Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 3012: Webs

”Let’s begin.”

The nine Khaos Seeds took their places around the great stone table without question, each settling onto a floating stone platform before folding into meditation beneath the endless sky of the Khaos Domain, where countless Waypoints shimmered like distant stars.

Emery closed his eyes.

His spirit unfurled outward, threading along the connections that already bound them to him — nine luminous strands stretching across the domain, one to each seated figure. Following the structure of [Khaos Voidweave], he wove his consciousness into theirs, gently, deliberately, until the boundary between his awareness and theirs began to blur.

One by one, dark runes emerged upon their foreheads.

The symbols glowed faintly before settling into a slow, steady rhythm, pulsing in perfect harmony with Emery’s own heartbeat.

The weave was complete.

Only then did Emery draw upon the power of Khaos.

The domain responded immediately.

At the very heart of the Khaos Domain, shadowy Khaos energy did not trickle through the air—it surged like an endless tide. Dark currents poured in from every direction, converging upon Emery before flowing outward through the nine spiritual connections, carrying the ancient energy directly into each Khaos Seed.

Almost immediately, they began to react.

The change was most obvious among the Magus-realm seeds. For Soltz, Morgana, Livi and Anpu — all Grand Magus — the surge barely registered. But for the others, the transformation was immediate and profound.

Dark Khaos energy flooded into them, sinking into their foundations, and Emery watched what had once been a candle-flicker of power flare suddenly into open flame. One after another, they opened their eyes, expressions caught somewhere between shock and exhilaration.

”I feel so much power.” One of them breathed.

When they had first been marked as Khaos seeds long ago, each had gained a boost in power. This was that same gift, magnified.

Emery evaluated the differences carefully.

Shinta, Dillion, Kingrig, Ha Ron, and Yuria all stood at the Full Moon Magus realm — and each felt roughly a thirty percent increase in spirit force and nearly fifty percent in the size of their spirit pool. The numbers climbed higher still when they channeled darkness-element power specifically.

The four Grand Magus, by contrast, felt barely a ten percent change.

It confirmed what Emery had suspected. The first stage of [Khaos Voidweave] reached only as far as the Magus realm; the deeper foundations of a Grand Magus lay beyond its touch. Only when he mastered the second stage would he be able to empower Grand Magus cultivators — and by then, he suspected, the boost would be far greater.

Its second effect made itself known almost at once.

The weave binding the nine of them together carried a subtle form of enlightenment. It was not telepathy—not the exchange of thoughts or spoken words—but something far deeper. Through the Khaos Weave, each cultivator could merge a portion of their consciousness into a shared network, allowing their mental strength to overlap and reinforce one another. Every mind became another pillar supporting the whole.

With Emery serving as the anchor at its center, the web remained perfectly stable.

He instructed them all to begin cultivating.

Almost instantly, the differences between them became apparent.

Each seed carried its own struggles — realms yet to breach, spells and techniques not yet comprehended — and through the weave, Emery could sense every one of them, laid out before him like nine separate puzzles waiting to be solved. He pressed his awareness into them, lending his insight where he could.

And it was not Emery alone. The others, too, could reach into one another, their minds interlacing across the weave.

Within minutes, all nine had sunk into deep trance.

The most striking change centered on Dillon.

A sea of shared consciousness opened, and within it stood Dillion Gray in the middle of a vast arena, his massive greatsword in hand, pressing against the wall that barred his advance in his gravity sword technique. Emery appeared beside him, offering the insight of his own Gravestone Ruler — the way weight itself could be woven into a blade. Then Soltz materialized, lending his profound comprehension of deep Earth law. Ha Ron joined next with his mastery of the blade, and Shinta after him, each adding a thread of understanding.

Within minutes, part of Dillion’s bottleneck began to loosen, and the shared sea dissolved.

Another opened in its place — this one Kingrig’s, who wrestled with an advanced art of imbuing weapons with elemental power. Morgana leapt in at once, sharing her spellcasting from one side while Anpu and Livi lent their own from the other.

Hours slipped by unnoticed as sea after sea of shared consciousness rose and faded across the Khaos Weave, each one bringing another cultivator closer to their next breakthrough.

Then Dillion suddenly opened his eyes.

”RAAAHHH!”

A surge of spirit force exploded outward.

Dark Khaos energy swirled violently around him as the pressure of his cultivation rose in a single uninterrupted wave, carrying him from the middle stage of the Full Moon Magus Realm straight into the high stage.

”Alright. That’s enough for now,” Emery said.

All nine slowly opened their eyes.

The same expression of astonishment appeared on every face.

None of them had expected such a profound effect. Through the Khaos Voidweave, comprehension no longer belonged to a single cultivator. Bottlenecks had been weakened by collective insight, techniques refined through countless perspectives, and years of solitary cultivation condensed into mere hours of shared understanding.

Kingrig’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

”Master...” he said, barely able to contain himself. ”We need to do this more often.”

Several others nodded in immediate agreement.

Even the normally reserved Ha Ron wore an expression of quiet approval.

The shared cultivation session had allowed every Khaos Seed to glimpse fragments of one another’s cultivation paths and comprehensions, giving each of them insights that would have otherwise taken years to obtain. The experience, however, came at a considerable cost. As the anchor, Emery had borne the strain of maintaining every connection simultaneously, and he knew he could not sustain such sessions every day. For now, he decided that the Khaos Seeds would gather for this once each week.

As the others excitedly discussed their experiences, Emery’s thoughts drifted elsewhere. The potential of this third Khaos Art became increasingly apparent. The more Khaos Seeds connected to the weave, the greater its benefits would become. To maximize its effectiveness, Emery needed to carefully select future Khaos Seeds—cultivators who possessed different cultivation paths, unique areas of mastery, and diverse comprehensions. The broader the range of knowledge within the weave, the more everyone connected to it could benefit from one another’s expertise.

With his own struggle to master the advanced Khaos Arts still unresolved, one name inevitably came to mind—a person he had postponed recruiting for far too long.

Veyarel.

The spatial Grand Magus of the Karat faction would be a perfect addition to the Khaos seeds.

With the ability tested, Emery moved on to the second reason he had called them.

News.

He asked for reports on what was happening around each of them.

Morgana said little, as usual. It was Anpu who spoke for the frontline, recounting their recent campaign against the scourge — how the Earth faction’s regiment had lately secured a wood elf outpost, driving the corruption back from one more sliver of the Sylvanar Reach.

Soltz had little to report, but Emery knew the old Grand Magus had been making his own preparations for the upcoming expedition to the Tartarus Realm. He had been diligently following Kayelin’s treatments, doing everything possible to restore his condition.

Shinta spoke next of the coming end-of-year examinations at the Magus Academy, and the hall’s need for another instructor to help oversee them. It dovetailed neatly with Dillon’s return — the newly reunited senior, freshly broken through, agreed to take up the post and lend his aid at the academy for a time.

Ha Ron, ever quiet and difficult to read, revealed his own situation at last. Following Emery’s suggestion, he had joined a renowned sword sect in the Beta quadrant, tempering himself among its disciples while gathering intel. As for Kingrig, he had continued following Thrax’s path, throwing himself into the arena to gain real combat experience through one battle after another.

Finally, Emery turned to Yuria.

She spoke of the mounting tension within Golden City as their Supreme Lord’s Grand Tribulation drew ever closer.

Emery listened in silence before giving a slow nod.

The time had finally come.

Reaching through Yuria’s Waypoint, he folded space around himself and stepped across the vast distance separating the two quadrants, arriving in Golden City.