Kayn sat down in the middle of the mana gathering formation room under the careful watch of Emperor Talaro Mancea. Kayn sighed as he thought he had been clear enough on his point of wanting privacy. It would be fine if he was checked on occasionally, but he wasn't about to shove a mana core in his mouth with someone else watching.
"Emperor Talaro, I know you're worried, but you really don't need to. Also, I cannot begin with you sitting there watching me, some secrets I'm not willing to share." Kayn spoke out as he turned his head towards the tiger man standing at the entrance of the room.
Talaro narrowed his eyes at Kayn with an unspoken threat, but still turned around and left the room before closing the door, leaving Kayn all alone. Kayn shook his head, but he understood. If something happened to this room and the formation within, they really would have no hope other than to try and fight their way out.
After extending his Mana Sense and confirming he was completely alone in the room, he started drawing brilliant purple lines in the air, quickly forming symbols. This was his first time actually using array symbols despite all of the time he spent studying them in the past.
He created an array around himself for concealment just in the case someone was trying to spy on what he was doing. Once he combined all of the symbols he was drawing in the air, they lined up and began intricately weaving into one another before shining in a brilliant light, forming an invisible barrier around him which concealed him to the outside world. As long as he didn't move from that spot, he was invisible.
Instead of starting right away though, he was curious as to what the formation inside this room looked like. For one of the first times, he activated his All-Seeing eyes. Kayn glanced around the room and marveled at the number of intricately laid symbols spread all around the room.
The walls, the floor, the ceiling, even connection points in the empty space were filled with symbols. This formation was beyond what Kayn could understand, but it was still quite helpful to just be able to look at it to try and understand the inner workings.
As his eyes scanned the room, he paused and tilted his head to the side as there was one singular part in the formation hidden in the corner that wasn't active like it should be. Generally, after a formation or array was activated once everything was connected, all of the connections would light up before fading from sight.
With his All-Seeing eyes, Kayn was able to see the symbols, lines, and connections. This one hidden section was dull and dark. It wasn't detrimental to the formation's activation or usefulness, but it appeared to be corrupting it, albeit very slowly.
Kayn stood and broke his own array before walking towards the area of dullness. With his All-Seeing eyes still active, he glanced at the center of the disturbance and noticed a single symbol that didn't fit with the rest.
He stood there for a while and just watched, trying to get a better sense of what the foreign symbol was doing and how fast it was doing it. Once that was determined, a frown appeared on his face before he shouted with a bit of mana infused into his voice. "Emperor, please come in for a moment!"
Not even a second passed when Emperor Talaro's white fur could be seen coming through the door and closing it again. He looked a bit upset about being summoned like a servant.
"First, you kick me out for privacy. Then, not much long after, you summon me back in like you want me to serve you tea. This isn't acceptable, no matter who you are or what you're doing for us."
It was only as he got closer to Kayn that he noticed the odd man glancing into empty air with a frown of his own.
"What are you doing in the corner of the room staring into empty space?" The Emperor couldn't help but ask as his curiosity was sparked. This man named Kayn was quite the enigma, so who knows what he was doing.
"You have a traitor, or a double agent at the very least." Kayn spoke as he continued to examine the foreign symbol. While he was talking, he was running every simulation inside his head and trying to pull out any knowledge he could on formations in order to remove this corruption.
"What did you just say? How do you know?" If what Kayn said was true, then one of his most trusted people was selling them all out. Only the powerful were allowed to use this room, none of the family members or weaker mages were allowed here.
Realizing that Talaro wasn't able to see the formation and may not have a spell for it, Kayn waved his hand and cast a spell made by formation masters in order to edit previously set formations. The symbols in Kayn's direct area lit up and revealed themselves to regular vision.
Once the portion in front of Kayn was visible for Talaro, Kayn pointed to a specific point that was oddly dull and seemed to not fit into the formation as a whole.
"This. The symbol here was created within the last month, maybe two. While it may appear to not be that detrimental, it has already started to affect the effectiveness of this room. Also, from what I can tell in about another month's time, the symbol's corruption would reach a critical point and the formation would break."
