Returning to Avalon, I found myself barricaded in my room, surrounded by an impressive fortress of books, scrolls, and digital holo-screens. The content of my studies was dense—dark mana theory, necromantic binding processes, mana circuitry, and something called "soul stabilization matrices," which sounded more like the title of a sci-fi thriller than a spell formula. Every sentence I read felt like it was written by someone who hated the concept of simplicity.
'Why is this so convoluted?' I thought, running a hand through my hair. My current understanding of spells and mana was like a child trying to build a spaceship out of wooden blocks—hopelessly outmatched. Even Lucent Harmony, my greatest asset, could barely scratch the surface of these theories.
