then what about humans?
Humans cannot discharge mana?
No—they can.
Humans accept mana and handle it through magic.
Then are mages the ultimate form of human evolution?
No.
Magic is merely one method of implementation.
What these experiments pursued was something far beyond that.
‘They sought to elevate existence itself.’
Mages store mana in places like the heart, or distribute it throughout the body.
‘What they sought was mana dwelling in every single cell.’
Thus, vast amounts of mana also settled in the eyes, manifesting as Magic Eyes.
At first, it seemed similar to Mina—but the more he observed, the clearer the difference became.
Mina was chosen by mana, accepted it, and worked with it through requests.
The spirit-human was the opposite.
It dominated mana, controlling it through sheer force—not only mana, but energy of any kind.
And it possessed Magic Eyes that should have been impossible to acquire through postnatal means.
‘And that’s not all.’
The spirit-human’s lips moved, and it spoke.
[──.]
A word spoken in an ancient language, not modern speech.
With that alone, strange fissures split the air.
Crack!
The fissures widened, pouring out torrents of golden energy.
“Magic Eyes combined with Word Magic, huh.”
The golden torrent surged like a tidal wave, attempting to engulf Ludger.
He raised shadows like a breakwater to block it—but it was not easy.
The torrent itself was immense energy; more poured forth than the shadows could consume.
The attack did not end there.
The spirit-human spread its palm, forming a golden magic circle.
At the same time, light erupted from the artificial sun like crimson flames and was absorbed into the circle.
The magic circle layered itself repeatedly, growing larger and more complex.
At its center, ominous energy writhed—fully formed while Ludger was still holding back the torrent.
“That’s dangerous.”
It reminded him of the World Tree’s technique that gathered surrounding light and fired it all at once.
This was even more refined—and far more vicious.
After all, it was using the energy of the artificial sun.
“I was trying to protect the ruins as much as possible, but at this point... collateral damage can’t be helped.”
Ludger muttered regretfully and extended his arm toward the spirit-human.
The spirit-human’s brow twitched.
That gesture mirrored its own—and clearly meant to intercept the attack at any cost.
Blocking it without knowing what it was?
The spirit-human shook its head.
Through exchanging blows, it already knew how dangerous Ludger was.
It was not killing him out of irritation—it had judged him a threat the moment it saw him.
If Ludger was not eliminated here, its goal would never be achieved.
That was why it was prepared to destroy this precious ruin, this laboratory.
Breaking it was regrettable—but acceptable.
After all, the successful specimen—itself—still lived.
And it remembered every step of the experiment.
As long as it survived, everything could be restarted.
All that mattered now was stopping whatever Ludger was about to do.
At that moment, the spirit-human’s eyes widened.
An overwhelming surge of mana erupted around Ludger.
It was impossible to understand where such vast reserves had been hidden.
In raw output, it did not surpass the artificial sun.
But the moment the mana was structured, aligned, and given form—
Energy collided with energy, generating a far greater force.
Power gave birth to new power, forming a single flow under near-perfect control.
Crack!
Black lightning tore through the air.
“I used an answer sheet back then.”
On Ludger’s palm, black lightning capable of cleaving space itself took shape.
“But this time is different. Because this one is real.”
A realm no human had ever reached in history—the unprecedented Eighth Circle.
And the transcendent spell only a mage of that realm could wield.
Dark Thunder.