Later that night, when Sokram was sitting at the dining table with his family, Brunhild finally arrived with Liaranna.

  Sokram stood up to greet them, “Good, you’re finally here, we can start!”

  Brunhild flashed him an embarrassed smile, and Liaranna blushed a little, too. “Sorry, son. We got… busy with something, haha. It was quite overwhelming.”

  “Cough, cough!” Licarus, who was also there at the table, cleared his throat.

  Liaranna blushed even more, and the other giggled as they watched the scene.

  “I’m happy you two enjoyed your time together,” Sokram flashed them a naughty grin, teasing them.

  Then he added, “But I’m ready to start building our new estate. Nana Margiory finished her part too, and I’ll need your help.”

  “Oh, my help?” Brunhild couldn’t help but wonder how she could help him, as she wasn’t aware of his new spell.

  “Yes, yours, Nana Hannah, and Nana Margiory, that should give me enough mana to finish it in under a week,” Sokram scratched his chin thoughtfully and led them to the table.

  “We’ll start tomorrow morning, so rest well. Another thing, did you take all you needed to take from the house, right?”

  “Yes, everything that was important,” Brunhild confirmed, still looking at him confused, but decided to let him surprise her.

  “Good. Ah, and I have gifts for the three of you,” Sokram smiled at Brunhild and Liaranna.

  “Three?” Liaranna's brows shot up in a mix of surprise and confusion.

  “Yes, Nana Hannah also left the isolation room today. And she didn’t see what happened these last few days, haha.” Sokram first took out the Long Sword he had made for Hannah.

  The sword resembled a double-edged Chokuto, with a pitch-black blade like his own katana and draconic runic words of enchantment in its fuller.

  The guard was the head of a dragon with crown-like horns made of gold and rubies, and the handle was similar to his katana.

  Hannah clearly loved it, smiling widely as she gave the sword a few swings, testing its balance.

  The bladed staff he made for Brunhild was like the ones he gave Hilda and Astrid.

  The blade was also black. The staff was wrapped in red leather, and the joints and counterweights were made of pure gold, shaped like a dragon's head.

  There were mana-tainted sapphires in its eyes to further empower the enchantments. The blades were shaped to look like flames coming out of the dragon’s mouth.

  Brunhild couldn’t contain her smile, feeling how much synergy she felt with the staff and spinning it around as if she were a kid with a new toy.

  The pair of Kukri blades made Liaranna’s heart skip a beat.

  The full tangs were shaped like wolf heads, and the handle was wrapped in reinforced dark leather.

  The runic inscriptions on the upper spine were covered with gold.

  She could see that the tangs, handles, bolsters, and the curved blades were shaped from a single piece of Dark Magi Glass as if it had been sculped.

  But Liaranna was amazed by its balance, sharpness, and the enchantment’s power, enhancing the precision and speed of her movements.

  The three of them could feel the strong mana emanating from the blades and couldn’t help but be amazed.

  After playing around with her staff, Brunhild rushed to Sokram, hugging him tightly, “Son, this is amazing, you must have spent a lot on this, you shouldn’t…”

  “No, not even a silver. I made those myself.” Sokram’s words stunned the three women into silence.

  Their family, watching the scene, laughed heartily, remembering their own reaction and comparing it to the three of them.

  The three of them thanked Sokram multiple times, with hugs and kisses.

  Which even made Licarus a bit uncomfortable, as Liaranna rarely felt so moved when receiving gifts, as if his gratitude for the Glaive Sokram he had given him had been any less.

  The three of them got very curious about how Sokram managed to do all that. Any master blacksmith would take weeks to months to forge masterpieces like those.

  But Sokram refused to tell them how he made it, promising that they would understand when they began working the next day.

  When morning came, Hannah and Brunhild were the first to greet Sokram as he stepped out of the Arch Mage’s Tower.

  But his entire family, and even Leona and her wives, had gathered, eager to see what Sokram was planning.