As Kayn spoke, Talaro moved in circles around the dull spot at which Kayn was pointing. He wasn't a formation master or even novice himself, so he really didn't understand it. However, if Kayn was right, then they only had a month left of use, which was a lot less than Kayn had originally stated he needed.
"So, do you think you'll be able to reach the point you need within a month?" Talaro asked.
"No, I do not." Talaro frowned and his shoulders slumped after Kayn spoke. "But that doesn't matter, I can fix it so our time will be as it was before."
"Why can't you just lead with that!?" Talaro shouted as he really couldn't handle the emotional roller coaster Kayn was putting him on.
Kayn smirked as he truly didn't mean to mess with the emperor, but he just made assumptions without letting Kayn finish his sentence. Fortunately, Talaro didn't see Kayn's smirk, or he might have sent him flying across the room.
"With that said, I suggest finding your traitor. I'll be going straight from fixing this to training. I don't mind you popping in to check and make sure the formation is fixed in a week or so, but be sure to knock first." Kayn spoke his instructions, but Talaro just shook his head.
"I'll stay here and watch as you fix it to give myself ease of mind. Once that's done, I'll leave you alone. Though, it is suspicious that you found this and happen to know how to fix it. How do I know you're not just messing with me? With us? Trying to create discord within our ranks while you corrupt the formation again?"
Talaro spoke as his mana began to swirl in and around his body. Kayn's eyes widened as he could both feel and see the mana flowing around Talaro and he began taking slow steps back.
"Woah woah woah! I promise it wasn't me! I'm trying to help you guys! I know you've lost your people and empire to this war, but I can promise you that my hatred for Carnet is just as strong. I won't be satisfied until I rip Emperor Carnet's head from his neck."
"And why should I believe anything you say?" Claws suddenly started extending from each of Talaro's fingers as ice started to form around them.
"I really don't have any proof for you," Kayn shook his head, but he continued to speak to try and save himself. Fighting Talaro here definitely wouldn't end well for him unless he practically killed himself for the power from Wrath. "Do you know of or remember a General Ezekiel Vestarius from Carnet?"
"I do, arrogant brat of a 5th stage. Heard he was executed along with his family for turning traitor a decade or so back. What does that have to do with this situation?" Talaro spoke as he halted his steps to stare at Kayn.
"He was my father. And he didn't turn traitor, he found out Carnet's forbidden magic research and was killed for it. I watched as my sister's and father's head were thrown at our feet, then witnessed my mother being beheaded before my very eyes. I somehow managed to escape with my sister, but I won't be satisfied until I personally kill the man responsible for the death of my family."
Talaro could see the rage in Kayn's eyes and he was even spooked a little as they began to change in front of him. The anger Kayn was displaying was becoming more palpable by the second and it even gave someone as powerful as him pause.
"Okay, okay, I get it. Just fix the formation and I'll take care of finding the traitor."
Kayn eased off letting out Wrath after Talaro said that. He was doing it on purpose in order to prove his point. He had mostly full control of Wrath at this point, or so he thought, and it would take something extreme for him to lose himself to it again. Especially now that he was aware of the Virtue of Patience within him, even if it wasn't fully integrated with his soul yet.
Without talking anymore, Kayn began waving both hands. He was simultaneously removing the corrupted symbol with one hand while replacing it with what he assumed was the correct and proper symbol with his other.
It took about three hours for Kayn to complete the replacement as he wasn't familiar with formations and he didn't want to mess it up. At this point, he was just trying to perform patch work so that he could use the room for long enough to get everyone out of Mancea.
Once the formation was fixed, Talaro nodded to Kayn before leaving the room. He had a traitor to find after all.
Kayn cleaned himself off with mana as he had become quite sweaty while trying to fix the symbol, mostly due to his nerves. After he was clean, he recreated the small concealment array in the center of the room before sitting down and pulling out the first of the 6th stage cores he gathered.
After staring at the round ball of condensed and hardened mana in his hand, Kayn began circulating the Void Star technique before throwing the mana core into his mouth.
A loud crunch sounded throughout the room as Kayn crushed the mana core between his teeth.