A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 26

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 26

Exhale, inhale—

Exhale, inhale—

【Flame: Rising at dawn just to do physical training. Who does that?】
【Earth: I think it sometimes, but this fool seems to have forgotten he’s a mage.】

Aion’s palms pressed against the floor of the Mountain Lodge. His legs stretched straight up toward the sky, and he continued bending and straightening his elbows—all while balanced upside down.

Rising at dawn to train his body was a routine Aion had maintained for years.

Just as some people felt sluggish all day without breakfast, Aion’s conditioning each morning determined his condition for the entire day.

Exhale, inhale—

Exhale, inhale—

【Thunder: Hehehehe! You’re all the same! I didn’t let go of it until I was past thirty!】
【Water Stream: …That’s actually earlier than most.】
【Flame: Enough. Can’t we stop now? Today’s the day of that damned Telekinesis class.】
【Earth: Leave him be. He never listens anyway.】

Exhale—

After pouring his final strength into the exercise, Aion slowly righted himself.

【Flame: Well, they say a sound body houses a sound mind.】

Aion wiped the sweat from his skin, rinsed off lightly with water, and opened the Mountain Lodge door.

Whoosh—

A surge of cold morning air poured in all at once.

‘This might take longer than I thought.’

Yesterday, he’d waited in front of Aria di Valera’s mansion until sunset, but she never appeared.

The butler’s expression had remained unchanged from beginning to end—neither surprised nor apologetic.

‘So it won’t be easy after all.’

【Mado: Three weeks remain until the Bosco Battle Assessment. There’s no need to rush. But neither can we afford delay.】

Aion agreed with that assessment.

Still, if there was any silver lining—
Yesterday hadn’t been entirely fruitless.

Grounding had risen to Level 2. It happened while he practiced Grounding during the time he’d spent waiting in Aria’s garden, unwilling to waste the hours.

【Earth: A well-tended earth flows with abundant Mana. That garden of Aria’s pleased me quite well yesterday.】
【Flame: Well, that doesn’t mean waiting around is enjoyable. But with Telekinesis class today, we won’t reach the garden until late afternoon.】

‘…Probably.’

Aion lifted his gaze to the mist-shrouded forest. Hazy shapes were slowly revealing themselves in the dawning light.

He hurried out the door.

Because the Mountain Lodge sat adjacent to Mistwell Forest, morning fog blanketed the grounds every day. The thick dawn mist settled down to ankle height, parting silently with each step he took.

Then he heard the sound of a door opening from the neighboring lodge.

Creak—

It was Laila. She spotted Aion too, and their eyes met for a moment.

“Good morning.”
“…Yes, good morning.”

A silence stretched between them.
In the fog, only the sound of their footsteps crossed and mingled.

From a distance, it looked as though ghosts were drifting through the mist.

Then Laila spoke.

“What you did the night before last.”

She, who had been watching Aion, paused and took a stance—feet planted wide, knees bent slightly.

“…This.”
“…….”

Aion understood immediately what she was getting at.

“…You mean Grounding?”
“Yes. Do you do it every day?”
“As often as I can.”

Laila moved forward, tilting her head up in thought, then down again.

After a brief moment of consideration, she spoke to Aion.

“Teach me that. The technique.”

Aion rubbed his chin silently, observing the conversation between his Spirit Entities.

【Flame: Earth, old one—looks like that boy is waiting for your blessing.】
【Life: It does seem fitting that he should ask permission, since Grounding was transmitted to him by her.】

Earth, who had been quiet for a moment, finally ended his deliberation and answered.

【Earth: …Hmph. Do as you will. Grounding was never my magic to begin with.】
【Flame: Permission granted, Aion. Do what you like.】

Aion turned back to Laila and spoke.

“…I’ll teach you.”
“Good, I’d like that.”

Laila nodded. And then, after a moment’s hesitation,

“…But do you always have to remove your clothes for it?”
“…….”

【Flame: Phwooo―】
【Thunder: Hehehehehehe!】
【Earth: I knew it. Don’t go stripping under the moonlight and making a fuss about it.】
【Flame: Well, to my ears it didn’t quite sound that way, but….】

Just as Aion was about to speak,

Thump―

At the sound of something falling, both their heads turned toward it.

“No… Both of you…?”

A female student covered her mouth in shock.

