Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 2823: The Genius

Fifteen Years Ago

After concluding her arrangements with Earth and the academy, Klea ultimately chose to accept the Nephilim Grand Overseer’s invitation.

Her journey carried her through the Ebiru Neo and deep into the inner sector, arriving at Ebiru-6, the home planet of the Amarhikks, where even the ambient energy felt heavy with authority

For several months, Elder Oberyn personally guided her cultivation, sparing no resource and subjecting her to the most refined Nephilim methods. Under his relentless supervision, Klea endured repeated cycles of collapse and reconstruction, her foundation reforged again and again, until at last she crossed the threshold she had chased for decades and stepped into the long-awaited Full Moon Realm.

”Finally... the Full Moon Realm,” Klea murmured, exhaling in quiet relief.

From the very beginning, Klea had been recognized as exceptional—the S-rank genius from Earth who was accepted into the academy’s special privilege class—yet nearly half a century later, the reality stung.

Among the five friends, she was the last to reach the Full Moon Magus realm. During the duel against Kronos five years earlier, Chumo, Thrax, and Julian had already displayed power capable of defeating Grand Magus, and later, through Shinta, she learned that Emery had gone even further, reaching the seemingly unattainable Grand Magus realm.

Compared to them, she had become the weakest link.

Even five years after the Kronos duel, her cultivation had barely advanced, and the growing tension surrounding Earth—combined with Chumo’s fate—only deepened her unease. It was this pressure, more than anything else, that finally pushed her to fully accept the Grand Overseer’s invitation.

Now, having reached the Full Moon Realm, Klea was finally qualified to enter the Nephilim Sanctums, a place reserved exclusively for elites and an opportunity so rare that few outsiders were ever allowed through its gates—an opportunity deliberately prepared for her by the Overseer himself.

”The Aeons will guide you toward the Grand Magus realm... But to truly step into that realm, you will need something else... I hope you will find it within the Sanctums.”

Klea had done her research before stepping into the Sanctum.

With unwavering determination, she quickly distinguished herself among her peers through sheer discipline and talent. Nurtured by the finest facilities and resources the Nephilim could offer, her potential was refined like a gemstone under relentless pressure.

She trained without rest, and within two years, her cultivation advanced from the early stage of the Full Moon realm to its peak. All of it was preparation for a single goal—the Thunder Thrones.

Even among elite Nephilim, few managed to complete the trial and claim its legacy. Those who succeeded often gained access to cosmic power, the stepping stone toward the Grand Magus realm.

Lightning was Klea’s strongest element and her greatest hope for a breakthrough, so she devoted herself entirely to deepening her comprehension of its law.

She failed many times.

Each attempt at the Thunder Thrones ended with her body scorched by celestial lightning and her spirit shaken to its core. The storms showed no mercy; the thunder struck with the same unforgiving intensity every time, as if the trial itself refused to acknowledge weakness or hesitation.

More than once, she was forced to retreat with shattered meridians and a cultivation on the brink of collapse.

Yet failure did not leave her empty-handed. Every chamber she endured sharpened her understanding of lightning. She learned to read the rhythm of thunder, to sense the flow of energy within the formations, and to adapt in the midst of calamity.

She did not conquer the trial through brute force. She survived through quick judgment, courage and an unyielding will that refused to bow.

Two full years passed before she reached the final chamber.

When the storm finally quieted, lightning no longer struck her down.

It answered her.

The legacy of Ramuh, the Lightning Aeon, descended—and recognized her as worthy.

Klea’s accomplishment did not go unnoticed. Among the Nephilim elites, her name began to circulate with a mix of respect and quiet disbelief. To claim the Thunder Thrones as an outsider was no small feat.

Yet despite the recognition and the vast increase in her comprehension of the Law of Lightning, the long-awaited breakthrough never arrived.

The heavens remained silent.

She could feel it clearly: her foundation was solid, her laws refined, her soul tempered by trial after trial. And yet, no tribulation descended.

”I should have reached the threshold by now, she thought more than once. So why does the path remain closed? What am I missing?”

Before she could find an answer, news arrived from Golden City.

The long-lost patriarch of the Karat faction—the supreme magus who had vanished decades ago—had finally returned.

The moment she heard it, Klea’s thoughts went blank.

If he had returned, then it meant only one thing.

Emery should have returned with him.

In that instant, everything she had achieved lost its weight.

The legacies she had claimed, the acknowledgment of the Nephilim elites—none of it mattered anymore. All faded into irrelevance beneath a single, overwhelming thought.

”He is back!!”

Klea left the Sanctum without hesitation, abandoning her cultivation chambers and preparations to join Shinta in welcoming the group.

But her heart sank.

”He’s not here...” she whispered, scanning the crowd. ”Where is Emery?”

The truth that followed was worse than she feared. Emery had remained behind, sacrificing himself so the others could escape, still trapped within the Leviathan beast.

”Don’t worry,” Shinta said, forcing confidence into her voice. ”My father will return. He definitely will.”

Klea wanted to believe her, but a whisper of doubts began to echo in her mind. In the fifty years she had known Emery, she realized with quiet pain that she had spent much of that time waiting for him to return from one battlefield or another.

That whisper only grew louder after she returned to the Sanctum.

Ishtar arrived not long after Klea’s rise in reputation. She spoke of cultivation bottlenecks and opportunities for advancement. But her real intention was clear, with the Kronos conflict resolved, there was nothing left to restrain her.

The provocations began subtly, then openly.

Mockery in public halls. Interference during training. Henchmen sent to test her patience, again and again, week after week. Ishtar made it clear—Klea’s success was an affront she would not tolerate.

Klea endured.

She buried the ache of loneliness and the weight of waiting beneath relentless cultivation. She shut out the noise, the insults, the growing unease in her heart, and focused on the only thing she could still control.

If one Aeon was not enough, then she would claim another.

Turning inward, she chose her second-strongest affinity—the Law of Wind—and set her sights on the Aero Thrones.

Success at the Thunder Thrones had not eased the path; it had made the next trial harsher.

Years passed in struggle.

Failure followed success, and success was paid for in blood, exhaustion, and shattered resolve.

But in the end, she achieved what even Nephilim elites deemed nearly impossible.

She claimed a second Aeon.

With the legacies of Thunder and Wind both bound to her soul, Klea was no longer merely acknowledged among the elites.

She was renowned.

For the first time since the days of the academy, her name spread once more—spoken with awe, envy, and reverence.

The Genius.

And it was at the height of that recognition—

That she met him.

The Astiel crown prince.