A Talentless Mage Devours a Disaster-Class Future - Chapter 45

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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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Episode 45

Cassius de Servang.
Eldest son of the Marquis Servang Family.

Age seven. First Mana measurement. The sole record preserved: a single line noting him as a prodigy destined to etch his name into the continent’s history.

Age eleven. Complete replacement of all family-appointed magical tutors. Reason unreported.

Age fourteen. Informal proposal of associate membership in the Imperial Mage Association, a subsidiary of the Mage Council. The Marquis Servang Family offered no response.

Age seventeen. Following an unfortunate incident that shrouded the Marquis Servang Family in grief, he vanished from sight—only to reappear unexpectedly at the Grand Mage Festival in the Imperial Capital Calion. By this time, he is believed to have already reached the 3rd Tier.

Age twenty. Enrolled at Exion.

A genius among geniuses—the phrase fits without awkwardness.
Hidden beneath his eccentricity lies a talent so immense it overwhelms the eccentricity itself.

Whoooosh—

Chain Blast.

Cassius flicked a single finger.

Crack-crack-crack—!

Boom—!

The left boundary of the dome took a heavy blow.

“Ugh….”
“The dome is shaking!”

Destructive force capable of striking Gares’s defensive magic—his dome.

The moment Gares’s eyes turned toward Cassius, he was already gone.

Crack-crack-crack—!

Boom—!

“Cassius is a wind mage! Don’t assume ordinary magic will land!”
“Cedric! You’re a wind mage too! Can’t you do something about this?!”
“Shut up! You think I can hit movement like that?!”

Before the defender could judge which direction to reinforce, the next strike was already descending.

There was no time to react—a relentless barrage followed in quick succession.

Shriek—!

Boom—!

Squall was an exceedingly simple spell—one that ejected wind blades.

But the irregular timing, direction, and spacing, combined with movements that defied prediction—

It all merged together to feel like some terrible calamity.

How many students at Exion could maintain such perfect control over all of this simultaneously?

Gares held his dome steady, watching the battlefield with calm deliberation.

For now, his defensive barrier was holding up easily against Cassius’s assault, but his magic was far from invulnerable.

If the damage accumulated at this rate, his Mana would eventually deplete and the dome would shatter.

“Useless.”

His gaze swept across Renar, Cedric, and Mark.
His displeasure was evident—three of them couldn’t even handle a single peer properly.

“What are you all doing?”
“It’s easier said than done. That bastard was the strongest of the ten who were here to begin with.”
“…Idiots.”

Gares cut off Cedric’s words curtly.

“Listen, Mark.”
“…Speak.”
“Change tactics.”

Mark didn’t answer.
His gaze settled cold and distant upon Cassius, who moved freely across the battlefield.

Before he could even fully register his opponent’s form, Cassius had already claimed a different position.

Mage against mage.
A gap so vast that if Mark had to face him alone, he would fall into utter despair.

There was no way to stop Cassius’s movements.
He wasn’t an opponent he could defeat through frontal engagement.
Yet there was a world of difference between having no way to win and being unable to win.

“…I acknowledge it, Cassius.”

His voice was low and cold.

“You are stronger than me.”
“Will you surrender now?”

A brief silence.

“But.”

Mark’s lips twisted into a smile.

“Seems my luck runs better than yours.”

***

Long before he’d learned magic, Cassius had been close to the wind.

For one who could read the flow of atmosphere itself, wind magic came as naturally as breathing.

Wheeee-crack!

Boom—!

With nothing more than a flick of his fingers, wind became blade and flew. No need to specify direction. The moment intent took shape, the wind found its own path.

As though he himself had become a spirit of the gale.

Whoooosh…

Renar’s flame swept toward him.
Cassius didn’t dodge. The air around his body trembled minutely, warping the spell’s trajectory.
Heat grazed his cheek and passed.

He hid within the wind and wielded it.

For those blessed with talent, reaching 3rd Tier took an average of twenty years.

This was why early training mattered so much.

Demonstrating magical aptitude young, learning spellcraft from childhood—only then could one ascend to 3rd Tier faster.

Every freshman at Exion was twenty years old.

Which meant those freshmen who had already reached 3rd Tier possessed gifts that stood apart even among the gifted.

Cassius de Servang: twenty years old.

He had already transcended 3rd Tier several years prior.

Wheeee-crack!

