Magus Reborn [Stubbing in Seven Weeks]

392. Outbreaks

As soon as Kai heard that, he went completely still.For a brief moment, part of him wanted to turn around, walk out of the room, and tell Francis to explain everything once he had slept and gathered himself properly. It felt like he had gone from one crisis straight into another, with no space in between to truly breathe, and the weight of that had started pressing on his mind more than he liked to admit.

But he pushed that thought down.

He would not be much of a king if he ran from the problem the moment it reached his table.

Even so, one thing kept ringing in his head.

How?

They had purified Vanderfall. They had dealt with it there. So how had the plague reached Lancephil?

Francis seemed to read the questions on his face. He stepped aside a little more, giving Kai a clear view of the map. “The plague spread fast, Lord Arzan. Faster than we were ready for. So fast that by the time we truly understood what was happening, reacting properly had already become difficult.”

Kai’s eyes stayed on the marked sections of the map.

Francis continued, “Ansel only got the first solid reports a week ago, and since then we’ve already started evacuating the towns, villages, and cities in its path. But even that has not gone smoothly.”

Kai looked up immediately. “Why not?”

Ansel answered this time, letting out a breath before he spoke. “The plague isn’t spreading on its own.”

That made Kai’s expression harden.

Ansel went on. “There are monsters moving with it. Strange ones. They’re pushing it forward. And anyone who gets corrupted…” He paused, then added, “They’re turning into a kind of weaver we’ve never seen before.”

Only then did Kai notice Feroy standing farther back in the room as he spoke, “Yes. Some of our Enforcers were already near that region on another mission when the plague first began spreading. The information they sent back was enough for us to realize this isn’t like Vanderfall.” His face darkened. “This one is worse. Much worse. It’s advancing at a pace we’ve never seen before.”

At that, Elias stepped forward.

The moment he saw the map clearly, the color in his face seemed to fade. Out of everyone in the room, he had been the one most marked by the last dead mana plague, and it showed in the way his eyes fixed on the marked regions before he asked, almost too quickly, “How can this be? Is it another treant?”

Ansel shook his head. “We don’t know.”

His voice stayed even, but there was a weight behind it that made the answer feel worse.

“We sent a small group to investigate,” he continued. “Knights and Mages both. Rank two and grade two. Strong enough, we thought, to scout the edges and return with information. They weren’t able to go deeper. Only three of them came back. The rest were corrupted.”

Kai’s attention snapped to him immediately. “What did they report?”

This time Francis answered. “A land covered in darkness and foul mana, but we already expected that.” he said, his face grim as he spoke. “The major thing we got from it are the fiends, and they had no proper shape left to them. Almost like abominations.”

He gestured toward the side of the table.

“One of the survivors was able to give enough detail for an artist to sketch one. Even that was hard on him. The man who drew it was shaken just by putting it to paper.”

Ansel passed the sketch over to Kai who took it and looked down.

The thing in the drawing was an abomination in the truest sense of the word like Francis had described. It looked like several weavers had been pushed together into one lump of flesh and made to keep living like that. Arms and legs jutted from it at wrong angles. Eyes had been scattered across its head and upper body without any pattern to them, while its mouth sat low on its belly like something that had grown in the wrong place and stayed there. Thick lines of dead mana ran visibly through the whole mass like veins.

Kai stared at it for a moment longer than he meant to.

He had seen many things. He had seen monsters in his own time, mutations, and horrors born from dead mana. But this… this was not something he remembered. Which left him with a question he did not like.

Had something made it? Was it stitched together by design? Or were they dealing with a mutated plague of sorts?

Kai frowned, then another thought rose in his mind.

Had the plague been released while he was away on purpose?

Did someone know he was out of Lancephil and choose that exact moment to move? Was there a spy inside the castle? More than one? Or had someone used divination to learn that he was gone?

He could not tell.

And that uncertainty only made the room feel heavier. But the situation was bad. Worse than bad, honestly.

As far as returns went, Kai could not think of many things more disastrous to come back to than this. Slowly, he lowered his gaze to the table again. Maps were spread across most of it, but there were documents too, reports stacked in a way that only looked orderly because Francis had likely arranged them that way. Kai began picking them up one by one and reading through them without rushing, taking in every detail his people had managed to gather while he was gone.

The more he read, the clearer one thing became—They had not exaggerated.This plague really was worse than Vanderfall.

