Roe and Vlad had come to a conclusion.

They were both in agreement.

This was good.

Roe had achieved his goal here. Now it was just for them to proceed.

"So how do we go about this training?" Roe asked.

"So you didn’t have a plan for that?" Vlad asked.

Roe gave no response.

The answer to Vlad’s question was obvious, after all.

"No. 500," Vlad chanted.

A sparkle was emitted from Vlad and passed through Roe.

"What just happened? What was that shimmering thing that just went into me?

"It was not an attack spell, right?" Roe asked.

"It wasn’t. Just relax," Vlad reassured him.

"It’s a projection spell.

"You see, you don’t need me. You need my instructions.

"Whenever you’re alone, you can call on that projection.

"Is that good?"

"Okay, we’re good here then."

Vlad didn’t give him room to respond.

Roe was taking note of this pattern.

"I guess we are."

Roe turned to collect the documents.

They would have to drop them off with the Wise Men for documentation.

This was the only way the balance was truly kept.

Before he left, he asked a question.

"This spell of yours, how do I summon the projection?" Roe asked.

"Just call it forth. Think about it or whatever. It will present itself," Vlad responded.

"Okay. Okay," Roe replied.

He took just one more step before asking another question.

"Wait, so does that mean the spell is active indefinitely?

"Doesn’t that cost a ton of mana?

"How do you cope with all that mana being expended?" Roe asked.

Vlad just gave him a cold stare.

"What do you think?" Vlad asked.

"Now get out of here."

Vlad pointed toward the door.

There he goes, not allowing me to respond.

Just then, a call came through.

He had just gotten out of Vlad’s office.

The secretary’s line rang.

She made calls in response, moving with haste.

Roe noticed the urgency and asked what was going on.

The secretary kindly explained.

"There’s a rift just above us."

"Okay, so send your people in," Roe suggested.

"None of the capable strike teams are available right now," she responded.

"Why’s that?" Roe asked.

"I can’t answer that," she simply said.

"Okay, so what do we do?" he asked.

"We..."

"This isn’t your jurisdiction."

She walked over to Vlad’s office.

She gave the door a knock—not so gentle—and immediately went in.

"We’ll need you to handle this one, sir," she said to Vlad.

"What, a rift?

"I’m guessing it’s a really strong one for you to disturb me, dear," he said.

He got up from his seat.

"What rank is it?" Roe asked as he re-entered the room.

"Oh, you’re still here," Vlad said.

"So what rank is the rift?" he reiterated.

"It’s A-rank," the secretary responded.

"Okay then, let me handle it.

"Just give me the go-ahead.

"I’ve got this. Come on," Roe said.

"I don’t know about that," the secretary said.

"Come on. Give me a shot," he insisted.

"Let the kid handle it, if he can.

"When he gets back, we’ll do the paperwork to thank him and also clarify that he had permission to act in our jurisdiction."

"Good.

"Oh, and when I’m done, we’ll have to talk about where all your other mages are.

"I found it strange your circle was the only high-ranking one without a mage present yesterday.

"You know something about the final emergence.

"We’re going to have to talk about that when I get back."

Vlad looked confused.

At least, he pretended to.

Roe wasn’t buying it.

He stormed out.

He went right past the waiting room without even telling Ruben.

Ruben did notice and immediately followed behind him.

He made his way out the same way he came in.

"Right above us, huh?" he said as he reached the exit.

He looked up.

Lot was wondering what he was doing.

Roe summoned his staff.

The car was quite a ways off, so Lot couldn’t get to him.

Ruben, on the other hand, could—and did.

"Please tell Lot I’ve already got authorization and that I’ll be back shortly," Roe said as he flew off.

Why does it have to be me? Ruben thought.

Come on. He should know better than to act independently in another circle’s jurisdiction, Lot thought.

This was before Ruben told him what Roe had said.

"So he’s deliberately being selfish and acting alone.

"He’s forgotten we have a mission of our own."

Lot snapped.

---

The council were having their meeting.

This was the harshest one yet.

They had just received another reality check from Merlin’s Circle.

Another emergence was now in their hands.

"Like, how did they one-up you two?" Bill asked.

"We’ve said it a hundred times. Please drop it," Arthur said. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Okay, no point arguing.

"So what do we do?" Elsa asked.

"We obviously take it to the Wise Men," Perzeus said.

"So a repeat, huh?" Bill said.

"What’s that supposed to mean?" Morgana asked.

"You know.

"We receive another public embarrassment from a rookie scholar, no less," Bill continued.

"I can’t believe Valentine made us settle for some one-off S-rank."

Bill shook his head.

"We’ll present our case before the Wise Men, and this time we’ll win," Elsa said.

"Okay, so which scholar do we call?" Perzeus asked.

"What’s that supposed to mean?

"We call Val," Elsa replied.

"Again?

"Don’t you think we’ve had enough of Val for a while?" Perzeus said.

"I agree," Bill supported.

"No, I don’t think so.

"He’s a damn good scholar.

"I think he’s great."

Elsa folded her arms.

"Let’s not take this one loss to extremes.

"All the cases we’ve won, he’s been behind them."

"Why are you pushing this hard for him?" Sun asked.

Morgana picked up the phone to call Valentine.

"Hey, love," he said.

She responded.

"We need you for another case," she said.

"Is it the third one?" Valentine responded.

"Third what?" Morgana asked.

She was curious as to what he could possibly be talking about.

He sighed.

"Don’t worry.

"I won’t be available, and frankly, you won’t be needing a wiz."

He cut the call.

Val just cut Morgana, Elsa thought.

They continued passing names around.

They needed to somehow get this done and sorted.

Only thirty minutes later, they would receive a notification.

One sent to every circle head and every council member.

The message was simple.

A new power has been transferred from the Circle of Merlin to the Circle of Vlad.

The council members all knew what this meant.

Vlad had obtained the third emergence.

Merlin was in possession of two.

Vlad now had one.

Only one remained.

They could not afford to make another mistake.

They lost to Vlad of all people, and he wasn’t even trying to make moves on the third emergence.

He got his hands busy trying to tackle the fourth.