  Instead of heading straight to their block, now entirely in their possession thanks to Margiory’s swift negotiations, he sat cross-legged and began inscribing crimson runestones.

  He also asked Amber to fetch Savannah, who would serve as the conduit between him and his grandmothers during the siphoning process.

  Once everything was ready, Sokram finally led them toward the site where he would once again put on a spectacle of Magi for the city.

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  As a heads-up, he had Savannah take a position across the street while the rest of the group stood around her.

  She activated the siphoning runes without hesitation.

  Sokram walked the perimeter of the 250 by 100-meter block, placing the runestones he had prepared.

  Two every twenty meters.

  His family watched in curious silence.

  Only the three grandmothers followed closely, observing his every move with great interest.

  He positioned each pair of runestones opposite one another, one near the houses and the other at the edge of the sidewalk facing the street.

  Then, he ordered the guards from the Androny family to keep watch and ensure nothing disturbed the stones.

  After completing the placement around the entire block, Sokram signaled Savannah to activate the formation.

  With a flick of her fingers, she did so easily.

  Even more so now that she was a True Existence.

  A transparent barrier formed along the outermost stones, marking the boundary of the block.

  Meanwhile, the inner stones emitted faint beams of light.

  From the street level, it looked like an invisible shield enclosing the area.

  But Sokram pulled out a carpet covered in a strange runic pattern of inscriptions from his Void Glove and activated its runes.

  It lifted into the air like a makeshift platform.

  He handed two more to his family.

  Amber took care of activating one immediately, while Cecille took control of the second.

  Once they reached a height where the entire block came into view, they realized the glowing lights weren’t just markers.

  They outlined compact, precise divisions of 20 by 20-meter squares within the block.

  Sokram grinned, looking back at his family. “We’ll be right back.”

  With a thought, he guided the carpet toward the center of the block.

  There, beneath the surface, lay a well, one of the entrances to the city's escape tunnels.

  He began chanting.

  Instantly, Hannah, Margiory, and Brunhild felt their mana being drawn away at an alarming rate.

  They focused on replenishing it, while keeping their eyes fixed on Sokram.

  A black void appeared above them and began expanding.

  Brunhild gasped in alarm.

  Hannah extended her senses, studying the anomaly through her Dragon Sight.

  Margiory only giggled, watching Brunhild’s reaction.

  “You knew he’d do something like this?” Brunhild asked, exasperated.

  “Shush, he’s concentrating,” Margiory whispered, then teasingly stuck her tongue out.

  When the void reached a diameter of five meters, Sokram began disassembling the structures below.

  The ground, buildings, and even the air seemed to evaporate, sucked into the swirling darkness.

  The women watched in stunned silence as Sokram chanted and controlled both the spell and the floating carpet.

  As matter vanished, a circular depression formed, sinking toward the underground tunnel entrance.

  Around thirty meters below ground, Sokram halted the destruction.

  But not the chant.

  The flow of mana eased slightly.

  Sokram dropped another runestone directly above the tunnel and guided the carpet upward.

  Once they were high enough, he glanced at Margiory, who understood instantly.

  “Prepare for a big pull in your mana, girls,” she warned.

  At once, the surrounding area resumed dissolving, much faster this time.

  Sokram’s voice rose following the intensity of his chant.

  Sweat dripped from his brow.

  Margiory gently dabbed his forehead with a tissue, while Hannah and Brunhild remained transfixed by the spectacle.

  The entire block was vanishing into the void.

  Hannah suddenly recognized the spell. “Ariana’s Destruction!”

  Margiory nodded. “That’s the principle he used. But this is only the first part. So enjoy the show… quietly.”

  Hannah fell silent, unwilling to break Sokram’s focus.

  Yet soon, the noise became the least of their concerns.

  Curious citizens gathered at the edges of the barrier, watching in confusion.

  Stronger individuals hovered or stood atop nearby rooftops.

  Sienna appeared beside Cecille’s carpet, her expression one of awe. “When you told me, I didn’t expect this scale. You said he learned this from our library?”

