Manaless Mage
Chapter 328: Veiss

Chapter 328: Veiss

Harry’s face squeezed into a deep frown.

The quiet in the forest deepened, and the tension in the air grew dense again. His eyes burned with a quiet fury as he stepped closer to Dani’s slumped figure, the lifeless man still kneeling like a discarded doll under the control of [Influence].

Harry’s voice was sharp, clipped.

"Where is the other group? Where’s Trent?"

Dani’s head twitched again, a sluggish motion as if some part of him recognized the urgency in Harry’s tone—but he couldn’t fight the compulsion to answer.

"They... they should have completed their part already," Dani muttered, voice heavy with fatigue. "This mission and that one... they were supposed to happen at the same time..."

A spike of panic pierced through Harry’s chest.

His heart skipped a beat. Then another.

His entire body tensed as he processed the implications of Dani’s words.

Simultaneous missions. That meant while he had been here dealing with Adolf and interrogating Dani, the other group had already been making their move. And if Trent was the target—

His fists clenched at his sides, and a low growl rumbled from his throat, almost inaudible.

’Damn it.’ He thought.

He hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t accounted for the possibility that there were two operations going on at the same time. That while he was here cleaning up one mess, another was already spiraling out of control somewhere else.

Trent... his younger brother.

Harry’s thoughts flickered, hesitating for just a second. His gaze dropped, jaw tight.

He and Trent didn’t exactly have the best relationship.

No, scratch that.

Their relationship was practically non-existent.

From the moment he failed to awaken his affinity, and his parents discarded him, a huge wall had risen between the two brothers.

Trent saw himself as far better, and didn’t even see any reason to regard Harry as his brother anymore.

In fact, the thought that he had an untalented brother disgusted him to the core.

Harry had never truly understood why. He never saw any reason talent or power should matter in that kind of situation, but he simply accepted his fate.

But now, hearing that Trent had been taken by the dark guild...

Harry’s breath came out in a harsh, cold exhale.

Even if they weren’t close, even if they never saw eye to eye...

He didn’t want Trent to die.

He didn’t want him captured by the dark guild, twisted into a pawn the same way Dani had been.

His fists trembled at his sides, a storm brewing beneath his skin.

He wouldn’t allow it.

’I guess at the end of the day... he’s still my brother.’ He thought.

But still, he was confused.

Why would the dark guild go after Trent? Was there something he had which they wanted?

Sure, Trent had potential. He was a talented Elementalist, possessing two elements with one being high grade.

His skills were refined, and at such a young age, he had already managed to place himself high in the academy rankings.

However, Harry didn’t see why the dark guild should specifically target him.

Not unless...

Unless the dark guild had plans far more elaborate than Harry had initially assumed.

Unless they were identifying and capturing students with potential early—either to eliminate them, or to recruit them, mold them, enhance them with those same horrific injections Veiss had used on Dani.

Harry’s stomach churned.

’Planting dark crystals... taking away talented students...’ he thought. ’Could they be sacrificing them... all for the sake of opening up this world to the demon king?’

Though most people in the world currently didn’t know, the ’dark crystal’ Dani had been planting around weren’t just for fun.

They were actually being used to gradually corrupt and thin down the mana around the world, so the demon king could easily descend on it.

It was something he learnt from Leon’s memories, except then, the dark guild managed to go undiscovered until the damage was already done.

However, this time, he would make sure nothing like that happened.

’I’m not yet strong enough to face the demon king... then those damn celestials... I still have a long way to go.’ He thought, clenching his fists.

He was sure the dark guild would also be on his neck after the stunt he just pulled, but he didn’t care.

’Let them come after me, I’ll smash them all.’ He thought.

He then thought back to Veiss, the woman Dani described to him, and a strange glint flashed across his eyes.

He turned back to Dani, narrowing his eyes slightly.

’Perhaps... there is a way to learn more about this Veiss, and the dark guild themselves.’

Harry moved closer to Dani, his eyes lighting up with a blue glow.

He stared into the man’s eyes, placing a hand on his head.

Dani didn’t even flinch at the touch, or rather, he couldn’t.

The [Influence] skill still rooted him in place, leaving his mind vacant and void.

’Memory Manipulation,’ Harry thought, letting out a low sigh.

Immediately, his hand began to glow—a soft, cold blue light, barely perceptible, but still there.

Threads of blue energy snaked from his palm, sinking through the man’s hair before latching unto his scalp.

’I wonder... will it work?’ Harry thought, a slight frown appearing on his face.

But he didn’t ponder too much on it, delving straight into the man’s memories.

The world around him dimmed as he dove inward.

At first, it was just noise.

Scattered fragments. Rapid flashes of color, sound, pain. Screams. Blood. Spells flying in the dark.

His mind raced past them, skimming like a needle through tangled threads, bypassing meaningless childhood scraps, early academy struggles, and even some hazy moments involving friends and family—none of which mattered now.

He pushed deeper, searching for a specific time.

A turning point in Dani’s life.

And then—he found it.

A sharp jolt rocked his mind, and he was pulled into a sequence more vivid than the others.

A memory.

Dani stood in a cold, windowless room lit by dull orange crystals embedded into the stone walls.

Dani seemed to be the only one in the room, but then, a strange woman suddenly appeared from the shadows.

Harry felt his breath catch as her image sharpened in his mind.

’Veiss...’