Cassius pushed off the ground and shifted position. In the same instant, wind blades carved through the space where he’d just stood—Cedric’s preemptive strike, predicted and launched.

It missed.
Cassius was already three paces ahead.

Pik-pik-pik-pik-crack!

Mark’s twin wasps, circling overhead, fell helplessly before the wind blades.

‘Bothersome creature.’

Battle between mages resembled information warfare.

You attacked with magic and defended with magic. When this single premise formed the foundation of basic magical combat, it was information that created variation.

How much did you know of your opponent’s spells? How well could you counter them?

Screeeee—!
Crash—!

He sent a wind blade forward, scattering the swarm of wasps before him. Even in that instant, Cassius did not cease his assault on the dome.

Yet in one corner of his mind, the same question circled endlessly.

‘Why was Darren poisoned?’

The image of him, blood dripping from his nose, his head bowed like a condemned man—it stayed with him.

He had definitely stopped them. He had shattered every wasp in the air.
As a wind mage who had reached 3rd Tier, he could sense the currents of the atmosphere. He could not have missed it.

This was not arrogance or denial. It was closer to faith—a certainty in himself.

The wind does not lie.

‘I could not have missed the movement of the air.’

Then, from inside the dome, a voice reached him.

“…I admit it, Cassius.”

The voice was low and cold.

“You are stronger than I am.”

A simple truth.

“Will you surrender now?”
“But.”

Mark’s mouth twisted.

“It seems my luck is better than yours.”
“What?”
“I don’t gather worthless subordinates like you do.”

Cassius’s brow furrowed. A blatant jab. Yet there was something about it—not something to brush off.

A barb to the words. An unsettling weight.

His eyes flicked reflexively toward Aria and Vera.

And in that moment, something strange washed over him.

A sense of déjà vu.
No—something sharper than that.

He was missing something.

‘What was it?’

What was he missing?
Then a thought struck him like a blow to the head.

‘Ah….’

Whiiiiiing―!

Cassius moved with the wind, action preceding thought.

He cut across the battlefield in a direct line toward Aria and Vera, caught both of them in his arms, and pulled away from the spot.

“Kyaaaagh! What… what…?”
“Ugh…!”

Craaash―!

The ground where they had stood buckled and heaved, and a swarm of armored wasps erupted from beneath.

“…How unfortunate.”

Mark, whose attack had been read so easily, laughed nonetheless—a thin, bitter sound.

Cassius set the two women down and turned slowly to face him.

He brought a hand to the back of his neck, then drew it forward again.

A single Stinger dangled between his fingertips.

“…So it was a ground wasp, after all.”
“Heh… precisely.”

Mark’s voice had taken on a perverse delight.

“The Nisht Region is far too harsh an environment for these poor creatures of mine. With so many predators on the surface, they evolved to burrow and tunnel beneath the earth to survive. By any means necessary. Rather like me, wouldn’t you say?”

He smiled, thin and cruel.

“You’re stronger than I am. I’ll grant you that. But you’re also more foolish. That remarkable power of yours—and yet you cannot dispatch me. That tells me you’re nothing but an obstacle for me to overcome and leave behind.”

A moment of silence hung between them.

“It was quite touching, Cassius. But as a sovereign, you fail. A true monarch never abandons his own safety—not in any circumstance.”

Cassius listened to every word, then flicked the Stinger away with his fingertip.

Ting―!

He brushed back his hair and laughed with disarming lightness.

“Ahahaha! So I’ve taken a proper blow after all!”

Renar froze in bewilderment. Mark’s brow rose a fraction.

“What’s so amusing?”
“Why wouldn’t it be amusing? To think I’ve grown so addicted! Even with my guard raised, you proved yourself formidable. Truly excellent.”

Cassius brushed dust from his hands and began to draw Mana upward.

“But…”

Whoooooosh―!

The wind blooming around him grew steadily more savage.

The gentle aura that had surrounded Cassius was transforming now into something bestial.

“What… what is that…?”
“Was he hiding his true strength all along?”

Cassius continued from where he’d left off moments before.

“I refuse to acknowledge your mastery of the Sovereign’s Way.”
“…What?”
“A Sovereign knows no cowardice. A Sovereign never retreats. A Sovereign is… complete unto himself.”

Whirrr-whirrr-whirrr…

The wind surrounding Cassius swelled larger and larger, lifting his hair skyward.

