Genius Mage in a Cultivation World

'Please, hold on!' Layn wished with all his heart while he continued to jog at a pace that the rest of his group could maintain. 

He wished to scream this plea out loud to the skies in hopes of some absolute being hearing him out...

But he couldn't. Doing so would reveal just how insanely worried he was for Irea and the rest of the people he left back at the camp. And he couldn't afford to deal such an attack on the morale of the group.

"Sighting of a group ahead!" someone shouted the report, pointing with his finger to the distant hill. 

'What?' A shiver traveled down Layn's spine. 'Are we too late?!' he thought, feeling how desperation was taking over his mind. 

Ever since he crossed the depths of time to arrive in this place, he only had one wish. One wish that clarified as he learned more and more about his current situation. 

All Layn wanted in this strange time was to create an academy and pass his knowledge on so that the wonders of ancient times could be preserved. But as he met people, learned more about this world, and grew quite fond of it, Irea took the prime spot of Layn's ledger of importance. 

And right now, she was likely to be either chased away or already dead!

Layn quickly started losing the reins over his emotions. His face darkened. 

'After everything we went through, even after I somehow managed to heal her back then...' his wrath was getting more and more noticeable with every passing second. 

"It's a small detachment!" someone else reported. "Roughly the same numbers as our group!" 

Layn strained his eyes in the direction the people were pointing towards... But his vision was already reddened, making it impossible for him to see anything further than just a few steps. 

"Boss! What do we do?" someone asked for orders. 

"Let's chase them down," Markus replied, noticing Layn's state. "Brother..." he whispered after approaching the archmage's side, "I'm sorry."

Those two words of solace were the one thing that Layn's friend could offer. 

Because the group that they spotted was directly on the path, they had to take to return to the camp! In other words, whoever dared to invade Layn's dominion, already went through the camp!

"Wait, that's strange," Markus muttered, moving his eyes towards the distant group. "What?" he continued to whisper.

"What's wrong?" Layn asked, forcing his wrath down his throat and looking in the direction of the enemies. 

Right, enemies?

With his emotions reined down, Layn could finally see as far as usually... And there was something wrong. 

The look of the people in the group ahead... was just a bit too familiar to him.

'Could it be...?' he thought, only to bite down on his lips and turn his face to his friend. 

"I will be going ahead. Can you hold the men together?" He asked. 

As much as the archmage wished to just run ahead and check if his suspicion was true, he couldn't simply abandon the people following him. That was the burden he had by being their damned leader!

"Sure thing," Markus smiled. As neither of the groups stopped moving for even the shortest moment, he could now confirm his doubts. "Run to her," he said, patting Layn's back. 

"Thanks," Layn replied before unleashing the full potential of his magic-supported agility. 

By circulating his mana through his blood system, he supplied more than enough energy to his muscles. In a second, he had already reached the front of the group, only to get ahead of them before anyone could react. 

"We stay on the course!" Markus shouted. "It seems that those are our men!" 

Layn couldn't care less about Markus' shouts. He simply ran and ran, unwilling to stop before he could touch the proof. 

"LAYN!" Irea shouted as soon as she noticed her man, waving her hand high up. 

"IREA!" Layn screamed out with relief, rushing right into the girl and grabbing her into his embrace. 

Feeling her warmth, smelling her fragrance, hearing the beating of her heart...

Layn buried his face in the girl's hair, simply holding her close and not letting her go. 

"I was so worried," Layn whispered, tightening his arms around the girl's delicate frame. 

"I was ready to burn the entire world if someone did something to you," he added, barely able to hold back his tears. 

Back when Irea was gravely injured, Layn managed to keep his calm for one simple reason. 

Because he still had the means to help her, just like he did. It came at the cost of great pain and strain, but he ultimately managed to save her. 

But in the situation he was in just a few moments before, he was completely and utterly powerless. 

If those damned invaders were to catch up to Irea's group before he could reach them, all the power in the world wouldn't amount to shit if he couldn't save his girl!

"What happened?" Layn asked weakly, not sparing a second thought to all the stares that the people around them were sending them. 

"I..." Irea finally opened her mouth, only to cut her words and bury her face in Layn's chest. 

"Don't worry, take your time," Layn encouraged the girl, running his hand up and down her back. 

"I burned the camp down," Irea finally revealed what was pulling her down so much. "We received the news of a massive force heading straight in our direction. We couldn't find you anywhere, so I had no other choice but to grab everyone and escape. I burned the camp down so that those fuckers wouldn't be able to conquer it... I'm sorry."

Once the floodgates of Irea's soul opened up, her words flooded Layn's ears. But instead of stopping her or even encouraging her, he simply listened to the report in the silence. 

"It's actually okay," Layn only spoke up when the girl was fully done with her part. "There was no reason to let them get quarters to spend the night, even if only their officers could get some," he added, once again immersing himself in the feeling of the girl in his arms. 

But he couldn't ignore the fact that the rest of the group wasn't cheered up by the reunion. Rather than that, their mood was visibly down.

After all, their homes, their jobs, all of the things that they worked hard to build from scratch... was now gone. The momentary pleasure of burning it all down was long gone, now replaced with regret and sadness.

"It seems that I was right," Markus commented as the other group finally caught up to the refugees. 

"Yes, you were," Layn nodded his head before gently pushing Irea away. 

As much as he wanted to just stay with her in his arms, he was still the leader of those people. As such, he had to decide what to do next. 

"Right now, we are between three enemies. Slavians to the west, monsters to the south, and invaders to the east," he announced in a voice powerful enough for everyone to hear him. 

His words, just as planned, only pulled everyone's mood down. 

"That's why, rather than fighting them fair and square, how about we put them all against each other?"