For one thing, it was spreading much faster. The reports made that plain enough. It was also twisting the flora and fauna in stranger ways than the Vanderfall plague ever had. There were more variants of weavers already, more other kinds of fiends, more things that did not fit a single easy pattern.

That was the part that stood out most to Kai.

When he looked again at the map of the region, he saw nothing there that should have created this many forms of corruption so quickly. It was not some wild frontier thick with powerful beasts and hidden monster dens. It was farmland, small villages, one larger town, a few nests and there. And it was nothing that should have been enough to birth so many different abominations in such a short time.

Dead mana could mutate things in ugly ways. Kai knew that better than most. But this didn’t feel random.

If he had to name the real difference between this plague and the one in Vanderfall, then there was only one answer that made sense to him. Vanderfall had felt abandoned after the treant was planted there, as if Maleficia had simply seeded the disaster and then stepped back to let it grow on its own. This one was different—it felt guided.

As if someone was actively driving it forward.

That thought alone carried too many implications, and it brought Kai back to the conclusion he had already been circling before he left. Maleficia was no longer content to work from the edges. Not after trying to kill the Elder Tree. Not after he had killed two people he strongly suspected were among their core members.

They were no longer holding back.

And if that was true, then this plague was not just another attack. It was a sign that they were finally stepping out of the dark and beginning to push the world toward the same dead-mana future Kai remembered.

From what Kai knew of history, the Mad King Eldric had not begun his wars the moment he took the throne. The early years of his reign had been spent differently. He had poured resources into strengthening the kingdom’s military, into deepening its magical foundations, into preparing the world for what came after. Now, knowing that Regina had originally been the one meant to shape that path—and knowing that she was part of Maleficia—Kai could only come to one conclusion.

His own interference had changed their plans in a major way.

Instead of using war between kingdoms to create dead mana zones naturally over time, they had shifted. They were no longer waiting for bloodshed and ruin to poison the land on its own. They were spreading plagues instead, faster and more direct, trying to contaminate everything in one move.

Kai kept turning that over in his mind while reading through the reports, and he was so deep in thought that he only noticed Elias when a hand settled on his shoulder.

He looked to his left. Elias watched him with a grave expression.

“Arzan, I think we should go there ourselves. We find whatever fiends are at the heart of this and cut them out before the plague swallows your kingdom too.”

Kai only had to look into the old Magus’s eyes to understand where that was coming from. Elias had seen firsthand what a dead mana plague could do to a land. He hated it, and he clearly had no intention of watching the same thing happen here if there was any way to stop it.

Kai understood that feeling, and shared it.

But even so, something in him resisted the urge to move immediately. Not because Elias was wrong, but because rushing at something like this without thinking through every part of it felt like exactly the kind of mistake that could turn a bad situation into a collapse.

“We’ll do that. But first I need to know that everyone in the plague’s path is being pulled out.” Then he turned toward Francis. “How quickly is the evacuation happening?”

Francis signed. “Not quickly enough, Lord Arzan.”

The old man stepped nearer to the map as he spoke.

“The plague is concentrated mostly in Baron Thonson’s territory right now, but it’s already starting to creep toward Count Blackbough’s lands as well. The baron is doing everything he can to move people out, but the reports he sent laid out several problems.”

Francis began laying the problems out one by one, and by the time he finished, Kai could see that most of the situation narrowed down into three major obstacles.

The first was the commoners themselves.

Too many of them were unwilling to move, especially the ones who had not seen the plague with their own eyes. To them, the danger probably still felt distant, like another rumour born from war and panic rather than something that would soon be at their doorstep.

The second problem was the neighbouring nobles.

They were not pleased by the sudden refugee crisis. Many of them were already struggling with the aftermath of the civil war, and some had only recently begun paying reparations to the crown. Asking them now to open their lands and resources to fleeing commoners was clearly not being received well.

The third problem was the worst one.

The mana fiends and the weavers were not staying inside the corrupted lands. They were pushing outward, moving into still-clean territory and destroying everything in their path as they went. Every place they touched only spread the dead mana farther. That made evacuation far harder, because the destruction was moving faster than the people trying to outrun it.

Kai listened to all of it in silence.

If this was going to be controlled, then the entire effort needed structure first. That much was obvious. The evacuations had to be made orderly, consistent, and fast. Honestly, the nobles should have already begun taking the threat seriously. Kai had told them enough about dead mana, Maleficia, and the danger waiting ahead. But clearly, hearing it and understanding it were not the same thing.

At least the commoners were easier to understand.