  Cecille confirmed it with a slight hesitation.

  This was a Seeker-level achievement, after all.

  And having someone younger than her reach it first stung her pride.

  Sokram continued disassembling everything.

  Crystalline Structures, Mixtures, Cells, Polymers, while storing them in temporary pocket dimensions formed inside the pocket black hole.

  All categorized by type, saving mental strain for later reassembly.

  As the destruction spread, unstable estates collapsed, but none of the debris escaped the protective barrier.

  Still, weaker onlookers panicked at the thunderous crashes, drawing even more attention...

  When they realized it was Sokram, the Dark Lightning Killer, they watched eagerly.

  Especially those from the founding families.

  It took nearly three hours to dismantle the entire block.

  All that remained was a perfectly rectangular pit thirty meters deep, as if the land had been cleanly sliced away.

  Sokram paused briefly in his chant, giving his mind a moment to recover.

  He turned to his grandmothers. "I’m starting construction now. The mana pull’s going to spike. Are you still holding up?"

  “I’m fine,” Hannah flashed him a greedy grin. “You’ll show me this spell formula later.”

  Margiory agreed.

  Brunhild, overwhelmed, offered only a shaky nod.

  Sokram called out to Savannah. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine!” She shouted back.

  Sokram looked at the onlookers and frowned.

  He turned to Hannah and asked, “Can you fill the hole with fog? I don’t want the whole city seeing the underground structure of our home.”

  Hannah raised a hand.

  Moments later, a thick line of fog, following his barrier, enveloped the block, obscuring it from street-level view.

  Only those on the floating carpets and Sienna could see clearly.

  Murmurs rippled through the crowd, some leaving, others staying for the final reveal.

  Satisfied, Sokram resumed chanting.

  This time, the spell required more precision, and he used his hands to assist his concentration.

  Liquid-like concrete and metal streamed from the pocket black-hole.

  Hannah felt her mana depleting faster now.

  But to everyone’s amazement, the materials solidified instantly upon contact, forming a sturdy foundation of steel and concrete in under ten minutes.

  Including a wide stairway leading to the underground tunnels.

  Sokram changed his chant again.

  With a flick of his wrist, ten fifty-liter barrels of blood-ink were disassembled and drawn into the void.

  The ink formed a crimson sphere orbiting the black hole like a miniature planet.

  Another flick, and crates of moonstone appeared. Over two tons, courtesy of Riella.

  These, too, vanished into the void.

  Sokram shifted chants once more.

  Floors and walls were formed, transforming the smooth pit into a reinforced box made of steel and concrete.

  Hidden conduits for water and air ran seamlessly through the structure.

  More astonishing still was the thin layer of moonstone cladding over the exterior.

  Upon closer inspection, intricate Runic lines and a massive array covered the surface.

  When Sokram began coating these engravings with blood-ink, Brunhild couldn’t contain herself.

  “You little monster! How are you handling this level of spell control? How many layers of calculation are you running?”

  Hannah cut her off through an isolated sound transmission.

  “Have you ever seen him chant before? Look at his focus! Do you really want to risk breaking his concentration with an outburst? Control yourself!”

  Brunhild flushed, nodded silently, and returned her focus to refilling her mana pool.

  On the sidelines, reactions varied.

  Lucy, Astrid, and Amber stared in awe.

  His two mothers wore expressions of admiration and shock.

  This was the kind of mastery every magician dreamed of.

  Karini and Leona, despite their lack of understanding of Magi, knew they were witnessing something legendary.

  Even Sienna’s gaze burned with newfound admiration and hunger.

  “Cecille,” she murmured, “you’re making the right choice joining his harem. If he asked me, I’d say yes in a heartbeat.”

  Hilda and Miralyn shot her sharp looks.

  “He’s not of age yet,” Hilda scolded coldly.

  “I know. I’ll wait. But once Sokram comes of age… game on, girls.” Sienna smirked.