“A Sovereign is bestowed by Heaven itself. Therefore…”

Whoooooooosh…!

Roaaaarrrr…!

The wind that had encircled Cassius suddenly formed rings and exploded outward, engulfing both dome and plain.

Cassius de Servang, 3rd Tier wind mage.

Crash-crash-crash-crash…!

“Aaaahhh!”
“Cassius, Cassius!”

A colossal cyclone took shape, sweeping up the rocks around them and Vera’s bear dolls, hurling them skyward in its grip.

“I, Cassius de Servang, am the Sovereign of magic bestowed by Heaven itself.”
“Heh… kha-ha-ha-ha-ha! So you had a trump card hidden away! Yes! Let’s see what you can do!”

Mark, still crouched within Gares’s dome, grinned and bared his teeth.

Cassius’s body rose slowly into the air and settled aloft.

Gares was stunned—he could scarcely believe that someone like Cassius shared the same 3rd Tier rank as himself.

And yet, affinity still mattered.

Just as flame falters before water, and water before lightning.

Gares’s defensive magic could not easily be pierced by wind magic of equal caliber.

‘…Is this desperation?’

No. He didn’t know.
He couldn’t tell.

Why hadn’t such a powerful mage committed his full strength from the beginning?

Why had he chosen to fight alone?

The unease Cassius had felt minutes ago—Gares now felt it himself.

Victory was within reach.

The enemy commander Cassius had fallen into obsession, and within minutes, he would collapse.

Yes, if I can just hold on until then.
The way I have been all along.

‘No! What was I thinking?’

He traced through it again.
The battlefield from the beginning, to now.

Each side had lost one piece.
What they’d exchanged was a rook.

As a result, the Mark Kingdom chose to consolidate into a single formation and struck back by setting fire to the forest.

With long-range sniping sealed off and Cassius poisoned, the Mark Kingdom held the advantage.

Victory was only minutes away.

Within the chain of reasoning that had led here, several things had vanished.

‘Why? Why…?’

Why weren’t the enemy soldiers moving at all?

Why would Cassius risk poisoning himself to save soldiers who were of little use?

In that instant, Gares recalled words his mentor had left with him long ago.

— If you are to live as a mage, I offer you one counsel.

The words most worth hearing in this very moment.

—
Trust no mage. They are creatures of serpent’s tongue and demon’s cunning. Remember this, in every circumstance.

…A lie.
All of it was theatre.

This flawed script had far too many holes in it.

Why did Cassius save soldiers who wouldn’t help him?

‘…Because they would help. Right now.’

This very moment.

‘Where is he? Where is he?’

The position of the sniper hidden in the forest who’d blown off Hugo’s head — where was it?

‘…I lost it.’

The whirlwind surrounding the dome had completely obscured the soldiers’ positions.

‘They’re not after sniping. Breaking through this wind would be impossible, and they lack the destructive power to shatter the dome. So then…?’

Then what was he aiming for?

If it were me… if I possessed magic with that much output.

Gares recalled an ominous phrase.

‘…He’ll break the dome himself.’

Where is he?
Where could he be…?

When all directions were obscured by whirlwinds wreathed in black smoke, only Gares’s gaze pursued the truth.

Through the lies scattered by Cassius de Servang.

And when Gares lifted his head, he reached the truth for the first time.

‘…Above.’

The rocks and dolls caught up in the whirlwind, spiraling skyward.

A single truth hidden beneath countless fragments.

…He’s coming.
Descending through the rain, concealed.

“Wai—”

Gares tried to cry out that truth.

Shrieeeeee—

Silence.

“……!”

In an instant, all sound was devoured.

Gares’s voice,
the sound of the whirlwind drawing things in,
the rustle of small movements, the thrumming of a racing heart—

None of it could be heard.

Aria’s magic.

The reason Sovereign Cassius de Servang had to save Aria and Vera.

To conceal the truth.

In silence, truth descends.
It falls as soundless rain.

He is coming.

The Talentless Mage Swallows a Catastrophic Future — Chapter 45

Author: Ji Eun-i
Publisher: Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yeon
Cover Art

Dari

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260706063.0045

©2026. Wang Mozzi

※ This e-book is a work protected by the copyright laws of the Republic of Korea.
No part or whole of this work may be reworked or reproduced 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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