It was Luana Belmora.

“How….”

Her bag had fallen to the ground, its contents spilling out in every direction.
Like the orange from last time.

“They’re rolling away.”

Laila began toddling after the items and picking them up.

Luana stood rooted to the spot, gripping her head with both hands.

“No, wait. Wait. Calm down, me.”

She murmured and approached Laila.

“Laila, what on earth do you mean you have to take off your clothes? Did Aion tell you to undress!?”

Laila extended her cupped hands full of items toward Luana.

“……Here.”

Aion skipped the lengthy explanation and corrected only the part Luana had misunderstood.

“So I didn’t… No, that never happened.”

Luana’s eyes blinked. And as she realized this had all been a misunderstanding,

“Aha ha ha! What was I thinking!”

Once the misunderstanding cleared, Luana burst into a fit of giggles. Soon the three of them walked together down the forest path.

Luana had already attached herself to Laila’s side.

“How does your skin stay so dewy in such rough conditions? What do you use on it?”

Luana asked in wonder.

“Really? And yet your skin is like porcelain?”

She only grew more enthusiastic in her praise of other aspects of Laila.

“What’s this scent coming from your hair? What oil did you use to get a fragrance like that?”
“Just water.”
“…Does water from Mistwell Forest carry its own fragrance?”

Just as Luana was about to heap more compliments on Laila’s appearance,

a butterfly descended onto the tip of Laila’s nose.

“…A butterfly.”

Laila’s gaze drifted slowly downward. She stopped walking and carefully brought her fingertip to the bridge of her nose.

The butterfly transferred itself to her finger with the gentlest of touches.

She walked on slowly, alone, keeping her eyes fixed on the butterfly.

“Laila is….”

Luana let slip a remark to Aion—or perhaps merely to herself.

“Laila shines.”
“…….”
“She sparkles, beautiful and mysterious. So lovely, and talented too. Truly… remarkable.”
“…Do you care for her?”

Luana answered at once, as if afraid someone else might answer in her place.

“Yes! I really do care for her.”

Her voice held not a trace of falsehood.

Aion nodded and lengthened his stride, closing the distance between himself and Laila ahead.

***

Aion parted ways with Laila’s group at the entrance to the Lecture Hall. He broke away from them and made his way to the Advanced Telekinesis classroom in the Third Training Ground, situated apart from the Lecture Hall.

Creak—

The moment he stepped through the door, the classroom fell silent. More precisely, the murmur of conversation died away all at once.

“Um….”
“…….”
“So… what were we saying again?”

It was always like this at every class since the fire.

At the table by the window across the diagonal sat Kael Pairon and his circle.

One of them spotted Aion.

“Ah, the protagonist finally makes an entrance.”
“Like he thinks Exion is his personal stage, right?”

Laughter rippled through the room.

Kael didn’t respond. He simply frowned and watched Aion’s retreating figure.

Creak—

The door opened and Professor Lowell entered.

The laughter drained away like a receding tide.

“Take your seats.”

Lowell crossed the lecture hall slowly. He opened the attendance log and scanned the names, pausing briefly before moving on.

“Aion.”
“Yes.”
“I heard the fire was quite severe. How are you feeling?”
“No problems, sir.”

Lowell studied him for a moment, then nodded quietly and closed the attendance log.

“Good to hear.”

He stood before the lecture desk and surveyed the students slowly.

“Last week, you learned how to send stationary objects in your desired direction. There’s a considerable gap between simply levitating an object and guiding it along an intended trajectory to strike a target.”

Soft sighs escaped from various corners of the lecture hall—reactions from those who had experienced that frustrating gap firsthand the previous week.

“Today we’re continuing along the same line. Once you take your position on the Platform, you’ll be given an Iron Sphere. Like last week, all you need to do is attempt to destroy the target.”

As he finished speaking, students began rising from their seats.

Scrape—

“Again…”
“Not a single person hit it last week.”
“I at least got close.”
“Close? You completely missed.”

Murmurs rippled through the group like waves as students began drifting toward the Platform area.

Aion followed them toward the Platform section.

The Platform zone of the Third Training Ground was an open area connected to the building yet lacking roof and walls.

Specially crafted netting surrounding all sides prevented Mana from leaking out, and within it, Platforms lined up in a row.

‘…Quite the scale for Exion.’

