When Magnus reappeared, he found himself in the underground chapel once again. It was quiet now, empty. The only things left were the aftermath of the battle with Austra—himself, and the mana construct holding the last remaining piece of her existence: her head.
He stood still as his eyes drifted across the one area of the chapel that hadn't been completely destroyed. The same place was still stained red in a way that looked like it would never fade. Magnus's gaze froze on that spot. Memories surfaced, pushing forward emotions he could no longer feel, and regrets that didn't exist anymore. And in the middle of all that, his euphoric mind couldn't help but compare the moment to something else entirely—something almost laughably mundane.
That one time, Wendy dropped jam all over his mom's new carpet.
It had been late, and they'd been pulling an all-nighter to catch a timed quest on Elveline, which meant they were tired and emotions were running high. After spending hours trying to clean it up before his mom got home, Wendy broke down crying on the couch and fell asleep before she ever saw her.
By the time she woke up, the carpet had already been replaced. His mom just told her it was fine.
Magnus could tell something was off. That memory, now of all times? But he couldn't help it—he laughed anyway. A hand went up to his mouth to try and stifle it, but the laugh only grew more jagged the harder he tried to hold it in, until it became a wild, shaking cackle.
When it finally died down, he let out a sigh.
"Oh, that was horrible."
Is this what you were talking about, Basker?
[Yes, Master. Although all minds share similarities, they differ between living beings. Human minds were born with the intent of feeling emotion. Emotions, combined with experiences and stimuli, are what allow the mind to stay active and avoid mental death. Without emotions, your imagination, creativity, and wonder would shrink to a fraction of what they were. Likewise, only experiencing one emotion also limits your thinking and causes you to interpret the ones you lack in strange ways. In a sense, emotions act like mental extensions—boosts to your ability to think.]
Magnus hummed to himself, his attention split, but still hearing every word.
Not because he didn't care, but because he already understood exactly what Basker meant. Right now, no matter what happened, Magnus was only capable of being in a good mood. And yet, just moments ago, he had been distraught, shaking from the weight of the deaths on his hands. But without the emotions he would normally use to process something like that, there was only one thing left: joy.
So that's what his mind clung to.
And the intensity of that joy? It matched the intensity of the emotions he should have been feeling.
As for why that joy came out as playfulness during the fight with Austra? Well, nothing said joy couldn't be cruel. After everything she'd done, it wasn't surprising that some deep part of him had wanted her to suffer slowly. That desire couldn't fully translate into joy, but it still managed to peek through, warped and hidden within it.
Ah, man... It's funny. Emotions are so troublesome, but without them, our minds fall apart. On the other hand, go through life only feeling one, and you turn into a twisted psychopath. A curse and a blessing, all wrapped into one.
Magnus laughed again, glancing at the mana construct holding Austra's head before calling out—seemingly to no one.
"Eveline, I know you're watching me. As always. Still not totally comfortable with that, by the way. Anyway, I'm technically still in a life-threatening situation, so could you come grab this head?" There was a pause, then the faintest flutter of clothing behind him. Magnus turned to see Eveline, smiling like a child on Christmas. Her eyes flicked back and forth between him and the mana construct with barely restrained excitement.
"Well, someone's excited," Magnus muttered, tossing the mana construct to her like a ball.
Eveline caught it in one hand, her grin widening as she studied the lifeless head and the energy sealed inside. Then, with a casual flick, she tossed it into the air and teleported it away.
"Of course I'm excited. You've finally crossed a threshold," she said, stepping closer.
"I can't tell exactly what changed, but your body... It's shifting constantly. I can sense dozens of spells active inside you. So? What did you do? What let you overpower an enemy you struggled with before—so easily?" Her hands reached out as she spoke, trailing across his chest, up to his shoulders, then gliding around his back as she slowly circled him. Magnus could feel something probing through his body, but he didn't seem to care.
"Oh... I see. I understand now!" Her voice lit up with realization.
"Oh, Magnus, that's truly the right path to advancement! Much more efficient than just cutting yourself—by far!" What Eveline saw inside Magnus was an automated process. Spells of every kind—elementrix and uncategorized. Some were simple and destructive. Others followed intricate, rule-based logic, tearing his body apart like viruses.
But every act of destruction was followed by creation.
Just like the Nullfang could sustain a state of [True Immortality], Magnus's body now operated under [Perfective Regeneration] at all times.
With every passing moment, his resistance improved. Every time he used one of his deadliest abilities on himself, he built up immunity. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the Magnus seen a minute ago was completely different from the one standing there now.
Still, after a moment of deliberation, Eveline put a hand up to her chin, cocked her head slightly, and muttered, "Still, the amount of processing power and strain on both the mind and body... it must be immense. Not to mention the pain. How are you enduring it?"
Magnus reached up and pointed to a part of his skull.
"I modified the part of my brain responsible for allowing me to feel pain. It's not a full severance—more like a neural block. I have to toggle it, or else I won't be able to feel anything."
Eveline narrowed her eyes.
"That still means there's a period when you're enduring the pain of having your body remolded."
"Eh… you win some, you lose some," Magnus said with a grin and a shrug.
Eveline raised one brow.
"Hmm, is that so? Fine, I'll drop this for now since you're clearly hiding something. But I'm still curious about the 'how.' I can tell your control over your body, your processing ability, and your spell limits have all been increased, but how did you do it?" That was the one thing Eveline couldn't figure out. Improvements couldn't come from nothing. There had to be some basis for Magnus's power, but she couldn't identify it—only see the results of said improvement.
Instead of answering, Magnus turned and looked toward the entrance of the underground chapel, though it seemed more like he was looking beyond it. His Abyssal Flames had long since been dealt with; he could tell that much. So had the barrier he'd erected around the church. As for the secondary layer he'd prepared, he could tell it was still there.
