Pushed the Villain Over the Edge?

The atmosphere in the meeting room was so grim it seemed almost ready to drip.

Several Masters who usually held themselves high above everyone else now wore expressions uglier than the last.

Raine sat in a chair in the corner with his head lowered, appearing to be thinking nervously. In reality, he was panicking like crazy.

No way, right?

That old bastard Kaecilius couldn't really have been driven to the dark side by me, could he?

"Raine, relax."

Mordo, seated in the center, broke the silence in as gentle a tone as possible. "We called you here just to ask you a few routine questions. Just answer honestly."

"Yes, Master." Raine hurriedly put on an obedient, well-behaved expression.

"You should have heard by now."

Mordo sighed, his voice filled with deep sorrow.

"Kaecilius has defected."

"He brutally murdered the Library's administrator and stole a fragment of the Forbidden Tome, The Book of Cagliostro, which the Ancient One had strictly forbidden anyone to read."

"This was the worst act of treason to occur in Kamar-Taj in several hundred years!"

A trace of undisguised killing intent flashed through Mordo's eyes, but he quickly restrained his emotions.

"You were the last person to have prolonged contact with him before he disappeared."

"We want to know whether he showed any unusual behavior while teaching you magic, or said anything treasonous."

Raine's heart gave a sudden jolt.

Unusual?

It had been extremely unusual!

The way that man had looked at him yesterday had been practically as if he wanted to swallow him alive!

The muscles in his face had nearly cramped from twitching!

But could he say that?

Of course not!

If these big shots learned that Kaecilius had shattered his magical foundation because Raine had learned magic too quickly, forcing him to steal the Forbidden Tome to regain his dignity...

Raine couldn't afford to shoulder the blame!

"Master, I didn't notice anything unusual."

Raine lied without the slightest change in expression. "Master Kaecilius taught me a spell very seriously. He was gentle throughout and even encouraged me to remain grounded."

"After finishing the lesson, he told me to practice on my own and then left. I truly don't know what happened afterward."

Hearing Raine's flawless answer,

the Masters all nodded and showed no suspicion.

In their eyes,

Raine was merely a talented new apprentice. How could he possibly have anything to do with a powerful Master's defection?

"That's strange."

Mordo furrowed his brows, completely unable to make sense of it. "Kaecilius had a limitless future and was deeply favored by the Ancient One. What could possibly have driven him to take this dead-end path?"

"I said long ago that his obsessive personality would cause trouble sooner or later." Wong gave a cold snort, his hindsight ringing loud enough to shake the heavens.

"Wong, mind your wording!"

Yacolate glared at Wong in displeasure. "He was, after all, a disciple personally chosen and taught by the Ancient One."

"All right, that's enough."

Mordo raised a hand to stop the argument. "Our most urgent task now is to find out exactly why he defected."

"The Ancient One is currently off Earth. When she returns, we must give her an explanation."

The big shots began discussing the Pursuit Plan without the slightest restraint, completely treating Raine beside them as if he were air.

Raine sat quietly like a well-behaved child.

But his mind was frantically going over everything.

After thinking it over again and again, Kaecilius's early descent into darkness was definitely because of him!

That was how novels always wrote it. Those peerless geniuses who thought highly of themselves could never stand having their intelligence crushed.

Raine had not only crushed him, he had even done it right in his face!

"What a disaster..."

Raine wailed inwardly.

This damned system! Being too powerful was a sin too!

It had forcibly driven a promising Master into becoming a terrorist.

The next few days,

Raine kept an even lower profile than usual.

Every day, he reported to the big shots on time, listened to a few scraps of gossip, and spent the rest of his time hiding inside his turtle shell.

He felt guilty!

What if the Ancient One returned, used the Eye of Agamotto to examine the timelines, and discovered that Kaecilius had been pushed past his breaking point by Raine's insane competitiveness?

He couldn't even imagine what that scene would look like.

He couldn't exactly say to the Sorcerer Supreme, "Ancient One, this really isn't my fault. Your disciple just had such poor mental resilience."

Fortunately, the Ancient One seemed to be caught up with extraterrestrial affairs and did not return for a long time.

Raine finally relaxed a little.

That evening,

Raine returned after mooching experience from Wong.

He discovered that as he mastered more and more magic and his level continued to rise,

the experience these Masters could provide had already declined considerably.

Only Hamir, the most learned of them all, could still barely squeeze out a little more value.

"Ugh, I can't grind the monsters in the starting village anymore. Looks like I need to unlock a new map as soon as possible."

Muttering to himself, Raine habitually opened the system panel.

[Host: Raine]

[Realm: Apprentice Mage]

[Magic Shield: Level 6 (32%)]

[Multiple Mirror Dimensions: Level 5 (42%)]

[Chains of the Vishanti: Level 5 (23%)]

...

[Space Blade: Level 3 (42%)]

Looking at the dazzling skill panel, Raine felt extremely gratified.

But one thing left him utterly speechless.

His actual combat power was enough to grind even an elite Master like Mordo into the ground.

Yet the realm evaluation given by the system still had him at the level of an "Apprentice Mage"!

"What the hell is this system's standard for judging realms? Do I have to get a graduation certificate from Kamar-Taj before it considers me advanced?"

Raine shook his head, too lazy to dwell on such pointless formalities.

He pushed open the door to his dormitory and had just stepped one foot inside.

Suddenly,

the hairs all over Raine's body stood on end!

Something was wrong!

The spatial fluctuations in the room carried an extremely subtle sense of disharmony.

If his Multiple Mirror Dimensions had not already reached Level 5, making him extraordinarily sensitive to the Spatial Law, he absolutely would not have noticed anything strange.

Someone had set up an exceptionally sophisticated miniature Mirror Dimension inside his room, one that overlapped almost perfectly with the real world!

Throughout all of Kamar-Taj, there was only one person capable of manipulating spatial magic to such an exquisite level.

Kaecilius!

Raine immediately grew alert. His magic began circulating silently through his body, ready to erupt at any moment.

Yet his expression remained unchanged, and his tone was even slightly mocking:

"Master Kaecilius, since you've come all this way, why hide yourself? That hardly befits the reputation of Kamar-Taj's greatest genius."

"You truly are no simple man."

An extremely frigid voice, seemingly rising from the depths of Hell, rang out from the corner of the room.

Immediately afterward, the seemingly ordinary air rippled like the surface of water.

A tall, slender figure slowly emerged from the distorted space.

When he saw who it was, Raine's pupils suddenly contracted.

The Kaecilius before him had completely lost his former arrogance and neat appearance.

Cracked, charred-black patterns covered the area around his eyes, while his once-white sclera had been entirely devoured by a dense purple-black color.

Just one glance from him made it seem as though Raine would be dragged into an endless dark Abyss.