One target stood in front of each Platform.

Adjusting the control device beside the Platform entrance seemed to allow targets to be placed at greater distances, and Iron Spheres rested neatly lined up on shelves.

Aion entered an empty Platform and reached toward the control device.

Click—

200 meters.

Moments later, the sound of a target being set up echoed from that distant point.

The crowd fell silent for a moment. Then, just as quickly,

“Look at him. What the hell is he trying to do?”
“200 meters? From the start?”
“The guy can’t even walk, and he’s trying to fly right out of the gate.”

Snicker-snicker—

Amid the laughter, only Kael remained silent. He brought a fingernail to his lips, watching Aion intently.

“Kael, what’s wrong? You seem different from usual.”

The female student beside him asked carefully.

“…Me?”

Kael glanced away for a moment, then returned his gaze to Aion.

“Am I?”
“Just… something feels off.”

Even as he spoke, Kael’s eyes never left Aion.

Aion himself stood on the Practice Arena, slowly surveying his surroundings.

Students positioned at their own arenas stood troubled, iron spheres resting before them.

One student’s iron sphere barely lifted to palm height before dropping with a dull thud, while another managed to lift theirs but sent it careening wildly off-course, missing the target entirely.

【Flame: Aion, I’m asking just to be sure. Have you used Heavenly Telekinesis at full power recently?】
【Earth: You saw everything and you’re still asking? Of course not.】
【Flame: …Right. I’m a bit uneasy about this.】
【Earth: What’s there to be uneasy about? It’s just a variation of Telekinesis, after all.】

Flame hesitated before speaking.

【Flame: True enough, but Heavenly Telekinesis is… hmm….】
【Water Stream: What’s wrong?】
【Flame: Nothing. I might just be worrying unnecessarily.】

“…….”

Aion gazed at the iron sphere resting on the shelf for a moment, then extended his hand and picked it up slowly. The cold, heavy sensation filled his palm completely.

He gauged the weight in his grip, set the iron sphere back on the ground, and took his stance within the Practice Arena.

【Flame: Now concentrate.】

Two eyes closing gradually.

Shhhhh—

The ambient noise receded into distance.
The snickering laughter, the clatter of iron spheres tumbling along erratic paths before striking something and rolling across the floor—all of it faded away.

Aion summoned the awakening of Heavenly Telekinesis from the depths of his being.

He sought to lift the iron sphere.

Zzzzt—

The Iron Sphere trembled faintly, but did not rise.

The question ‘Why?’ faded quickly—Aion already knew the answer.

‘This sensation… no, that’s not it.’

Right. He wasn’t concentrating.

‘That sensation from back then….’

— Save us!
— Who’s out there? Please… please just open this door….
— We’re all going to burn to death like this!

Aion’s awareness snapped back to that moment in an instant.

Outside the Small Auditorium. The night the ceiling collapsed and smoke filled his lungs. The sensation of pushing debris aside one by one with Heavenly Telekinesis.

‘…It’s moving.’

As he extended his power, the Iron Sphere’s weight bloomed at his fingertips.

Aion’s Mana seized the Iron Sphere and lifted it skyward.

The Iron Sphere hung in the air without trembling, suspended at the perfect height.

‘This is….’

A door that could never be opened. A door someone had sworn would not yield. Yet a door that had to be opened, no matter what.

When Aion wrenched open the iron door of the Small Auditorium, everything had already changed.

【Flame: …Do it.】

Whip—

Mana coalesced around the levitating Iron Sphere.

Boom—!

In that instant, the Iron Sphere shot forward as if detonating.

Screeeeeeeeeech—!

The Iron Sphere traced no arc, did not spin. A perfect straight line.

Its momentum did not diminish; it drove forward relentlessly.

As the Iron Sphere passed the 50-meter mark, then the 100-meter mark, every eye reached the 200-meter target ahead of it.

Screeeech—!

And then the Iron Sphere arrived there, trailing behind their gaze.

Catastrophic—!

That overwhelming spectacle stole the breath from every soul present.

The Talentless Sorcerer Devours a Calamitous Future — Chapter 26

Author
Wang Mo-chi
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yeon
Cover Design
Dali

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0026

© 2026, Wang Mo-chi

※ This e-book is protected under the Copyright Law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or all of this work may be reprocessed in any form without the permission of the author and publisher.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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