In the realm of Vision art, circles were all the rage for measuring mastery. If you had 1-3 circles, grats! You were a beginner. A charming 4-6 circles? gratutions! You’re advanced. But if you strutted around with 7-9 circles, oh, you’ve reached the heights of a master.

  A’s not fet the mythical 10 circles—legendary status, if you will.

  Now, not everyone blooming in this world possessed the willpower or intelligeo maheir Vision. Uanding one’s soul was holy an overachiever’s task.

  And even when someone finally mao ma it, you’d better believe not everyone could achieve the dizzyis of others.

  After ten years, the average Joe might cw their way to 3 circle spells mastery. Then, twenty more years to edge into 4 circles, and another whopping forty years for 5 circles.

  But if you throw in specialties, that’s another ballgame—boost that mastery by a staggering 1000%. Faster and stronger. Not to mention folks like Vd, Bel, Yvain, or Merli's just say they’re not your standard overachievers.

  Man often referred to her mastery as ‘average’—how humble of her. After all, her average spell mastery li a mere 4 circles, despite her multitudes of millennia. But how could that be?

  It was simple really: she knew every single spell known to humanity and more—all 118,144 of them, in fact. Most of them were her owion.

  From the charmingly mundane bug repellent spell to the grandiosity of the world illusion barrier spell; from a remarkably practical bdder-emptying spell to the earth-shattering world purification spell.

  When one possesses such a staggering library of spells, it stands to reason that the average mastery of any individual spell might dip to the low end. In truth, a 4-circle average is nothing short of remarkable.

  Yet, even the illustrious Man Le Fay could do little more than blink in astonishment when Burn, in a fit of sheer audacity, maed a never-before-seen, never-created 9-circle spell—the mind-boggling creation of a bck hole.

  Oh, the irony! The one sorceress who thought she had witnessed everything was utterly speechless by this ued ic twist.

  And now, sitting outside the illusion Bel made to interrogate the young fleet admiral, Man was in a daze.

  “AAAAAAAAAH!”

  Bel flinched. Gruesome wasn’t o her, but this? This was a whole new category.

  No, she wasn’t an i person who had never seen blood. She had tortured people before, and she thought she was excellent. but this…

  Sure, she’d seen blood—hell, she’d been the one spilling it excellently often enough. She thought she had dohe vilest thing to people she deemed worthy such. She sidered herself a oisseur of cruelty, an artist of punishment, but even she hadn’t dreamed up this.

  “Two… heads…” she muttered, watg Burn slice off a finger only for two to sprout in its pce. Each part he lopped off grew ba duplicate, as if they were auditioning for the role of hydra.

  The man’s wails ricocheted off the walls—a symphony of sheer terror and degeneracy. It was beyond deranged.

  Bel hadn’t thought to add “grotesque body horror” to her interrogation toolkit. Transform a man’s body into a ival of pain of disgusting shape, slice by slid let him experience every moment with agonizing crity? That was… devil’s work, she had to admit.

  The man had a front-row seat to his own slow-motion breakdown, watg his ear, nose, lips regrow—only on one head, though, while letting the other head watch. Wouldn't want it to get too monotonous. It was a b mind break, a psychological wound beyond repair.

  Yes, it was all an illusion. A little domain where reality could shape-shift to Burn’s liking. But it didn’t feel like an illusion. Every gruesome detail, all the flesh he took and the pain he inflicted went straight to the young admiral’s brain, embedding itself there like shrapearing at whatever threads of sanity he had left.

  What had he doo deserve this? If you asked Burn, he’d say the man had doomed this world and everything in it—by making oupid decision. Aimeline, another loop.

  But, teicalities aside, it had happehe world didn’t rewind; it looped. So while everything might look as though it never happened, it did, and Burn remembered every sihing.

  Besides, what was one or two ears? A couple of fingers? Burn was kind enough to let them regrow. In duplicate, even—talk about generosity.

  "Caliburn, it up," Man said suddenly, rising to her feet. Bel g her, noting how serene she looked—well, of course. Nothing seemed to rattle Her Holiness.

  Burn turned, meeting her calm with his own. Grining, he said, "You caught me."

  Clearly, he’d been milking this for all it was worth, buying time. Now he’d earned himself one of Man’s legendary all-night lectures, and he k.

  Bel, watg the exge, sehere was something deeper going on—some unspoken tension. Man had been unusually quiet earlier, and Bel figured it was because she ime to puzzle it out.

  It had to be Burn’s vision maion! Bel’s curiosity fred. What sort of spell could that be? She’d felt its power earlier, something big and dangerous—no wohey were both downpying it, seeing how cocky Burn were and Man hum it.

  "You’ve gotten more than enough out of him," Man said. "Let him pass out already."

  "Fine, fine," Burn replied, finally standing up. At that moment, Rudolf colpsed—sciousness shattered. Living as a human? No longer in the cards for him. But Burn simply waved his hand, and Bel dismissed the illusion. He her approvingly. "Good job."

  "I—I'm honored, sir," Bel stammered, her spiingling. This man was scarier than anything she'd faced. She was already pale, being a vampire, but somehow, she turned even paler. For someoo look this normal after that? What kind of life had he been living?

  “e on, feel free to unleash your best shouts at me on our way to Yvaih know that it's about time we returhere—then off to the Great Forest. And…” Burn tugged her toward the dungeorance, casually strolling past Dirk and Percival.

  Dirk responded instantly to Burn’s unspoken request. “My family and the families of my merry band of men will arrive in three days. They’ve brought along those splendid ships you wanted.”

  Burn chuckled, “I know it’s not quite Fall yet, but hey, who doesn’t love a little preemptive Fall up? The leaves won’t sweep themselves.”

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  Thank you NotHim/Fnostic for this biblicaly accurate Man Le Fay!

  This will bee her glossary picture from now on, which you find here!