Not enough time had passed since the civil war for proper education on dead mana to spread through the kingdom. Most of them were probably being stubborn because they did not fully grasp what was coming. That could be handled. Especially if he got the local churches involved. People listened to religion in ways they often did not listen to nobles.

Kai looked back at the map. “First, get the baron and the count to push everyone out of the plague’s path as fast as possible.” His voice hardened slightly. “Tell them it is my decree.”

Then he paused and added, “Speak to Archbishop Maurice as well. I want the church spreading word about dead mana immediately. Have them teach people what it is, and send instructions to every branch near the plague line to start giving sermons that push the commoners to evacuate faster.”

Francis nodded without hesitation. “And what do we do about the plague itself? It’s still moving.”

Kai had already thought of that. “I’ll deal with it,” he said, then another thought came to him. “Is Amyra still in the Ashari Desert?”

Feroy gave a quick nod. “Yes, Your Majesty. The Enforcers sent me a report just two days ago.” But then his face darkened slightly as he added, “Though the situation there hasn’t been ideal either.”

Kai’s brows drew together.

“Why? I already dealt with the elementals, and the Duneborns shouldn’t be back so soon.”

Before Feroy could answer, Ansel stepped in, his expression turning serious.

“It isn’t either of those,” he said. “From the report we received, some of the tribesmen have started disappearing. And one of the hunting groups was attacked. They were ambushed by blood drinkers.”

Kai’s lips pursed at the problem.

That fit too neatly with one of the theories already forming in his head. It was another sign that Maleficia was watching him more closely than he had wanted to believe. He doubted they had any real chance of finding Valkyrie’s Tower on their own, but the tribes were the obvious place to start asking questions. If someone wanted to trace Kai’s movements or connections in the desert, pressuring the tribal people was the quickest path.

For a brief moment, guilt rose in him. His connection to the tribals was drawing trouble to their doorstep.

But before that thought could settle too deeply, Ansel spoke up again.

“Don’t worry too much, Your Majesty. I’ve already spoken to my brother. They’ll manage for now. We’re preparing to send supplies and a few useful artifacts to help them.”

Kai gave a short nod. “Do that,” he said. “But we’re going to have larger problems soon if Maleficia is truly trying to figure out what I was doing in the Ashari Desert. They already know I’ve gone there more than once.”

After saying that, his gaze drifted back toward the people standing behind him, the same ones he had nearly died beside only a day back. He owed them a lot, maybe more than he could properly say, but even then Kai knew there were things he could not speak of openly. Valkyrie’s Tower was one of them. That secret was safer left buried. He could probably trust Elder Caelith with it. Elias too, perhaps. But Veridia was different, and Kai had no intention of testing where her limits lay.

Maybe she understood that much on her own.

Before he could decide what to say next, Veridia spoke first.

“Get me a room and something to eat,” she said. “I’m going to rest. I’m tired after all this, and the rest of you can get back to saving your kingdom.”

She turned immediately and started for the door.

Kai felt a quiet sense of relief at that. But just as Veridia reached it, the door opened inward before she had even touched it.

She frowned at once.

For a moment, Kai thought she might actually lash out on instinct, but she held herself back as a man stepped into the doorway. The newcomer froze the instant he saw her. Then his eyes moved past her into the room, and when they landed on Kai, his whole face changed. The man looked as though he had just seen a ghost.

He dropped to his knees so quickly it almost looked painful.

“Your Majesty,” he said, bowing his head. “I didn’t expect to find you here.”

Kai waved off the apology before it could grow into something longer.

“It’s fine. Why are you here?”

The man rose quickly, and from behind the table Ansel asked, “Yes, Sark, what are you doing here? Did another message come in?”

Sark straightened fully at that, but the color still did not return to his face. He pulled a bundle of documents from beneath his arm and held them out.

“Yes,” he said. “Not just one. Letters came from several different parts of the kingdom.”

Then he looked directly at Kai. And his throat seemed to tighten around the next words.

“Nobles are reporting plague outbreaks from multiple regions of Lancephil.”

***

A/N - You can read 30 chapters (15 Magus Reborn and 15 Dao of money) on my patreon. Annual subscription is now on too.

Read 15 chapters ahead HERE.

Join the discord server HERE.

PS:

Book 4 is officially launched!If you’re on Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free—and even if you’re not buying, a quick rating helps more than you think. Also, it's free to rate and please download the book if you have Kindle unlimited. It helps with algorithm.

Read here.