Looks like whoever got rid of my flames and the barrier didn't notice the trap. That's good. Not too many vampires should have been able to scurry off then.
He turned back to Eveline.
"I'll tell you about my secret or whatever later, promise. Right now, though, I need to do some cleanup."
Eveline pouted slightly, then sighed exaggeratedly and turned away.
"Fine. I'll go study the specimen you retrieved for me then. Have fun with... pest control." She waved over her shoulder, her voice echoing through the underground even after she'd vanished.
"She gets so sassy when she doesn't get what she wants," Magnus mused to himself, turning toward the chapel entrance. With one step, he teleported to the bottom of the stairs, another step put him at the top, and with a third, he stood at the front of the church. Everything was completely destroyed, as expected. The front of the church was covered in rubble, and the structure itself had mostly collapsed.
He hadn't seen a single vampire on his way here. Even the one he'd trapped outside the church had been set free, but Magnus didn't seem too worried. With a slight hop, he rose into the air and began flying toward the edge of the perimeter he'd set up. It only took a couple of seconds before he heard it—the groans and screams, the constant sound of flesh being pierced repeatedly.
It didn't take long after that for the vampires to come into view.
Just as Magnus had planned, the moment the vampires approached the hidden spell around the area, they were instantly skewered—multiple times. Every time their bodies shifted, either from their own movement or from being pierced, they were run through again. From what Magnus could tell, a few broke free thanks to sheer numbers, like when barbed wire becomes useless because it's already covered by so many bodies. Still, from his spot in the sky, Magnus could see that at least ninety percent of the vampires had been captured.
"Oh well, I'll deal with the others later," he said to himself with a shrug as he began to float down.
When he touched down on the street, he approached one of the vampires and paused, recognizing it as the one he had initially kept captured outside the church when he first arrived.
"Well, would you look who it is. How've you been doing, buddy?" The vampire in question hung in the air, back facing the ground, front facing the night sky, impaled through its limbs and spinal cord. They were still alive, of course, but their eyes, which were already fairly wide, went even wider when they spotted Magnus.
"Y-Yo-You…" Their words came out as a gargled mess.
Magnus looked up at them and nodded with a grin.
"That's right. Me." After saying that, he snapped his fingers, and the part of the spell affecting this vampire in particular deactivated, allowing their punctured body to fall limply to the ground. Some of the other vampires nearby—still in the midst of having their bodies repeatedly destroyed and regenerated—tried to speak, though not very successfully.
Magnus guessed they were trying to make some kind of plea, so he raised a finger to his lips and said, "Nuh-uh-uh. This conversation doesn't involve all of you, so shh."
A moment later, every vampire felt the frequency of the impaling and ferocity increase nearly threefold. A new wave of screams and yells echoed against the night sky, but Magnus paid it no mind, looking back at the vampire he'd freed, who had regenerated enough to move.
Looking up at Magnus with fear in their eyes, the vampire muttered, "But… they said Lady Austra dealt with you. How are you…"
Magnus raised a brow and answered, "Oh, yeah. She's dead. Well, sort of... she's just a head now, honestly. But that's besides the point. I need your help with something."
The vampire, still reeling from the disbelief brought on by Magnus saying he'd killed a Hierarch, couldn't help but glance behind him, at the potential for freedom.
Magnus caught that glance, looking off in the same direction the vampire was thinking of running, and shrugged.
"I mean, you're free to try if you want. Though I will kill you afterwards. Maybe we can even make a game out of it. See how far you can get while I'm constantly deleting your legs. Or better yet, see how good you are at hiding without a head. There's no real win condition for you, but... well, let's be honest, between you and me, none of you deserve a fair shot at this point."
After that, Magnus added, "Your choice, though. I don't really care either way. I'm just feeling lazy."
There was a brief pause—not silent, thanks to the screams and sounds of bodies constantly being torn apart—but it seemed to push the vampire, still kneeling on the ground, to a decision.
"Wh-What do you want me to do?"
Magnus smiled happily, hearing that.
"Perfect. Alright, so you can find another vampire's core, can't you?"
The vampire looked slightly confused, tilting his head as he echoed, "Core?"
"Yeah, uh... virtual brain, thinking energy construct thing," Magnus replied, waving his hand.
"Our Nexus?" The vampire confirmed.
Magnus nodded.
"Sure, if that's what you call it. Can you find it in other vampires?"
The vampire on the ground slowly nodded.
"Perfect. Then here's what I want you to do," Magnus said, letting himself fall back. A sofa suddenly appeared behind him, and his body dropped into it with a soft plop as he crossed one leg over the other and sighed in a relaxed manner.
"I've whitelisted you from the spell, so all you have to do is go around and collect the Nexuses from the different vampires being... penetrated, and bring them to me. Simple, right?" Magnus grinned.
"And... if I do this, you'll let me go?" The vampire asked.
Magnus's gaze shifted upward as he rocked his head back and forth.
"Eh... I don't know, maybe. I'm feeling pretty good right now, but then again, what's the point of letting you go if I'm just going to capture you again later?"
Hearing Magnus's musings, the vampire immediately spoke up, desperation clinging to his voice.
"No, I promise I'll listen to anything you say. I'll- I'll even serve you! I won't hurt another human being, I swear."
"Oh wow, you are desperate," Magnus chuckled before letting out a drawn-out sigh.
"Still, promises aren't really worth anything, so... how about you just try to do a good job while I think about whether I can come up with a reason to keep you around? Got it?"
The vampire swallowed in silence for a moment before nodding furiously and rushing to his feet to get started.
Magnus leaned back on the sofa and rocked as he whistled to himself.
You gotta love free labor.