Kingpin Makes His Move

He silently gave the command to add points.

His Emotion Points began to fall, and the progress bar advanced.

The numbers raced like an accelerated timer. The locked Subatomic-level progress bar climbed from 0 to 20%, then 40%, 60%, 80%, and finally 100%.

[Subatomic-level, including quarks, gluons, and photons, unlocked successfully. Next precision tier: Subatomic-level (locked). Note: Includes Gravitons, quanta...]

Only when the system's pleasant notification sounded in his ears did his Emotion Points stop changing, settling at around five million.

When he once again used his mind to perceive the magical particles in the Codex, the writing on its pages changed before his eyes.

The tadpole-like characters had not turned into English. Instead, he could see the trails of energy behind them—particles smaller than atoms leaping and spinning across the pages, tracing their paths.

At last, he could see magic's underlying structure in detail. It was like lighting a lamp in the dark and illuminating everything that had been invisible before.

His analysis of the magical particles proceeded steadily. Once he unraveled their underlying logic, the magical energy in the Codex gradually showed Russell an unparalleled affinity.

He turned to one of the Codex's three powerful spells and skimmed it.

He raised a hand and traced an arc through the air.

Magical energy surged from the void and gathered at his fingertips.

He was not merely summoning energy from its magical source. He was using the source's power to create something from nothing.

Cyttorak's Crimson Bonds.

A dark red chain emerged from the air, like a sleeping snake roused awake, and coiled several times around his wrist.

Its other end connected to a distant being older than this planet.

Cyttorak, Lord of the Crimson Cosmos.

Russell was not borrowing his power. He was summoning it, pulling it